In the meantime that German movement from which the Viennese derived so much of their impulse had been gaining a new accession of force in the North of Germany. In Berlin the order of the Viennese movements had been to some extent reversed. There the artizans, instead of taking their tone from the students, had given the first impulse to reform. The King, indeed, had begun his concessions by granting freedom of the Press on the 7th of March; but it seemed very unlikely that this concession would be accompanied by any securities which would make it a reality. The King even refused to fulfil his promise of summoning the Assembly; and it was in consequence of this refusal that the artizans presented to the Town Council of Berlin a petition for the redress of their special grievances. The same kind of misery which prevailed in Vienna had shown itself, though in less degree, in Berlin; and committees had been formed for the relief of the poor. The Town Council refused to present the petition of the workmen; and, in order to take the movement out of their hands, presented a petition of their own in favour of freedom of the Press, trial by jury, representation of the German people in the Bundestag, and the summoning of all the provincial Assemblies of the Kingdom. This petition was rejected by the King; and thereupon, on March 13, the people gathered in large numbers in the streets. General Pfuel fired on them; but, instead of yielding, they threw up barricades, and a fierce struggle ensued. On the 14th the cry for complete freedom of the Press became louder and more prominent; and the insurgents were encouraged by the first news of the Vienna rising. The other parts of the Kingdom now joined in the movement. On the 14th came deputations from the Rhine Province, who demanded in a threatening manner the extension of popular liberties. On the 16th came the more important news that Posen and Silesia were in revolt. Mieroslawsky, who had been one of the leaders of the Polish movement of 1846, had gained much popularity in Berlin; and he seemed fully disposed to combine the movement for the independence of Posen with that for the freedom of Prussia, much in the same way as Kossuth had combined the cause of Hungarian liberty with the demand for an Austrian Constitution. In Silesia, no doubt, the terrible famine of the previous year, and the remains of feudal oppression, had sharpened the desire for liberty; and closely following on the news of these two revolts came clearer accounts of the Viennese rising and the happy tidings of the fall of Metternich.