New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-11-08

| Do De considered as the legitimate representa-
| fives into whom Il has finally settled down.
However that may be- IL these editors are
no heroes, nor even common lighting men,
they are shrewd calcuaiors at all events. They feel
| that there is something stirring and that the re-
eime which formed the back ground necessary for
their own mock liberalism, aud gave the value
1 in exchange 10 their ware il rapidly breaking
/ down To convince, therefore, their customers
! that they are true watchmen they venture upon
! low murmus and plsintive means. They do GER
tainly not bite nor even bark Their audacIty IN this
! moment consists IN laudIDg the Prince 10 the sky.
! They call upon hIm even the National Ztitung
Gently did "a make free with the public exchequer
, hut and this is the humOur OF the thing, all their
] commitments on his deeds vet unborn. turn into as
MANY structures the past deeds of the Manteuiiei
Cabinet. They annoy the Prince by their pros.
pectiye credulity and plque the ministry by them
retrospective scepticism. But TO appreciate them
duly, one ought TO read them IN the vernaculaf.
1t is impossible to attempt in any other language,
not even in Decembrist French, which smacks al
least Of It's own specific 0dear de mdurais, LnH
the dull, msipid. interminabe yarn they spin One
might suppose they were speaking by mere innuen-
does, playing hide aud seek with the police. but this
would be great mistake. They ssy, in fact, every
thing they have to say. but combine the homeo-
pathlc and alOpathc methods in most sklliul and
profitable way they administer an nfnitislmal
deal Of drug in an ocean of Indifferent fluid. The
ministers, on the other hand. seem aware
Of the geological fact, that the continuous
action Of water will wash away the prondest rock
and roll it into pebbles. They feel not much
rritaied at the stammerng of these cautious wise
acres as at the general state Of public mind which
IT presupposes TO exist Consequently, in their
shorfsighted bureaucratic way they beat the don
key in order 20 Int the bag-I mean the bag of
public opinion The repeated newspaper confsca-
lions initiating the new rfgime, say the royalists,
are The true answer 10 the noisy hopes that affect
10 cling 70 the Prince. No. say the official Liber-
ais the Princes rfgime has not yet begun, and his
great respect for constitutional law obgcs him.
until he has been acknowledged by the Chambers
and sworn in OF Regent, 10 allow the Minister'S
according to The charter. 70 act on their own
sponsbility. Now " ministerial responsibility" il
Il very mysterious thing in all inonarchic Con-
s;itutiOns, whether cut on the English or the
French pattern. In England where il may be
supposed to exist in its most VITAL palpable FORM
il means that on certain solemn occasions Irrespon
sbility becomes transferred from Wing to q
Tory or from Tory TO Wing Ministerial re-
sponsibility means there the transformation of
place hunting into the main business of parliament
tary parties He who is in Office H. for the time
irresponsible, because the representative OF legis
latiye majority who, in order to help him in abd-
cate into the hands of his whipper-n. In Prussia,
the most ardent aspirations of middle-class am
bition tend TO render the ministerial posts
prizes to be won in parliamentary tournaments.
Till now, however, Prussian ministerial RESPONSE
bilty was myth III every sense. Article "A OF the
Charter runs thus: 1.-The Ministers of the King
" are responsible; all the governmental acts of the
King, 10 have legal force, require the counter
" signature of a minister upon whom, thereby the
responsibility devolves." No laW has, however,
been made with respect to thb responsibility.
In the paragraph ITSELF it is not said 70 whom
the ministers are responsible. In practice, on
every occasion when the chambers went the
length of threatening the ministers with a vote of
NONCOMPLIANCE, the latter declared rOundy that
they were quite welcome to it, ministers being
responsible, indeed but to their royal master only.
The question of ministerial responsibility possesses
in Prussia, as II did III the France OF Louis Philippe,
an exceptional Importance, because 1t means, IN
fact, the responsibility Of bureaucracy. The min
listers are the chiefs of that Omnpoient, al-inter
meddine parasite body, and to them alone, accord
ing TO article LOG of the Constitution, have the
subaltern members of the administration to look,
without taking upon themselves TO inquire into the
legality of their ordinances, mourning any
responsibility by executing them Thus the power
of the bureaucracy and by the bureaucracy, of the
executive has been maintained intact, while the
constitutional "Rights of the Prussians" have
been reduced TO a dead letter.
The imminent elections are the lever which all
parties intend now using but il is principally with
regard to electoral matters that the present
octroyed Constitution has succeeded in roofing out
all traces Of its revolutionary origin. True, in
order to exc out small bureaucratic salaries by add
ing to them a parliamentary source OF income, the
very plebian law prescribing that the representa-
tiycs of the people should be paid has been main
tanned. So has the eligibility of every Prussian
aged % years. The electoral rights, however, and
the machinery Of election. have been managed in
such way as TO exclude not only the bulk of the
people, but TO subject The privileged remnant to
the most unbridled bureaucratic interference.
There are two degrees of election. There are first
elected the electors of the electors, and then the
latter elect the representatives. From the primi-
tive election itself not only excluded all those
who pay no direct tax, but the whole body of
primitive electors itself is again divided into three
portions, consisting of the highest-taxed, the
niddle-taxcd, and the lowest-taXed these three
parties like the tribes of King Servius Julius,
electing each of them the same number of repre-
sentstives. As if this complicated process OF filter
ing was not sufficient, the bureaucracy has, more
over, the right to divide, combine, change, separate
and recompose tie electoral districts at pleasure.
Thus for instance, if there exists town suspected
of liberal sympathies, il may be swamped by re-
dictionary country votes, the Minister, by simple
ordinance, blending the liberal town with the re-
dictionary country into the electoral district
Such are the letters which shackle the electoral
movement, and which, only in the great cities, can
exceptionally be broken through.