The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-27 00:00:00

PRUSSIA.

In the sitting of the Second Chamber, on the 22d,
the amendment of THIEL to the address, praying for
a general amnesty, was carried by 167 to 160.

FRANKFORT.

On the 23d, the National Assembly of Frankfort
commenced the vote by paragraphs of the Constitu-
tion. Although no discussion was allowed, the
sitting was very animated. The first paragraph,
declaring that the territory of the Empire was the
same as that of the ancient Confederation, and that
the admission of Schleswig shall be subse-
quently voted, was adopted. A clause of the
paragraph enacting that the same exception should be
applied to the German provinces of Austria was re-
jected by 290 votes to 240. A proposition that other
territories could be admitted into the Empire in
virtue of special laws was rejected by 268 votes to
259. The paragraph relative to the non-German pro-
vinces of German States gave rise to two contradic-
tory votes, but eventually it was resolved by 290 votes
to 240 that if a German province and a non-German
province were under the same sovereign, the former
should have a peculiar constitution, govern-
ment, and administration. (This was equi•
v alent to declaring the maintenance of what
is
called the principle of personal union adopted
in the first reading of the Constitution.) The As-
sembly then adopted an amendment that Germans
could alone fill offices in the German province, and
that the Constitution and laws of the Empire should
have the same force in such province as in other
German countries. An amendment declaring that
the people were sovereign, and that all the powers
of the Empire were derived from them, was rejected
by a majority of four. At the beginning of the sitting
M. VENEDY created great sensation by complaining
that M. DE SCHMERLING, the Austrian Plenipoten-
tiary, had asked the Prussian plenipotentiary
whether Prussia had not been sufficiently " check-
mated" by the rejection of M. IVELcxEit's proposi-
tion to join Austria in granting a Constitution to the
empire. M. DE SCIIMERLING, who was much agi-
tated, admitted that he had visited M. CAMPHAUSEN,
the Prussian Plenipotentiary, but indignantly denied
that he had made any such observations as those
ascribed to him. AL. VENEDY was about to make
some remarks, when he was stopped by the Presi-
dent, and the matter ended. A paper signed by M.
KUENTZEL, a Deputy, asserted that M. DE SCHMER-
LING had told him (KnEwrzEL) that Austria had
proposed to Prussia to take on themselves to grant a
Constitution to the empire, but that Prussia had re-
jected the proposition, was subsequently handed round
the Assembly.
A letter from Frankfort of the 23d states that M
&BAUR, who had been charged by the Vicar-General
to form a new Ministry, had abandoned the mission.
It was said that M. VON DER PFOUTTEN had been
called on by the Vicar-General.
The new Austrian note sent to Frankfort is dated
the 17th. After noticing the demand of M. DE
SCHMERLING, the Austrian Plenipotentiary to be
recalled, the Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs
proceeds as follows :

" You start from the supposition that, in consequence
of the Constitution which has been given to the empire
of Austria, the German provinces of that empire cannot
participate in the Garman federal state. That is pre-
cisely what I deny. Austria, it is true, could not have
entered into a federal state which would have annihilated
the free interior movement and the independence of par .
titular states, but such an extremity is not, in my
opinion, necessarily depended on the ilea of a
federated state. We may easily imagine a fede-
rated stato with a central Government possess-
ing extensive powers and strongly organized with
a representation of the different states and
their people acting with it ; an organization, in a
word, which should present to foreign countries a Ger-
many great, strong, united, and one—and, in the in-
terior, guarantee to the different German states and
people a reasonable community of material interests and
legal national institutions. Austria would be dis-
posed at any time to enter into such a federal state.
The new and bold coup de main of Frankfort again
places, it is true, all in question; but we can only await
the ulterior development."

The note concludes by declaring that Austria has no
intention of refraining from taking part in the future
discussions of the Constitution, and by calling on the
Austrian deputies to remain at their posts.