It is understood that the King stands prepared to swamp
the Upper House by an immense creation of Peers, 150 at least, but it is possible that a much stronger measure may be adopted. The King, as he said himself, " never was a Junker," Prince Bismarck is weary of opposition from a knot of irresponsible old gentlemen, and the people detest the Upper House as an obstacle to reasonable reform. It would not be difficult therefore to carry out a change over which the Chancellor is known to have reflected, and abolish the Prussian Parliament altogether, substituting for it the Imperial one. This course will almost certainly be adopted if the increased House should prove as refractory as the present one, which is exceedingly likely, the Junker caste being very homogeneous in opinion, and on certain points persistent to the extreme of obstinacy. In any ase, the authority and position of the dominant caste of Prussia must receive a severe blow, to the indefinite benefit of a country which needs first of all to be rid of feudalism.
