The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-02 00:00:00

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THE thRTH GERMAN P -AIUNT,,e
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^: • I Parliament of the 28th ult. Count I3ismarck made
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the followincr remarks upon the establishment of an
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upper house, as proposed by several members
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P.Vy"R

' With regard to the motion for establishing an
Upper House of itself it can but be welcome in prin-
ciple to every Conservative. It is a drag attached to
the vehicle of State to prevent a too rabid dL.seent
in slippery plae:s ; it is a more extensive part'cipa-
tion in State affaite, of those who have something to
lose, and of those who are not inclined to play too
high at the cost and danger of the Stat?, because
their own stake is too large. It is the transfer to
our country of one of the principal advantages of
English institutions—an advantage I find in the fact
that there are in England a large number of almost
royal existences, by which 1 mean, of totally disinte-
rested persons who have nothing material in the
world to wish for that could lead them into judging
of the welfare of the State otherwise than according
to their own calm and settled convictions. I should
rather characterise them as contented persons who
have no desire to seek the satisfaction of social and
financial efforts in the department of politics. I
consider that an extraordinary advantage for Eng-
land. People do not experiment in that country so
ea ily, while those who feel inclined to do so have a
very high stake of fortune 'and prosperity to lose.
Nevertheless we have not thought it advisable to
make the already- complicated machinery. of the
constitution we have laid before you still more cum-
brous by the interpolation of a third, or, if you like,
of a fourth element. I cannot easily picture to my-
self a German Upper House that could be interposed
between the Federal Council—which, I repeat, is
altogether indispensable as the organ through which
the sovereignty of the individual States continues to
find expression—that could be interposed between
this Federal Council and this Parliament, a middle
element to some extent superior to Parliament in
importance upon the social scale, and sufficiently
subordinate to the Federal Council and those whence
it derives its powers. We would not have sovereign
peers as members of the Assembly, who, on their
part are inclined to rival the lesser sovereigns in
social position. The Federal Council to a certain
extent represents an upper house, in which his Ma-
jesty of Prussia isprimns inter pares, and in which
thatremnantof the high German nobility finds place
that has preserved its sovereignty. Now, I consi-
der it practically too difficult of execution to attempt
And I possible
tsoo
vccorieni
gplae tien thisb e
rusp. p e e
elniyn
saitriledri adding
ition it non-
to depress this sovereign upper house in its ingre-
dients outside the presiding power so far that it
would resemble a House of Lords ; nor would I ever
venture even to suggest such a step in presence of a
gentleman like the King of Saxony. The principal
reason, however, why we have not proposed any
division of the Parliament into two houses remains
in our unwillingness too greatly to complicate the
machine. The legislation of the Bund can even now
be brought to a standstill by a lasting difference of
io
noipninnt, opinion bmeatyw
in a three-chamber system—if lam allowed to call
aln;' eyd
te
wr aol
cC oa umnbcei
system and P a;r i
ua t-
the Federal Council a chamber—the probability of
oeeccnurthine
this standstill would be materially increased. We
should become too cumbrous."

In the sitting of the 29th Count Bismarck con-
cluded a speech against Deputy Lasker's amend-
ment—that true reports of Parliamentary proceed-
ings should not be liable to prosecution, in the fol-
lowing terms :
" One of the preceding speakers, the deputy for
Berlin, has taken this opportunity of complaining
that at times a hardly forced' tone of courtesy is
cast aside. If in this remark he alludes to a warm
discussion in which I engaged some days ago, I
should like to submit one point to his consideration.
When one has fought hard for five years and has
attained that which we are now debating ; when
one has sacrificed in so doing one's time, the bet
years of one's life, and one's health ; when one re-
members the trouble it has cost to get 22 Govern-
ments to agree to one small paragraph, or even upon
a matter of punctuation ; when one has reached this
point, gentlemen who have heard little about these
conflicts, who can know nothing of official pro-
cedure, then step forward in a manner I can only
compare to somebody hurling a stone through my
closed window without knowing where I stand.
He does not know where he may hit me ;
he does not know what matters of busi-
ness may be in progress at that moment
which he impedes and what others he frustrates
altogether by this opposition. lie does not know
what foreign questions hover in the balance which
would admit the different treatment upon energetic
support of the Government by the Parliament in
comparison with that they meet when people see
that Parliament does not go unconditionally with
the Government, and that very slight cause would
suffice to bring about a serious and deep breach.
Under such circumstances it is very easy, without
being artificially nervous, to get into a state of mind
I cannot better characterise for the hon. deputy
than by recommending him to read in one of the
early scenes of Henry the Fourth' what sort of an
impression Henry Percy felt when the lord there
spoken of came to him, demanded his prisoners, and
then inflicted upon him—wounded and battle-weary
—a lengthy oration as to weapons and internal
wounds. The passage is at the commencement of
the piece, and begins, 'I do remember me that when
the fight was done, there came a certain lord,' &c.
I feel something like Percy felt when I hear these
sort of speeches made about things for which I have
suffered and fought, and necessarily understand
better."