The Sun.
London, England, 1851-03-06 00:00:00

GERMAN Y.

The following is the text of a letter of the King of
Wurtemberg to Prince Schwarzenberg, on the Con-
ferences at Dresden, to which many allusions have
recently been made in the German journals
Your Highness,--From the report of my Plenipo-
tentiary in Dresden, I perceive that you decidedly reject
the idea of calling into existence a representation of the
collective nation by the side of the chief Executive
Power of the Band, which is proposed to be newly
established. That I sincerely regret this intelligence
even in this open declaration, your Highness will think
quite natural, from my well-known freedom of ex-
pression. For my own part, I have always, before as
well as since the lamentable events of 1848, believed
that a reform of the Act of Confederation, and especially
a revision of the 13th article, was unavoidable. The last
In particular I regard as the true palladium and the only
real test of the value of all we may negotiate and resolve
collectively in Dresden. But if that article is to be re-
vised in a manner not in arrear of the age and the moral
necessities of the nation, then we must extend the hi-
therto existing representation of the States to the Federal
compact as a whole, and bring together the divided, bar-
ren, and confused powers of the different Chambers into
one united Upper National Parliament. Only with
such a united Parliament, according to my conviction,
will it be possible to establish a generally respected and
lasting Central Power, the activity, force, and influence
of which will be in vain sought in its external form and
numerical composition alone. In these times mere phy-
sical power will not suffice to sustain a general form of
government. Repressive laws and measures of police
alone have hitherto neither guaranteed political institu-
tions, nor averted political convulsions. If Ido not err the
old Confederation has proved this to us is the manner that
suffices to make it a fearful example. A federation of states
is mnch more difficult to guide and hold together than
a single state. The first requires, much more than
the last, a common moral bond of connexion which may
preserve it—which may preserve it from dissolutian from
within, and destruction from without. Such a moral
bond for the whole of Germany can now only be found
in a general Parliament. In vain shall we seek a sub-
stitute for it in a general commercial union. Material
interests promote social revolutions much more than
'').'"7 hinder them; these interests do not fight; they retire
;'n Lee hour of danger and submit themselves easily and
w'tectit conditions; they are as variable as property
itself
1311
in which they depend; their exclusive demands
"nee prevented neither the fall of the restored
Monarchy nor the revolution of 1848. In my opi-
nion, a. Confederative Government supported by a general
representation of the nation is alone able to master the
destructive elements beneath, and effectually to prevent
divisions between the liberal States of the Bund from
above: If we deprive the nation of its proper share in
its chief collective political government, we cannot hope
to reconcile it with the conatitution of the Band, and as
Alkle can we hope to arrest the revolution in Germany.
1 a the course of time the old conflict will be renewed,
with all the powers of anarchy in and without the seve-
ral Chambers arrayed against the Central Government,
and I believe I do not deceive myself when I assume that
in the end this conflict
will not be decided to the advan-
tage of our new political creation.
"In the above lines I have Highness
pogliivtiecnal Yboeulrief as to the
sincere declaration of my
political re-organization of Germany. Either we can
govern in the several States without Chambers and
popular representation, or we cannot. If we cannot,
neither can we dispense with a similar representation
tia the centre of the federative system, if we wish not
t() produce a conflict, sooner or later, between the
newly-established Central Power and the dis°r-
Itanized elements of the several State Diets, which we st d
divide the Confederation internally, and more and more
weaken it without. To maintain that a
general Parlia-
mentary connexion is impracticable is, according to my
view of the question, equivalent to admitting that the
Bund its,elf can neither be adapted to the age nor
lessg upheld. Your Highness knows lam no friend
improvised cha.rters and modern political experi-
zAeilts; but inl"l3ical affairs I like just' as little
the introduction or return to tbat svhich,.cpmes too
late or has outlived itself. As a Prince of he Con-
federation, I shall, as conscientiously discharge my duties I
to the new Bund ese to the old one; but as a German and