The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-27 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 1866.

The King of PRUSSIA. has received the deputa-
tion of the Chamber of Deputies, which presented
to him the address of the House in reply to the
Speech from the Throne. Of course he made the
most of the " almost unanimous manner in which
it was voted." There was the old story of being
forced to draw the sword, which is as unfounded as
ridiculous, and the same profession of thanks to
HEavEN for the recent victory, which is carried to
au extent that, under the circumstances, seems al-
most profane. After all these forms had been gone
through, the KING touched upon the more important
subjects of the discourse, and he acknowledged the
purport of his policy in a manner more truthful
than complimentary. First of all, that much-dis-
puted point of the organisation of the army was
referred to, and the Deputation was informed that
the superiority of the new plan over the old system
would now be recognised. Then followed the
" vexed question" par excellence that has so long
and so completely estranged the KING and the
Chamber, namely, the " Budget," and it certainly
appears to be rather a contradictory statement which
the KING put forth. He began by stating that the
Government never disputed the rights of the
Chamber respecting it, which sounds strange enough
when we remember how they acted in defiance of its
expressed wishes on the subject. As for the
indemnity which was now asked for, it was
in conformity with many previous propositions
of the Government, only the House would not
then consent to them. One piece of truth
appears, strangely enough, amid such a tissue of
false assertions ; it is said that the Constitution con-
tains no article applicable to such a state of affairs.
Surely this is the most fitting comment that can be
made on it, and it contains a severe censure on the
management of the Government in thus striking
out a new line for themselves. Effrontery cannot
possibly go further than it does with the rulers of
Prussia. And what can exceed the coolness of the
KING in telling the deputation that in the event of
a recurrence of a similar state of things he should
act the same as he did before, which was a most im-
pertinent announcement,ito say the least of it? And,
in order to turn off the awkwardness of the avowal,
lie added that, after such an address as he then re-
ceived, the renewal of the controversy was impos-
sible. Such an addenda was idle, however, be-
cause nothing is more likely than that the deputies
and Government will again be opposed to each
other, when the first excitement of the present
success is over. No doubt the KING was
not sorry to have a good pretext for
giving utterance to his opinions on this awkward
topic, when he knew that he should not be contra-
dicted, and while he was surrounded with all the
prestige of the recent glory of the war.
The annexation bill is not yet decided upon, and
the numerous amendments that have been brought
forward have greatly retarded its progress. It would
seem as if the Deputies were even more greedy and
grasping than the Government, and at all events
their language is more explicit and to the point. All
the various proposals agree in one thing, and that
is, that there should be an immediate absolute union
of the annexed States with Prussia, and Herr
V I RCHOW actually moved that the German Parlia-
ment should be consulted as to whether the Prus-
sian Constitution should not be introduced into the
annexed States. Count BISMARCK gave his decision
that an immediate absolute union might take place,
but that it was not advisable for the Prussian
Constitution to be immediately introduced ; and,
above all, lie objected to consulting the German
Parliament on the subject. Really 'it is quite a
satire on the much talked-of German unity to find
all these disputes taking place respecting the dis-
posal of States that are supposed to be
free, or at all events united by their awn
wish to Prussia. It would, no doubt, be an arbi-
trary course to pursue to force into them the
Prussian Constitution, but at the same time we
do not see that they will be much better off under
the plan of Count BISMARCK. He has said that
until the said change takes place the Government
must be left at liberty to facilitate matters by
Royal decrees, and thus settle the relations be
tween these States and Prussia. The Prussian
Constitution might be introduced next year, Who