The Provincial Corres; ondence is quite mystical about the Upper-
House of the Prussian Parliament, talking about the necessity of constituting an Upper Chamber, which shall be a real part of the Monarchy, and not "like the English House of Peers, which re- sponds to English history, but would not suit a State whose- development has been monarchical." It seems, however, to be understood on all hands that Prince Bismarck has recommended and that the Crown Prince has strongly supported a plan under- which one-third of the members of the Second Chamber, as it would then be called, should be appointed by the Monarch, one- third by the Municipal Councils, and one-third by the " defeu- dalised Provincial Assemblies." This is equivalent to the extinc- tion of the hereditary principle in Germany, and may at the eleventh hour alarm the King, who, if the reform passes, will then stand alone in Prussia, the solitary individual possessed of power not conferred by popular vote. Kings, however, from Louis XI. downwards, have shown little predisposition to believe in aristo- cracies, a fact curiously evidenced in this, that they have everywhere- placed their illegitimate sons in the front ranks of the peerage. The bastard of a King = the first of Dukes.
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