The King of Prussia has returned to Berlin, meeting of
course a splendid reception from the people, and on Sunday, the 5th inst., opened the Parliament in person, in a speech not without dignity. After thanking God for His gracious goodness for enabling the army to " smooth the course for the national de- velopment of Germany," His Majesty calls on the representatives to "bring to maturity the fruit that must be gathered from this sanguinary seed," remarks that it has been found possible to conduct the war without a loan, and proceeds to admit to the full the legal right of the Chambers to control the budget. "I again acknowledge," says the King, " that the budget can receive a legal basis only through the law," but he justifies his Govern- ment in carrying it on for several years without legal basis by the necessities of the State. He trusts that the Chambers will grant him a bill of indemnity, the more readily as the " political position of the Fatherland will admit an extension of the frontiers. of the State, and the establishment of an united Federal army at the common cost." No reference is made in the speech to either Austria, or France, or Italy, the " allies" being described. as. " few but faithful," though the " Prussian standards waved along a line extending from the Carpathians to the Rhine."
