The Express.
London, England, 1862-09-16 00:00:00

THE PRUSSIAN QUESTION.

The controversy between the Prussian crown
,and the representatives of the Prussian people
with regard to the augmentation of the army,
continues to be carried on in the midst of great
excitement. No less than fifty speakers have
inscribed their names as desirous of taking part
in:the.debate in the Chamber of Deputies. In order
to understand the nature of the dispute between the
crown and the nation, it is necessary to state that,
by the law of September 3, 1814, the military
system of Prussia was organised on the following
basis :—Obligatory service for all citizena, and d iviaion
of the armed force into troops of the line, landwehr
of the first and second ban, and the landatunn or
levy en masse of the whole country. By the same
law too period of service was fixed at five years
for the line and at seven years for the landwehr,
so that the period of service extended to nine-
teen years, or from the age of twenty to
39. An annual draft of 40,000 from a population
of 10,000,000 brought the entire youth of the coun-
try into the regular military training of the line,
before being transferred to the landwehr.
But when the population of Prussia increased
to 18 millions it would be necessary to draft
annually 90,000 men into the regiments of the line. ,
This, however, was not done, so that the obligatory
character of the military service became illusory,
besides which the landwehr was incorporated
with the brigades of the regular army, thus
destroying its essential character as a body
of reserve. The mobilisation which took
place in 1869 brought to light all these
defects, and King William I. proclaimed the neces-
sity of organising the army on a new basis. The
liberals warmly supported the wishes of the King
in this respect ; but the project of law which the
ministry iutroduced on this subject meeting with
opposition, it was withdrawn absolutely,
without any attempt at amendment or
modification. They asked for, however, and
obtained, asupplementary grant of 9,000,006 thalers
to cover provisional expenses. The opposition to
the ministerial plan was founded on the fact, that
by it the landwehr would be sacrificed to
the line and the regular army increased
from 180,000 to 300,000 men. It would also entail
a considerable addition to the taxation, whilst it
increased the period of military service from
five to eight years. In 1801 the chamber
again voted the supplementary credit, but it
resolved that the cabinet were bound to
present a project of law in the next session.
The cabinet of M. Von der Heydt having come into
power at this point, proposed a plan which was laid
before the chambers on the 14th of January last.
This project was known to be the offspring of the
King himself. The House of Peers adopted it
without discussion in their sitting on the 29th of
January ; but the lower house not having time to
discuss it was dissolved on the 11th of March.
The question has now come before the second
chamber under a different form. Hitherto the
decisions come to were provisional in their character,
the discussion on the main question of the organisa-
tion of the army having been expressly reserved. The
Von der rle)dt ministry now proposes to transform
the credits hitherto voted provisionally by the
chamber into a permanent vote, and has even in-
troduced them as part of the normal war
budget of the present year, by which proceed-
ing it is assumed that the project of law
relating to the organisation of the army,
which has not even been discussed, has been
assented to by the chamber. It is upon the consti-
tutional legality of this proceeding that the contro-
versy now turns, and the decision of the chamber
is watched with the moat intense anxiety by the
whole Prussian nation.