by 290 votes against 248 who abstained, and 200 who were absent,
elected Emperor of Germany _minus Austria_. The historical irony was
complete; the Imperial farce executed in the streets of astonished
Berlin, three days after the Revolution of March 18th, 1848, by
Frederick William IV., while in a state which elsewhere would come
under the Maine Liquor Law--this disgusting farce, just one year
afterwards, had been sanctioned by the pretended Representative
Assembly of all Germany. That, then, was the result of the German
Revolution!

LONDON, July, 1852.

XVI.

THE ASSEMBLY AND THE GOVERNMENTS.

AUGUST 19th, 1852.

The National Assembly of Frankfort, after having elected the King of
Prussia Emperor of Germany (_minus_ Austria), sent a deputation to
Berlin to offer him the crown, and then adjourned. On the 3rd of
April, Frederick William received the deputies. He told them that,
although he accepted the right of precedence over all the other
princes of Germany, which this vote of the people's representatives
had given him, yet he could not accept the Imperial crown as long as
he was not sure that the remaining princes acknowledged his supremacy,
and the Imperial Constitution conferring those rights upon him. It
would be, he added, for the Governments of Germany to see whether this
Constitution was such as could be ratified by them. At all events,
Emperor or not, he always would be found ready, he concluded, to draw
the sword against either the external or the internal foe. We shall
see how he kept his promise in a manner rather startling for the
National Assembly.

The Frankfort wiseacres, after profound diplomatic inquiry, at last
came to the conclusion that this answer amounted to a refusal of the
crown. They then (April 12th) resolved: That the Imperial Constitution
was the law of the land, and must be maintained; and not seeing their
way at all before them, elected a Committee of thirty, to make
proposals as to the means how this Constitution could be carried out.

This resolution was the signal for the conflict between the Frankfort
Assembly and the German Governments which now broke out. The middle
classes, and especially the smaller trading class, had all at once
declared for the new Frankfort Constitution. They could not wait any
longer the moment which was "to close the Revolution." In Austria and
Prussia the Revolution had, for the moment, been closed