s
the expression of the Christian state, of which he was to become the
most celebrated exponent. His religious convictions were strengthened by
his marriage to Johanna von Puttkamer, which took place in 1847.

Parliamentary career.

In the same year he entered public life, being chosen as substitute for
the representative of the lower nobility of his district in the
estates-general, which were in that year summoned to Berlin. He took his
seat with extreme right, and distinguished himself by the vigour and
originality with which he defended the rights of the king and the
Christian monarchy against the Liberals. When the revolution broke out
in the following year he offered to bring the peasants of Schonhausen to
Berlin in order to defend the king against the revolutionary party, and
in the last meeting of the estates voted in a minority of two against
the address thanking the king for granting a constitution. He did not
sit in any of the assemblies summoned during the revolutionary year, but
took a very active part in the formation of a union of the Conservative
party, and was one of the founders of the _Kreuzzeitung_, which has
since then been the organ of the Monarchical party in Prussia. In the
new parliament which was elected at the beginning of 1849, he sat for
Brandenburg, and was one of the most frequent and most incisive speakers
of what was called the Junker party. He took a prominent part in the
discussions on the new Prussian constitution, always defending the power
of the king. His speeches of this period show great debating skill,
combined with strong originality and imagination. His constant theme
was, that the party disputes were a struggle for power between the
forces of revolution, which derived their strength from the fighters on
the barricades, and the Christian monarchy, and that between these
opposed principles no compromise was possible. He took also a
considerable part in the debates on the foreign policy of the Prussian
government; he defended the government for not accepting the Frankfort
constitution, and opposed the policy of Radowitz, on the ground that the
Prussian king would be subjected to the control of a non-Prussian
parliament. The only thing, he said, that had come out of the
revolutionary year unharmed, and had saved Prussia from dissolution and
Germany from anarchy, was the Prussian army and the Prussian civil
service; and in the debates on foreign policy he opposed the numerous