Germany from the Earliest Period, Volume 4Menzel, Wolfgang
History
Germany from the Earliest Period, Volume 4
Menzel, Wolfgang
Germany -- History
The first example of this kind was given by Frederick Augustus, duke
of Nassau, as early as the September of 1814. Ibell, the president,
who reigned with unlimited power over Nassau, drew up a constitution
which has been termed a model of "despotism under a constitutional
form." The whole of the property of the state still continuing to be
the private property of the duke, and his right arbitrarily to
increase the number of members belonging to the first chamber, and by
their votes to annul every resolution passed by the second chamber,
rendered the whole constitution illusory. Trombetta, one of the
deputies, voluntarily renounced his seat, an example that was followed
by several others.--The second constitution granted was that bestowed
upon the Netherlands in 1815, by King William, who established such an
unequal representation in the chambers between the Belgians and Dutch
as to create great dissatisfaction among the former, who, in revenge,
again affected the French party. This was succeeded, in 1816, by the
petty constitutions of Waldeck, Weimar, and Frankfort on the Maine.--
Maximilian, king of Bavaria, seemed, in 1817, to announce another
system by the dismissal of his minister, Montgelas, and, in 1818,
bestowed a new constitution upon Bavaria; but the old abuses in the
administration remained uneradicated; a civil and military state
unproportioned to the revenue, the petty despotism of government
officers and heavy imposts, still weighed upon the people, and the
constitution itself was quickly proved illusory, the veto of the first
chamber annulling the first resolution passed by the second chamber.
Professor Behr of Wurzburg, upon this, energetically protested against
the first chamber, and, on the refusal of the second chamber to vote
for the maintenance of the army on so high a footing, unless the
soldiery were obliged to take the oath on the constitution, it was
speedily dissolved.--In Baden, the Grandduke Charles expired, in 1818,
after having caused a constitution to be drawn up, which Louis, his
uncle and successor, carried into effect. Louis having, however,
previously, and without the consent of the people, entered into a
stipulation with the nobility, to whom he had granted an edict
extremely favorable to their interests, Winter, the Heidelberg
bookseller, a member of the second chamber, demanded its abrogation.
The answer was, the dissolution of the chamber, personal inquisition
and intimidation, and the publication of an extremely severe edict of
censure, against which, in 1820, Professor von Rotteck of Freiburg,
supported by the poet Hebel and by the Freiherr von Wessenberg,
administrator of the bishopric of Constance, protested, but in
vain.--At the same time, that is, in 1818, Hildburghausen, and even
the petty principality of Lichtenstein, which merely contains two
square miles and a population amounting to five thousand souls, also
received a constitution, which not a little contributed to turn the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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