THE KING OF PRUSSIA AND THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXI, Issue 1193, 6 February 1864, Page 3

THE KING OF PRUSSIA AND THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES.

The Prussian Chambers have begun another lesson in practical politics. On Monday the King opened the Session in person, and if there had prevailed any notion that he would take the first step towards conciliation, by abandoning a part of his demands, it must have been dissipated by the terms of the Royal Speech. While expressing an earnest wish that the differences between the Government and the Chamber might cease, the King told his subjects plainly that all concession must come from their side. He announced Bills the passing of which must be a recantation on the part of the Liberal party. One Bill is to regulate the rights of the Government in case the Budget is not legally settled ; in other words, to declare in what way the Government may legally levy taxes which q have riot been | granted by the Legislature. When it is reI membered that the Government persuaded the Upper House to make changes in the | last Budget to which the Chamber of Deputies could not assent, and that then the Chamber were dissolved, and the Government claimed the right of maintaining the army at its own standard, and exacting the taxes necessary for' its support, it will be understood what a proposal the King thus makes to his Legislature. If the Chamber of Deputies sanction a law by which the King, in the event of no Budget, or 110 sufficient Budget, being voted, may, by the exercise of his prerogative, do what he thinks best for Prussia^—which was the theory of government which His Majesty enunciated in the summer —then it is evident that the power of the purse has passed from the Chamber for ever. All that the Ministers will have to do, whenever the Chamber is influenced by too economical a spirit, is to cause the Budget to be amended in the Upper House. If the Deputies then acquiesce in the amendments, well and good; but if they prove obstinate, then the Government will only have to let the Session come to an end without the financial Bills being passed, and they will then have full power to use the prerogative in the manner that King "William has formerly pointed out. On the military question the King is firm. Although he announced that the Bill regulating the period of military service had been modified, he declared that he could only assent to such a Budget as should insure the maintenance of the new organization of the army. It is evidently a question of soldiers for the real 01* imagined necessities of Prussia that is the source of all the differences between the King and his subjects. The family has always been military, and even the late Sovereign, a scholar and a dreamer, and by nature the mostunsoldierlike of men, was not insensible to the pride of being a ' first-class military ruler, and, if he chose, his own Commander-in-Chief. The instinct is far more potent in the present King, who 1 believes himself to have military talents, and, indeed, possesses that knowledge of army 1 details and the mechanical part of the art of 1 war which a Continental Prince, with a taste for drilling and being drilled, can hardly fail ; to acquire. The idea that Prussia is in danger, that she can only be saved by a larger army than she possesses, trained in a more perfect manner and during a longer ■ time, has fixed itself in the Royal mmd, and the King thinks that it is his duty to preserve hia inheritance in spite of the ignorance and parsimony of Liberals. If seditious politicians and a misguided people will le^Y 6 their land open to the ambition of the Emperor of the French, the King will be no party to the shameful act. They may revile their Sovereign, they may send Democrats to the Berlin Chamber, but so long as he is King, and knows what force is necessary to protect the free and German Rhine through the Prussian part of its course, he will have as many men as he likes. The old King has made up his mind. M. von Bismark cannot make him more obstinate, nor can the advisers of concession, whether they be crowned heads, or moderate Deputies, or conciliatory journalists, move him a jot. It is the military question which has made him uphold M. von Bismark, which caused the decree ol June against the Press, which moved him to receive addresses against his own Legislature, to dissolve it, and then to use his whole power to procure the election ol a. new Chamber of more loyal instincts. It the Chamber were to yield to the King on this point, many people think that he might willing to give way himself on other matters, and to regain the affections of his _ subjects even by a sacrifice of the politicians who have been his advisers or his instruments 111 the contest. However this may be, there can be no doubt that his Majesty s present mind is to maintain the army m spite of Deputies, electors, and of the whole woild , and should the Chamber be determined to follow the example of its predecessor there can scarcely fail to be as much antagonism a " Another sign that the King meditates no concession is that he mentions the Press t a nf the Ist of June, and announces a BiU for the establishment of additional regu--1 As the so-called laws were, in fact, in the Chamber_mdig bent on ca ni ng tional act of June , ouncerae nt that Ministers to Trequired to the assent of the caused some • additional are emotion. We are n , ,1., they mthe proposed regolations, ori . . crease or lessen tire stringe^ gmal edict!: bwt t cont einplates ; * the last few months per.

manent by means of legislation. We must, therefore, believe that the Chamber will be called upon to approve and ratify the act which was committed by the Court immediately after the prorogation, and in order to carry out which effectually the Chamber was, in fact, dismissed. What consequences such a challenge may have in Prussia it is difficult to say. In most other countries the Government would be glad to evade discussion on such a matter, but it seems that the King believes in his own power, or the weakness of the Chamber, and does not care how soon the contest comes.

If the demeanour of the King and Government give little hope of compromise, it cannot be said that the Deputies, on their part, appear at all conciliatory. The Chamber is strongly Liberal, not to say democratic, and it meets, we are told, in a very irritable temper. It is against the King on the army question; it hates his Ministers personally ; and it looks upon the attempt to supersede the authority of the Chamber with regard to the Budget as the very gravest of constitutional questions. It is agreed that the Chamber is in one respect more Radical than the last, for though the prodigious efforts of the Government have seated some few Conservatives for their districts where their party is powerful, yet a number of very strong and somewhat intemperate Liberals have been elected, who will probably give a tone of greater earnestness, if not of acrimony, to debate. As to the politics of the Chamber, it is .only necessary to read the analysis given within the last few days to see that the Ministry are in presence of a most hostile Assembly. The Left and Left Centre—that is, the Opposition —make up more than 240 votes. The more moderate Liberals, the trimmers of the last party, have J suffered much in the late elections. The , Ultramontanes have lost, and are reduced from 33 to 28 ; the Conservatives have increased from 11 to 37, which is the number that at present supports the Bismark Ministry. The majority against Ministers is counted at 260.

The situation and present temper of parties do not, therefore, promise much for reconciliation; but it is impossible to say what turn domestic affairs will take in the prospect of external danger. If Europe were quiet, there would be little chance of the Prussian disputes coming to an end this year or the next; but Europe is far from composed, and the safety of Prussia requires that a good understanding should exist between rulers and . people. There is some danger, and it is of a kind that Germans generally are disposed to exaggerate. Although it is impossible to see any signs of yielding on either side, yet it may be that the winter will not pass away without some kind of compromise. That this may be the case we really hope, for the present conflict, if carried out to the utmost, must end in the downfall of a Sovereign or the forcible repression of a people, and either of the two is a spectacle which cannot be seen without regret. —Times, Nov. 10.