decisions of the departmental Ministers, who, in consequence of the collegial system[7] above mentioned, are very largely independent of the President. The Mühler Ministry may be remembered as illustrating the drawbacks of this system. It allowed an official department to be utilised for the furtherance of ultramontane interests, and its real character was only detected by the Minister President after it had placed all sorts of difficulties in the way of his policy. The relations between Prussia and Germany will not be rendered less intimate by the alteration which the Prince has in view. As Foreign Minister, he has hitherto been the intermediary between Prussia and the rest of Germany. In that capacity, he has held direct communication with the King as German Emperor and has instructed the Prussian representatives in the Federal Council. All these duties and powers must unquestionably, and will, therefore, continue to be, performed and exercised by him after his resignation of the Presidency of the Prussian Council of Ministers.” _December 18th._--According to a letter from a trustworthy source in Munich, King Lewis recently sent Prince Adalbert a note, of which the following is the substance: The Prince had taken the initiative in the matter of the Gasser Ministry, therefore the discredit attaching to the failure of that attempt must fall upon him. Consequently, his Majesty must in future imperatively forbid all interference by the Prince in State affairs. 1873. _January 1st._--I note the following from a communication from Stuttgart, based upon a conversation with Mittnacht respecting the cause of the dismissal of Baron von Egloffstein (till recently President of King Charles’s Cabinet), and the situation created thereby. The King is determined to fulfil his duties towards the Empire, but Egloffstein had constantly endeavoured to influence him in a Particularist direction. Since 1870 Queen Olga has been apprehensive for the existence of Würtemberg, and is confirmed in these apprehensions by the ladies of her _entourage_, and in particular by the Baroness von Massenbach as well as by Von Egloffstein, who, at the instance of the Queen, has also been endeavouring to influence the King. The Ministry was therefore obliged to demand the removal of Egloffstein from his post, and to this the King at once consented.... _January 21st._--An instructive and entertaining dissertation on the “history of a semi-official newspaper article” might be written from the following entries in my diary. I content myself with providing the material for it, and adding a few words calculated to give a true idea of the origin and value of this much debated work. Rumour had already been busy for a considerable time when the _Kölnische Zeitung_ on the 10th instant published the following “disclosures”:--