on the ground that an erring conscience ought to be obeyed, he had
excused the deed of Sand. In short, the princes intended effectually to
crush the efforts which, though indirectly, were tending to undermine
their thrones. Seemingly they succeeded. But they had only 'scotched the
snake, not killed it.' It is easy to see that these developments must
have shaken Frederick William's purpose. Of all things, the most
unpleasant to a monarch is to be driven by his subjects. In the present
case he saw not only a loosening of the loyalty which he felt to be due
to him, but also a positive transfer of loyalty, if we may so speak,
from the Prussian throne to the German people in general. If he should
now grant a popular constitution, he would seem not only to be yielding
to a pressure, but would be surrendering what he regarded as a sacred
right, into the hands of ungrateful recipients. He therefore set himself
against the popular current, gave up his former plan, and contented
himself with restoring, in some degree, the form of government as it had
existed before the establishment of the absolute monarchy. He gave, in
1823, to the estates of the provinces, a class of men consisting partly
of nobles and owners of knights' manors, partly of representatives of
the cities and of the peasants, the right of _advising_ the crown in
matters specially concerning the several provinces. Nothing further was
done in the matter of modifying the constitution during the reign of
Frederick William III., although he declared his _intention_ of
organizing a national diet.

Comparative quiet ensued till 1830, when the French revolution, followed
by the insurrection of the Austrian Netherlands against Holland, and of
Poland against Russia, again stirred the public mind. But, although the
Polish revolution, on account of its local proximity and ancient
political relations, threatened to involve Prussia in war, she yet
escaped the danger, and passed through the excitement with little
internal commotion. But the existence of disaffection was made manifest
by sundry disturbances in the chief cities, which, however, were easily
quelled. Suffering under no palpable oppression, accustomed once more to
peace, seeing no prospect of gaining any radical change in the form of
government except through violent and bloody measures, which, as
experience had proved, would, after all, be likely to be unsuccessful,
the masses of the people had little heart for a cons