The Express.
London, England, 1851-08-21 00:00:00

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LONDON, THCBSDAY, ~4L'GrsT 21.

WHILE the Sovereigns oft' ustria and Pruesvda are
ial
about to take council togeer at Ischl, proinc
diets arc summoned to meet throughout the
dominions
of the latter. These assemblies were convoked b
fur
ministerial ordinance some time since, professedly
no other purpose than to distribute locally' the assess-
ment of the income tax. l'opular suspicion was no
di-
t
unnaturally uroused by a proceeding which,
rect implication, if nut in terms, manifested a design
of superseding the authority of the central parlia-
ment, and thereby reverting to the absolutest regime
which wasswept away in I a-la. A ftcr all that had occur-
red since the fall of Itanowtra in the autumn of last
year, and amidst the reactionary courses to which
Yeeurattee WILLIAM had resigned himself since
that period, no man of common sense or spirit in
Prussia could look with equanimity on a measure
which eonfesscellv assumed at the executi,e govern- I\
ment the diserefionary right to call again into active
existence, legislative bodies like those we have
named. Whatever their past or future utility,
whatever the nature of their tonstitution, whatever
the limitations asieigned to their power, it Was dear
that de jure they had no being in the state, that as
institutions they had been absorbed in the national re-
preen ta t inflated t hat noot he r power es mid const it ution-
all y attest to resuscitate or restore t hens If the l
ice•t
of the king could call again to life what had
abolished by solemn and sworn compact between the
monarch and the nation—of what value was an
plsilise, or statute, or fundamental system of rule/
Om Prussians felt somewhat as ACC should 1111 TO
done if, three years after the union with Scotland or
with Ireland, a royal proclumation had appeared
during the mass of the meted legislature, burnous-
ing the old provincial parliament to meet for de-
spatch of local business on a given day. If royal
authority might do this priprio ,odor, what, that
Jolts, or Ow:Les, or Jams, ever attempted, might
not be dune by a similar assumptive of despotic
power ?
The people of Prussia did not, indeed, do upon the
occasion what snow of us may think we slwuld have
tarn very much 'liveried to do. Their indiguation
was, however, loud and universal; but they resolved
almost unanimously to try the effect, at least, in the
first instance, of an open refusal to take part in the
election of those who were to maistitute the
pm-tended Diets, and to protest publicly and
formally &against their assembling. There was
a pause, and the government took to argu-
ment in the press and personal intim-nee in pri-
vate. It was vehemently averred that the mea-
sure was conceived in no unconstitutiond
All thoughts of abrogating the forms and rights a
national parliamentary rule were energetically
dis-
claimed. Such thoughts were the wanton calumnies
of bad men,—treasous imagined only by traitors and
believed by the weak and ignorant. The convocation
of the prosowial states was a mere necessity to meet
a temporary aid accidental want. A law organising
such bushes dr no e" would have been passed by the I
gnat council of the nation, had tln-re been time to
projsmi,d and debate its provisions. Such a law
would no doubt be hereafter eonsidered in dew form.
Meanwhile there:climes! no legal machinery to per-
form the indispensable functions of fiscal apportion-
nwnt of pulite, burthens, and it was a cruel injustice
to impute to the administration of M. MANTEUITEL
any intention or wish that, when they assembled.
thew Diets should be invited to overstep the bounds
of this necessity, or to meddle with miscellaneous
subjects of
The popular controversialists replied that, in point
of principle, their objection still remained, namely,
that until the Firliament of the United Kingdom of
Prussia bail passed an act authorising their convoca-
tion, the !bets could not lawfully meet ; and in the
adhere-nee sl -n by the whole unfettered and
unlit-OKA public opinion of the country to this sound
and f lamental maxim, the approval and sviniathy
of the liberal preas in France and England was
heartily aemirdeel. Still there were those both in
Germany and elsewhere who hesitated to refuse
their belief to the assurances so positively given by
the Prussian ministry that the business of the illegal
assemblies would fie strictly limited to the single
pierisse assigned; and, as an exceptional expedient,
however objectionable, timeserving politicians were
wont to ask whether it was not latter to put up with
an encrecaltment that could never be brought into pre-
cedent hereafter' What will these trimmers say now?
our latest information from Berlin Fines the justice
of the fear: expressed two months ago —that the de-
precated measure would prove to be but one of a
aeries -another little in the chain of re-action by which
it is hoped to bind down once more the emadeiputed
mind of Germany. A royal edict has now been
isowel. formally notifying to the provincial Diets
that they hate cork aindie t4l considerand mature
laws upon almost any subject they may nspectively
think tit, with a vague reservation that such Vilna-
IIWIII,I are to be deemed provisional only. But
what is the value of this evasive and illusive
stipulat ion?—Provisional—t ill what, or till whet' 1f
it be tucant until the national legislature shall meet,
in under that it may affirm or reject them' then we
emus-ice no wow or more fatal blow aimed at the
integrity of the national freedom. The initiative thus
coneeded to the local assemblies would speedily and
easily grow into an exclusive right. The parliament
would thenceforth dwindle into a central chamber of
appeal, not a full and free representation of the
wilily. Efficient control over the action of
the executive it would exercise practically none.
It would of necessity become a mere residuum el
doubts—a last resort of factions--a shadow of •
shade. Let no impostor say that such a system
would resemble in any tow essential feature the
equipoised power and adjusted force of constitutional
federalism. The cardinal virtue of fokralism con-
sists in its due distribution of functions between col-
ketive and local power. It is by protecting each
is-pirate province, canton, or state, in its com-
plete and entire sovereignty in its own peculiar affairs,
while at the WOW time the few great interests
iu
common are- dealt with nt all times and absolutely
by the contend representatives of the whole people,
—that the balance of labour and of right is main-
taimAl ; not by appealing from the particular know-
ledge and self-contrulled discretion of eath locality
to the indiffertince or ignorance of the aggregate, on
whose blunders or baseness there is no voice of self-
restraint or fear of accountability.
And if, on the other hand, the acts of these
dreaded and de mated councils are to be eons&
dered provisional until they shall themselves receive
• supplementary uuthurisation by parliament, thee
it is too obvious, that with unlimited range of sub. !
jects fur consideration and enactment. they might be
rendered fragmentary substitutes for the only body
that Can lawfully delegate to them any privilege or
functicts Every day they sit, and every act they
pr tend to pass will thus become all excuse fur still
further postponing the convocation of the true repre-
sentatives of the realm, c
addie furnish to the cabinet of
the faithless king au ional motive for such
fraudulent postponement.

TIIE NEW Ro.tD AND Tor OWNInCs rttOrltlETon.s.
—in consequence of the sbcision come to by the Ilsmril of
Directors of the parish of St. Tanerse to close the New.
road. between the church and King's-cross, prior to laying
down the itTaUlle paving, a deputation from the omnibus
proprietors waited upon the vestry yesterday with a llleTTlO-
nisi. praying that the tlsoroughfaic should not be entinMr. ly
closed, but that one-half should be paved at a time.
Elliot, cower thedeputation, stated that he wan a proprietor
tit the lieunington and Camden-town omnibuses, and if the
route WWI closed it would involve • daily increase of milt...iv
of 2,400 roam besides the extra eapeuse of tolls, which
would arnount to 401. per wk. They already paid twenty
guineas per week toll tu theme Waterloo Bridge, which route
they were obliged to take in consequence of Blackfnars
Bridge beige closed. There were 200 omnibuses on the
road, The chairman stated that although the Bo ad of Di.
reeton bad decided that the thoroughfare should be forth-
with closed, it was not intended to finally close it while the
weather remained dry. The spplication should be token
into con.iilorathm, and everything done that could be to ob-
viate toconvonieuee to the public, or unnecessrry loss to the
proprietors of public vehicles. The its putatism thanked
Or vestry and withdrew.