ormer sovereign rights
of the various principalities, declared for the liberties of speech and of
the press, religious worship, free public schools, and the total abolition
of all feudal titles of nobility. On April 23, the great Parliamentary
deputation, with President Simpson at its head, came to Berlin to notify
the King of Prussia of his election. To the consternation of all, Frederick
William declined the honor. He explained in private that he did not care
"to accept a crown offered to him by the Revolution."

[Sidenote: Saxon revolution]

[Sidenote: South German risings]

[Sidenote: German Parliament dispersed]

The immediate effects of his rejection were new attempts at revolution in
Germany. After Frederick William's refusal to enter into the plans of the
German Parliament, this body fell into utter disrepute. Its radical
elements could no longer be kept in control. Armed revolts, encouraged by
the radical delegates, broke out in Frankfort, Kaiserslautern and
throughout Saxony. The King of Saxony, with his Ministers, Von Beust and
Rabenhorst, fled from Dresden. From the barricades the provisional
government was proclaimed. The garrison was at the mercy of the insurgents,
great numbers of whom flocked to Dresden from Leipzig and Pirna. Prussian
troops overran Saxony. The revolutionary movement spread to Hesse, Baden,
the Rhine provinces, Wurtemberg and the Bavarian Palatinate. Encounters
with the troops occurred at Elbafeldt, Duesseldorf and Cologne. The reserves
and municipal guards sided with the insurgents. All Baden rose and declared
itself a republic, forming an alliance with the revolted Palatinate. The
people of Wurtemberg, in a turbulent mass-meeting, demanded coalition with
both of these countries. It was then that the Parliament at Frankfort
decided to hold its future sessions at Stuttgart. Those principalities
which had not yet succumbed to revolution withdrew their delegates. Prussia
now gave to the Parliament its _coup de grace_ by arrogating to herself all
further prosecution of the Danish war, on the ground that "the so-called
central government of Frankfort had no more weight of its own to affect the
balance of peace or war." The remnants of the Parliament tried to meet at
Stuttgart, under the leadership of Loewe and Ludwig Uhland, the foremost
living poet of Germany. When they came together at their meeting hall they
found the doors blocked by troops. Attempts at protest were drowned by the
ro