MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



471 



consequence than any of the 

 small reigning fry, are put off 

 with one Vote amongst them. It 

 is easy to imagine their weight in 

 the scale. 



Thus the Diet is ordinarily 

 composed of seventeen Plenipo- 

 tentiaries — besides which, most 

 of the great Powers of Europe 

 have a Minister at Frankfort 

 accredited to the Diet, as the 

 supreme Power of Germany. — 

 On occasions of unusual moment, 

 or matters affecting the basis of 

 the confederation, the Assembly 

 will expand itself into sixty-nine 

 votes — for the benefit of the 

 deliberations of sixty-nine wise 

 heads, instead of seventeen. — The 

 kingly powers, of which Wurtem- 

 burg is the last, will then enjoy 

 four Votes ; Baden, Electoral 

 Hesse, and the Grand Duchy of 

 Hesse three — and so in pro- 

 portion : on these occasions a 

 question must be carried by three- 

 fourths of the votes — on ordinary 

 ones by a simple majority. — The 

 Powers are bound not to make 

 war on each other, but to submit 

 to the pacific arbitration of their 

 disputes by the Assembly. — 

 Commerce among the States is 

 declared free, and emigrations 

 and transfers of property, which 

 wereformerly prohibited or taxed, 

 are freely permitted. — They en- 

 gage early to occupy themselves 

 with general regulations for 

 securing the Freedom of the 

 Press, and the restoration of the 

 States General to every State. 



The deliberations take place 

 in German, and of course are 

 private. — Hitherto territorial and 

 statistic arrangements ha?e prin- 

 cipally occupied attention. Du- 

 ring my visits to Frankfort the 



Diet was not sitting. The more 

 interesting and difficult task will 

 soon be brought before them, of 

 settling the constitutions of each 

 State, and arranging the extent 

 of the concessions which absolute 

 monarchies must make to the 

 demands for rational freedom. 



An address to the Diet, praying 

 for the establishment of the States 

 in all the Governments, in com- 

 pliance with the express engage- 

 ment in the act of the Confedera- 

 tion, is now circulating from house 

 to house for signatures. No one 

 knows whence it comes — a request 

 to sign and circulate it is annexed 

 — and it is loaded with names of 

 inhabitants of almost all States. 

 How far the Serene Assembly 

 are likely to fulfil the expectations 

 of the people, and to hold the 

 scales with prudence and autho- 

 rity, as head of the Germanic 

 Confederation is a subject on 

 which the Germans are far from 

 sanguine. The slow forms, and 

 the preference of trite details, to 

 momentous points, which they 

 have hitherto displayed, have 

 subjected them to much ridicule 

 and distrust. It is • rare to hear 

 the sage Conclave spoken of witli 

 confidence, and almost with re- 

 spect. A French Ambassador, 

 in Germany, replied to my en- 

 quiry, what the Diet were doing ? 

 " Us parlent — Us font de superbes 

 oraisons — voila tout." Among 

 Noblesse and Bourgeois the same 

 remark is often made, almost in 

 the same words. Even ofKcial 

 Courtiers and brother Diploma- 

 tists, allude to the Assembly with 

 a smile of doubt, and a sceptical 

 shrug as to its competency to the 

 high functions assigned to it. It 

 would seem hardly probable that 



the 



