On Tueiday, Professor Hanel, in the German Parliament, made an
attack upon the Prussian Rescript, which called up
Prince Bismarck, who, in a speech of extraordinary vigour and violence, reiterated all the ideas of that document. We have stated the main points of his speech elsewhere, and need only say here that he reasserted the supreme authority of the King over Ministers in the most absolute fashion, declaring that a Minister was only a scapegoat, and denounced the idea that he brought forward the Monarch's name to shield himself as a charge of personal cowardice. The Left denied this interpreta- tion, and the Prince told them they might thank God they did deny it. The speech was of great length and very able, and for all its outbursts, must have been carefully premeditated. The Emperor, when he had read it, sent his own aide-de-camp to the Prince, to convey his personal thanks for so energetic a defence of the Royal authority. The difficulty is, to know why it was made. Nobody is attacking the Royal authority, the resistance in Prussia being to a form of Poor-law, and to the removal of cer- tain Catholic disabilities. So far from attacking the Throne, the Liberals in the German Parliament seem half afraid to discuss its proceedings, and studiously refrain from suggesting that the King can have ordered the Rescript to be issued. There must be some motive still unrevealed behind this out- burst of self-assertion.
