Prussian compulsion has made the Elector of Hesse Cassel a
" constitutional" sovereign, but all Europe combined could not make him a gentleman. His Diet broke up on the 31st October, and it is usual to send a message sanctioning all laws passed during the Session. The Elector, however, to annoy the Chambers, went to the theatre, and the Commissioner pleaded no instructions, whereupon the Ministry sent in their resignations. The good German Deputies, who seem as tractable to their Princes as sheep to their shepherds, and as intractable as the same animals to any- body else, waited patiently for five hours, getting, one trusts, modicums of broken victuals. At last, at 10 p.m , the Elector, still in the theatre, read the message, which was then sent back to the hungry Deputies, and the Diet was dissolved. If Prussia had but a Frederick the Great !
Previous page
