The Express.
London, England, 1849-04-07 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY. EVENING, APRIL Z, 1849.

hostilities, which beyood all doubt will take plats this
night in Schleswig-Rolstei., will perhaps hasten the
flowing in of such recognitions.
The men, who coins In the name of the Garman
people to hail the King of Prussia foe their emperor,
could scareely have expected that Berlin would be
the only city that had no loolt, no voice of welcome
for them. From Frankfort their journey ha. been one
triumphal procession through Cologne Brunswick,
and Magdeburg. Everywhere exulting demowara-
ticss of festivity have crowded on their path ; national
anthems, prised., and waving banners—all that
the world of mind and colour furnishes to express
gratalaliea.with the aoolaim of the intoxicated people,
have greeted them wherever they past. The deputise
themselves, graves, they were, caught thereffection of
the popular joy through which they moved, and
tossed off their bumpers of Rhenish with a spirit
worthy of the occasion. And so, after an excellent
dinner at Potsdam, they came on in their extra
train, trick'd out with device', flays, and flowers,
in the best of humours with themserves and all the
world. Meantime there was every disposition on the
part of the Berliners to receive the deputation with a
I=ll burst of enthusiastic' rejoicing, and all the
pomp with which a capital city uses to mark
a national epoch. Bat the leave of Gen. Wrangel
was to be asked, and this was refused. No demon-
strations of any kind were permitted. No house was
to hang out the German colours, or to presume to il-
luminate. Throngs in the streets would be dispersed
as usual with the bayonet. Public rejoicing was in-
compatible with the state of siege. This sort of
military wet blanket which is thrown on all social
acts having a relish of union about them
is beginning at last to be too insufferable even
for the conservative., whose organs condemn the soar
excess of severity ; while the people are disposed to
cry to General Wrangel : Dust thou think there 'hall
be no more cakes and ale because thou art military?
aye, and ginger shall be hot in the month too.' Thus
the Frankfort deputation were met in the Potsdam-
mer Thor by the frowning spectre of martal rule;
and instead of the acclamations and welcomes of a
warm-hearted people, they encountered, as they
threaded the dell streets in the seventeen c
provided for them by the municipality, nothing
sullen patrols and the scowls of the ditc3nteated. Was
ever fairer occasion for a holiday lost? There seems
a fatal unreasonableness about the king's mood, which
makes him throw away golden occasions for retriev-
ing his popularity.
What happier moment could have presented itself
for relaxing the state of siege ; what more inoppor-
tune for aggravating its rigour? Meanwhile the peo-
ple remember that the man who now forbids the ap-
pearance of the German flag is his capital walked a
year ago in procession through the streets, surrounded
by the same colours, and foremost in enthusiasm for
German unity.
Having attempted to depict the spirit which
reigns in the authorities and people, I shall now men-
tion what formalities greeted the deputation on their
reaching the railway terminus. There they were
received by the members of the First and Second
Chambers, and of the two municipal assemblies. The
latter had sent a pair of delegates as far as Meg-
deburgh, to meet them. A loud hurrah hailed the
arrival of the gaily decorated train at six in the
evening.
The burgher-master Nannyn• was the first to wel-
come the deputation in the name of the " meg; strati'
Then V. Wittgenstein and Auetswald, via-presidents
of the First and Second Chambers, spoke out appro-
priate welcomes, to which President Simeon replied,
'that ten years ago it had been said, that the question
of German philosophy would be decided in Berlin ;
now tits question of German existence would be de-
cided here. After interchange of cordial greetings,
the Frankfort guests were borne off in vehicles pro-
vided by the municipality to various hotels, where
they will be lodged and fed at the expense of the
city.
'lle King has expressed his desire, through min-
isters, that the addresses of the two chambers should
not be presented to him personally by deputations.
An address was brought to hint at Cbarlottenburg
by the civic authorities of Potsdam on the same ques-
tion, but he refused to receive it, alleging the absence
of ministers. Addressee are flocking in with deputt-
tires from all parts urging the king to accept the
Frankfort offer. _

The ultra papers mouse the old democratic elec-
tion committees of agitating for a re-organisation of
the burgher-wehr. The National talks of the detec-
tion of a communist conspire°, here, whose centre is
at Paris. Four persons implicated in the communist
trial of 1848, have been apprehended.