In 1840 the old King died; the son, Frederick William
IV., was a man of great learning, noble character,
high aspirations; he was, however, entirely without
sympathy or understanding for the modern desires of
his countrymen; he was a child of the Romantic movement;
at the head of the youngest of European monarchies,
he felt himself more at home in the Middle Ages than
in his own time. There could be no sympathy between
him and the men who took their politics from Rousseau
and Louis Blanc, and their religion from Strauss.
It had been hoped that he would at once introduce
into Prussia representative institutions. He long
delayed, and the delay took away any graciousness
from the act when at last it was committed. By
a royal decree published in 1822 it had been determined
that no new loan could be made without the assent of
an assembly of elected representatives; the introduction
of railways made a loan necessary, and at the beginning
of 1847 Frederick William summoned for the first time
the States General.
The King of Prussia had thereby stirred up a power
which he was unable to control; he had hoped that
he would be able to gather round him the representatives
of the nobles, the towns, and the peasants; that this
new assembly, collecting about him in respectful homage,
would add lustre to his throne; that they would vote
the money which was required and then separate.
How much was he mistaken! The nation had watched
for years Parliamentary government in England and
France; this was what they wished to have, and now
they were offered a modern imitation of medieval estates.
They felt themselves as grown men able and justified
in governing their own country; the King treated them
as children. The opening ceremony completed the
bad impression which the previous acts of the King
had made. While the majority of the nation desired
a formal and written Constitution, the King in his
opening speech with great emphasis declared that he
would never allow a sheet of paper to come between
him and God in heaven.
Bismarck was not present at the opening ceremony;
it was, in fact, owing to an accident that he was
able to take his seat at all; he was there as substitute
for the member for the Ritterschaft of Jerichow,
who had fallen ill. He entered on his Parliamentary
duties as a young and almost unknown man; he did not
belong to any party, but his political principles
were strongly influenced by the friends he had found
in Pomerania. They were soon to be hardened by
conflict and confirmed by experience; during the first
debates he sat silent, but his indignation rose as
he listened to the speeches of the Liberal majority.
Nothing pleased them; instead of actively co-operating
with the Government in the consideration of financial
measures, they began to discuss and criticise the
proclamation by which they had been summoned.
There was indeed ample scope for criticism; the Estates
were so arranged that the representatives of the towns
