"explain" it away. The Federal Council, which represents the Princes,
has, moreover, decided that the Regent of Lippe- Detmold shall rule until the final decision is given, even if the reigning Prince Alexander, who is insane, should die in the interval. This final decision is entrusted to the Supreme Court of the Empire at Leipzic, whose judgment is to be binding on all the claimants. The Emperor, aware of the excitement created by his telegram, and of its effect upon his supporters in the Federal Council, without whose help Prussia has no majority in that body, has now permitted the troops to take the oath, and the different Princes have formally thanked Count von Billow, as Chancellor, for his tactful management of a question which might have weakened the Federal bonds throughout the Empire. The Emperor's impulsiveness and habit of acting on his own initiative have, it seems clear, once more landed him in a difficulty from which his advisers have had to extricate him by denying the plain meaning of his first utterances.
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