Frederick William and his "beloved Berliners" have been en- gaged
in a controversy of ugly aspect. The King had endea- voured to end a Ministerial crisis by appointing to the head of the Government the Tory Count of Brandenburg. Berlin, which has throughout kept up its revolutionary bearing, now became more positively disturbed; and the Assembly sent a deputation to re- monstrate with the King. At first he refused to see the deputa- tion; then received it, listened to its remonstrance without re- ply, and made off; on which M. Jacobi burst out with an angry reproach that the King dared not hear the words of truth. After the return of the deputation, a formal reply was sent to the As- sembly in writing : it simply asserted the King's right and re- solve to appoint the Count as his Minister. Both sides seem to have behaved in the affair with equal want of judgment or good taste: the King's attitude implies a defiance which ignores the whole of the past since March; the blunt importunities of Jacobi would have been offensive if addressed to the most Democratic of Presidents : neither side has learned the art of constitutional government as applied to the actual juncture.
