The Sun.
London, England, 1832-04-21 00:00:00

THE GERMAN PRESS.

(From the Times.)

consitkrable space in many of the German
-papers tees, for some time past, been tecupied
kg amounts of the proceedings nt the federal
Diet and the different Governments relative te!
the press, and by discussions on the legality and
validity of the measures which It 'been
adoted ; but the intricacy of the details, eon-
necced with the- laws and constitutiiene of the
several states, and the mconsistenty of the state•
treats in which the writcm frequently infleige,
east an obscurity oft the questions herfaled, and
occasionally lead to misrepreetutations of mat-
ters of fact. Thus it has lately been stated in
the French papers, and repeated by some of Our
own, that the Court of Munich heel remonstrated
against the decree of the fedral Diet-, prohibit-
ing the circulation of certain journals 'printed.
niihin the Bavarian territory. The event would
have been important, but nothing could belle:eve
erroneous than
_am assertion that it had ceeturred.
HoWever, from articles in the German papers, a
hope certainly does appear to have been enter-
tained that the execution of the decree of the
Diet would not be ordered by the Bava-
rian Government; but it is su.errising that
such a hope should have existed in the mind
of any person who hael read the two Bavarian
decrees, or rescripts as they are called, of tire
tat of March ;one of which was directed against
the associations for defending the 'liberty of the
Press—the other against the Tribune and
.the
Westbot.e, the journele which recommended the
formation of those Germanic unions. Now
these rem:4l)es afforded a sufficient manifesteion
of the spirit of the Bavarian Government, and
their date proves that Government to have been
at least one day beforehand with the Diet in the
adoption of those measures of repression, the
arbitrary character of which is the subject of ge-
neral complaint.
On the 2d of March the Diet passed the fa-
mous decree which has produced an extraordi-
nary excitement throughout Germany. It was.
Hot made public until about a fortnight after its..
date. The pressure of other matters has hitherto
left us no room for this memorable act cjf the
German " Conservatives ; but, . eoweideeing
that a document to which so metal interest .is at-
t ached ought not to be omitted, we now insert
a translation of the text as It was given in the
Frank-Solt journals of themiddle of last month:—
" FRANKFORT.-Tht High German Federal Assembly
passed the following decree on the 2d day of March, is the
present year :

" The Federal Assembly by the reported propo-
Tpositims of the committee on the affairs of the press, and
the articles submitted from the papers published in Rhen-
ish Bavaria, vie. the, German Tribuneand the West/tote, as
tvell as from the Ncw Zeitschwingen, published in Henan,
convinced that the said papers depreciate the dtgttity and
security of the Federation and of the iraliViAttal States,—
ende.nge.ing the peace and tranquillity of Germany,—
strive to loosen the bonds of confidence and attachment
between princes and the people,—endeavour to annihilate
the authority of Governments,—attack the inviolability of
sovereigns,—threaten persons and property by eppeals to
force,—instigate to commotion,—and seek to in:roduce
into Germany political disorganisation and anarchy, and
to form and propagate associations dangerous to the State,
—has, therefore, on the basis of the provisional law of
the press, of the 20th September, 1819, see. 1,6, and 7,
tvhicb,—in virtue of the unanimous and repeatedly
-adopted re lesions of all the members of the Federal
Union, remains in force until the German c,infederacy
shall concur in the enactment of new local measures,—as
;as duty bound, to provide for the. maintenaoce.of the
peace and tranquillity of the confederacy, in the name and
by the authority thereof deemed
" 1. The journals published in Rheni-h Bavaria,—the
German Tribune and the Westbote, and the Xete Zeitsch-
wingen, published at ilanao, as well as such other
journals as may, under any title, appear in the stead of the
said three, are hereby suppressed, and in all the States of
the German Confederacy prohibited.
" 2. In pursnance whereof, the editors ef the said
Journals,—namely, Dr. Wirth, of the German Tribune,
Dr. Siebenpfeitfer, of the 117estboftr, and George Stein,
the pret.tnded editor of the Nor Zeitschwingen, in accord-
:MCC with the provision of seven of the decree of
I.lle Diet of the 20th of September, 1819, shall not, for
five years frotu this (late, be p-rrnitted to c-lit any similar
publication in any State of the Confederacy.
" 3. The Governments of the several States shall be
rEquirrel, through their Envoys, to publish this decree
forthwith by their legal and of Journals.
" 4.. All the said Governments, and particularly the
Ravarian and the Electoral Hessi ,n, are required to en-
force the execution of the sail decree.

" 5. The several Governments arc required within four
weeks to notify to the Diet that, and in what manner, the
said pobbcation and execution have taken place.
Wherefore every delivery of the said Papers, namely,
the German Tribune, the Westbote, and the Nei;
Zeitschwinjen, as well as such Journals which, under any
other title, may lie printed in their stead, to private per-
sons, or their publication in public places within city
and its territory, in whatever manner such may take place,
is, tinder the severest penalties, interdicted ; and moreover,
the publishers and editnrs of the said Journais—Dr. Wirth,
Dr. Siehenpfeiffer, and George Stein—shall not, during
the space of five years, be permitted to edit any similar
Paper within this city and the territory thereof.
(Signed) " THE CITY CHANCERY.
" frankfort, March 13."

The delay of the Court of Bavaria to obey the
mandate of the Diet, doubtless gave occasion to
the report of the refusal of that Court to enforce
the above decree. The four weeks allowed by
the Diet for notice being returned of its adop-
tion were allowed to expire, though within that
period the other states, Baden included, had
signified their adherence. Besides, the grounds
on which the BaVarian rescripts already men-
tioned proceed purport to be altogether national.
It is set forth that political associations are not
permitted by the constitution, that the Tribune
and Wesibote had used unlicensed presses, and
that they had withheld their articles on foreign
states from the examination of the censors. It
may also, and with truth, be said, that between
a government instituting measures of its own
ac-
cord, and adopting the same measures at the
dictation of an extraneous assembly, which
assumes to itself a right of control over the inter-
nal affairs of independent states, there is an essen-
tial difference; and we apprehend it must have been
solely under these points of view that the liberal
party in Germany set so much value on the sup-
posed indisposition of the Bavarian Government
to recognize the authority of the Diet in the
question of the Press. Wl:at the Diet directed
to be done had previously been done, for it made
no difference in principle that to the two Papers
proscribed by the Bavarian rescript the decree of
the Diet added a third—namely, the Zeitsch-
wingen. The order for the execution of the
decree was therefore a mere matter of form ; but
the withholding of it might have proceeded from
a determination not to acknowledge the authority
of the Diet in such matters, which would have
been regarded as indicating a system of policy
likely to prove favourable to the popular cause.
We may here observe that a considerable party
in Germany has long hoped to find in Bavaria
the protector and encourager of liberal institu-
tions. "With that country the 'Amalie constitutional
States might be induced to coalesce, and thus a
mass of power would be constituted capable of
counteracting the present preponderance of Aus-
tria and Prussia. But this expectation has been
sadly dim)} ointed by the concessions of the Bava-
rian Government. On the 31st of -March, a
few days before the King left Munich on his
travels to Italy, he signed a rescript, in which,
after reciting the decree..of theptet, hip Maje4y,