land
during the last sis years, but only to sketch their general character.
The query naturally arises, when one takes a view of the whole period,
which has elapsed since the constitution was introduced, why the contest
did not begin sooner. The explanation is to be found in the fact that
until the present king began to rule, the Liberals in general did not
vote at the elections. It will be remembered that the previous king
absolutely refused to deal with the assembly which met early in 1849 to
consider the constitution, and ordered a new election. At this election
the Liberals saw that, if they reflected the old members, another
dissolution would follow, and they therefore mostly staid away from the
polls. Afterward, when the constitution had been formally adopted, the
Government showed a determination to put down all liberal movements;
consequently the Liberals made no special attempts to move. The
Parliament was conservative, and so there was no occasion for strife
between it and the king. Not till William I. became regent in place of
his incapacitated brother, in 1859, did the struggle begin. The policy
of the previous prime minister Manteuffel had produced general
discontent. The people were ready to move, if an occasion was offered.
It is therefore not to be wondered at that, when the new sovereign
announced his purpose to pursue a more liberal course than his brother,
the Liberal party raised its head, and sought to make itself felt. The
new ministry was liberal, and for a while it seemed as though a new
order of things had begun. But this was of short duration. The House of
Delegates, consisting in great part of Liberals (or, to speak more
strictly, of _Fortschrittsmaenner_--Progress men--_Liberal_ being the
designation of a third party holding a middle course between the two
extremes, a party, however, naturally tending to resolve itself into the
others, and now nearly extinct) urged the Government to adopt its
radical measures. The king began to fear that, if he yielded to all the
wishes of the House, he would lose his proper dignity and authority. He
therefore began to pursue a different policy: the more urgently the
delegates insisted on liberal measures, the less inclined was the king
to regard their wishes. He had wished himself to take the lead in
inaugurating the new era; as soon as others, more ambitious, went ahead
of him, he took the lead again, by turning around and pulling in the
opposite direction.