The Express.
London, England, 1851-08-12 00:00:00

PRUSSIA.

Preparations are now again everywhere actively
making for the assembling of the provincial diets.
You will recollect that the collection of the class and
classified income tax was the pretext originally put
forth for their revival. It appears, however, now
that their attributes are to be so multifarious and
extensive as to embrace all the objects of provincial

The government evidently expects much opposi-
tion from the electors, and to meet it the Preussierhe
Zeitung announces that measures have been taken to
put down at once the system of protesting against
the legality of the diets, which the constitutional
party all ovor Prussia has hitherto resorted to. The
Knit: Zeitung mentions that the Ober President of
Mark Brandenburg, where elections are now going
on, has received instructions from the Minister of the
Interior, not to receive protests, and in case officials
should, afterexpostulatitm, persist in sending them
in, to take legal proceedings against such persons,
by virtue of the Bth article of the criminal code.
, Both the ministerial prints dwell much upon the
necessity of a prompt and vigorous repression of the
protesting opposition.
I cannot at this moment refer specifically to the nth
article of the criminal code above alluded to, but it is
certain that I'russian officials have hitherto acted on'
the conviction, that they possess a right to protest
against any illegal ministerial reseript ; it is certain
that for several months, in almost all the provinces
of the kingdom, the highest authorities—some of
them high legal authorities—have done so; it is cer-
tain also, that it has never till now been intimated,
much less distinctly averred, that in so doing they
had violated the law : and from these certainties
results the most prominent certainty of all—that the
law appealed to was never intended to meet the case
in question ; and that, in order to receive this appli-
cation, it must be forcibly and tyranically wrested
from the purpose for which it was enacted to accom-
plish another purpose, viz., the setting up of a minis-
terial rescript above all law.
It is to he hoped, however, that the popular party
will act on the suggestion thrown out by the Cologne
Gazelle, by which they may entirely defeat this new
violent act of illegality on the part of the govern-
ment ; that is, they should not protest and withdraw
but proceed vigorously to the elections, return their
I own men, and then, in the midst of the I /jets' assem-
blies, utter through members representing their
party, such protests as could not be silenced or put
down. This plan of action would be almost sure to
result in a great constitutional victory—the more
especially, as in many instances the protesters would
constitute the majority in the Diets.
In Halle on the 6th instant, the majority of the
Communal Council, 20 in number, protested against
the revival of the provincial Diets, as illegal, and
withdrew, leaving the elections completely in the
hands of thei minority, ten.
Another of the small states has imitated the ex-
ample of Anhalt Dessau, at least if one may judge
from an article of a ministerial print of Schwarz-
burg Sonderhausen, of which I transcribe the follow-
ing extract :

Our constitution dates front 12th December, 1949. It
was then expected that a Germanic empire would be esta-
blished. But this has not happened. On the contrary,
we have been obliged to return to the German confedera•
tion. Hence follows the necessity of changing the consti-
tution, inasmuch as it harmonises not, but is in contradic-
tion with the federal constitution. The force of events
must be submitted to : of this there can be no doubt. The
only question is, how far we must go to bring our constitu-
tion into agreement with that of the confederation, and
whether the government should take the initiative, or al-
low it to come from without. On this subject, according
to sure information, our government has applied through
its envoy to the Frankfort Diet fur counsel.