XXVII.

1840.

closed the fires which were slumbering beneath the surface CHAP. of his eminently prosperous dominions. He was succeeded in the throne by his son Frederick-William IV., the present (1855) reigning monarch; and the ceremony of coronation of the new sovereign took place with great solemnity, according to ancient usage, on the 10th Sep- Sept. 10. tember, at Königsberg. In conformity with established custom, which bespoke the former existence of long-forgotten rights in the Prussian people, the provincial diet of Eastern Prussia was summoned to attend the ceremony, and invited to determine whether, on this as on former occasions, the equestrian order should be repre-sented by twelve knights, who were to explain, on behalf of their order, what rights they wished to have confirmed. The diet met accordingly, and by a majority of 90 to 5 resolved on the motion of M. d'Auerswald, that his Majesty should be respectfully invited to cause his ministers to prepare a new law for the organisation of the provincial diets, from which the national representatives should be chosen, in conformity with the royal declaration of 22d May 1815, corroborated by the Federal Ann. Hist. Act of Vienna of 8th June in the same year, and the 423. Final Act of 5th January 1823.1 This petition was

sure guarantee that you will prove the father of your country. Preserve yourself from that mania for innovation which has become so general, and from the numerous theories afloat in the world, which it is impossible to reduce into practice; but guard also against falling into another excess which may be not less fatal,-I mean an excessive predilection for ancient institutions. It is only by shunning these two shoals that you can succeed in introducing really useful ameliorations. The army is organised in the most superior manner: it has justified my expectations in peace as in war. May it never forget its high mission, and may the country never forget what it owes to it. Continue, so far as you possibly can, in a good state of intelligence with the European powers in particular, may Prussia, Austria, and Russia, never be disunited. Their union is the safeguard of European peace. My beloved children give me the sweet consolation of feeling assured that they will always distinguish themselves by a useful, active, wise, and pious conduct; it is by such alone that the blessings of Heaven are to be attained, and that consoling idea will comfort my last moments. May God protect and bless our dear country! May His almighty hand for ever bless our family. May He bless you, my dear son, you and your reign: may He bestow upon you the strength and talent necessary for reigning; and may He give you conscientious and faithful counsellors, dutiful and obedient subjects."-CAPEFIGUE, X. 235, 236.

1

xxiii. 422,

CHAP. signed at Königsberg on 7th September with the ominous XXVII. words, "The States of the Kingdom of Prussia."

1841.

63.

Had a bombshell fallen and burst in the royal council, Answer of it could not have created greater consternation than this the king. unexpected demand, supported by so large a majority, did in the cabinet of Berlin. The king's answer was delayed till he came to make his speech dissolving the diet, and he said, "He would give to the promises of the late king the accomplishment which the good of the country demanded;" vague words, which might mean anything or nothing. During the ceremony of fealty he said, "He would never do homage to the idea of a general popular representation, and would pursue a course based upon historical progression, and suited to German nationality;" words of deep significance, and which, if carried into effect, might have avoided all the calamities which followed. The provincial estates were shortly after opened, and separate diets for each established in the provinces. They did nothing material, however, and the public attention was rather directed to the proceedings of the Zollverein, which met at Berlin in August, and 1 Ann. Hist. entered into negotiations, though at that time with little success, to induce Brunswick and Hanover to join the fiscal league.1

xxiii. 422,

424.

64.

of the dis

Rome.

The first serious affair which called for the attention of the Adjustment new monarch was the schism between the Crown and the pute with Holy See, which had so violently convulsed the monarchy the See of in the preceding reign. This was at length finally effected, and on terms more favourable to the See of Rome than could have been anticipated. Both parties receded from the pretensions they had originally advanced : quarrels are in general more easily adjusted when their direction falls into the hands of heirs, than when in those which originally commenced them. An accommodation was effected with the Pope, in virtue of which the Archbishop of Posen, who had been dispossessed and kept in detention for two years, in consequence of having, like

XXVII.

1841.

the Archbishop of Cologne, refused to obey the edicts of CHAP. the king in the vexed matter of the mixed marriages, was reinstated in his functions; and although the Archbishop of Cologne was not formally restored to his province, yet he got a colleague in the Bishop of Spires, who was nominated by the Pope, and received personal satisfaction in a public royal letter from the sovereign. This was a great concession in appearance to the Catholic party, and went far to appease the discontent among the members of that persuasion. Both parties gained something by this compromise; for, on the one hand, the Holy See obtained a recognition of the important principle for which they have always contended, that spiritual authority, conferred by the head of the church, cannot be abrogated by temporal power; while, on the other, the royal edicts as to the Ann. Hist. education of the children of mixed marriages remained in 465. force throughout the whole of Prussia.1

xxiv. 464,

and great

it was at

March 1.

The meeting of the provincial estates, which took place 65. in the different provinces with great solemnity on the 1st Opening of the provinMarch, revealed the strong under-current in favour of con- cial estates, stitutional freedom, which, beneath a tranquil despotic excitement surface, had been long flowing in Germany. In the with which outset of the sittings, the royal commissioner, M. de tended. Bussewitz, read a decree of the king, permitting them to make public their deliberations by means of the press, and at the same time announced a remission of certain taxes which bore especially hard on the poorer classes. These concessions gave universal satisfaction, and realised in some degree what the nation had so confidently expected and passionately desired from representative institutions. It led to another step in advance-the most important of all-an attempt to establish the freedom of the press. On April 9 a motion was brought forward in the diet at Berlin, that the king should be petitioned to remove the restrictions on the press, which it was said had entirely annulled the benignant intentions announced in the royal proclamation of October 18, 1819, and rendered all free

1841.

ment.

CHAP. communication of thought impossible. Immense was the XXVII. sensation excited by this debate; men could scarcely believe their own ears when they heard it announced : with agitated hearts they listened in crowds in the streets to the report of the speeches on the subject in the newspaper, the Staats Gazette of 13th April, which was read in a low voice. The example of the states of Berlin was speedily followed in the other provincial diets, and with an energy which gave no small uneasiness to the governThe states of the Rhenish provinces demanded that the debates should be daily and faithfully published, that the censorship of the press should be abolished, as it had been in England for one hundred and fifty, in Denmark for seventy years. The diet of Cologne demanded the convocation of a general parliament for the whole kingdom; a similar proposal at Posen was, after three days of stormy debates, only rejected "lest the nationality of Polish Prussia should be drowned in the general majority of the kingdom." In a word, the thorns began to show themselves with the roses, and so much was the government alarmed on the subject, that, by a circular to the different governors of provinces, the utmost vigilance 1 Ann. Hist. Was enjoined in enforcing the censorship of the press, and 466. the free publication of debates was permitted only in

xxiv. 459,

66.

the State Gazette.1

The cabinet of Berlin in this year zealously pursued Extension the two great objects of its domestic policy, which were, of the Zoll to attract literary and scientific talent from all quarters increasing to the Prussian capital, and to render it the centre of the strength of great financial union of the north of Germany. Both

verein, and

intellectual

Prussia.

efforts proved successful. M. Schelling, an eminent philosopher, was put at the head of public instruction, and numbers of men, distinguished in science and literature, were attracted to Berlin. The Zollverein obtained an important extension this year, by the accession of Brunswick and Hesse-Homburg. The advantage of belonging to the union, both from the diminished expense of

XXVII.

1841.

1841.

collecting the duties, and the increased facility of trans- CHAP. mitting goods from province to province, was now generally felt, and was rapidly overcoming the resistance offered by local interests, which always in the first instance obstructs measures of general utility. Treaties of commerce were also concluded with England, America, and Turkey, which materially lightened the import duties on commodities coming from these countries. They brought to March 2, light in Prussia the jealousy between the manufacturing and agricultural interests, which inevitably, in a certain stage of its progress, gets up in every country making rapid progress in industry. The eastern provinces towards Poland, which were entirely agricultural, warmly supported the treaty with England, which promised to give them the manufactured articles of which they stood in need, cheaper and better than they could be made for them at home; the western, in which native manufactures had made considerable progress, strongly opposed it, and deplored the Ann. Hist. ruin it was destined to bring on the commercial prospects of their own country.1

1

xxiv. 467,

469."

67.

Germany.

Not content with having thrown down the barriers which impeded the commercial intercourse of the dif- Vast system of railways ferent states forming the Zollverein, the Prussian gov- in Northern ernment was indefatigable in its endeavours to connect them all together, in a solid and durable way, by a vast system of railways. In September 1841 the line from Berlin to Köthen was opened, which connected that capital with the one running from Leipsic to Magdeburg. It was soon after united to one running to Dresden; and another, of vast commercial importance, running from the Prussian capital to Bremen, Hamburg, and the Danish states. The government conceived, with justice, that these great undertakings would not only open up new markets for the industry of their subjects, but cement the fiscal union which was every day embracing fresh states, and adding to the preponderance of Prussia in Northern Germany. The Austrian government followed, sed haud

VOL. V.

E