NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Bing of Prussia has given way, and the Bill for the an- nexation of Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Nassau, and Frankfort has been introduced into the Prussian Chamber. It provides only that they be annexed, is in fact the mere legalization of a decree, but Count von Bismark explains that they are to be sub- ject to the Prussian Parliament, though local institutions may be maintained for a time. The Bill will be extended to Schleswig- Holstein, Hesse-Homburg, and North Franconia the instant peace is signed, and Prussia will then be complete from Jutland to the Main, excepting north Hesse Darmstadt, which has been preserved by an intrigue not without ramifications even in this country. The total extinction of the Hanoverian dynasty is, how- ever, a good sound blow to divine right, and the war has already deprived some thirty members of the great family party of their " right" to misgovern everybody not descended from Henry the Lion. Wurtemberg and Baden, for reasons explained elsewhere, only pay fines, and Saxony is left not Prussian, not Saxon, and not anything else,—very much in the position of our own Channel Islands. It appears to be one of the secret stipulations that the Bing shall not take the title of " Emperor of Germany," which is in one way a good thing. The " friendly " petty princes might have submitted to an Emperor, they are pretty sure to intrigue against an ally, and then they will be swept away.
