, 1866-11-09
From TIE London Times, October 15,J

- OAO
Bodies of the Free City of Frank
fort and $4,000 of the people have put
forth their protest against the act by
sion Of their little Republic. The Frank
torters have in the main only echoed the
words and thoughts of the greatest num-
Der of persons in this country who took
an interest in the great events of which
Germany has lately been the theatre.
In the opinion of the inhabitants Of the
Imperial city, Count Bismark has either
done too much or too little. Dear as
their local Government was to the Frank
f~orters, they would, they say, have been ,
willing enough to sacrifice their long
cherished traditions, their lime-honoured
institutions, and the high position they
held as the centre Of the political, com-
mercial, and intellectual intercourse be-
tween the North and South of the great
German Fatherland, if fly their self-denial
they had been able to secure the inestimable
blessing of national unity. But they are
not equally ready 10 give up their indie
pendence for the mere ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF
the Prussian Monarchy, or even for the
consolidation of a Northern Confederacy,
which may rather tend to perpetuate the
division than to promote the unification
of the common country.
1t is possible, indeed, that Count Bis
mark may not have been equal to the
position in which his own undoubted abil-
tiles and his transcendant good fortune
have placed him. 1t is not enough for a
man to have faith in himself; he must
also look to the tools with which his
work is TO be achieved. The renovation
of the German Empire was not, in all
probability, the goal he placed before
himself at the outset of his career. Had
he even harboured such a thought in
the depth of his heart, he wouEI still
have had to reckon with his King and
his Parliament, his Court and his party,
the Prussian and the German people, to
say nothing Of the endless difficulties that
would have risen against him on the part
of foreign Powers. The idea of q recon-
s~titution of the German Empire, as the
Frankforters remind us, did not origin
ate with the Prussian Minister. The
Germans drew up their Constitution and
proceeded TO their Imperial election in
1848 and Notwithstanding the influence
of a crafty Austrian Prince, the Archduke
John, and the subtlety of an Austrian
Minister, Baron Schmerling, and the un-
wearied n@uvr of the Ultra Radical
and Ultramontane party in the Frankfort
Assembly all partial TO the cause of Aus
trian supremacy, Austria was beaten in
the encounter, and the votes of the nation
were given for Prussia. The scruples
Of Frederick William of Prussia on re-
fusing the tender of the Crown of Ger
many on that occasion arose from his
conviction Of the opposition his exalta-
ton would meet on the part of his Royal
brethren the Princes of Germany, and
from his unwillingness, no less than in
ability, to force his supremacy upon
them. Had he given his consent, he
would, he was aware, engage single
handed in a contest with the thirty-six
German States, with Austria at their
head, and he could hardly rely on the
support of the discordant and crafty de-
mocratized people, except on terms ill
suited TO his lofty notions of his Royal
prerogative. What was hopelessly I'M
practicable in 1S48 has become suirpris-
ingly feasible in 1866. The contest from