Sixteen years later, when endeavoring with all his strength to bring about German National unity, his "Prussians we are and Prussians we will remain" was used against him with mocking effect.
¶ By October, nerves were steadied. The King sent Gen. Wangrel to occupy Berlin and disperse the radicals--with cannon, if necessary.
That speech has the right sound; but William has before this veered around many times, like a weather-vane, and may he not shift again?
For the instant, he stood for the Old Regime and Divine-right.
¶ The following month William appointed Brandenberg, an old-line Prussian aristocrat, Prime Minister. The siege of Berlin was declared; the Assembly protested but finally gave in. Along in December, without consulting the Assembly, William invited the states to send delegates to Berlin and made an alliance of three kings--Prussia, Saxony and Hanover.
At last the people have a share in their government, but Bismarck sees to it that the radicals are not favored.
¶ William's "Tri-regal alliance" failed as fail it must on account of jealousies. Then Wuertemberg replied with a "quadruple" affair, composed of herself, Hanover, Bavaria and Saxony, side by side, under a constitution acceptable to Austria. Quite a stroke, that.
In turn, William set up his Erfurt parliament, March 20, 1850. Bismarck was fast becoming a "practical politician." Through deft stacking of the cards, the radical delegates drew only the low cards, and the Kreuz-Zeitung crowd and other ultra-conservatives were well supplied with aces and kings.
Bismarck naturally urged more concessions to the Prussian spirit; he tried also to muzzle the press gallery, calling newspapers "fire-bellows of democracy."
Later, he even started newspapers for his political purposes. In this he was not inconsistent, merely logical; his attitude was based on the fact that, at this particular time, he felt called on to fight hostile editors; but made terms wherever it seemed worth while. Such was the man's discriminating glance.
¶ The Erfurt "tongue tournament" Bismarck called the whole affair. He did not oppose the King's position in this matter, because, as Bismarck said, "it makes no difference." He spoke contemptuously of the mystical high-flown speeches. Its "Constitution" was quickly forgotten!