EXCITEMENT IN GERMANY. RIOTS AT KONIGSBERG.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 315, 5 August 1848, Page 2

EXCITEMENT IN GERMANY. RIOTS AT KONIGSBERG.

The Borsenhalle of the 18th has letters from Konigsberg to the 14th instant, which report great disturbances in that city on the preceding day. An immense concourse assembled round the building in which the Municipal " Resource " was sitting, and refused to disperse when the meeting broke up although implored to do so by M. Walesrode, a great popular favourite. The enraged multitude proceeded to the police station, where they tore up the pavement, broke all the windows, hewed the shutters iv pieces with axes, and vowed vengeance against the Police President, Lauterb«ch, a man universally detested. The gendarmerie and police could not arrest the violence of the crowd, and the soldiery were equally impotent. At

length a furious charge was made upon the people by the Cuirassiers, who displayed the same brutal ferocity as at Cologne. Many peaceable citizens were seriously wounded, and two killed. Several were arrested and sent to prison. On the 14th, the tumult was still veiy alarming.

RIOTS IN SAXONY. New and more serious riots took place at Dresden on the 15th of March. The troops refused to fire on the people. The civic guard cleared the streets. Energetic measures have been taken to prevent the return of the disorders. It was stated at Leipsic that a new ministry had been formed, composed of M. Braun, Minister of Justice and Religion ; Yon Der Pfordton, Minister of Interior and Foreign Affairs; Georgy, of Finances ; Count of Holzendorff, of War. Some of the nominations are provisional. The ministry announced that no extraordinary Diet is to be convoked on the 20th of March, and that they agreed with the King about the following points : — The soldiers are to swear on the Saxon constitution ; abolition for ever of the censorship ; a law establishing the liberty of the press, with abolition of privileges and bails ; introduction of trial by jury, and reformation of the system of law suits on the basis of publicity and orality of the debates ; right of association ; equality of public creeds ; energetic co-opera-tion for obtaining a popular representation near the Germanic Diet.

COMPELLING A POTENTATE. In Cassel the Elector hardly escaped with his life. The mob, finding that persuasion was of no avail, determined to have recourse to force. With this view they blockaded his palace, and he, seeing that their demeanour was most threatening, attempted to escape by the gardens ; he was detected and taken back by a blacksmith of Herculean power. This worthy carried him into the drawingroom, the door of which he locked, and put the key in his pocket. He then walked up to the Elector, and insisted on his complying with the people's demands. He received a decided refusal ; upon which he raised bis brawny arm, and with one blow shattered a marqueterie table to pieces, then shaking his fist in the Elector's face, he exclaimed — " But you shall, or you do not leave this room." The Elector yielded to the powerful reasoning of the smith, and promised compliance, - but the latter would not trust him, and compelled him then and there to write a proclamation, wherein he "willingly accorded his people's just requests," and thereby saved his land and life.

TUMULT AT BKUNSWICK. On the 15th of March, some gatherings formed at Brunswick, and threw stones at the civic guard. Some shots were fired on both sides. The civic guard had 15 or 20 wounded. Some unimportant tumults took place at Brunswick on the 16th. The Duke has modified his ministry, anJ convoked the extraordinary Diet on the 14th of March instead of the 31st.

AFFAIRS AT BADEN. On the 18th of March was published, at Carlsruhe, the decree which grants a general amnesty for all polit cal offences. The insurrection of the peasants in the Odenwald and in the mountainous part of Baden and Wurtemburg, is fearfully on the increase. A republic has been proclaimed at Constance (Baden). Troops have been sent thither ; and it is expected that the troops at Manheim will be sent there also.