Cologne, evening of May 8. The revolution is drawing nearer and 
nearer. While in Dresden the people are displaying the utmost 
courage in their struggle against the Saxon and Prussian mer- 
cenaries,”” and armed reinforcements are pouring in from all 
quarters to repulse the Prussian invasion; while in the Palatinate the 
people are rallying round the Defence Council,*” the people’s militia 
is mobilising and arming itself, the military are siding with it and the 
government officials are acquiescing, the whole of Germany is 
seething with unrest. Franconia is only waiting for the moment when 
it, too, can break away from Bavaria; the people there are in a state 
of great unrest, and the peasantry especially wait with impatience the 
outbreak of the struggle. We shall be in a position to supply details 
about this tomorrow. In Baden and Wurttemberg even the military 
have declared themselves in favour of the imperial Constitution. 
Similar reports have been received from Thuringia, Hesse-Cassel 
and Darmstadt. 

Finally in Prussia the movement is gaining momentum with every 
day that passes and becoming more revolutionary. Breslau is in a 
state of profound unrest; the minor riots, the mustering of troops, 
the patrols, the groups of people gathering in the streets, are all 
harbingers of graver events. The whole of Silesia is in a similar state 
of tension in anticipation of the news from Hungary and Vienna. 
Berlin is quiet, held down by the rule of the sabre. On the Rhine and 
in Westphalia the plans of Hohenzollern despotism are miscarrying 
because of the resistance of the army reserve which refuses to allow 
itself to be used as a tool for new coups d’état. The whole of the Berg» 
Country, the District of Hagen, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Krefeld —in 


The Approaching Revolution 417 


short, precisely the regions with the largest number of black-and- 
white supporters have suddenly gone over to open insurrection. 

The Brandenburg-Manteuffel clique is in the meantime doing its 
best to provoke the people into revolution. The Staats-Anzeiger* 
which arrived today contains a circular addressed to all heads of 
provincial administrations, calling on them to take energetic 
measures against all “revolutionary” activities in support of the 
imperial Constitution, and also correspondence between Imperial 
Commissioner Bassermann and Herr Brandenburg in which the 
latter states: 1) Prussia refuses once and for all to recognise the 
imperial Constitution, and 2) the Central Authority*™ is to abstain 
from interference in Prussia’s internal affairs, such as dissolution of 
the Chamber, proclamation of a state of siege etc., once and for all. 

We commend these last samples of Hohenzollern arrogance to the 
people of the Rhine. It seems that through its contemptuous 
dismissal of even the most trivial concessions the dynasty intends to 
drive the people into revolution. 

If it comes to another revolution, Herr von Hohenzollern, who 
knows whether the people will leave it at “Hats off!” this time!?5