FREDERICK (PRUSSIA) was refused admittance, and soldiers advanced from the court of the palace to clear the place. Some shots were fired, and the people dispersed in every direction with, cries of "Treason! they are murdering us ! revenge ! " Hundreds of barricades were erected in a few hours, the arsenal was stormed, and a furious fight ensued, which raged till the morning of the next day, when the king commanded the retreat of the troops and their removal from the city. The corpses of the fallen combatants were carried into the courtyard of the palace, and the king was compelled to appear before them with un- covered head ; the palace of his then very un- popular brother William, prince of Prussia, was declared national property. The ministry was dismissed, a civic guard organized, and a general amnesty granted. Mieroslawski, who had been sentenced to death, was carried in triumph through the streets of Berlin, and 250 of his as- sociates left the prison with him, and hastened to Posen to commence the restoration of Poland, the new ministry promising its assistance. The king now openly and ostentatiously declared his purpose to take the lead in Germany ; the diet was again assembled (April 2), to elaborate a new election law. It was dissolved after the passage of that law on April 5, and a con- stituent assembly was convened in Berlin (May 22), while the delegates of Prussia also appear- ed in the national German parliament which in Frankfort had superseded the diet of the princes (Bundestag}. Prussian Droops were sent to Schleswig-Holstein to assist the Ger- man inhabitants in their revolt against the king of Denmark. In Posen, however, where the Poles had risen in a bloody insurrection, the troops restored order after furious contests with the half-armed bands under Mieroslawski (April and May). This was the first reaction- ary victory. Others followed. While the rev- olution was losing its time in endless speech- making, framing of constitutions, and scheming on the reorganization of Germany as a united empire, in the assemblies of Frankfort, Berlin, Vienna, and elsewhere, the governments, which had maintained their armies, paved the way for a complete restoration of their power by mutual understanding, skilful counter-revolu- tionary manoeuvres, continually changing min- istries, and varying programmes. Emboldened by the fidelity of the army and the growing desire for order among the wealthier classes, by the reaction in France, and the successes of the Austrian government in Prague, Lom- bardy, and Vienna, Frederick William pro- rogued the Prussian constituent assembly, transferring it to the town of Brandenburg, closed its sessions by an armed force under Wrangel (November), and finally dissolved . it shortly after its reassembling in Brandenburg (Dec. 5), promulgating a liberal constitution of his own. The new elections took place ac- cording to the king's constitution, and the two chambers were convened in Berlin (Feb. 26, 1849), which remained in a state of siege. Of these the lower house was still too revolution- ary, and both were dissolved (April 27). In the mean time the king had not only abandoned the cause of Schleswig-Holstein by the armis- tice of Malmo, but had also declined the heredi- tary imperial crown of Germany offered him (March 28) by the Frankfort parliament. The Prussian army suppressed the revolution in Dresden, after a bloody struggle of three days (May), and in the Palatinate and Baden (June), while it was hardly more than a spectator in the renewed struggle in Schleswig-Holstein. A confederation of Prussia with Saxony and Hanover (Dreikonigsbund), and some minor northern states, formed March 26, was hailed by the so-called party of Gotha (Gagern, Dahl- mann, &c.) as the last hope for a union of Ger- many. It ended in failure. Opposed by Aus- tria and its southern allies, it was given up by Saxony, Hanover, and others; its parliament of Erfurt assembled in vain (March 20, 1850). Frederick William, who had convoked a new Prussian assembly and confirmed a new con- stitution with his royal oath (Feb. 6), followed for some time a more popular course in the affairs of Hesse-Oassel (October), but soon yielded to the threats of Austria and her allies (November). Order was restored in Hesse and in Schleswig-Holstein, and the ancient Ger- manic diet was once more established in Frank- fort. The revolution was over. Chevalier Bunsen, who had lost his former liberal influ- ence over the king, was obliged to sign the protocol of London in the Danish question (1852), which sealed Prussia's final surrender to the general reaction. Only Neufchatel remained with Switzerland as a conquest of the revolutionary movement, and after some threats of war in 1857 it was ceded to that re- public. The policy of the government was peaceful, and Prussia took no part in the Cri- mean war, though it participated in the peace of Paris (1856). The constitution was modified and remodified ; the revolutionary members of the assembly of 1848, Jacoby and others, were persecuted ; the nobility (die Junker) and the pietists received new influence; the freedom of the press and of religion was circumscribed. In 1857 the king was seized by a malady con- nected with temporary insanity, which com- pelled him (Oct. 23, 1858) to give up the per- sonal management of affairs, and travel in Italy and the Tyrol for his health. His marriage with Elizabeth, princess of Bavaria, being without issue, his brother William (present emperor of Germany) became regent, and suc- ceeded to the throne in January, 1861. FREDERICK CHARLES NICHOLAS, prince of Prussia, a German general, born in Berlin, March 20, 1828. Hels the only son of Prince Charles, younger brother of the emperor Wil- liam. He studied at Bonn, where Von Roon, the future minister of war, was his intimate companion. He took part in the Schleswig- Holstein war of 1848, and acquired a high rep- utation by his thorough knowledge of military
