2 SEPTEMBER 1899, Page 2

The Session of the Prussian Parliament was closed on Tuesday

with a Royal Message, in which the most important passage was the following e--" On the other hand, the Govern- ment of the King regrets most deeply that that great canal project for the connection of the Rhine, the Weser, and the Elbe, which is intended to join together the East and the West of the kingdom in an even more intimate economic anion than at present exists, ha not met with the approval of the Chamber of Deputies. In the general interest of national well-being the Government persists in this great project with unswerving firmness, and cherishes the confident expectation that the conviction of its necessity and importance will win more and more ground among the people, and that, so early as next Session, it will be possible to come to an understanding on this subject with the Diet." The meaning of this is that the King accepts his defeat with patience, and will rely entirely cm persuasion. The Agrarians are greatly delighted, and talk already of recon ailing themselves with the King, and even of accepting his pet project if he will grant them in return a still higher duty oti con. That is the old English way of obtaining conces- sions from the Crow-a, with this difference, that we bought liberty, and the Agrarians buy the right to tax the food of their neighbours.