ld be in
a minority. The most important and honourable duties of the Prussian
Parliament would be transferred to a general Parliament; the King would
lose his veto; he would be compelled against his will to assent to laws
he disliked; even the Prussian army would be no longer under his sole
command. What recompense were they to gain for this?

"The pleasant consciousness of having followed an unselfish and
noble policy; of having satisfied the requirements of a national
regeneration; of having carried out the historical task of
Prussia, or some such vague expression."

With this he contrasted what would have been a true Prussian policy, a
policy which Frederick the Great might have followed.

"He would have known that now as in the day of our fathers the
sound of the trumpets which summoned them to their sovereign's
flag has not lost its power for Prussian ears; he would have had
the choice either of joining our old comrade Austria, and
undertaking the brilliant part which the Emperor of Russia has
played, and destroying the cause of the Revolution, or by the
same right by which he took Silesia, he might, after refusing to
accept the crown, have ordered the Germans what constitution they
should have, and thrown the sword into the scale; then Prussia
would have been in the position to win for Germany its place in
the Council of Europe.

"We all wish the same. We all wish that the Prussian eagle should
spread out his wings as guardian and ruler from the Memel to the
Donnersberg, but free will we have him, not bound by a new
Regensburg Diet. Prussians we are and Prussians will we remain; I
know that in these words I speak the confession of the Prussian
army and the majority of my fellow-countrymen, and I hope to God
that we will still long remain Prussian when this sheet of paper
is forgotten like a withered autumn leaf."

The policy of Radowitz was doomed to failure, not so much because of any
inherent weakness in it, but because Prussia was not strong enough to
defend herself against all the enemies she had called up. The other
Courts of Germany were lukewarm, Austria was extremely hostile. The
Kings of Hanover and Saxony retreated from the alliance on the ground
that they would enter the union only if the whole of Germany joined;
Bavaria had refused to do so; in fact the two other Kings had privately
used all their influence to prevent Bavaria from joining, in order th