Although peace was now established, the task of the minister was not completed, and a most difficult mission remained to be accomplished. The strong national impulse given to Germany by the necessity of getting rid of Napoleon, had roused an energetic feeling in favour of liberty in every breast; charters and constitutions had been promised, and a sort of mystic unity in Germany had been spoken of; and how were these promises to be redeemed? This political question, which I have already mentioned as so delicate, I may almost say so terrible, for Prince Metternich, was still more so for the head of the Prussian government. In Austria the popular mind was neither so advanced, nor so philosophically organised, as in Prussia; the enthusiasm of the people was at bottom only an extreme devotion to the Emperor and the august house of Hapsburg; and all they requested in return, was the repeal of a few of their taxes, some local liberties, and a little public happiness. But in Prussia the desires were not so moderate; all the secret societies had visions of a state of things so strangely liberal, that Germany would have been nothing more than a republic under a king, if a free course had been allowed to their expectations. In order to arrive at a regular plan of government, Hardenberg was obliged, even in the face of his former promises, to break with the patriot party, whose efforts he had so strenuously seconded during the crisis. Blucher and Gneisenau, the chiefs of these young men, were anxious for a national representative system, and for that purpose they wished the secret societies to remain in full force; but Hardenberg demonstrated to them that the object of these associations no longer existed, and that as to the constitution of the States, the part designated as the administration must be separated from the political legislation. Under this point of view Hardenberg's theory is particularly worthy of remark. According to him legislation belongs to the king alone; and it was certainly a right no one would have disputed with Frederic, the founder of the kingdom; the administration only belongs to the provincial states, as also the power of voting taxes. He established this theory by many successive acts, drawn up under his influence; and it reached such a pitch, that a royal edict even put a stop to the secret societies, as dangerous and fatal. The king's language is paternal, and explanatory of his motives; such being the usual course pursued in Prussia, where reason and explanation are had recourse to with a thinking people.