[Sidenote: German Confederation established]
In the German States, similar measures of persecution were invoked against the student societies at the universities. The University of Erfurt was suspended. The Duke of Hesse, who had gained early notoriety by renting his subjects to foreign armies, now revived corporal punishment together with the stocks and other feudal institutions. In Wurtemberg serfdom was re-established. Throughout Germany the reactionary suggestions of Prince Metternich were carried into effect. A good opportunity for Metternich to assert his ascendency was presented by the first session of the new German Diet. Late in the year the delegates from all the States of the New Germanic Confederation met at Frankfort, Austria holding the permanent presidency. Count Buol von Schauenstein opened the Diet with a solemn address, which fell flat. First of all, it was settled that Hesse would have to cede a large part of Westphalia to Prussia. Next, the title of the Duke of Cambridge to rule as Regent in Hanover was fully recognized. In all resolutions relating to fundamental laws, the organic regulations of the Confederation, the _jura singulorum_ and matters of religion, unanimity was required. All the members of the Confederation bound themselves neither to enter into war nor into any foreign alliance against the Confederation or any of its members. The thirteenth article declared, "Each of the confederated States will grant a constitution to the people." The sixteenth placed all Christian sects on an equality. The eighteenth granted freedom of settlement within the Confederation, and promised "uniformity of regulation concerning the liberty of the press." The fortresses of Luxemburg, Mainz and Landau were declared common property and occupied in common by their troops. A fourth fortress was to be raised on the Upper Rhine with twenty millions of the French contribution money. This was never done. For future sessions of the Diet the votes were so regulated that the eleven States of first rank alone held a full vote, the secondary States merely holding a half or a fourth of a vote, as, for instance, all the Saxon duchies collectively, one vote; Brunswick and Nassau, one; the two Mecklenburgs, one; Oldenburg, Anhalt, and Schwartzburg, one; the petty princes of Hohenzollern, Lichtenstein, Reuss, Lippe, and Waldeck, one; all the free towns, one; forming altogether seventeen votes. In constitutional questions the six States of the highest rank were to have each four votes; the next five States each three; Brunswick, Schwerin, and Nassau, each two; and all the remaining princes each, one vote. This arrangement, as it turned out, proved fruitful of endless trouble.