ed to a national diet; that the committees
of the provincial diets (as appointed in 1842) should be henceforth
periodically, as one body, convoked; that to the diet, and, when it was
not in session, to the committee, should be conveyed the right to have a
_deciding_ voice in the above-mentioned cases. April 11, 1847, the diet
assembled for the first time; January 17, 1848, the united committee of
the estates.

How long the nation would have remained contented with this concession
to the request for a national representation under ordinary
circumstances, is quite uncertain. In point of fact, this constitution
hardly lived long enough to be christened with the name. Early in 1848
the French Revolution startled all Europe--most of all, the monarchs.
They knew how inflammable the masses were; they soon saw that the masses
were inflamed, and that nothing but the most vigorous measures would
secure their thrones from overthrow. Frederick William Was not slow to
see the danger, and take steps to guard Prussia against an imitation of
the Parisian insurrection. On the 14th of March he issued an order
summoning the diet to meet at Berlin on the 27th of April. Four days
later he issued another edict ordering the diet to convene still
earlier, on the 2d of April. This proclamation is a characteristic
document. It was issued on the day of the Berlin revolution. It was an
hour of the most critical moment. There was no time for long
deliberation, and little hope for the preservation of royalty, unless
something decided was done at once. He might have tried the experiment
of violently resisting the insurgents; but this was not in accordance
with his character. He preferred rather to resign something than to run
the risk of losing all. Accordingly he yielded. In this proclamation,
after alluding to the occasion of it, he publishes his earnest desire
for the union of Germany against the common danger. 'First of all,' he
says, 'we desire that Germany be transformed from a confederation of
states (_Staatenbund_) to one federal state (_Bundesstaat_).' He
proposes a reorganization of the articles of union in which other
representatives besides the princes should take part; a common army;
freedom of trade; freedom of emigration from one state to another;
common weights, measures, and coins; freedom of the press--in short, all
that the most enthusiastic advocate of German unity could have asked. At
the same time was published a law repealing t