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Prussia: Berlin
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 October 2009
Extract
Reports may possibly reach Your Lordship of disturbances in this Capital, and as more importance may be attached to them than they deserve, I beg leave to enclose the Berlin State Gazette of the 19th Instant from which you will find that the little that has passed here has arisen principally from the misconduct of a Police Officer upon the occasion of a trifling quarrel between some of the lower Classes in the neighbourhood of the Royal Palace in the evening of the 16th. A report was spread on the following day that the Palace would be attacked by the Populace in consequence of which a crowd collected before dark in that quarter but from its general description evidently more from motives of curiosity than from any other. Half the Garrison was however immediately ordered out, the crowd increased, and in the confusion and attempts of the Soldiers to disperse the People several well dressed Persons received Sabre and bayonet wounds. No Symptoms of disaffection were shewn except a few hisses from boys and some of the lower Classes, twenty or thirty of whom were arrested. After eleven O'Clock not a soul was seen in the streets except the Military.
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References
1 The disturbances were unleashed by the unjustified arrest of various apprentice cobblers who had gathered in public. The policeman responsible (name not traceable) was suspended (rom duty on 18 September.
2 Cf. pp. 7–11 in Frankfurt section.
3 Enclosures: I. Transmitting article from Berlin State Gazette relative to disturbances in the Capital (Beilage zur Allgemeinen Preuβischen Staats zeitung, No. 260); 2. Translation.
4 Christian Günther Graf von Bernstorff.
5 Hospital in Berlin, founded 1710.
6 Hector Philippe, comte d'Agoult.
7 Those who believed in contagion thought that cholera could only be spread by direct infection from person to person, and that environmental and climatic factors played only a secondary role in spreading the disease. Their main proposal for containing cholera was quarantine.
8 Not traceable.
9 Enclosures: 1. Dr Becker's Memorandum of the progress of Cholera at Berlin; 2. Plan of Berlin to shew the houses where the Cholera has broken out to the 30th September; 3. Map shewing the monthly advances of the Cholera in Prussia.
10 Asiatic cholera, as opposed to endemic cholera nostra, became an epidemic and was fatal for the majority of those who caught it.
11 Enclosures: 1. Extract from the Prussian State Gazette, 16 November 1831; 2. Report on state of Cholera (30 August to 16 November 1831); 3. Extract from the ‘Cholera Paper’.
12 Mitteldeutscher Handelsverein founded 1828, cf. Volume I, pp. 45ff.Google Scholar
13 Treaty between Prussia and Electoral Hesse of 25 August 1831.
14 Cf. pp. 4–5 in Frankfurt section.
15 On 21 November 1806 Napoleon Bonaparte ordered a blockade against Britain. The conditions of this so-called continental barrier were intensified on 17 December 1808 by the Decree of Milan.
16 This expression refers to the political grouping during the French Revolution named after their meeting place in the Dominican monastery of St Jacob. The expression passed into common usage as a negative description of supporters of the ideas of the French Revolution, radical democrats and other radicals.
17 The sons of Friedrich Wilhelm III, Wilhelm, Karl, and Albrecht.
18 In Poland there was an uprising against Russian rule from November 1830 until it was put down in September 1831. At the beginning of October 1831 most of the Polish army fled to Prussia, where it was disarmed.
19 Enclosure: Copy from the Prussian State Gazette of 19 February 1832.
20 Köthen and Hesse-Darmstadt joined the Prussian customs system in 1828, Electoral Hesse in 1831. Bavaria, Württemberg, Hohenzollern-Hechingen, and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen formed the South German Zollverein in 1828 as a counterweight to Prussian expansionism.
21 The prelimary agreement between Bavaria and Baden of 1829 merely provided for a small alteration of the border, not the cession of the whole of the Baden Palatinate as originally demanded by Bavaria. Nonetheless this territorial compensation, which had arisen from former Bavarian rights in Sponheim, was rejected by the Baden Landtag. Thus the Sponheim question remained unresolved. Cf. also vol. 1, pp. 297f.
22 Börrics Wilhelm von Münchhausen.
23 Cf. pp. 4–5 in Frankfurt section.
24 The same dispatch was sent to the British envoy in Vienna; cf. pp. 494–502 in Austria section; original in FO 244/31.
25 Six Articles of 28 June 1832; cf. pp. 35–39 in Frankfurt section.
26 Congress Act of the Congress of Vienna, 9 June 1815. The Federal Act of 8 June 1815 signed by the members of the German Confederation was part of the Congress Act; cf. nn. 136, 137 in Frankfurt section.
27 Article 2 and Article 13 of the Federal Act of 8 June 1815. For Article 13 cf. n. 83 in Frankfurt section.
28 Apart from the events and the behaviour of the political opposition in Hesse-Nassau, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse and in Baden, Palmerston is mainly referring to the socalled Hambach Festival in the Bavarian Palatinate on 27–30 May 1832; cf. pp. 23–26 in Frankfurt section.
29 This remark was prompted by the close connection between the liberal movement in Germany and in France; cf. Metternich's view on p. 501 in Austria section.
30 Palmerston is referring here to France's dominance or political influence in Germany. Until the collapse of the Napoleonic system in 1813–1815, Germany had undergone fundamental changes in the secularization of church property, the abolition of the religious principalities and the territories of the imperial knights, and in the integration of most of the imperial cities into the enlarged German states.
31 Palmerston is referring here to the revolutionary events that took place all over Europe in the wake of the French revolution of July 1830.
32 Grand Duchy of Hesse (Hesse-Darmstadt) and Electoral Hesse (Hesse-Cassel).
33 Saxony joined the Zollverein on 30 03 1833.Google Scholar
34 On 10 May 1833 all the Thuringian states (including Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) joined together to form the Thuringian customs and trade union. On the following day it joined the Zollverein.
35 The military commission of the German Confederation convened from September 1831 to December 1832 in Berlin. The main point of the negotiations was the reorganization of the confederation's army and discussion of military and tactical measures should France invade across the Rhine.
36 Austria, Prussia, and Russia.
37 The aim of the town laws of 17 March 1831 was to create a uniform municipal constitution for the whole of the Prussian state. The town laws of 19 November 1808 only applied to the four old Prussian provinces – Prussia, Silesia, Brandenburg and Pommerania – but not to the provinces which joined the Prussian state in 1815 – Posen, Saxony, Westfalia and Rhineland.
38 For the events in Frankfurt and the reaction of France and England cf, pp. 41–52, 66–71 in Frankfurt section.
39 For the Luxemburg question cf. n. 42 in Frankfurt section.
40 Austria and Prussia.
41 Congress Act of the Congress of Vienna, 9 June 1815.
42 Between January and June 1834, at Metternich's instigation, ministerial meetings took place in Vienna between the leading powers in the German Confederation. They ended on 12 June with the secret resolution of the ‘Sixty Articles’.
43 Articles 38–56 of the Sixty Articles of 12 June 1834 dealt with supervision of the universities; most of their provisions were taken over into the Federal University Law by the Federal resolution of 13 November 1834.
44 For the Federal Court of Arbitration (Articles 3–13 of the Sixty Articles of 12 June 1834), officially established by the Federal law of 30 October 1834, cf. pp. 73–74 in Frankfurt section.
45 Enclosure: Memorandum of Conversation between M. Ancillon and M. Bresson relative to the questions discussed, and agreed to at the late Conferences at Vienna.
46 Ferdinand.
47 Friedrich Wilhelm III was born on 3 August 1770.
48 The draft was also sent as No. 32 to Lord Durham in St Petersburg and as No. 9 to Edward Fox in Vienna.
49 In Articles 6 to 10 of the Congress Act of the Congress of Vienna (9 June 1815) the Free Republic of Cracow was recognized under international law and declared to be independent and neutral.
50 Austria, Prussia and Russia. In the Congress Act of the Congress of Vienna (9 June 1815) these three states were appointed as Cracow's protective powers.
51 Austria, Prussia and Russia were represented in Cracow by so-called residents, who represented the Republic of Cracow in foreign affairs. In 1836 these were Resident Liehmann for Austria, Otto Emil von Hartmann for Prussia, and Wilhelm Rembert Freiherr von Ungern-Sternberg for Russia.
52 After the failure of the Polish uprising in 1831 Cracow became a place of refuge for supporters of the Polish independence movement. They had strong links with the Polish exile organisations in the rest of Europe. In 1835 they founded an ‘Association of the Polish People’ in Cracow.
53 Article 9 of the Congress Act of the Congress of Vienna (9 June 1815) dealt with Cracow's right to neutrality.
54 The pretext for the occupation of Cracow was provided by the murder of a Russian agent by members of the radical Polish independence movement.
55 John George Lambton, Earl of Durham.
56 Christian Günther Graf von Bernstorff.
57 Bernstorff's memorandum is dated 29 January 1831. It looks at how, in the case of a European war, Germany could maintain its internai peace, and at what measures Prussia should take to prevent internal unrest in neighbouring states from spreading. The author of the second paper could not be ascertained.
58 Congress Act of the Congress of Vienna (9 June 1815).
59 The province of Pommerania in the east of the kingdom was characterized by agriculture and feudal structures, the Rhine province by trade and an aspiring economic bourgeoisie.
60 Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
61 Cf. Palmerston's intervention in the occupation of Cracow by Prussia, Austria and Russia, pp. 140–145 in this section.
62 Joel Wolff Meyer.
63 Enclosure: Translation of a Cabinet Order addressed by His Prussian Majesty to Joel Wolff Meyer, merchant of Berlin (of the Jewish Persuasion) in answer to his petition of 22 September 1836.
64 Original in FO 244/50.
65 In his conversation with Russell at the end of October 1836 Ancillon discussed the foreign political situation in Europe in the light of the occupation of Cracow.
66 Points of difference were inter alia the question of the Spanish succession, in which Prussia, along with Austria and Russia, had taken sides with Don Carlos. Given the conflicts between Britain and Russia over policy in the Orient, Britain regarded Prussia's close link to Russia in foreign policy with great mistrust.
67 In margin in pencil ‘strong’.
68 The House of Brandenburg's rise to become a European power occurred under the reign of Prince Elector Friedrich Wilhelm. Friedrich II took Prussia into the realm of the European great powers.
69 The Peace of Dresden of 1745, which confirmed Prussia's possession of Silesia, conquered in 1740–1745, was guaranteed by England.
70 It was only under pressure from England, France and Austria that the Saxon King Friedrich August I agreed to the division of Saxony at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Prussia allocated the territories thus acquired to the newly created province of Saxony.
71 In 1830 the Belgian revolution led to Belgium's independence from Holland; cf. n. 21 in Frankfurt section.
72 At the Congress of Vienna in 1815 the Duchy of Warsaw, reduced in size by the removal of Posen (subsequently Prussian province) and the Free Republic of Cracow, was unified with Russia in a personal union as the Kingdom of Poland. The river Vistula thus fell under Russian control. After the failure of the Polish uprising in Warsaw in the autumn of 1831 Russia intensified its anti-Polish policy.
73 Cf. n. 43 in Frankfurt section.
74 Despite Russia's withdrawal from the anti-Prussian alliance in the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), when Catherine II came to the throne in 1762 she opposed further expansion by Prussia and the long-term occupation of Saxony by Prussia.
75 In margin: ‘strong’.
76 In margin: ‘unfriendly, too strong’.
77 Friedrich II.
78 Law of 5 June 1823; cf. vol. 1, p. 200.
79 This assessment is based on the intensifying social crisis in England that was accompanied by mass protests against living and working conditions, falling wages and the Poor Law of 1834.
80 Enclosure: Translation from the Prussian State Gazette, Berlin, January 28, 1837.
81 For censorship of the press, cf. pp. 199–200 in this section.
82 Not traceable.
83 In 1813/1814 the so-called war of liberation against Napoleon's occupation of Germany led to a national movement and the political mobilization of the public.
84 After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Russia sought to exploit its powerful position in the East. The aim of Russian policy in the Orient was, inter alia, unimpeded passage for its trading ships through the Turkish Straits to the Black Sea. From the 1830s onwards Russia had an additional interest in the religious sites in Palestine.
85 Charles Joseph, comte de Bresson
86 Karl August Freiherr von Hardenberg (Minister-President 1810–1822) represented the social and political reforms in Prussia between 1810 and 1820. However, his plans for a constitution ultimately presented in November 1820 failed due to resistance from ultra-conservative and restorative circles.
87 In 1837 Ferdinande Louis Phillippe, Duke of Orleans, married Princess Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
88 Clemens Aucust Freiherr von Droste zu Vischering.
89 In September 1835, four years after Hermes' death, his doctrine was banned by the decree: ‘Damnatio et prohibitio operi Georgii Hermes’.
90 Wilhelm Eduard Albrecht, Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann, Georg Gottfried Gervinus, Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm, Heinrich Ewald und Wilhelm Weber. In a letter of protest of 19 November 1837 the seven professors had objected to the repeal of the Hanoverian constitution by the patent of I November. On 14 December Ernst August reacted by dismissing the seven professors from the university of Göttingen. On the constitutional struggle cf. pp. 263–264 in Hanover section.
91 Clemens August Freiherr von Droste zu Vischering. For his arrest cf. pp. 88–91 in Frankfurt section.
92 After 1815 the nobility in Westfalia, and indeed the Rhineland, regained many of the privileges given up during Napoleon's rule. These regained privileges included political rights in the provincial Diets, entailed estates and the reintroduction of titles and coats of arms.
93 Clemens August Freiherr von Droste zu Vischering.
94 Cf. pp. 148–149 in this section.
95 Cf. pp. 263–264 in Hanover section.
96 For Clemens August Freiherr von Droste zu Vischering's arrest cf. pp. 88–91 in Frankfurt section.
97 Cf. n. 18 in this section.
98 Not included in this volume.
99 The neutrality agreement concluded with Russia without authority by Hans David Ludwig Yorek von Wartenburg in December 1812 was the start of the Prussian uprising against French rule. These wars of liberation, conducted largely by Prussian patriots and including the ‘bureaucracy’ mentioned in this despatch, culminated in March 1814 when the powers allied against France marched into Paris.
100 Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
101 The Catholic nobility in Westfalia and the Rhineland were very reserved towards Protestant-dominated Prussia and its bureaucracy. It was not until the 1830s that the nobility were gradually integrated into the Prussian state, with the help of visits by Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm to Westfalia in 1833 and 1836. For the privileges regained under Prussian rule cf. n. 92 in this section.
102 For the intervention of the Pope in the question of mixed marriages cf. pp. 169–170 in this section.
103 These friendly relations reached their zenith in 1837 when Friedrich Wilhelm II helped the son of the French King to win a daughter of the Prince of Mecklenburg as his bride, cf. n. 87 in this section.
104 Cf. pp. 88–91 in Frankfurt section.
105 Mischehen-Breve (Letter on mixed marriages) of 25 03 1830.Google Scholar
106 Ferdinand August Graf Spiegel zum Desenberg.
107 Joseph von Hommer.
108 Kaspar Maximilian Freiherr von Droste zu Vischering.
109 Friedrich Clemens Freiherr von Ledebur.
110 The Council of Trent (1545–1563; Tridentium) determined that such a marriage was a sacrament and laid down the conditions for it.
111 Berlin Convention of 19 June 1834.
112 Clemens August Freiherr von Droste zu Vischering.
113 Friedrich Wilhelm.
114 Cf. n. 225 in this section.
115 Carl Gustav Schulz, editor in chief of the Politisches Wochenblatt founded in 1831.
116 Baden joined the Zollverein in 1835Google Scholar; Bavaria and Würtemberg had already done so in 1833.
117 The Verein für die Besserung der Strafgefangenen (Association for the Amelioration of Delinquents) was founded by members of the Prussian administration in Berlin at the end of 1826. The association was supposed to ‘improve’ delinquents and turn them into ‘pious and useful citizens’. On 10 September 1828 its statutes were approved by the Prussian Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Justice. The papers mentioned by Russell were transferred to the Home Office and are not extant in FO 64/221.
118 Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
119 Russell is referring here to Prussia's long delay in recognizing Belgium as an independent state and to the dispute with the Pope over mixed marriages.
120 Clemens August Freiherr von Droste zu Vischering, cf. pp. 88–91 in Frankfurt section.
121 Corrected in pencil, ‘fomented’.
122 When the Chambers were re-elected in 1839 the government lost its majority. The incumbent minister-president, Louis-Mathieu, comte de Molé, resigned on 8 March.
123 For the repercussions of the French revolution of July 1830 in Germany, cf. n. 194 in Frankfurt section.
124 For the dispute over mixed marriages and the arrest of the Archbishop of Cologne cf. pp. 88–91 in Frankfurt section.
125 For the dispute over the Hanoverian constitution cf. despatches in Hanover section between 1838 and 1840.
126 FO 64/220: Draft to Lord William Russell, No. 113, Foreign Office, London, 22 July 1839, not included in this volume.
127 Mr Jordan.
128 The Rhine Navigation Commission met in Mainz between 1815 and 1831. Negotiations culminated in the Rhine Navigation Act of 1831 in which the states bordering the Rhine agreed to liberalize trade and to reduce shipping tariffs.
129 Since July 1839 the Zollverein Congress in Berlin had been preparing a revision of customs tariffs and the organization of the Zollverein.
130 The end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1814.
131 An export ban was imposed for machines and blueprints from 1781 to 1786. In 1825 these conditions were modified by a license system; they were lifted altogether in 1843.
132 For the dispute over the Hanoverian constitution, in which Prussia supported King Ernst August, cf. dispatches in Hanover section between 1838 and 1840.
133 In March 1840 Adolphe Thiers became the new Minister-President of France.
134 Since April 1839 the European powers' policy in the Near East had been dominated by the conflicts over Syria between the Ottoman Empire and Mehmet Ali, the Ottoman governor in Egypt.
135 As in this case, members of the Christian Quaker movement, the Society of Friends, based in Britain, worked to realize their philanthropic aims in the USA and all over Europe.
136 1834 saw the climax of the disputes between the orthodox Lutherans in Silesia, who opposed uniting with the Calvinists to form a unified Protestant Church, and the Prussian state. In one case it was only possible to replace an old-Lutheran clergyman with a new pastor by means of forceful military intervention.
137 Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
138 Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
139 Alexandra Feodrovna.
140 Luise.
141 Decree of 22 May 1815. It contained, in legally binding form, the promise of a written constitution with representative institutions.
142 Clemens August Freiherr von Droste zu Vischering, Archbishop of Cologne and Martin von Dunin, Archbishop of Posnan. Like Droste, Dunin was also arrested for refusing to follow the Prussian laws on mixed marriages.
143 For the dispute over the constitution in Hanover cf. dispatches in Hanover section between 1838 and 1840.
144 For the 1830 revolutions in France and Belgium referred to here cf. nn. 21, 28 in Frankfurt section.
145 For the dispute over the constitution in Hanover cf. dispatches in Hanover section between 1838 and 1840.
146 Clemens August Freiherr von Droste zu Vischering, Archbishop of Cologne and Martin von Dunin, Archbishop of Posen.
147 Enclosures: Copy and Translation of ‘My Last Will’; Translation of Cabinet order, addressed to the Ministry of State by His Majesty Frederick William the Fourth.
148 Original in FO 244/63.
149 On 15 July 1840 the four powers concluded the Treaty of London to protect the integrity of Turkey and to block attempts at expansion by the Ottoman governor in Egypt, Mehmet Ali. Ali's plan to occupy the whole of Syria was supported by France.
150 Telegraph für Deutschland, political literary periodical edited by Karl Gutzkow. Founded in Frankfurt in 1836, from September 1837 onwards the Telegraph was published by Hoffmann and Campe in Hamburg. In December 1841 it was banned, along with all other Hoffmann and Campe publications in Prussia.
151 Inoculation is the injection of smallpox pathogens from the lymph of a person with the disease. In the vaccination method, the cowpox lymph is used for immunization, which entails relatively little danger to the person injected.
152 Since 1823 each of the eight Prussian provinces had had provincial diets. They were responsible for laws affecting ownership rights or taxes and for decrees and measures of the provincial administration. However, they only had decision-making rights in matters regarding the self-administration of the provinces.
153 Order of the Black Eagle, the highest Prussian order, inaugurated by King Friedrich I on the occasion of his coronation on 18 January 1701.
154 Enclosure: Extract from the King of Prussia's Reply to the address of the Provincial States of Prussia assembled at Königsberg under date of 9th September 1840, Section 3.
155 Treaty of London of 15 July 1840, cf. n. 149 in this section.
156 Charles Joseph, comte de Bresson.
157 Direct male and female offspring of a marriage of appropriate social standing.
158 Enclosure: The King of Prussia's Speech to the Nobility and Deputies of the order of Knighthood of the Provinces of Brandenburgh, Pomerania, Saxony, Silesia, Westphalia, and the Rhine.
159 Earl Granville.
160 For the French foreign policy under minister-president Adolphe Thiers who propagated re-conquering the Rhine border in 1840, cf. n. 210 in Frankfurt section.
161 Cf. n. 141 in this section.
162 Heinrich Theodor von Schön.
163 Cf. n. 153 in this section.
164 When he took office Friedrich Wilhelm IV was prepared to compromise on numerous issues hitherto in dispute, for example the role of the state in electing bishops or the question of mixed marriages. This was in an attempt to appease the Catholic church and to pacify the Catholic movement in Prussia. He did not, however, reinstate Clemens August Freiherr von Droste zu Vischering, who had been dismissed as Archbishop of Cologne.
165 Isabella II.
166 In the provincial diet of Posen the majority of deputies were appointed by Poland, so that specific Polish interests could be represented. In a national representative body, on the other hand, there was a risk of becoming politically marginalized.
167 The most important demands were that the Polish language be retained and taught in schools, and greater participation by Poles in the administration. In the Grand Duchy of Posen Poles constituted 60 per cent of the population.
168 Clemens August Freiherr von Droste zu Vischering.
169 In the interests of the sugar beet industry protective tariffs on imported raw sugar (colonial sugar) were demanded. In 1841 public pressure led to the cancellation of the trade treaty concluded between the Zollverein and the Netherlands in 1839.
170 Russell is referring here to the repeal of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 (Edict of Fontainebleau), which led to the emigration of the Hugenots to England and elsewhere.
171 The Corn Laws of 1815 and 1828 imposed tariffs on the import of corn if it were to be offered below a certain price. The aim of these protective tariffs was to support British corn prices. They were repealed in 1846.
172 Cf. n. 15 in this section.
173 Circular instruction of 24 December 1841 to the Oberpräsidenten of the provinces.
174 Order founded by Friedrich II in 1740. The Pour le Mérite for sciences and arts was founded by Friedrich Wilhelm IV on 31 May 1842.
175 Cf. n. 141 in this section.
176 Prince Wilhelm, brother of Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
177 Cf. pp. 203–204 in this section.
178 Cf. pp. 199–200 in this section.
179 For the duties of the provincial diets cf. n. 152 in this section.
180 According to the National Debt Law of 17 January 1820 new debts could only be incurred with the agreement of a Prussian diet. This condition reinforced the royal promise of a constitution of 1815 which provided for a parliament for the whole state.
181 Enclosures: 1. Gesetz-Sammlung für die Königlichen Preuβischen Staaten, No. 20, 30 August 1842, S. 215–242; 2. Translation: Ordinance respecting the formation of a Committee of the States of the Kingdom of Prussia; 3. King of Prussia's Cabinet orders Convoking Committees of Provincial States to a General Meeting at Berlin; 4. Translation of No. 3.
182 Enclosures: 1. The King of Prussia's Speech at Cologne on laying the Foundation Stone of Cathedral; 2. Translation of the King of Prussia's Speech at Cologne. September 5, 1842.
183 Cf. pp. 99–100 in Frankfurt section.
184 Enclosure: Translated Extract from Leipzig Gazette ‘George Herwegh's Letter to King of Prussia’.
185 Enclosure: Précis, King of Prussia's Cabinet Order of 4 February 1843 published 25 February respecting the Censorship of Newspapers and Pamphlets.
186 In the Order of Cabinet of 4 October 1842 censorship was abolished for all books published in Prussia with more than 320 octavo pages (20 printed sheets).
187 In his dispatch of 17 October 1842 to the Earl of Westmorland, the Earl of Aberdeen opposed the Zollverein's policy of protective tariffs. This was prompted by the discussion between the states of the Zollverein about raising tariffs on iron.
188 The tariff reform of April 1842 was part of a major financial reform initiated by Robert Peel. Apart from reducing important import duties (including the import duties on wheat) this also included the abolition of export duties on wool.
189 Cf. n. 171 in this section.
190 The Board of Trade (Handelsrat) was officially established on 7 June 1844, along with the Office of Trade (Handelsamt).
191 The Office of Trade (Handelsamt), hitherto part of the Prussian Finance Ministry, now became an independent department. However, it still had no executive authority.
192 Elisabeth Ludovika.
193 Erdmannsdorf, Friedrich Wilhelm IV's Silesian summer residence; Bad Ischl, Spa in Salzkammergut/Upper Austria.
194 Cf. pp. 200–201 in this section.
195 Westmorland is referring here to the promise of a constitution in 1815, and its confirmation in 1821 and 1823. The Order of Cabinet of 11 June 1821 and the Gesetz wegen Anordnung der Provinzjahtände of 1823 followed the vague statement in the National Debt Law of 1820, in which the convocation of a national diet was dependent upon a further decision by the King; cf. nn. 141, 180 in this section.
196 The supposed communist conspiracy gave the Prussian government a pretext for proceeding against journalists and publicists who had taken up the weavers' cause (social problems, working conditions etc.) The background to this were the events in Peterswaldau and Langenbielau in Silesia on 4–6 June 1844, the so-called Weavers' Uprising (Weberaufstand), whose instigators were being sought by the Prussian government.
197 Friedrich Wilhelm Schlöffel. The other people arrested were members of the Hirschberg singing club, which had been penetrated by a police spy.
198 Wilhelm I.
199 Friedrich Wilhelm III.
200 Cf. n. 180 in this section.
201 For the United Committee of the States cf. pp. 202–203 in this section.
202 In August 1844 Prince Wilhelm, accompanied by Christian Karl Freiherr von Bunsen, embarked upon a tour of England.
203 Decree of 22 May 1815, cf, n. 141 in this section.
204 Karl von Francken berg-Ludwigsdorf.
205 Cf. pp. 218 in this section.
206 The governmental crisis was caused by differences of opinion over the Corn Laws, which Peel and others wanted to repeal because of the famine in Ireland. For the Corn Laws cf. n. 171 in this section.
207 Ludwik Microwslawski. The aim of the uprising planned in Posen and Cracow was the liberation of Poland from Russian rule, cf. pp. 528–529 in Austria section.
208 Altogether about seventy people were arrested.
209 The General Synod was the first general representation of the Protestant church in Prussia. Like the synods at local and provincial level established under Friedrich Wilhelm III in 1816, the General Synod, consisting of thirty-seven clergy and thirty-eight laymen, only had an advisory function.
210 FO 64/264: Earl of Westmorland to Earl of Aberdeen, No. 199, Berlin, 13 May 1846, not included in this volume.
211 Confessto Augustana, a confession written by Melanchton in 1530 for the Reichstag in Augsburg, which became the most important doctrine of the reformist church.
212 On the occasion of the Booth anniversary of the Reformation in 1817 Friedrich Wilhelm proclaimed the union of the Calvinists (reformed) with the Lutherans in a unified Evangelical church. There was opposition to this church policy from the Rhenish-Bergish Calvinists and sections of the Silesian orthodox Lutherans (old Lutherans). Between 1830 and 1834 in particular the state reacted to this opposition by dismissing clergy, imprisoning them, and banning meetings.
213 Preuβische Bank founded in 1765 as the Königliche Bank.
214 Enclosures: 1. Allerhöchste Kabinets-Ordre die Betheiligung von Privatpersonen bei der Bank betreffend (Supreme Cabinet Order concerning the participation of private individuals in the bank) 18 July 1846; 2. Précis of King of Prussia's Cabinet Order dated Sans Souci 18 July 1846 concerning the participation of private Individuals in the Bank addressed to the Minister of State Rother.
215 Cf. p. 221 in this section, and pp. 528–529 in Austria section.
216 Enclosure: Gesetz-Sammlung für die Königlichen Preuβischen Staaten, No. 21, 25 July 1846.
217 Enclosure: Copy, Peterson to Westmorland, Stettin, 2 October 1846.
218 Cf. n. 136 in this section.
219 Cf. pp. 88–91 in Frankfurt section.
220 The Gustav Adolf Association was founded in 1832 in Leipzig to mark the 200th anniversary of the death of King Gustav II of Sweden. In 1843 it amalgamated into the Protestant Association of the Gustav Adolf Foundation.
221 Cf. n. 223 in Frankfurt section.
222 For the German Catholics cf. pp. 102–104 in Frankfurt section.
223 The Friends of Light, a free-religious movement that had existed since 1841, held the view that the Bible was not the only valid norm of Christianity. Religious selfdetermination should take the place of the orthodox belief in the Revelation. As precursors of liberalism within the church, and indeed as proponents of liberal and democratic ideas in the political sphere, they attracted quite a following. Their meetings were banned by the Prussian government in 1845.
224 Cf. n. 211 in this section.
225 As a theological revival movement, in which the religious awakening of the believer was the main issue, the pietists described here opposed liberal and rationalist tendencies within the church. The traditional pietists' precept of tolerance played no role here.
226 Cf pp 222–223 in this section.
227 The Königsberg Free Church, under the leadership of Julius Rupp, was formed by secession from the Protestant regional church on 19 January 1846.
228 Collective attribute for the Lutheran and reformed Calvinist churches in Prussia which had joined to form the Evangelical Union, cf. n. 212 in this section.
229 Not traceable.
230 Enclosure: Speech published in the Prussian Universal Gazette, 12 April 1847.
231 Cf. pp. 228–231 in this section.
232 Cf. n. 192 in Frankfurt section.
233 In the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, Calvinism, Lutheranism (Augsburg Confession), and Catholicism were all recognized.
234 Cf. pp. 229–231 in this section.
235 For the German Catholics cf. pp. 102–104 in Frankfurt section.
236 Enclosures: 1 Gesetz-Sammlung für die Königlichen Preuβischen Staaten, No. 12, 9 04 1847Google Scholar; 2. Translation: Patent concerning the formation of new religious Societies.
237 In the United Diet all 613 members of the provincial diets were represented.
238 Cf. pp. 235–236 in this section.
239 National Debt Law of 17 January 1820 (Staatsschuldengesetz), cf. n. 180 in this section.
240 Patent die ständischen Einrichtungen betreffend vom 3. Februar 1847. The duties of the Vereinigte ständische Ausschuss (United Committee of the States), which was to be elected by the United Diet, were to advise on laws proposed by the government, and to petition the king. Only the United Diet had the right to make decisions on taxes and state finances
241 The Polish deputies, overwhelmingly from the Province of Posen, feared further erosion of the rights of the Polish population and maintenance of the anti-Polish measures (i.a. increased press censorship), adopted by the Prussian government in reaction to the Polish Uprising of 1846. For the Polish Uprising, cf. p. 221 in Prussia section, and pp. 528–529 in Austria section.
242 Lower chamber; in matters not relating to state finances the representatives of the chamber of peers and the other members of the United Diet, comprising representatives of the knights, the towns, and the rural districts, met in separate chambers.
243 Not included in this volume.
244 The sitting of the United Diet on 23 June 1847 concluded with a petition to the King for the periodical assembly of the diet. This would make the election of the committee to take over its responsibilities when it was not sitting, superfluous; cf. n. 252 in this section.
245 Cf. n. 240 in this section.
246 In his message to the Diet of 24 June, Friedrich Wilhelm IV merely stated that he would take the question of the periodical assembly of the United Diet and the requested extension of its sphere of responsibility ‘into careful consideration’.
247 Apart from the government's two main proposals, the law on the Landesrentenbanken and the law on the eastern railway which was to finance a railway link from Berlin to Königsberg, the United Diet was also asked to consider laws for reforming the tax system and a new law on Jews.
248 Enclosures: 1. King of Prussia's Message to the United Diet concerning the interpretation of Paragraphs of Ordinances of 3rd of February 1847 respecting loans, Berlin 24 June 1847; 2. King of Prussia's Message to the United Diet relative to Petitions for changes in the Patent & Ordinances of the 3rd of February 1847, Berlin 24 June 1847; 3. King of Prussia's Message to the United Diet concerning its close on the 26th instant, Berlin 24 June 1847; 4. Translation of No. 1; 5. Translation of No. 2; 6. Translation of No. 3.
249 Cf. n. 240 in this section.
250 Cf. n. 244 in this section.
251 Howard is referring here to the two constitutional promises of 1815 (Decree of 22 May 1815) and 1820 (National Debt Law of 17 January), cf. nn. 141, 180 in this section.
252 The first chamber (chamber of peers) agreed to the periodical assembly of the diet, with the proviso that the king himself must decide how long the periods between sessions should be. The first chamber also agreed to reduce the authority of the United Committee of the States, which was supposed to continue the work of the diet once its sitting was over. Moreover, the election of the United Committee was to be postponed. However, the proposal by the second chamber that the United Committee be abolished altogether did not gain a majority.
253 Law on the situation of the Jews of 23 July 1847.
254 Henry Howard wrote a ‘Memorandum relative to the Prussian Legislation concerning the Jews, to the project of Law submitted to the Diet, and the discussions which took place concerning it’; FO 64/275: Henry Howard to Viscount Palmerston, No. 14, Berlin, 22 July 1847, not included in this volume.
255 The government proposal of 30 March 1847 foresaw the creation of political corporations for the Jewish population. This was supposed to do away with individual political rights.
256 According to the new law, Jews were allowed to work as professors of medicine, mathematics, natural sciences, geography, and philology, as long as this accorded with the statutes of the university in question. In Prussia, however, this only applied to the University of Berlin.
257 Enclosure: Gesetz-Sammlung für die Königlichen Preuβischen Staaten, No. 30, 5 08 1847.Google Scholar