Charles Boner

“ That the ceremony proved an occasion for throwing open the hall was ample reason for the Chamber to dispense with a privilege, which definitively stamped the character of the popular assembly, and marked the position in which it stood to the crown.
But rulers act otherwise. For them no acquisition, real or only apparent, is too insignificant to be retained. Like the present King of Prussia, who, at the coronation, took the crown “from the table of the Lord,” and crowned himself, they all well know the value of a “mere form.” ”

“ Although the concessions are made which constitutional government requires, still, if possible, any form, no matter how insignificant, that may seem even to convey an idea of supremacy, is clung to with tenacity; and no opportunity is lost of making it understood that there is yet a sovereign power above the sovereign people. ”

“ It would be an injustice not to own that in Bavaria the sovereign in no way interferes unconstitutionally with the business of government or the progress of affairs. But monarchs yield most unwillingly to certain necessities which a new régime imposes. Though outwardly they cede with a good grace, the forms they have to go through are at heart repugnant to them ”