Littell's Living Age/Volume 115/Issue 1489/Hanover and the Creation of Peers in Prussia

The proposed creation of peers in Prussia gives occasion for the growing sentiment in Hanover to show itself, which favours the absolute merging of the ancient Electorate in its more powerful neighbour. As might be expected, this is observed chiefly among the middle trading class. A Hanoverian journal remarks that the present is a very proper opportunity for bringing the representation of the province in the Upper House into harmony with its just weight in the monarchy. Hanover possesses a twelfth part of the inhabitants of the latter, while out of the 320 peers only eight are Hanoverians, so that its proportionate representation is but one-fortieth. Many important towns in the other province have the right of "presenting" a peer each — the Rhine Province in this manner alone secures nine seats — while no town but the capital has been thus recognized in Hanover, although there are many others in the province which might fairly from their general importance lay claim to the privilege. The nomination, it is added, of such growing and prosperous places as Harburg would be safe for the Government side, whereas the landed gentry do not as yet afford good materials for the experiment, being filled with "particularist" notions, or ready even to intrigue, if opportunity served, against the Hohenzollern dynasty.