104] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1SI4. 



perhaps from them is to be expected 

 any great forward ness to propose al- 

 terations which would tend to limit 

 their authority. In the present du- 

 bious and unsettled state of politics, 

 the maintenance of a powerful mili- 

 tary force would naturally appear 

 the most important object to the So- 

 vereigns whose respective influence 

 is to regulate the tinal decision. — 

 Prussia, as the least considerable of 

 these [lowers, in respect to territory, 

 has thought it necessary to pay 

 particular attention to this point; 

 and in the month of September an 

 ordinance was published at Berlin, 

 by which all the old laws for the 

 completing of the military estab- 

 lishment were abolished, and a 

 number of articles were decreed 

 for the regulation of the armed 

 force of the country, under the 

 three heads of the permanent army, 

 the land wehr of the first and second 

 requisition, and the landsturm. — 

 It begins with the declaration, that 

 every individual born a Prussian 

 subject, and having completed his 

 20th year, is bound to defend his 

 country ; an obligation that cannot 

 justly be regarded as a hardship, if 

 the call to ai-ms be for the purpose 

 of real defence, and not of aggran- 

 disement. In order to obviate the 

 complaint made against the French 

 conscription, that it deranged all 

 the plans fortheeducation of youth, 

 it is here provided that the age for 

 entering the military service shall 

 be twenty years complete ; though 

 youths of seventeen offering them- 

 selves shall be accepted, if qualified 

 by their physical powers. 



It was perhaps less to have been 

 expected that at the present junc- 

 ture religion should have been an- 

 other matter for the regulation of 

 the Prussian Covenuuent. The 



minister for the home department 

 published at Berlin a notification 

 relative to the state of public wor- 

 ship, which began by regretting 

 the want of sufficient awfulness 

 and solemnity in the ceremonial of 

 Protestant worship, in which the 

 sermon is the chief object of re- 

 gard, the liturgic part being de- 

 fective, and in great measure left 

 to the discretion of the minister. — 

 It was then said that many of the 

 clergy of Berlin and Brandenburg 

 had applied to the King on the 

 subject, whose views coinciding 

 with their's, it was his Majesty's 

 will that a select committee of the 

 clergy should examine the liturgies 

 and religious ceremonies of the 

 foreign Protestant Churches, in 

 order to draw up from them the 

 best form for divine service- 

 Several clergymen were then no- 

 minated to compose this committee, 

 which was to receive contributions 

 and proposals from Divines of both 

 the Protestant persuasions (Luthe- 

 ran and Calvinist), and pay them 

 proper attention. It remains to 

 be seen whether this attempt to 

 produce uniforniity in the ritual of 

 religion will be attended with bet- 

 ter success than so many others 

 which have been made in different 

 ages and countries. 



The intelligence from the Aus- 

 trian Court during the latter half of 

 the year has chiefly consisted in rela- 

 tions ofthe festivities and splendors 

 attending the presence of so many 

 Sovereigns assembled at the Con« 

 gress, the magnificence displayetl at - 

 which rather corresponds with the 

 idea of a state of long peace and 

 prosperity, than of the close of a 

 most ruinous war, and dilapidated 

 finances. The Emperor of Russia 

 and the King of Prnsna made their 



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