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Parliamentary Decisions are Disregarded. — Manteuffel’s Spies
First published: in Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 273 (second edition), April 15, 1849.
Berlin, April 13. Of course no notice at all is being taken of the motion passed by the Second Chamber that goods up to 5 lbs. should be post-free. The decision has been taken and although it is the custom in constitutional states for the House to decide matters of this kind independently, Herr von der Heydt has different ideas about these things. To date he has not even thought it worth the trouble to express his opinion on the matter in question.
As is well known, Herr von Meusebach is the most indispensable of all government counsellors. Nobody understands how to make the best and most valuable use of his eyes and ears, as he does, and always to provide his friend Manteuffel with the best and up-to-the minute reports about the frame of mind and intentions etc. of the Berliners. It is quite natural that the author of the “Revelations” should have great skill in matters which in ordinary language are called spying! He makes use of various literary rogues for these noble aims. His most intimate friends and most skilful tools are Gödsche, the well-known columnist of the Kreuz-Zeitung, and Röhrdanz, the writer. [Herr Röhrdanz was suspected of similar activities in Paris as early as 1844 and is hereby challenged to answer these accusations. The Editors of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung]
A note has also arrived from Mecklenburg which expresses opposition to the definite acceptance of the imperial crown by the King of Prussia.[1]
- ↑ The reference is to the response of the ruling circles in one of the small German states, the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg, to the proposal by the Frankfurt National Assembly that the crown of the “Emperor of the Germans” be given to the Prussian King, Frederick William IV. The question of electing the King of Prussia to the throne of the German Empire was discussed in the Frankfurt National Assembly on its completion of the draft for an imperial Constitution which, though it proclaimed some civil liberties and introduced all-German central institutions, nevertheless attributed to the united German state the form of a monarchy. The liberal deputies of the Assembly who held pro-Prussian views were particularly insistent on handing over the imperial crown to the Hohenzollerns. They were opposed by the democratic wing, but pro-Prussian tendencies took the upper hand as a result of a compromise between the moderate democrats and the liberals. On March 27, 1849, the imperial Constitution was passed on second reading. On March 28, the Frankfurt Assembly elected the Prussian King. Frederick William IV “Emperor of the Germans”. Frederick William IV, however, rejected the imperial crown. On the causes of his refusal to accept the crown from the Frankfurt Assembly see Engels’ article “The Comedy with the Imperial Crown”.