GENERAL HISTORY. 



[103 



ferent provinces, it is decreed, that 

 henceforth all the general affairs 

 of the country which maybebrought 

 under discussion with the states, 

 conformably with the subsisting 

 constitution, shall be submitted to 

 an assembly of the states of all the 

 provinces, which shall adopt a ge- 

 neral resolution on such subjects. 

 To effect this purpose, it is farther 

 decreed, that for the present, the 

 states of all the provinces com- 

 posing the electorate shall form 

 4hemselves, by means of represen- 

 tatives,into a general diet, to assem- 

 ble at Hanover, on December 15, 

 furnished with full powers on the 

 part of their constituents. 



On the day appointed, the Diet 

 was opened with a solemnity pro- 

 per for the occasion. The Duke 

 of Cambridge, provided with full 

 authority from the Prince Regent 

 to represent the regal dignity, re- 

 paired instate to the place of as- 

 sembly, and delivered a speech, in 

 which he gave a summary view of 

 the circumstances which led to the 

 change in the Hanoverian Consti- 

 tution, and pointed out t!ie duties 

 incumbent on a body which was 

 thenceforth to be the general re- 

 presentative of the new kingdom. 

 The whole assembly then adjourn- 

 ed to the church of the palace, 

 where divine service was perform- 

 ed, after which, the deputies, re- 

 pairing to their hall, made choice of 

 Count Schulenburg Wolfsburg for 

 their president. On the following 

 day his Royal Highness attended 

 at the hall, where he was address- 

 «d in a speech by the President, to 

 which he made a suitable reply. — 

 The Duke concluded as follows : 

 " If the difficult times require 

 great sacrifices in the increase of 

 the revenues, consider that the So- 



vereign demands nothing for him- 

 self; that we ask only what the 

 country requires. If some privi- 

 leges must be sacrificed to form 

 a better internal order, remember 

 that the Prince Regent gives up 

 rights which others consider as an 

 essential part of the royal dignity, 

 by assembling you here. Be to 

 him here, what the Parliament is 

 in the sister-kingdom, Great Bri- 

 tain, — the high council of the 

 nation." 



It was not in Hanover only that 

 the example was given of the 

 adoption of a representative go-, 

 vernraent in Germany. In the 

 month of October, Frederic Au- 

 gustus, Duke of Nassau, and Fre- 

 deric William, Sovereign Prince of 

 Nassau, issued a constitutional 

 charter founded upon the most 

 liberal principles. It assured the 

 free exercise of religious worship, 

 suppressed corvees, gave admission 

 to the first offices of state without 

 any preference of rank or birth, 

 established an independent magis- 

 tracy, and renounced the right of 

 arbitrarily discharging the public 

 functionaries. It appointed a 

 States-General of the Duchy, com- 

 posed of two separate houses, that 

 of Nobles and that of Deputies, the 

 formation of which, and their 

 powers and privileges, with the 

 whole act of legislation, were al- 

 most exactly copied from the Bri- 

 tish Parliament. Although this 

 was an experiment on a small scale, 

 it may be regarded as paving the 

 way to important results. 



The leading powers of Germany 

 have been too much engaged with 

 the weighty concerns of the Con- 

 gress at Vienna, to occupy them- 

 selves considerably with arrange- 

 ments in their own dominions; nor 



