[p. 595]
|595| but one day the whole draft constitution should be brought to the deliberation of the estates, and that in the meantime they should be reported to by the committee on the course of the negotiations in general from time to time. Afterwards there also occurred the union, mentioned before, of the rest of the assembly into a committee of several sections.
Thus the assembly found itself, of itself, in the relation that the king had wished to bring about by its prorogation at the end of July 1815, which had so greatly excited its passion and with which it believed it had not much more to lose in the matter. The superfluity of its being together for a whole year without real effectiveness, neither for the constitution nor for other objects, the consideration of the increase of costs had, it seems, not been able to remove. Herr Knapp said in a speech of 9 February 1816 (Div. XIX, p. 23) that one heard already now, and not unjustly, the question: “Why an assembly of more than a hundred men, why a daily expenditure of more than a hundred ducats, if only a few have to conduct the business or [the rest] have to occupy themselves only with less important matters which could likewise have been conducted by a few?” – The assembly has remained indebted for the answer.
Of the draft constitution there were now read to the assembly over the year, from time to time, partly on commission of the committees, individual chapters, partly also other essays and so-called materials for such a draft. Then the Allgemeine Zeitung and other “unknown” writers too could be taken to share in the business and the entertainment of the assembly. The right of frank judgement and other voices than the previous eulogies of newspapers and journals seemed to it something so foreign that deliberations were held against newspaper articles and pamphlets just as against royal rescripts, committees appointed, and extensive labours and essays, which became books,
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