, 1865-01-10
CONSTITUTIONALISM IN HESSE-
CASSEL.

EeaIty uSu W w NCiy Sto'OANA w w
many,-the one which studies the growth
Of constitutional liberty. In other coun-
lries, in France, Italy, Greece, and even
Spain, the Sovereigns claim by a more or
less popular title, and whatever Difficult
ties they may have with their Chambers,
they do not represent, and are not support
ed by what III England we call the Tory
party. In Germany, on the other hand,
many of the conditions of our own early
struggles with the power Of the Crown
are faithfully reproduced. The dynas-
ties are at least national, and are protect
cd by that quasi-religious w with which
all nations regard an immemorial title.
In a legal point of view, moreover, the
people are asking concessions. They
are asking their "most iIlustrious and
most gracious lords" 10 surrender power
which they and their ancestors have eX-
erciSed for centuries without challenge.
And the maxims that governments exist
for the 1good Of the governed, and that
the safety of the people is the highest
law, are maxims Of which men admit the
authority only to dispute the application.
What is good? What is safety =? Pro-
baby the Prussian Chambers obey a
sound instinct when they keep carefully
within bounds of law, and expose them
selves to the charge of SupineneSS rather
than of treason. Certainly they follow the
English precedent. After a conStitu-
tional struggle of fifteen years, not the
long Parliament, but Charles l, appealed
to the sword. If the Stuarts were a
legal they were not altogether a national
dynasty, and the Kings of England had
never been absolute. 1t may very we'll
be doubted whether the Tudors, if any of
the children Of Henry VIII. had left issue,
would have been as easily ousted, even if
they had been as imprudent, as the Stu
arts. 1t is therefore probable that the
Impotence of the s%upineness Of the PruS-
sian Chambers which has often been ex-
pressed in England is q little unreason-
able. The one danger which the Ger
man Liberal party has to avoid is out
stripping public opinion. No doubt in
these days of railways and a free press IT
has means of influencing public opinion
which were formerly unknown, and one
year now ought TO do the work of three
two centuries ago. But ParIiaments do
we'll to have law on their side.
IF all these considerations apply to
Prussia, they apply with tenfold force TO
the smaller States. The Diet may have
no great terrors for the Berlin Chambers,
but it hangs like a thunder cloud over
Hesse-Cassel. The inhabitants Of the
smaller German States are in the same
position with reference to their rulers
that workmen in England used to be with
reference to their masters. The masters
might combine and the men might not.
Whenever a German prlnceling is in dan
ger ofhaving to yield to his subjects he
goes off to the Diet, who are always rea-
dy to pronounce the popular proceedings
to be "unfederal'-a word which is used
in precisely the same sense as the word
"unconstltutional' is used by Tory big
wigs. A thing is unfederal when prin-
ces do not like it. The people of Hesse
know by experience what it is TO be I'M
federal, and naturally do not wish to in
cur so damaging a reproach. Not that
they can ever be safe from it. In 1880
the French counter revolution produced
among other results these two-that the
Duke of Brunswick and the Elector of
Hesse-Cassel ran away from their faithful