2. The influence of the so-called national party, which abjures the essential rights of the German people and of the representation of the people, will be the ruin of the German Empire.
3. The exception laws, by which the German Empire, founded as it is by a common sacrifice, has deprived one-third of the citizens of their essential rights, thereby destroying the peace and the power of Germany.
4. The unlimited development of military power is incompatible with natural rights, civil liberty, and the spiritual as well as the material welfare of the German people.
5. The unchristianizing of public instruction now in progress, the control by the state of the entire school system, founded as it is upon compulsion, and at the same time the suppression of the educational rights of the church and of the family, is a source of spiritual and moral ruin.
6. The venal press, working in the interests of political servility and of property-holders, continually misrepresents public opinion, and is the principal cause of the social evils that threaten Germany.
7. The foreign policy of the German Empire, especially in its relations to the Holy See, is not in harmony with the principles and interests of the Catholic population of Germany, and is not capable of securing the preservation of the peace of Europe.
III. Regarding the State of the Working-Classes.
1. Like all other states of Europe, Germany is threatened by the discontent existing among the working-classes.
2. The principal reasons for this discontentment are: Decrease of the retail business; overtaxing the agricultural classes; miserable condition of the operatives in manufactories; and the endless development of money speculation.
3. The real origin of these misfortunes is the enervation of Christian faith and morality in the higher as well as in the lower ranks of society, caused by modern rationalism and liberalism, whereby it has happened also that a great portion of the working-classes have allowed themselves to be deceived by the illusions of irreligious and revolutionary leaders.