"Neue Rheinische Zeitung" – The Throne Speech

The Throne Speech

["Neue Rheinische Zeitung" No. 234, March 1, 1849]

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Cologne, February 28. The Throne Speech which, to the great horror and vexation of the _Kölnische Zeitung_, was last night prematurely communicated to the readers of the _Neue Rheinische Zeitung_ has proved to be authentic. Only one passage, the one relating to the state of siege in Berlin, was altered during the night. The Brandenburg ministry has thereby broken the point, the sting, of its speech.

The passage communicated by us yesterday evening in its original wording reads:

“In order to re-establish the rule of law, it has been necessary to impose a state of siege over the capital and its immediate surroundings. This state of siege cannot be lifted before the still threatened public safety, for which that measure was indispensable, has been permanently secured by vigorous laws. The drafts of such laws will be sent to you without delay.”

This passage, although it has been hushed up, betrays the whole secret of the Throne Speech. Translated into plain German, it says: the exceptional states of siege will be lifted as soon as the _general_ state of siege is imposed upon the whole kingdom by law and introduced into our constitutional customs. The round of these “strong” laws will be opened by September legislation on associations and the press. <The text of the Throne Speech follows here in the _N.Rh.Ztg._>

["Neue Rheinische Zeitung" No. 235, March 2, 1849]

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Cologne, March 1. Let us state it above all else: the Throne Speech has the full approval of the _Kölnische Zeitung_. It finds some fault with the government actions mentioned in the Throne Speech, but with the Throne Speech itself absolutely none.

“The King’s Throne Speech is precisely – a _constitutional Throne Speech_” – thus the clever paper begins its recapitulation of the Throne Speech in the form of a paraphrasing leading article.

A “constitutional Throne Speech”! To be sure, whoever had expected a “speech straight from the King’s heart”, an obtrusive moral outpouring of the heart like that of the United Diet at that time, or a Brandenburg-Wrangel-like rodomontade with clanking spurs and twirled moustache, to him this document must appear “constitutional” beyond all measure.

One thing is certain: Manteuffel has acquitted himself of his task far better than Camphausen did, to leave the “talented declamation” of 1847 entirely out of the picture. The bourgeois Minister produced a document that was bourgeois-flat in language and content, clumsy, tedious. The aristocratic Minister submits with the greatest bonhomie in the world to the tedious constitutional form, in order, in this form, to make fun of the Chambers and the whole of constitutionalism in flowing, easy language.

As to the serious content of the Throne Speech, it is reduced to virtually nothing by the hushing-up, already mentioned yesterday, of the passage about the maintenance of the state of siege. This was the only passage in which the ministry faced the Chambers honestly and openly.

To take the rest of the Throne Speech seriously, one must be the _Kölnische Zeitung_ or else the Berlin _National-Zeitung_. Whoever dares to contemplate such main and state constitutional actions as the one performed in Berlin the day before yesterday only with venerable awe and solemn dignity will, in his innocence, certainly never be able to comprehend how one can abuse something so sacred for a frivolous play of wit. But whoever cares as little about the whole constitutional comedy as does Herr Manteuffel will not be so tasteless as to take _au sérieux_ the document which the Minister caused to be delivered the day before yesterday by lips graced by God to the devout public of the White Hall.

We believe we are doing Herr Manteuffel a favour if we point the German public, unfortunately little accustomed to ingenious exercises of wit, to the correct understanding of his Throne Speech.

You expect Manteuffel to boast of his successfully carried-out counter-revolution, to threaten the Chambers with balls in the musket, swords ground razor-sharp, etc., in the manner of a clumsy sergeant-major nature à la Wrangel. On the contrary. Manteuffel passes over it with a few lightly tossed-off sentences, as over a matter that goes without saying:

“Events which are fresh in the memory of all of you, Gentlemen Deputies of the First and Second Chamber, compelled me in December of last year to dissolve the Assembly convoked for reaching agreement on the constitution. At the same time I – convinced of the imperative necessity of at last re-establishing a firm public order based on law – granted the country a constitution by whose content the promises I made in March of last year are faithfully fulfilled.”

Herr Manteuffel speaks as though it were a matter of the most trifling bagatelle, of replacing an old coat with a new one, of appointing a supernumerary or arresting a subversive. Violent transfer, adjournment, dissolution of a sovereign assembly, states of siege, sabre rule – in short, the whole coup d’état is reduced to “events which are fresh in your memory”. Just as the knightly Ban Jellachich would recount with the most graceful nonchalance how his red-coats roasted the inhabitants of this or that village alive.

And then, on top of that, the “faithful fulfilment of my promises made in March of last year” through the imposed so-called constitution! And you think the crafty Manteuffel so limited as to have said that in real earnest? Allons donc! <Come now!>

Such a beginning is striking. But one must know how to use this initial astonishment by causing even more astonishing things to follow. Herr Manteuffel knows that:

“Since then the tension in which a large part of the country still found itself a few months ago has given way to a calmer mood. The formerly so deeply shaken trust is gradually returning. Trade and industry are beginning to recover from the paralysis with which they were threatened.”

What looks the worthy Deputies must have exchanged when they heard this passage! Trade and industry are recovering! And why not?

The same Manteuffel who can impose a constitution, why should he not also be able to impose the upswing of “trade and industry”? The aplomb with which Manteuffel delivers this colossal assertion is truly admirable. Mais nous marchons de surprise en surprise: <But we go from one surprise to another:>

“You know, Gentlemen, that I have reserved to you a revision of the constitution. It is now for you to come to an understanding with one another and with my government on the matter.”

Indeed, Gentlemen, “come to an understanding”! That is precisely the beauty of it, that two such Chambers as Manteuffel has imposed on “My people” can never “come to an understanding” with one another! What else was the First Chamber invented for? And, Gentlemen, should you indeed come to an understanding with one another, which is not at all to be expected, then it is only now your task to come to an understanding with “My government” – and Manteuffel guarantees that you will get nowhere there!

You are, therefore, Gentlemen Deputies of the First and Second Chamber, already sufficiently busy with the revision of the constitution. Having learned from experience that already an agreement between _two_ contracting parties cannot be reached, “I” have thought it appropriate to try this time the agreement of _three incompatible factors_. If you do not agree there till the Day of Judgement without bringing about even an iota, Manteuffel undertakes to become a contributor to the _National-Zeitung_.

So, “come to an understanding”, Gentlemen!

But should you, contrary to all human calculation, nevertheless solve that which, for decency’s sake, can scarcely be called anything other than your task, you will still have advanced not a step. For that eventuality “My government” has issued a dozen laws “to implement the constitution”, which strip this constitution of even its last liberal semblance. Among them are, inter alia, two guild ordinances worthy of the year 1500, and which can cause ten years of headaches for a representation so advantageously combined as you are.

“All these decrees will be submitted to you without delay for approval.”

So, “approve”, Gentlemen!

But then “My government” will, without delay, send you bills concerning the state of siege – September laws,
gagging laws, club-suppression laws, etc. Until you have “approved” these – which will hopefully never come to pass – the state of siege naturally continues.

With this, you think, your labours are over? – On the contrary; the main thing is yet to come:

“Furthermore, you will have to occupy yourselves with the discussion of various laws – in part necessary for the implementation of the constitution – the drafts of which will be sent to you one after another. I particularly commend to your most careful consideration the drafts of the new Municipal Ordinance, the new District, Circle and Provincial Ordinance, the Education Law, the Law on Church Patronage, the Income Tax Law, the Land Tax Law, as well as the laws on the abolition of the feudal rents and the gratuitous abolition of some of them, and on the establishment of annuity banks.”

With these various labours, Gentlemen, which together amount to some three dozen organic laws with several thousand paragraphs, you will, God willing, have so much to do that the revision of the constitution, the approval of the provisional laws, and the debate on the submitted drafts will each, at most, be half completed. If you get that far, you will have achieved something superhuman. In the meantime, the state of siege continues everywhere and is also introduced where it does not yet exist (who prevents us from placing the whole of Prussia “district by district” in a state of siege?); in the meantime the imposed so-called constitution, together with the imposed supplementary laws, remains in force, and the old botched municipal ordinance, district, circle and provincial representation, the old lack of freedom in education, the exemption of a high nobility from land tax, and the forced labour services of the peasants all stay as they are.

But so that you cannot complain at all, in addition to all these impossible labours, _two budgets_ – that of 1849 and that of 1850 – will be laid before you. You will leap up from your seats in anger at so much work? Gentlemen Deputies of the First and Second Chamber, so much the better. “My government” will then continue, on the basis of the imposed so-called constitution, to levy the existing taxes for all eternity. Besides, some money from the 25 millions granted by the United Diet is still available, and if “My government” should need more, it will know what to do.

Should you, however, wish to tread in the footsteps of the dissolved National Assembly, then, Gentlemen, I remind you that the “organisation, warlike efficiency and devotion” of the Prussian army “have stood the test under severe trials” – and especially in the great battue of the “agreement men” in November of last year.

And now, Gentlemen Deputies to the First and Second Chamber! After care has been taken that, by the composition of the two Chambers, you cannot come to an understanding _among yourselves_, and, by the composition of “My Government,” cannot come to an understanding _with it_ – after you have furthermore been presented with such a muddle of materials that, quite apart from everything else, you would never get the slightest thing done – after the maintenance of the bureaucratic-feudal-military despotism has in this way been guaranteed – now mark what the fatherland expects of you:

“Gentlemen Deputies of the First and Second Chamber! The fatherland now confidently expects from the co-operation of its representatives with My Government the consolidation of the restored legal order, so that it may enjoy the constitutional liberties and their peaceful development. The protection of its liberties and of the legal order – these two fundamental conditions of public welfare – will always be the object of My conscientious solicitude. In this I count on your assistance. May your activity, with God’s help, serve to enhance the honour and the glory of Prussia, whose people, in intimate union with its princes, has already happily overcome many a hard time, and to prepare a peaceful and blessed future for the narrower and the wider fatherland!”

That is the speech from the throne of Citizen Manteuffel. And there are people so utterly lacking in all taste that they declare so successful a comedy a “constitutional Speech from the Throne”!

Verily, if anything could induce Herr Manteuffel to resign his portfolio, it would be such a misapprehension of his best intentions!