I 
 
 sinii 
 
 
 ;:: 
 
 ii 
 
 ".n II 
 
 jSttffi 
 
 riff irJ r* irJ 
 
 m 
 
^University of California. 
 
 I) K. FKA N CM S LI Mi! KR. 
 
 !!iti.ry ami J.aw in Columbia Oil 
 
 IT OK 
 
 MICHAE>L REESE 
 
 1 -* 7 : J . 
 
 ts ICicbcr - 
 
POLITICAL SKETCHES : 
 
 TWELVE CHAPTERS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 STRUGGLES OF THE AGE. 
 
 CARL EETSLAG, 
 
 I) 
 
 Dr. Phil, of Berlin, late Professor of Philosophy in the University of Rostock. 
 
 i% SED DUX ATQTJE IMPERATOK VTTAE MORTALIUM ANIMUS EST." 
 
 Sallust. 
 
 LONDON: 
 ROBERT THEOBALD, 26, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 
 
 1854. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE present Chapters owe their origin to a Lecture 
 which I gave in the spring of this year, on the present 
 European Crisis. 
 
 I should, perhaps, apologize to the English public for 
 having ventured to write in a language, my knowledge 
 of which dates but from April, 1852, when the political 
 events of my own country drove me to England. The 
 quiet life of a small English town gave me, after some 
 stormy years, the opportunity of reviewing the events 
 of that troubled time, and of comparing the political 
 condition of the Continent, and especially of my own 
 country, with that of England. My principles have 
 remained unchanged after this review, my opinion 
 as to the means of realizing those principles is partly 
 altered and corrected. 
 
 That I have paid special attention to Germany has 
 not been caused merely by my being a German, but by 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 the conviction that the fate of Germany will decide the 
 fate of Europe, a conviction which becomes daily more 
 general. 
 
 Many important questions are but touched upon, 
 and the historical dates are scanty ; but 1 was obliged 
 to restrict myself almost to the narrow limits of a 
 pamphlet. 
 
 DR. CARL RETSLAG. 
 
 DON CASTER, 
 
 September 2, 1854. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. March of Civilization 1 
 
 II. Universal Empires, and Russia 10 
 
 III. Absolutism 26 
 
 IV. America 31 
 
 V. The French Revolution 37 
 
 VI. Democracy, Equality, and Communism 42 
 
 VII. A Chapter of Prussian History 64 
 
 VIII. The Sins of the Holy Alliance 69 
 
 IX. The Failure of the Revolutions of 1848 81 
 
 X. Russia, and the State of the Continent 98 
 
 XI. Diplomacy, and the Revision of the Map of Europe 122 
 
 XII. The War, and its Prospects 135 
 
POLITICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 I. MARCH OF CIVILIZATION. 
 
 THE history of man is a revelation of the Divine Spirit 
 itself. He who sees in history nothing but the arbitrary 
 deeds of man, must consider it as a " chronique scanda- 
 leuse," as a record of much crime, and still more folly 
 and perverseness. The few sparkling virtues disappear 
 like a drop in the dark ocean of egotism and passion : 
 the truth appears drowned in the flood of error. But 
 history is more than a mere history of man, is more than 
 a dry record of facts* Facts and actions are only the in- 
 corporation the incarnation of ideas. To study history 
 is to divest the facts of their terrestrial dress, and to glance 
 at the world of ideas ; to get at the principles, which as 
 eternal, unchangeable laws, have ruled all the past, rule 
 all the present, and will rule all the future events of the 
 world ; to comprehend the spirit not only of the age, 
 but of the ages ; to behold at once the creation and the 
 Creator. 
 
 Thus even the egotism and passion of man become in 
 the hand of Providence the greatest promoters of good, 
 the strongest levers in the history of the world, as 
 Mephistopheles says in Goethe's Faust, when asked who 
 he is : 
 
 " Ich bin ein Theil der Kraft, 
 Die stets das Boose will 
 Und stets das Gute schafft." 
 
 The mythology of all nations has always seen in the 
 life of this world the march of Divinity. In the splendid 
 images of their fancy lies hidden a deep and earnest 
 B 
 
2 MARCH OF 
 
 truth ; and the opinion of the modern European divine, 
 or philosopher, does not differ, in this respect, so very 
 much from the cosmology of the ancient Asiatic sages. 
 
 It would lead us too far to explain the relation in 
 which God stands to the history of man. Whether we 
 see in this history the revelation of the Divine Spirit 
 itself, or whether we, in a less scientific way, consider 
 God as the supreme Guide of human affairs, according 
 to the popular saying, " Man proposes, God disposes," 
 it is generally acknowledged, that human affairs are in- 
 fluenced if not conducted by a higher power than the 
 mere mind and will of man. But if the Great Spirit of 
 all perfection influences or conducts human affairs, it 
 is easily to be understood, that the history of man is in 
 constant progress to that perfection, at which every in- 
 dividual aims for himself, and at which mankind at large 
 aims in a thousand often opposite ways. Whether this 
 perfection can be reached here in this world, on this 
 theatre of human affairs or not, can as little influence 
 our opinion of their constant progress, as an individual 
 of sound morality is influenced by the objection, that, 
 because he can never reach here to perfection, he ought 
 not here to aim after it at all. 
 
 We understand by perfection, not only the moral per- 
 fection of man, but the full development of all his 
 capacities, of all those talents and powers of mind and 
 body, which form an essential part of his nature a na- 
 ture, which is termed in the Scriptures, " an image of 
 God," and which the philosophers consider as divine. 
 If the innate genius of mankind is ever to reach the 
 highest pitch of glory, if it shall conquer those 
 thousand deficiencies and faults, which stain in the pre- 
 sent condition of man, the splendour of his possible 
 glory, then we shall have regained ** the lost paradise," 
 and our eye will not be dazzled with the light even of 
 the Absolute. 
 
 Man has lived already some thousands of years, and 
 yet how far is he off from that state of perfection ! Has he 
 subjugated nature, has he shown himself entirely master 
 
CIVILIZATION. O 
 
 of all the wild forces of an unsubdued creation, of the 
 ferocity of the elements, of space, of time ? We may 
 boast of our engines, of our electric telegraph ; that space 
 is reduced to a small scale by the power of steam, that 
 time is conquered by the rapidity of the electric wire ; 
 but we must humble ourselves before a poor little sparrow, 
 whose wings carry it wherever it will, whilst we are 
 bound to the ground ; or when trying to imitate this 
 feeble little animal, are entirely at the mercy of the first 
 wind, which carries us off, where our own inclination 
 scarcely would have driven us. If we have, perhaps, 
 hundreds of miles on the road to perfection behind us, 
 millions of miles lie before us, a still untrodden path. 
 Wherever we look into the moral, or into the political, 
 or into the social, or into the scientific world, our pride 
 will blush before the amount of crime, of injustice, of 
 poverty, of ignorance. But however true it is, that 
 mankind is far behind in fulfilling that which it ought 
 to fulfil ; in having realized that which it ought to have 
 realized; that the present world is infinitely deficient 
 compared with what it might be ; that the glorious innate 
 destiny of man is only in its infancy ; that this splendid 
 divine image, put into his heart, is still a mere carica- 
 ture ; it is equally true, that mankind in general has 
 been constantly progressing, is constantly progressing, 
 and will be constantly progressing. Nay, we may even 
 say, that the moral, the social, and even the political 
 condition of men in general has never been so near to 
 perfection as to-day. 
 
 We know well what we say ; we are well aware that 
 there are many, who speak constantly about the " good 
 old time," who deplore very much that this time is gone 
 by. I know that others will point to the age of Pericles, or 
 of Augustus, that they will ask us, whether we consider 
 perhaps the ninth or tenth century after Christ su- 
 perior to the century of Phidias, Praxiteles, Sophocles, 
 Aristotle, or Plato ? To the former, if Englishmen, we 
 may put the question, what old good time they mean ; 
 whether they would prefer living under the reign of 
 
4 MABCH OF 
 
 Richard III., or Henry VIII., or even under that of the 
 good Queen Bess, or under the enlightened rule of her 
 gracious Majesty Queen Victoria? The latter we allow 
 ourselves only to ask, whether they do not consider 
 Christianity as an infinite progress beyond the spirit of 
 any preceding age ? 
 
 But let us look a little more closely at this important 
 question. There can be no doubt, that art and science in 
 the middle ages, and even in modern times, up to the 
 seventeenth century, were in many branches far behind 
 that glorious state, which the times of Pericles, of Alex- 
 ander, of the Ptolemies witnessed. The Minnesingers, 
 the Minstrels and Troubadours, a Gottfried of Strasburg, 
 a Wolfram of Eschenbach are almost forgotten ; but a Ho- 
 mer, a Pindar have lived already more than two thousands 
 of years, and will live as long as there remains any spark 
 of poetry in the breast of man. A Canova has not been 
 able to surpass a Praxiteles, nor a Rauch, or a Thor- 
 waldsen, a Phidias ; and the best dramas of Shakspear, 
 Goethe, or Racine have to vie with Sophocles' Antigone. 
 If all this is generally acknowledged, how can we maintain 
 that mankind at large is constantly progressing ? Does 
 it not rather sometimes appear as if all the fruits of an 
 enlightened age are at once destroyed by a hurricane, 
 which sweeps over the earth in the shape of a savage 
 conquering nation; and as if man falls back into a con- 
 dition of which he would have been ashamed a thousand 
 years ago ? Is it not, as if the Divinity is jealous, lest 
 man should approach too near its own perfect glory, and 
 that it throws him back into the dust, just when he 
 thinks he has now nearly reached the height of divine 
 perfection ? 
 
 Indeed, if we peruse the history of man, we arrive 
 sometimes at periods, where it seems to the superficial 
 reader, as if the progress of centuries is at once stopped. 
 The fruits of the life of several ingenious nations are 
 destroyed ; the science, the art, the industry of an en- 
 tire age, the civilization of centuries disappear ; a 
 tribe, without art, without science, descended 
 
CIVILIZATION. 5 
 
 from unknown regions of the globe, enters the stage of 
 history, and civilization has to commence again its 
 struggles with a barbarous and unbended nature. 
 
 But if we do not allow ourselves to be discouraged by 
 the distressing sight of outward appearances, but try to 
 penetrate into the spirit of human affairs, into the real 
 essence of man, we shall soon discover, that if many 
 things have disappeared which were dear to us, there 
 has been introduced a new idea, a new principle, which 
 may be of greater value than that which has been des- 
 troyed ; and perhaps that which we believe to be 
 destroyed, is not destroyed altogether, but only for a 
 certain time thrown aside ; or that is only destroyed 
 which was not worth preserving. 
 
 If we were to say, that all the different branches of 
 civilization, all the sciences, and arts, an branches of 
 industry have always been in a constant and uninter- 
 rupted course of progress, the first schoolboy could easily 
 show that we are greatly mistaken ; but we say, that 
 so far from that, one or the other of these different 
 branches has often for a long time been neglected, its has 
 even fallen back to a condition of infancy, or has been 
 altogether lost for several centuries ; but the real spirit 
 of humanity, the marrow of civilization, the essence of 
 human existence, has never been lost for a single day, 
 has never fallen back to a former condition, has never 
 been stopped, but has marched through centuries and 
 centuries in a constant, uninterrupted, untroubled course 
 of progress till the present day, and will march in spite 
 of all the Popes, Jesuits, and despots of the earth. 
 
 Neither can it be denied, that civilization has often 
 left its birth-place ; that it seems to wander about in the 
 world, and more particularly, that coming from the 
 paradisian fields of the east, it has marched from century 
 to century towards the west, leaving in barbarity the 
 place where it was born, or where it has had a long and 
 glorious existence. Asia, the mother of civilization, 
 which witnessed the first strenuous and successful at- 
 tempts of science and art, has fallen back into a primitive 
 
D MABCH OF 
 
 barbarity, scarcely do a few ruins of temples and monu- 
 ments show to posterity the fickleness of her early civili- 
 zation. What has become of Nineveh, what of Babel, 
 what of Memphis, or Thebes with the hundred gates ? 
 Tyre and Sidon, and Asia Minor are now a world of 
 ruins, inhabited by savage tribes ; and even the crown 
 of ancient life, the ingenious Greece, must she not 
 blush if she looks at the petty kingdom of Otho ? 
 
 The sun of civilization, we see, has restlessly marched 
 over the earth, giving light, splendour, prosperity, where 
 he is ; leaving darkness, superstition, ruins, where he 
 has been. If we behold this at once so elevating and so 
 abasing sight, if we behold those ruins of Asia and 
 Africa, the witnesses of a by-gone glory, and a present 
 degradation, sJiall we not be afraid of the " hodie mihi, 
 eras tibi" shall we not shudder at the thought, that the 
 fickle and faithless goddess of civilization may desert lier 
 present children, as she has deserted Tier first-born ones, 
 may leave her adopted country, as she has left her birth- 
 place, may continue still further her march towards the 
 west? 
 
 At no time has this fear been stronger than at the 
 present We feel that Europe has arrived at a turning- 
 point, that history is about to enter a new period ; and 
 we ask anxiously, whether this period will not be a 
 period like the destruction of the Roman empire, with 
 all its civilization, by the barbarians of the north-east. 
 As the civilized dominions of Rome were overrun by 
 the wild tribes of the Germanic nation ; will not in like 
 manner these Germanic nations, and their sister-countries, 
 now refined and reformed by an education of more than a 
 thousand years, and by a religion of humanity and love, 
 be overrun in their turn by other barbarians, coming 
 from the same quarter of the globe ? Is it the destiny 
 of Europe to share the fate of Asia, and to fall back into 
 the condition of that mother of human civilization ? Is 
 it the destiny of the Russians to play that part in the 
 history of men, which the Teutonics played at the com- 
 mencement of the middle ages ? Will humanity and 
 
CIVILIZATION. 7 
 
 civilization, flying before the Cossacks and the knout, 
 altogether cross the Atlantic, and establish their 
 sole dominion in America? Will not the flourishing com- 
 merce of England, the lofty science and art of Germany, 
 the tasteful industry and the chivalry of France, be 
 suffocated by the nightmare of Russian order ? 
 
 All the signs of the age show the way towards the 
 west. When, in the earlier part of antiquity, the Red 
 Sea, when afterwards, in the middle ages, the Mediter- 
 ranean, were the great basins of communication, on 
 which the wealth, and the ideas of the then leading 
 nations were carried to a mutual exchange ; when after 
 Columbus' discovery the Atlantic had taken the place of 
 the Mediterranean ; does it not seem as if now the 
 Pacific will in its turn be for the coming period the 
 great high-road of human activity ? The rapid progress 
 of the United States, California and her gold-rivers, 
 Australia and her gold-mountains, a railroad in Panama, 
 a revolution in China, an expedition to Japan ; does not 
 all this show, that the theatre of the coming age will be 
 situated around the shores of that great ocean ? 
 
 Indeed, if we look around us in the present world, to 
 America, to Australia, even to Asia and Africa ; if we 
 see new nations being born, new nationalities arising, 
 others long shut up entering the stage of history, the 
 fear becomes very intelligible, that we too are old, that 
 our part is played out, that we shall have to give up the 
 leadership of civilization to other and younger hands. 
 This fear will be still stronger, if we remember, what the 
 great Napoleon said in St. Helena, when left to an un- 
 disturbed contemplation of the powers and influences 
 then acting in Europe, " In fifty years Europe will be 
 either republican or Cossack ! " And still more if we 
 compare with this prophecy the hereditary* ambitious 
 
 * Compare the despatch of Sir G. H. Seymour to Lord John 
 Russell, from Petersburgh, Jan. 22, 1853: "You know," his Majesty 
 (the Emperor Nicholas) said, " the dreams and plans in which the 
 Empress Catharine was in the habit of indulging, these were 
 handed down to our time, but while I inherited immense territorial 
 possessions, I did not inherit those visions, those intentions, if you 
 like to call t/wm so." .... 
 
8 MAECH OF 
 
 schemes of that gigantic, semi-barbarous empire, which 
 embraces already nearly half of Europe and Asia, and 
 a part of America. 
 
 But as to what Europe will be, if it becomes Cossack, 
 if it becomes one great Russian panslavistic empire, we 
 may paint its future after the features, which Custine, 
 the Russian Golowin, and many other writers of dif- 
 ferent nations give of the Russian empire ; and if we 
 read what Moritz Wagner, a German, tells us, who 
 lived some years in the wastes of South Russia, inhabited 
 by Cossack and Tartar tribes :* " What is the future," he 
 writes, " of this world of wastes ? The greatest misfortunes 
 with which Europe has been visited have always proceeded 
 from these countries. Is their historical importance at 
 an end, and do they no longer menace civilization ? I 
 do not pretend to second sight, but it appears to me, 
 that the supple and serviceable Cossack has taken on 
 himself the duties of the tame elephant, which is em- 
 ployed in capturing and cajoling his fellows. Hundreds 
 of the warlike hordes of the Siberian deserts are already 
 tamed, and have learned to obey the far-reaching word 
 of command from the Neva. In the army-lists they 
 already figure as recruits ready to join the active army. 
 Thousands of drill-serjeants from Moscow and the Don 
 are teaching them to manoeuvre, and the stations of 
 these men extend even to the confines of the empire of 
 China. For more than ten years they have been busily 
 employed in forming the horsemen of these wastes into 
 squadrons. They are very picturesque corps, these 
 bristly centaurs of the waste; and inquisitive Europeans 
 may sooner or later have an opportunity of seeing them. 
 It is possible that these tamed brutes of the desert are 
 being taught to wheel and go through other military 
 evolutions at the word of command, in order that 
 200,000 of them may be made to parade before the 
 eyes of the inhabitants of the west." 
 
 The Correspondent gives in the " Times, March 4, 1854, this 
 extract from the Work of Moritz Wagner on the Caucasus, pub- 
 lished in Leipzig, 1850. 
 
CIVILIZATION. 9 
 
 Another passage is extracted from the work of a 
 Slavonic writer : " We, slaves, are bound to give our 
 brethren in the west a warning of the highest import- 
 ance. The west is too oblivious of the north of Europe 
 and Asia, the home of rapacious and destructive races. 
 Let it not be supposed, that these nations have ceased 
 to exist; like clouds charged with storms, they are 
 awaiting but the all-powerful command to advance and 
 desolate Europe. Let it not be thought that the spirit 
 which animated Attila, Jengis Khan, and Tamerlane, 
 those scourges of mankind, is extinct. Those countries, 
 those nations, and the spirit which prevails in them, 
 warn Christian civilization not to be lulled into security ; 
 they warn them that the time has not yet arrived for 
 turning their swords into ploughshares, and barracks into 
 houses dedicated to benevolent purposes." But is there 
 really a fear for Europe from these rapacious and des- 
 tructive barbarians of the east? Have not Oltenitza, 
 Citate, and Silistria, sufficiently shown that the brutish 
 courage of these barbarians cannot stand against the 
 enthusiasm of the Turks, much less against the logical 
 courage and drill of organized Europeans? These 
 points we shall consider in the sequel. 
 
10 UNIVERSAL EMPIRES, 
 
 II. UNIVERSAL EMPIRES, AND RUSSIA. 
 
 The idea of a Universal Empire is as old as the tower 
 of Babel. The object of this singular building was to 
 hold mankind together in one great family or state, 
 " lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole 
 earth," as we are told by the Scriptures. This idea 
 formed the political foundation of every state of an- 
 tiquity ; and as in the ancient world politics and religion 
 were in an immediate union, Universal Monarchy was 
 more than a mere political ambition, it was the first 
 commandment of religion to every ancient nation. From 
 the fabulous times of Semiramis, who went to conquer 
 India, or the great Egyptian hero Sesostris, down to the 
 conquests of Rome, history reports one continual series of 
 attempts to unite the nations of the earth into one great 
 empire. 
 
 Npt only was the ambition of a spirited despot 
 like Salmanassar, Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, unable to bear 
 the idea of an independent neighbour ; but the natural 
 desire of man to impose his own opinions and convic- 
 tions, his own orthodox faith upon his fellow-creatures, 
 becomes in primitive and uncivilized individuals or na- 
 tions a religious fanaticism, which, like a most powerful 
 lever, compels them not to rest until every one in the 
 world is either converted or slain. Thus war and con- 
 quest was with the ancient Persians the fulfilment of 
 the first commandment of the Zentavesta. Iran (Persia) 
 the realm of Ormudz, the realm of light, was to conquer 
 Turan (Non- Persia), the realm of darkness. Thus the 
 Jews expected the Messiah to be a great Conqueror, 
 who would come to make the sons of Abraham the 
 reigning nation of the earth. Thus even the more 
 civilized and humane Greeks allowed themselves to be 
 
AND RUSSIA. 11 
 
 led against the " Barbaroi " of Asia by a man who 
 asserted his right of conquering, as the son of Jupiter 
 Amraon. Thus the Roman Emperors gave laws to all 
 nations of the then known world, under the title of 
 "Deus" or "Divinus." 
 
 Amongst the most striking features of antiquity was 
 this, we may call it, monarchical character. There was 
 in the ancient world no idea of that which we call in 
 modern times "System of States," or a free intercourse 
 between independent nations, based on a " balance of 
 power." The great states of the ancient world did not 
 exist beside each other in the height of their power, or 
 form a kind of aristocratic commonwealth, as the 
 civilized nations of our times do, but succeeded each 
 other in their ambition and their conquests. When 
 Assyria fell, Babylon rose ; Persia established her power 
 on the ruins of Babylon and Egypt ; and the Greek uni- 
 versal empire of Alexander, who had destroyed Persia, 
 was soon superseded by the gallant Roman. The dif- 
 ferent periods of antiquity can be thus characterized by 
 that nation, which was at the time the monarch and the 
 ruler of the historical world. 
 
 The middle ages changed entirely this feature of 
 history. The Germanic tribes, although belonging 
 to the same great nation, established on the ruins of the 
 Roman empire a number of different states, nearly 
 equal in power, out of which has grown, as we may call 
 it, the aristocratic commonwealth of the modern Euro- 
 pean states. 
 
 But the idea of a Universal Empire was not entirely 
 lost. The Bishops of Rome, the masters of that city, 
 where every stone reminded them of its past dominion of 
 the world, proclaimed themselves the head not only of 
 the invisible church of Christ, but of that visible church, 
 which appeared dressed out with" all the splendour of a 
 worldly empire, and pretended to be the supreme govern- 
 ment, spiritual as well as political, of all the nations of 
 the earth. Thus the world beheld the curious sight of 
 different political states united to a spiritual monarchy, 
 
12 UNIVERSAL EMPLRES, 
 
 of which the avowed monarch was Christ, the real 
 monarch the Pope. 
 
 Besides this spiritual rule in Europe there arose in 
 Asia another candidate for the empire of the world in 
 the attempt of Muhamed. The Muhametan empire had 
 more the antique Asiatic character ; it combined the poli- 
 tical element with the religious without any such distinc- 
 tion, as, however effaced sometimes by the pretensions 
 of popery, was still the fundamental principle of the 
 European world. The Koran commands the faithful 
 followers of Muhamed to make war on the unfaithful, 
 and to change the earth into one great kingdom of Allah 
 and his prophet. Thus the middle ages saw two power- 
 ful pretenders to the dominion of the world : the one, 
 priest by profession, but invested with all the power of a 
 sovereign, having all the chivalry of Europe at his 
 command ; the other priest and soldier in one person, 
 rallying around his Crescent the fanatic tribes of Asia and 
 Africa : the one the chief of the German-christian, the other 
 the head of the Arabian-Muhametan world. It could not 
 fail, that both these pretenders in the attempt at executing 
 their political ambition and religious pretensions should 
 meet each other, and bring their strength to a test. The 
 crusades avowedly undertaken to rescue the birth-place of 
 Christ from the unbelievers, were in reality a struggle 
 between these pretenders, between the Christian world 
 of Europe and the Muhamedan world of Asia. But 
 Christian Europe, inferior in civilization to its antagonist, 
 had to leave Asia and its sensual nations to Islam. The 
 chivalry of Italy, France, Germany, and England, re- 
 turned after a struggle of 200 years, and at the com- 
 mencement of the 14th century it seemed, that the time 
 for crusades was gone for ever. 
 
 The middle ages witnessed the two great attempts at 
 Universal Monarchy the Church of Rome in Europe, 
 the Muhametan Empire in Asia and Africa. The for- 
 mer tried to conquer the latter in Asia: the latter at- 
 tacked the former in Europe. The Muhametan rule 
 got a transient domination in Spain, and an " encamp- 
 
AND RUSSIA. 13 
 
 ment in the East of Europe ; but all attempts of the 
 latter to penetrate into the heart of Europe failed, 
 as the attempts of the Christians in Asia and Africa 
 had failed. We meet at the commencement of the 
 middle ages with another great state, which pretended 
 to be a continuation of the Roman empire, and even 
 called itself " Sanctum Imperium Romanum nationis 
 Germanae," an empire which, under the genius of 
 Charlemagne, threatened to become a real Imperium 
 Romanum, and to reunite the nations of Europe. But 
 the principle of division and individualism is a deep 
 trace, a fundamental feature in the life of Germanic 
 Europe. Since the destruction of the Roman empire there 
 has been a continual struggle between this principle of 
 individualism which prevents nations, different by 
 habits, by language, by religion, by character, from being 
 formed into one great uniform nation and the hereditary 
 idea of an universal empire, which attempts over and 
 over again to establish one united rule of law, custom, 
 and religion. But the spirit of difference, of individual- 
 ism, is too deeply rooted in the life of modern Europe 
 it is the fundamental principle of the modern ages, and 
 as such, too strong to be overturned. All the attempts 
 to abolish it, and to introduce again the uniform character 
 of antiquity, have failed, and will fail in future. 
 " Where spirit is, there is difference, division, individu- 
 ality," says the philosopher Hegel ; and is it not this 
 principle of individualism, so strong in the character of 
 the Anglo-Saxon race, which has brought this race to 
 such a pitch of prosperity and strength? 
 
 The empire of Charlemagne rose again in the empire 
 of Germany ; and the house of Austria was about to 
 become master of Europe, when the thirty-years' war 
 put by the united efforts of the German Protestants, 
 of Sweden, France, and even the Pope a stop to the 
 ambition of the Hapsburg family. 
 
 Thus the creation of the French empire by the genius 
 of Napoleon I., not to mention the ambitious schemes of 
 Louis XIV., was another renovation of the empire of 
 Charlemagne, another attempt at an universal monarchy. 
 
14 UNIVERSAL EMPIRES, 
 
 Again history beholds Europe in arms to crush the 
 French ambition as it had crushed the Austrian before. 
 If the Western Roman empire had left its pretensions 
 to any spirited and ambitious prince who might take 
 them up, the Greek empire of Constantine bequeathed no 
 less its ambition first to the Turks, then to the Russians. 
 The Sultans asserted that the empire of the East had 
 not been dissolved, but that it had only passed by their 
 conquest of Constantinople into stronger and more de- 
 serving hands. They claimed, therefore, to represent 
 the majesty of the great Constantine, and called them- 
 selves " Padishah " or Emperor. It must be remem- 
 bered, that the title Emperor, now borne by about eight 
 rulers of mankind, exclusive of his black Imperial 
 Majesty Faustin of Hayti, was in the middle ages a title 
 which had necessary relation to the ancient Roman em- 
 pire, and was therefore only borne by the head of 
 Germany which was considered as the heir of the 
 Western Roman empire and by the rulers of Constan- 
 tinople the heirs of the Eastern or Greek empire. But 
 the Sultans considered themselves not only as the heirs 
 of the Caesars of Constantinople, they claimed even a 
 right to the Western empire. It was with these pre- 
 tensions that Muhamed II. crossed the Adriatic, landed 
 on the Italian coast, and menaced Rome with the fate 
 of Constantinople, and that Othman penetrated into 
 Germany and besieged Vienna. The Ottoman rulers of 
 Constantinople were so proud of the title " Emperor," 
 that they only after great difficulties condescended to 
 acknowledge the Czarina Anna of Russia as Empress, 
 that they refused to acknowledge an "Imperial dignity" 
 in any crown but their own ; and that, strange to say, 
 as late as 1804, when Napoleon I. at the height of his 
 power and glory assumed the title of Emperor, the Porte 
 seriously opposed the assumption as infringing the pecu- 
 liar rights of the Sultans. 
 
 But the ambition of the Padishahs of Constantinople 
 was soon surpassed by that of their north-eastern neigh- 
 bours. Ivan the Great, who in 1481 first introduced 
 
AND RUSSIA. 15 
 
 Russia as an independent state to the states of Christen- 
 dom, married Sophia the last of the Greek princesses ; 
 adopted as the ensign of his state the double eagle of the 
 Greek empire, and expressed by this fact the opinion, 
 that the imperial dignity of Constantine had passed over 
 to him as the husband of the heiress of the Greek 
 Caesars. Thus we have two pretenders to the imperial 
 crown of Constantine : the one draws his claim from the 
 right of conquest ; the other from that of inheritance : 
 and it is not at all to be wondered at, that these two 
 powers should have lived for centuries in a continual 
 state of warfare. The Ottoman empire soon shared the 
 fate of all Asiatic conquests, its decay rapidly fol- 
 lowed its ascension. The more the Ottoman decreased 
 in power, the more the Russians increased, especially at 
 the expense of the former ; and their ambition went 
 still further than their power. When Peter the Great 
 ascended the throne of Ivan he did not lose sight of the 
 pretensions of his great ancestor. His eyes were first 
 directed towards the North, where on the shores of the 
 Baltic a youth sat on the Swedish throne, whose age, be 
 thought, he could take advantage of with less difficulty, 
 for Turkey was at this time still a formidable power. 
 When Charles XII. was conquered, and Russia had got 
 a footing on the Baltic, Peter directed his eyes to his 
 hereditary enemy. Could his enormous ambition forget 
 the marriage of Ivan with the heiress of the Caesars ? 
 Besides this, Constantinople was the early patroness of 
 Russian civilization the missionary of her Christianity, 
 from which the recollections of the Russian people have 
 never been estranged. This first mother of her civiliza- 
 tion, this teacher of her faith, had fallen into the hands 
 of unbelievers ; mustitnotnaturally become a very popular 
 idea in Russia to give it back to the Christian faith, 
 and to the heirs of Ivan and Sophia ? If the accident of 
 Ivan's marriage and of the popular religious feelings 
 showed already to the Czars the way to Constantinople, 
 the possession of Turkey is a conditio sine qua non in 
 the plans of Russian ambition. Russia, before Peter 
 
16 UNIVERSAL EMPIBES, 
 
 the Great, was no real European power : although in 
 possession of vast territories which are reckoned as be- 
 longing to the European continent, she had no influence 
 upon the political life of Europe. When Peter by his 
 travels in the West became acquainted with the civiliza- 
 tion and the politics of Europe, he conceived the two- 
 fold idea by which his government henceforth was di- 
 rected of introducing this civilization into Russia, and 
 of giving to Russia when so civilized, a place in the 
 political world of Europe, worthy of her immense terri- 
 torial extensions. But to bring the power of these vast 
 dominions to bear upon European history, it was first 
 necessary to come into material contact with the West. 
 Three points of connexion offered themselves to the eye 
 of Peter : Poland, which as the neighbour of Ger- 
 many, leads into the very heart of Europe ; the Baltic, 
 the great water road of communication for the North ; 
 and the Black Sea, which should be for Russia the ante- 
 chamber of the Mediterranean. 
 
 Peter's taste for maritime matters led him towards the 
 Baltic and Black Sea : Poland was to be left for his 
 successors. But sea shores have no political importance 
 for a country without a navy. When Peter died he had 
 accomplished his intentions towards the Baltic he left 
 his successors a fleet in this sea. In the South he had 
 been obliged to content himself with the sea of Azof, 
 in which he had established another fleet ; and with the 
 commerce of the Black Sea. The policy and ambition 
 of Peter became hereditary in the government of 
 Russia. Whoever sees himself in possession of this half of 
 Europe must naturally have the desire of developing its 
 internal strength, and making this strength felt in the 
 world. Nothing is therefore more contrary to the natu- 
 ral feelings of a human heart, and certainly more hypo- 
 critical than the words of the Emperor Nicholas to 
 Sir G. H. Seymour :* " On the contrary, my country is so 
 vast, so happily circumstanced in every way, that it would 
 
 * See Sir G. H. Seymour's despatch to Lord John Russell from 
 St. Petersburgh, January 22, 1853. 
 
AND RUSSIA. 17 
 
 be unreasonable in me to desire more territory, more 
 power than I possess." .... It is true Russia is so 
 vast, but not at all happily circumstanced. As long as 
 the development of the wealth and industry of a country 
 are dependent upon commercial treaties with other coun- 
 tries,* are subjected to restrictions imposed upon them 
 by other nations; as long as all the rivers and all the 
 seas are not free and open to all nations, so long a 
 powerful navy will be necessary for the happy circumstance 
 of a country,-)- and this powerful navy must not be locked 
 up in inland seas. That Russia is strong in Europe 
 cannot be denied ; but she is strong not by her wealth, 
 not by her armies or navies, but by the cunning of her 
 diplomatists, by the far-sightedness and unscrupulousness 
 of her statesmen, and by the fear which the European 
 Princes have of liberalism. That Russia herself depends 
 more on her ambassadors and diplomatists than on 
 her armies and navies the events since the Menschikoff 
 mission have fully proved. Russia wants for the deve- 
 lopment of her strength the command of the outlets of 
 the Baltic and the Black Sea; Russia wants Turkey and 
 the Dardanelles, Denmark and the Sound. When 
 Russian fleets can freely float on the waves of the Paci- 
 fic and Atlantic ; when her navy is no longer a navy 
 manoeuvring in the Baltic to frighten Stockholm or 
 Dantzic, but a navy of the world, then, but no sooner, 
 the Emperor Nicholas can boast that Russia is " so hap- 
 pily circumstanced." All her material interests alone 
 point Russia towards the Bosphorus and the Sound; she is 
 
 * The Russian Ambassador said to Lord Aberdeen in June, 
 1829, " With respect to the free navigation of the Bosphorus, it 
 constitutes one of our necessities, for to it the prosperity of a part 
 of the domains of the Emperor is united by an indissoluble link. 
 "We cannot permit the caprice of a Vizier or a favorite Sultana to 
 arrest at will the whole movement of commerce the whole pro- 
 
 fress of public and private industry in many of our provinces !" 
 ee'D. Urquhart's "Progress of Russia," pp. 307. 
 
 f In former days Venice and Holland, at present England and 
 America, give the best proof of it. 
 
18 UNIVEBSAi EMPIRES, 
 
 by internal necessity driven to conquest, but not by the 
 so-called " madness " of her present Emperor. Have 
 not all the preceding Emperors followed the same course 
 of aggression ? This Russia, as she exists with her vast 
 dominions and her undeveloped resources, and with her 
 imminent necessity of developing them, is the great 
 danger of Europe the sword of Damocles, which hangs 
 over its head. 
 
 But when the Russians have got possession of the 
 inheritance of the " sick man;" when Denmark has, by 
 the kindness of European statesmen, become a Russian 
 province ; when the Russian fleets, manned with excel- 
 lent Greek and Danish sailors, are able to compete with 
 the English in the waters of the Pacific and the Indian 
 Seas ; when Russia is really so happily circumstanced ; 
 when to the cunning of Russian diplomatists is joined 
 the persuasive power of a Russian army and a Russian 
 navy, will Russian ambition then stop there ? Will 
 then those " dreams and plans in which the Empress 
 Catharine was in the habit of indulging," and which 
 were " handed down to our time," be left only half 
 realized; or will not the ghost of the Roman empire rise 
 again in the Holy Russia, in a Roman Empire of the 
 Russo- Slavonic nation a Sanctum Imperium Romanum 
 Nationis Russo-Sclavae ? 
 
 Pamphlets, which from time to time appear on the 
 Continent, and which are especially spread in the 
 Slavonic provinces of Austria and Turkey, tell us, that 
 the future of Europe belongs to the Slavonian race ; 
 that only the disunion of these races has hitherto pre- 
 vented their domination. It is Russia's destiny, we are 
 told there, to unite these races, under her energetic 
 sceptre, and to establish one great Panslavistic empire, 
 which would easily subjugate the present old and 
 decrepid states of Europe. Are the Slavonians really 
 destined to introduce a new period into the history of 
 Europe ? Shall a Slavistic Europe follow the reign of 
 the Germanic Europe ? Shall Europe live to see once 
 more the antique sight of a universal monarchy ? 
 
AND BUSSIA. 19 
 
 Russia's success since Peter the Great has been 
 astonishing; and if her future should be as her past was, 
 she will be in a hundred years master of Europe. But 
 what is still more astonishing is, that she owes this 
 success much less to the number or bravery of her 
 armies, than to her diplomacy ; that she understands 
 how to turn the disunion, the jealousy, the pride, the 
 fear, all the passions and weaknesses of her neighbours, 
 and of the European governments in general, to her 
 own advantage. When Peter I. commenced his first 
 war against the Turks (1686), he was in alliance with 
 the Emperor of Germany and with Poland. In his war 
 against Sweden, the Poles, the Saxons, and the King 
 of Denmark were his allies. Peter made conquests on 
 the Baltic, whilst Charles XII. was engaged in 
 beating King Augustus of Poland; as soon as the 
 Swedish king appeared against Peter the Russians were 
 driven out of all their conquests. When Charles XII., 
 at Pultawa, was defeated, the number of the Russians 
 were by far superior, and the Swedish army was 
 decimated and exhausted by the severe winter and 
 unceasing combats. Peter was afterwards (1711) in 
 the war against the Porte, surrounded at the Pruth, and 
 would have been annihilated, if his wife had not bribed 
 the Grand- Vizier, and procured him free retreat and 
 peace. Of the exhaustion and embarrassment of Sweden, 
 caused by the follies of Charles XII., advantage was 
 naturally taken. Whilst Sweden was pressed by Den- 
 mark, Prussia, and Hanover, to make concessions on all 
 sides, Peter devastated in a dreadful manner the Swedish 
 coast, and obtained by these savage proceedings the ces- 
 sion of Livonia, Esthonia, Ingria, a part of Carelia and 
 Viborglehn, with some islands, against payment of 
 about 300,000. Thus Peter the Great had during 
 his whole reign won only one decisive battle (Pultawa) 
 against an army exhausted, and far inferior in number, 
 whilst he was defeated by a Swedish army far inferior in 
 number,* and was at the Pruth entirely at the mercy of 
 
 * Charles XII. defeated, in the battle of Narya (1700) with 8000 
 Swedes, 40,000 Russians. 
 
20 
 
 UNIVERSAL EMPIRE. 
 
 the Turkish Grand- Vizier. Notwithstanding this, he 
 added the Baltic provinces, of enormous value for Russia, 
 to his empire, got the Sea of Azof, and the free com- 
 merce of the Black Sea. 
 
 In the next Russian war against the Turks (1737-39), 
 Austria was again the ally of Russia, and although the 
 Russian Generals, Munich and Lascy, obtained some 
 successes, as the Turks were attacked by the two power- 
 ful empires, the Russians were obliged to make peace as 
 soon as the Austrians had ceased to fight. 
 
 As Austria now became anxious about the progress of 
 her former ally, especially about her intrigues in Poland, 
 Russia was obliged to fight the war of 1768-74 alone 
 against the Turks. But she now took refuge in those 
 measures which she has never since ceased to employ in 
 the dominions of her enemies. The Greeks of Morea 
 were seduced by Russian agents, and the Mamelukes, 
 under Ali Bey in Egypt, by Russian promises, to revolt, 
 and by this measure the Turkish forces were obliged to 
 divide themselves. This war, in which the Russians, 
 although on many points successful, were unable to con- 
 quer Silistria and Varna, was concluded by the celebrated 
 treaty of Kutschuk-Kainardje. By this treaty, as it is 
 known, the Crimea came into possession of Russia, al- 
 though the Russians were, as usually, so cautious as 
 only to stipulate that the Tartars of the Crimea should 
 be independent * of Turkey. In the following Russo- 
 Turkish war (1787-92), Austria appeared once more as 
 the faithful ally of the Muscovite ; this time even Aus- 
 trians and Russians fighting side by side, in the battles 
 of Fokzani and Martinestje. Again Russia did not feel 
 inclined to continue the war by herself, for, when 
 Leopold I. of Austria was, especially by the menaces of 
 Prussia,f compelled to make the peace of Tzistove, 4th 
 
 * Catharine then compelled (1783) the Khan of the Crimea to 
 abdicate, and incorporated this peninsula and the wastes of Kuban 
 to the Russian empire. 
 
 f The King of Prussia marched, with 100,000 men, to the 
 frontier of Bohemia. This step was taken by the advice of the 
 Prussian Minister, Uerzberg, and the English Mr. Pitt. 
 
AND RUSSIA. 21 
 
 Aug. 1791, Catharine concluded immediately afterwards, 
 9th January, 1792, the peace of Jassy. The Dniester 
 became then the Russian frontier. 
 
 The same means as those in the former wars were 
 employed by the Russians in the war of 1807-12, this 
 time even assisted by England, which attacked Egypt. 
 But the other faithful ally of the champions of order 
 was also not wanting the revolution. Whilst the 
 Servians, under Czerny Georg, revolted, the capital, 
 Constantinople itself, was torn by the revolution of the 
 Janissaries against the introduction of European disci- 
 pline by Selim 111., who was obliged to abdicate, and 
 against Mustapha IV., who was murdered. The exhaus- 
 tion of the Porte by her struggles with revolutionary 
 Greece, assisted by England, France, and Russia, was 
 too tempting a juncture for the present magnanimous 
 Emperor Nicholas to allow to pass over without taking 
 advantage of it for the aggrandizement of Russia.* 
 
 No war shows so well the Russian intention towards 
 Turkey, no war shows the means Russia employs in 
 realizing her schemes, so fully in their treacherous light, 
 as that "of 1828. The Turkish fleet was, thanks to the 
 far-sighted policy of England and France, just destroyed 
 at Navarino ; the finances exhausted, the army, after 
 the destruction of the Janissaries (1826), and before the 
 European discipline could get a footing in it, disor- 
 ganized ; many of the Pashas, and the powerful Ulemas, 
 by the introduction of reforms, were discontented ; 
 and the dependent Greeks, by the success of their 
 brethren in Morea, excited to* hopes of independence. 
 
 * The treaty with England and Russia (6th July, 1827) 
 bound each of the allies not to acquire territory, nor to suffer it to 
 be acquired : and in the protocol to this treaty, it was said : 
 "His Britannic Majesty and bis Imperial Majesty will not 
 seek, in this arrangement, for any increase of territory, nor 
 any extensive influence, nor any advantages in commerce for 
 their subjects, which shall not be equally attainable by all other 
 nations." 
 
UNIVERSAL EMPIBE8, 
 
 That, of course, was the time for the "friendly feelings 
 towards the Sultan, which animate the Emperor of 
 Russia," * to show themselves. To declare war against 
 the Porte, to occupy the Danubian provinces, and 
 attack Bulgaria on one side, while Prince Paskewietch 
 penetrated into Asia Minor on the other side ; that was 
 the time for the Emperor Nicholas to show himself 
 "eager for the prolonged existence of the sick man."-)* 
 
 Notwithstanding this disorganized condition of the 
 Turkish army, Varna was only conquered by Russian 
 gold, and a Austrian officer assures us, that, when the 
 passage of the Balkan was effected by means of a 
 stratagem of war, the 45,000 half-starved sickly men, 
 who reached Roumelia " would infallably have been 
 annihilated if the fanaticism of the Turks had not for 
 the moment been paralyzed by Sultan Mahmoud's new 
 organization." J 
 
 We see throughout this long chain of wars, that Russia 
 has been exceedingly careful not to trust to the strength of 
 her own armies ; the short-sightedness of other govern- 
 ments, especially of Austria, and revolts were the principal 
 means, by which she executed her schemes ; they were 
 the principal actors in her wars, in comparison with 
 which her armies appear as mere auxiliaries. Indeed, 
 in the whole course of Russian history, we look in vain 
 for those splendid military achievements which caused 
 the greatness of other states. Nor has Russia acted in 
 a different way towards her other neighbours, Poland 
 and Sweden. Religion gave her in the former country 
 an opportune pretext for meddling just as now with 
 Turkey. The non- Catholics were in Poland excluded 
 from all the state-offices, and from political influence in 
 general ; just as they were at that time in all the Catholic 
 countries in Europe, and as the Catholics were in the 
 Protestant countries. Catharine II., of course, hastened 
 
 * Sir H. Seymour's despatches, 
 f Sir H. Seymour's despatch II. 
 J Statements of the Presae of Vienna by an Austrian staff-officer. 
 
AND RUSSIA. 
 
 23 
 
 to claim for the Non- Catholics equal right with the 
 Catholics, in a century in which, in Voltairian France, 
 Maurepas dared to say to Necker, ' What! you in the 
 council-room, and you do not go to mass ! It is true, 
 the disunion of the noblemen, and their struggle against 
 the royal power, brought on the destruction of the king- 
 dom of the Jagellons, but those who contend, that 
 Poland had fully deserved her fate, as she was not able 
 to govern herself, and as her nobility was tyrannical 
 towards her peasantry, should consider, that the dis- 
 union was to a great extent created and fostered by 
 Russia, (which especially prevented any consolidation of 
 the royal power, at that time so necessary in Poland,) 
 and that the condition of the peasantry was at that time 
 nowhere much better in Europe, and is still to-day no 
 better in Russia herself. And as for the religious 
 question, the same Russia which afterwards treated 
 with such unheard-of cruelty the Catholics in Poland, had 
 certainly no right, in a mere moral point of view, to 
 interfere for the tolerance of the Norr- Catholics. But 
 the Russian Czars and Czarinas seem to have a peculiar 
 predilection for abusing that which is most sacred 
 to man, for their ambitious purposes, because it is 
 most able to rouse the strongest passions of the human 
 heart. 
 
 Thus, as is well known, Poland did not fall by 
 the force of the Russian armies, but by the power of 
 Russian gold, and by the diabolical cunning of Russian 
 intrigues. Here as in Turkey, Russia understood how 
 to get, besides revolt and dissension in the camp of her 
 prey, other allies who assisted her in carrying out her 
 intentions for a small recompense. Even the great 
 Frederick* was blind enough to take a share in the 
 
 * It is contended by some Polish writers, that Frederick the 
 Great first proposed the partition of Poland in his quality as Duke 
 of Preussen, for Preussen, they say, was a fief of the crown of 
 Poland; still Frederick's German^ countries were "de jure" at 
 least a fief of the German empire. But Ranke (9 books of Prussian 
 history) shows, that in November, 1657, at a meeting at Bromberg, 
 
24 
 
 UNIVERSAL EMPIRES, 
 
 spoil, though he well saw through the Russian schemes 
 towards Turkey, when he said : " Whenever the Russians 
 are in Constantinople, they will be within two days of 
 Koenigsberg." 
 
 It is unnecessary to mention, that Russia's conduct 
 towards Sweden was not different ; inconsistency has 
 never been a fault of the Russian statesmen. The 
 example which Peter the Great gave towards this coun- 
 try has been followed up admirably by his successors, viz., 
 to get up alliances against it, and to attack it just when 
 it seems to be least able to defend itself, as during the 
 childhood of Charles XII. ; and the struggles of the 
 parties of the hats (lyllenburg) and the cops (Horn) show, 
 that the other lever of Russian aggression was not 
 wanting.* 
 
 Russia had the good fortune of being surrounded by 
 decaying empires, all her neighbours were *' sick men," 
 as Turkey and Poland, and in Asia, Persia. Her policy 
 was therefore everywhere to increase the sickness of 
 these neighbours, to hasten the approach of their death, 
 and to prepare herself for the inheritance. She pre- 
 ferred as long as possible the application of the persua- 
 sive physic of diplomatists and agents, the stronger me- 
 dicine of bayonets and cannons she generally liked only 
 to apply in connexion with some other physician, whom 
 
 the king of Poland and the Elector Frederick William of Bran- 
 denburg, took the oath upon the treaty that every allegiance of 
 the Duchy of Preussen to the Polish crown should be dissolved. 
 On the contrary, the first proposition to a partition of Poland 
 was made by the king Augustus II. of Poland himself in the 
 year 1732. 
 
 * The words of Voltaire about Peter the Great express the whole 
 policy of Russia : " Tel ctait le czar ; et ses grands desseins 
 n'etaient encore qu'^bauches lorsqu' H se joignit aux rots de Po- 
 logne et de Dane-mark contre un enfant, qu'ils meprisaint tous, Le 
 fondateur de la Russie voulut ctrc conqmrant ; il crut pouvoir le 
 devenir sans peine. Now it is here a child (un enfant), then it is 
 there a sick man" (un homme malade). 
 
AND RUSSIA. 25 
 
 she even allowed to partake in the inheritance.* 
 If Russia thus by the superior skill of her statesmen 
 knew how to take advantage of the weakness and short- 
 sightedness of European governments, she acquired her 
 real strength when she identified herself with the idea of 
 Legitimacy and Absolutism. 
 
 * The so-called testament of Peter the Great says : sec. 11. To 
 win the interest of Austria for the expulsion of the Turks out of 
 Europe; and if Constantinople is conquered, to neutralise her 
 jealousy by exciting the old states of Europe to make war against 
 her, or by ceding to her a part of the conquest, which we shall 
 take back as soon as possible. 
 
26 ABSOLUTISM. 
 
 III. ABSOLUTISM. 
 
 Since the commencement of the 17th century the 
 political institutions of Europe had undergone a great 
 change. The feudal system of the middle ages had at 
 least in its higher relations given way to the absolutism 
 of royalty. The last States-General were convoked in 
 France in the year 1614, and the phrase of Louis XV. 
 " 1'etat c'est moi " was not only true in France, but in 
 all the greater states of Europe except England. The 
 Reformation, and in its consequence the thirty-years' 
 war was especially favourable to the full development 
 of royal power.* The nobility had become poor, the 
 princes on the contrary in the Protestant countries, by 
 the destruction of the convents, by seizing the highest 
 ecclesiastical authority, and by the introduction of the 
 standing armies rich and powerful. After the thirty- 
 years' war there existed no longer " Landstaende " (a 
 kind of States- General) in Germany, or where they did 
 exist, they were powerless with the exception only of 
 Mecklenburg. In Sweden Charles XI. finished the 
 work of absolutism, commenced by his predecessor. In 
 Denmark the States-General themselves had in 1660 
 and 1661 established the absolute power of the king. 
 At the commencement of the 18th century Europe saw 
 despotism firmly established on all the more powerful 
 thrones on the continent. Despotism seemed to be a 
 
 * Gervinus in his " Einleitung in die Geschichte des 19 ten 
 Jahrhunderts" says, that the Turks after the conquest of Constan- 
 tinople set to the European governments the example of a consoli- 
 dated and absolute government. It is true that in the latter part 
 of the 15th century the princes commenced a violent struggle 
 against the power of the nobility, as Louis XI. in France, Ferdi- 
 nand and Isabella in Spain; but this struggle had its internal 
 necessity, and was to a great extent caused by the introduction of 
 Roman law, the Codex Justiniani. 
 

 ABSOLUTISM. 27 
 
 necessary transition from the feudal institutions to the 
 free democratical life of the modern world. Where the 
 old feudal system was stationary as in Poland, it was to 
 the ruin of the power and prosperity of the country ; 
 and however despotism or the absolutism of royal power 
 is contrary to feelings of an independent character, and 
 how much soever it is a fetter to the free develop- 
 ment of a civilized nation; the despotism of the 17th 
 and 18th century was necessary for breaking up the old 
 feudal world, and for laying the foundation-stone of self- 
 government. The feudal world was based on the serf- 
 dom of the working classes, it is in its principle the 
 contempt of labour. The princes tried everywhere to 
 found their power upon the middle and even working 
 classes ; they favoured commercial enterprises and pro- 
 tected them against the robbery of the nobles, especially 
 in Germany ; they patronized science and art by the 
 foundation of universities and schools, they introduced 
 a regulated administration of justice, and strove even to 
 liberate the peasantry from the arbitrary oppression of 
 the nobles. The idea of a common " Vaterland " and 
 patriotism, unknown to the divided world of feudalism, 
 arose by the centralizing power of royalty as a mighty 
 lever in modern history. Thus it was the destiny of 
 despotism to prepare the way for self-government and 
 democracy. 
 
 The Reformation, if it assisted in developing absolut- 
 ism, carried in itself the counterpoise against the abuse 
 of royal power. The same mighty instrument which 
 destroyed the greatest of all tyrannies the spiritual ty- 
 ranny, was not very likely to put a political tyranny in 
 its place, without giving some remedy against this second 
 of all evils. It is often justly remarked, that spiritual 
 and political slavery are inseparably connected with one 
 another. 
 
 Whatever darkens the mind of man, whatever prevents 
 the free researches of his divine reason, makes him fit 
 for all kinds of superstition spiritual as well as politi- 
 cal makes him a faithful slave of Rome as well as of 
 
20 ABSOLUTISM* 
 
 St. Petersburg. The despots in their first exertions to 
 free themselves and their people from the fetters of 
 Rome forgot this truth : they educated man, they 
 taught him to think for himself, because they fancied 
 they could erect on the ruins of the infallibility of the 
 Pope their own infallibility. The reign of despotism 
 over the hearts of men in Europe was naturally short, 
 for despotism can only govern the heart by means of 
 religious superstition,* and this superstition was destroy- 
 ed by the Reformation and the exertions of the princes 
 themselves. The divine right of royalty is a doctrine 
 contrary to the fundamental principles of Protestantism. t 
 The same century, which first beheld the full and un- 
 disturbed reign of absolutism on the continent, created 
 a Rousseau, and witnessed the beheading of a king. 
 Strange to say, there was a time in this same century, 
 when the greatest despots thought of giving up their 
 despotism freely ; when the great Frederick of Prussia 
 said, that he was " tired of governing over slaves ;" when 
 even Catharine II. of Russia summoned (1767) a great 
 number of deputies of all orders, languages, and religions, 
 of the Russian empire to Moscow to prepare a consti- 
 tution. Such was at that time the strength of the con- 
 viction, that despotic government was equally tiresome 
 to kings, and untenable over civilized nations. J The 
 liberation of America was hailed in the official Gazette 
 at Berlin by a poem, which speaks about the fetters of 
 tyrants, and greeted the approaching hour, when these 
 fetters will be broken by the rising people of Europe. 
 Voltairians and Illuminati|| were the confessors of kings, 
 the members of their private council. 
 
 * The despotisms of Asia and Russia show that in a most striking 
 manner. 
 
 f Therefore the leaning of all the continental despots towards 
 Catholicism. 
 
 % See the reforms of Joseph of Austria and Leopold of Tus- 
 cany. 
 
 || The Illuminati are the Jesuits for the cause of freedom and 
 liberalism ; this order was founded by Professor Weisshaupt in 
 Germany. 
 
ABSOLUTISM. 29 
 
 The French Revolution soon put a stop to " liberalism 
 upon the throne;" the " coquetterie" with Rousseau 
 and Voltaire seemed too dangerous an experiment for 
 the princes. They had no idea that doctrines could be 
 dangerous against cannons and bayonets, that ideas 
 could be as powerful as standing armies. The French 
 Revolution opened their eyes. Since this great event 
 liberalism has ceased to reside upon the thrones of the 
 continent. The first effect which this Revolution had 
 on the continent, was quite contrary to what could be 
 expected. Instead of seeing, that the Revolution was 
 an unavoidable consequence of the extravagance of 
 monarchy, a fearful lesson on the falsehood of the divine 
 right of despotism, they ascribed its atrocities to the 
 doctrines of liberalism and to the weakness of a monarch. 
 From this day dated the great division in the camp of 
 Europe. The governments, frightened by the revolu- 
 tionary storms which swept over France, drew closer 
 to each other, and a coalition was formed, which was 
 destined to make war as well against the armies of the 
 revolution as its ideas. At the head of this first great 
 coalition against France, we see two powers, most opposed 
 in their principles of political and social life, England 
 and Russia England and Russia! an alliance so un- 
 natural, and notwithstanding of greater duration than 
 the alliance of England with any other country ! Had 
 Russia anything to fear from the propagation of the 
 ideas of the Revolution ? Certainly not directly ; but 
 Russia embraced eagerly the opportunity to put herself 
 forth as that country, which, thanks to the barbarous 
 stupidity of her people, has least to fear from the in- 
 ternal dissensions of principles, and is therefore most 
 fit to be the head quarters of despotism of all those 
 who abhor the principles of the French Revolution. 
 The English aristocracy feared that the ideas of equality 
 might overthrow its primogeniture and privileges; Russia 
 was the only power which entered the coalition with- 
 out fear, without hatred ; she alone was able to watch 
 events without excitement, and to take advantage as 
 
OU ABSOLUTISM. 
 
 well of the folly and extravagance of the French Revo- 
 lutionists, as of the fear of her coalitionists. It is the 
 French Revolution which made Russia so powerful in 
 the council of the European governments. Since that day 
 the Emperor of Russia has become the great champion 
 of order, the great guardian of peace in the eyes of 
 reactionary or conservative statesmen. Since that day 
 the continental governments, which were formerly some- 
 times sincerely liberal, have thrown themselves into the 
 arms of despotism and of Russia. Whatever con- 
 cessions have been since made on the continent, they 
 were the results of fear and weakness, they were ex- 
 torted in the hour of revolution, or promised in the 
 hour of danger. 
 
 Let no one deceive himself by believing that there 
 is one sincerely constitutional prince on the continent. 
 The word of the Emperor Nicholas : " Je congois bien 
 la republique, mais je ne congois pas la constitution !" 
 is the conviction of all the monarchs of the continent, 
 and the principle which regulates their governments. 
 
AMEBICA. 31 
 
 IV. AMERICA. 
 
 A NEW idea may get hold of the heart of man at once ; 
 but to develop the consequences of this idea, and to intro- 
 duce them into the real world, is the work of centuries. 
 It is a difficult thing to part with institutions which 
 have become dear to our heart, and which have grown 
 up hand in hand with our interests. When we embrace 
 a doctrine which is in utter discrepancy with those 
 habits which we have loved from our childhood, we do 
 not generally understand that there is a real discrepancy ; 
 and if we do, we often divide the questions, that they may 
 not interfere with each other. That was the case in the 
 middle ages with state and church, with heaven and 
 earth, with God and the world, with theory and prac- 
 tice. As God was placed beyond the world, which was 
 thought not clean enough for his residence, so the prin- 
 ciples of religion were placed beyond the rules of state 
 and society. The political man had nothing to do with 
 the religious man. 
 
 Of course, this unnatural division could not last. 
 After a struggle of one thousand five hundred years, 
 ideas worked their way into existence, the church 
 descended into the state, God returned to the world. 
 Catholicism with its monarchical pope, with its aristo- 
 cracy of priesthood, was unable to carry out the prin- 
 ciple of the dignity of man of the Godman. If the 
 Catholic church acknowledged the equality of laymen, 
 it was, because they were to be equally governed by the 
 priest. The real man was not the layman, but the 
 priest ; human dignity existed only in the garment of 
 the church. 
 
 Protestantism first carried out the great idea of Chris- 
 tianity. Man carries in himself the Divine light. Pro- 
 testantism is religious democracy ; it established the real 
 
62 AMJEBICA. 
 
 equality of men before God, it abolished the monarchy 
 of the pope, and the aristocracy of the priesthood. 
 Protestantism is the self-dependence of thought ; it is 
 free research into man's position towards God and the 
 world. Protestantism must necessarily become political 
 democracy. 
 
 What the first Christians strove to do, but were not 
 able to do to realise the principle of the dignity of 
 man the Protestants succeeded in realizing, but not in 
 Europe, not in the old world. Europe and the old 
 world was a world of institutions established and inter- 
 nally cemented with slavery, with religious and political 
 monarchy, and with aristocracy. The attempts made 
 to overthrow all these institutions and to create a new 
 world upon the new principles, which were made in 
 several places in Europe, especially in Germany, failed 
 necessarily; first, because the majority of men were too 
 intimately connected with the old world, and then be- 
 cause the new principle itself appeared enveloped in 
 Utopian extravagances, as a principle always does which 
 is but the property of a few fanatics. 
 
 Democracy must first clear itself from its dangerous 
 appendices, it must become the conviction of the mass, 
 here it must first overturn the old feudal world, before it 
 can take root. This process is a very slow one, it cannot 
 be done at once. 
 
 It is the Teutonic race which was destined to realize 
 religious and political democracy. It was Germany 
 which effected the religious reformation : it was the 
 Anglo-Saxon who wrought out the religious principles 
 of this religious reformation into political existence. 
 
 Who must not admire the wonderful ways of Provi- 
 dence ! The same time which beheld the struggle of 
 Luther, drove a Spanish adventurer to the discovery 
 of a new world, a world which Spanish despotism 
 thought of using for its tyrannical purposes ; but which 
 the great spirit of history had selected as the field, 
 on which the idea, just produced in the old world by 
 thousands of years of human exertions, was to be planted 
 
AMERICA. 33 
 
 and fostered, and should grow till it overshadowed the 
 whole earth. 
 
 This new world was a " tabula rasa ;" here there was 
 nothing to be destroyed, which stood in the way of 
 the new edifice ; here every possible building could be 
 erected without resistance, without that deadly struggle, 
 which every reformer, every builder had to meet with 
 in Europe. America was a blank sheet of paper, on 
 which every character could be written ; a few Anglo- 
 Saxon Protestants went over and wrote on it the word, 
 " Democracy," the great watchword of the future. This 
 word was the idea, which thousands of years had laboured 
 to produce in the old world. It was the tardy fruit of 
 Christianity ; it comprehended everything which every 
 inspired mind had struggled and died for since the com- 
 mencement of history. 
 
 For one moment the old world tried to establish itself 
 in the new one, but it was in vain, its struggles served 
 only to foster and to hasten the growth of the new 
 principle. 
 
 Every liberal law, every popular custom, which was 
 to be found here and there in the old states of Europe, 
 in England, Holland, or Italy, and which had been es- 
 tablished here without being conscious of its real prin- 
 ciple in the hour of practical necessity, was proclaimed 
 in Maryland, Rhode Island, or Connecticut, as the right 
 of the individual. That liberty, which was but acci- 
 dental, which was but a "privilege" on the old his- 
 torical soil of Europe, became a conscious principle, 
 became a right of man in the wilderness of America. 
 Posterity admires the forward liberality of a Frederick 
 the Great, who said, that every one in his states could 
 go to heaven in his own " fagon;" but a century before 
 this great king the governor of Maryland took the oath, 
 that he would not by himself or any other, " directly or 
 indirectly, molest any person professing to believe in 
 Jesus Christ, for or in respect of religion." " The 
 Roman Catholics," says Bancroft, who were oppressed 
 by the laws of England, were sure to " find a peaceful 
 c 5 
 
34 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 asylum in the quiet harbours of the Chesapeake ; and 
 there, too, Protestants were sheltered against Protestant 
 intolerance ;" and this was at a time when the most 
 tolerant of European nations, the Germans were destroy- 
 ing each other with fire and sword in the thirty-years' war. 
 
 But these American colonies were by themselves too 
 small to hold up to the world the practicability of their 
 democratical principles. Besides this, being thousands 
 of miles removed from the European theatre, they lived 
 unregarded by the many, and unknown to the great 
 mass of the nations of the old world. It was necessary 
 that they should unite their strength and their princi- 
 ples, and that united they should become an indepen- 
 dent member in the society of civilized states. 
 
 " The Declaration of Independence" by the "repre- 
 sentatives of the United States of America in Congress 
 assembled," on the 4th July, 1776, opened a new era 
 in the history of political life. The very commence- 
 ment of this ever-memorable manifesto is remarkable, 
 and in the true spirit of our democratic times. " When, 
 in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for 
 one people to dissolve the political bonds which have 
 connected them with another, and to assume, among the 
 powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to 
 which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle 
 them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind re- 
 quires that they should declare the causes which impel 
 them to the separation." Thus started the greatest 
 democracy the world ever saw, with an appeal to the 
 opinions of mankind, laying before the world a list of 
 complaints, and invoking to public opinion for a judg- 
 ment, that these complaints justify the absolution from 
 all allegiance to an oppressive crown. "We hold these 
 truths to be self-evident : that all men are created equal ; 
 that they are endowed by their Creator with certain un- 
 alienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and 
 the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, 
 governments are instituted among men, deriving their 
 just powers from the consent of the governed ; that 
 
AMERICA. 35 
 
 whenever any form of government becomes destructive 
 of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or 
 to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its 
 foundation on such principles and organizing its powers 
 in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect 
 their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dic- 
 tate, that governments long established, should not be 
 changed for light and transient causes ; and accordingly 
 all experience hath shown, that mankind are more dis- 
 posed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right 
 themselves, by abolishing the forms to which they are 
 accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and 
 usurpations, pursuing unvariably the same object, evinces 
 a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is 
 their right, it is their duty, to throw off such govern- 
 ment, and to provide new guards for their future se- 
 curity." Here there are laid down all the fundamental 
 principles which form the popular demands of our 
 times, equality of men, certain unaliendble rights, sove- 
 reignty of the people, right of resistance against tyranny, 
 It is true that these doctrines were not new, that on the 
 contrary they were long since taught by many a writer 
 of the old world, by Milton, Languet, Sidney, and others, 
 that the sovereignty of the people and the right of re- 
 sistance against tyranny, were even practised now and 
 then in Europe, as in the English revolution, in Holland, 
 Italy, Switzerland ; but they were never proclaimed as 
 the fundamentall aw of a great country ; they were never 
 before held up to the world by the whole of a great and 
 sober nation as rights, which are born with men, and 
 of which no people should allow itself to be deprived. 
 The English " Magna Charta" was but a privilege 
 granted by a weak and tyrannical king to some states 
 of the English nation in the hour of danger, and the 
 republics of Europe were governed by a few aristo- 
 cratic families. The impression which this declaration, 
 and the following success of the American struggle, made 
 on the people of Europe, was enormous. Prepared as 
 the mind already was by the French writers, the realiza- 
 
36 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 tion of such principles was hailed with an enthusiasm 
 which seized even those, against whom these principles 
 were directed. In the " Salons" of the most absolute 
 king of Europe and of the proudest feudal-aristocrats, 
 the deeds of the Americans were applauded with an 
 ardour which was only surpassed by the noble youth 
 who hastened to offer his blood for the cause of freedom 
 and equality. How little did these people anticipate, 
 that a few years afterwards these same principles would 
 lead them to the scaffold, or turn them into poor and 
 homeless exiles ! 
 
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 37 
 
 V. TIIE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 HOWEVER great the influence was which the American 
 Revolution exercised on the mind of the people of Eu- 
 rope, the very fact that this revolution was greeted with 
 enthusiasm by monarchs and aristocrats, shows that the 
 idea was very far from being entertained, that the prin- 
 ciples, realized in the back woods of a country, thou- 
 sands of miles distant from the soil of history, and on a 
 boundless territory almost without proprietors, could be 
 introduced into a world where every foot of land and 
 every tree had its old historical right and privilege ; 
 where the individual was separated from the individual 
 by the inheritance of centuries, and where every thing 
 and every one had their master. Just as in the public 
 schools and colleges of continental despotisms, the youth 
 studies with zeal and affection the constitution of re- 
 publican Greece and Rome, and a Professor of elo- 
 quence gives at the public celebration of the birthday 
 of the monarch, and in his very presence, a Latin speech 
 on the patriotic spirit of Brutus, and elevates in the 
 most florid Ciceronian phrases his hatred against tyranny ; 
 so the American democracy appeared in Europe as a 
 beautiful image, which even tyrants admired, but which 
 was thought as far off from the European world as 
 ancient Athens and Rome was from modern Paris-, 
 Vienna, or Berlin as heaven is from earth. Democracy, 
 a practice beyond, was still a theory on this side of the 
 Atlantic. 
 
 The French Revolution came. In one night the whole 
 edifice of feudalism, fostered by a thousand years, fell 
 to the ground. The doctrines of liberty and equality, 
 believed to be only practicable in the wilds of the new 
 world, became the actual law of a great country in the 
 ancient Europe were sanctioned by the proudest of 
 
38 
 
 THE FRENCH 
 
 kings, by a successor of Louis XIV. The great prin- 
 ciples, which the American " Declaration " had only pro- 
 claimed in general terms, were specified and introduced 
 under the name " the rights of men and citizens," the 
 French constitution of 1791, the first written modern 
 constitution which Europe beheld.* 
 
 The " Rights of men" declared : 
 
 " Art. 1 , All men are born free and with equal rights. 
 Social distinctions must have no other object than the 
 common welfare." 
 
 " Art. 2. The end of every political association is the 
 conservation of the natural and unalienable rights of 
 man. These rights are : liberty, property, safety, and 
 resistance against oppression." 
 
 "Art. 3. The principal source of all Sovereignty i 
 essentially in the nation. No corporation can exercise 
 any other authority but that which is derived from the 
 people." 
 
 "Art. 4. Liberty consists in being allowed to do 
 every thing which does no harm to any other man. 
 Therefore the exercise of the natural rights of man has 
 no other limits than those which secure the advantages 
 of the same rights to the other members of society. 
 These limits can only be fixed by law." 
 
 " Art. 5. The law must prohibit only such actions 
 as are hurtful to society. Nothing which the law does 
 not prohibit, ought be prevented ; and nobody can be 
 compelled to do what the law does not prescribe." 
 
 " Art. 6. The law is the expression of the will of all. 
 All citizens have a right to take part either personally 
 or by deputies in stating this will. The law must be 
 equal for all, whether it be protecting or punishing. As 
 all the citizens are equal before the law, the way to all 
 dignities, employments, and public offices, must be equally 
 
 * As this Constitution is dated from the 14th September, 1791, 
 and the Constitution of Poland from the 8th May, 1791, the 
 Polish Constitution is properly the first. But this Constitution 
 passed unregarded, as the eyes of Europe were at this time directed 
 towards France, and as it never was executed. 
 
REVOLUTION. 39 
 
 open to all according to their ability, and without any 
 other regard but to their virtues and talents." 
 
 "Art. 7. Nobody must be accused, arrested, or kept 
 prisoner except in the cases fixed by law and under forms 
 prescribed by law. He who tries to get, who gives, 
 executes, or causes to be executed, arbitrary orders of 
 arrest shall be punished." 
 
 " Art. 8. The law must fix only real and necessary 
 punishments, and nobody must be punished except by 
 order of a law, which is already issued before the com- 
 mission of the offence, and which is published and ap- 
 plied in the lawful way." 
 
 " Art. 9. As every one is considered as not guilty 
 until he is declared as guilty, every severity, which is 
 not absolutely necessary for securing his person, must 
 by all means be prevented in case his arrest should be 
 considered unavoidable." 
 
 "Art. 10. Nobody shall be troubled on account of 
 his convictions, not even in affairs of religion, provided 
 that their manifestation does not disturb the public 
 order established by law." 
 
 " Art. \ 1 . The free communication of thought and 
 opinion is one of the most valuable rights of man ; every 
 citizen is allowed to speak, write, and print freely on 
 condition, that he is responsible for the abuse of this 
 freedom in cases fixed by law." 
 
 " Art. 12. An armed force is necessary for the gua- 
 rantee of the rights of men and citizens ; this force is to 
 be established for the advantage of all, and not only for 
 the special use of those to whom it is entrusted." 
 
 " Art. 13. A general taxation is unavoidable in order 
 to keep that armed force, and for the other expenses of 
 administration ; this taxation must be equally divided 
 amongst all citizens according to their fortune." 
 
 " Art. 14. All the citizens either by themselves or 
 by deputies have the right to state the necessity of a 
 public taxation, to give their free consent for levying it, 
 to watch its use, and to fix the share of each, its amount, 
 its levying, and duration." 
 
40 THE FRENCH 
 
 "Art. 15. Society has a right to demand an account 
 of his administration from every public servant." 
 
 " Art. 16. A society, in which the guarantee of rights 
 is not secured and the separation of the powers not 
 fixed, has no constitution." 
 
 "Art. 17. As property is an inviolable and sacred 
 right, nobody can be deprived of it except public ne- 
 cessity, acknowledged by law, demand it imperiously ; 
 but even then only on condition of a just and previous 
 indemnification." 
 
 Such " Rights" resounded like heavenly music in the 
 heart of the continental people, who for a long course of 
 years had seen nothing but the tyranny and profligacy 
 of the courts, the insolence and worthlessness of the 
 nobility, serfdom of the peasants, the wasting of the 
 heavy public taxes with " maitresses " and favourites, 
 arbitrary arrests, imprisonments for years without trial, 
 " jus primae noctis," the defenders of the country sold 
 to foreign princes to fight their battles beyond the 
 ocean, confiscations, in short, every thing which de- 
 grades human nature. Was it to be wondered at, that 
 when, after the insolent declaration of the Duke of 
 Brunswick, and after a powerful league of despots had 
 attacked France, the French armies entered the terri- 
 tories of their enemies, the mass of the people of these 
 territories looked at least with indifference on this attack 
 upon their governments, or hailed the conquerors with 
 secret or open sympathies ? Are the people to be re- 
 proached for not showing more patriotism than their 
 masters, who taught them to fight for foreign interests 
 against their own country and their own countrymen ? 
 The French Republic declared, that, " The men of all 
 countries are brethren, and the different people must 
 assist each other like citizens of the same state." And 
 " whoever oppresses but one nation, he declares himself 
 the enemy of all ;" and certainly it had the same right 
 to do so, as the despots had to league with each other 
 against the liberty of the people, though they should 
 even call this league a " Holy Alliance" 
 
BEVOLUTION. 41 
 
 The conquests of the Republic and Empire mani- 
 fested at once the rottenness of the continental states, 
 and the weakness of despotism. Empires with half a 
 million of soldiers fell in one day ; one battle, and less 
 than that, was sufficient to destroy kingdoms. In many 
 a capital the French armies were greeted, not as con- 
 querors, but as deliverers by the brothers and sisters of 
 those, whose blood they had just spilt in the latest battle.* 
 Despotism lived to see that it had only flatterers in the 
 hour of fortune, but no friends in the hour of danger. 
 Of the monarchy of Frederick the Great, there re- 
 mained after the battle of Jena, scarcely more than one 
 province. Proud Austria, after having laid down the 
 imperial title of Germany, saved herself by marrying 
 her daughter to the conqueror, a " parvenu." The 
 smaller states of Germany crept before the French 
 generals, and were too glad to lead on an inglorious ex- 
 istence under their protection. When the French armies 
 marched in triumph to the " holy city" of the " White 
 Czar," deputies of Dissenters from the Orthodox Church 
 came to greet the invaders as the conquerors of the 
 " Antichrist," and the " holy Russia" has to thank only 
 her existence for the dreadful rigour of her climate. 
 
 Never before were the principles of democracy so 
 completely laid down in any European state document. 
 The "Rights of men" became, therefore, not only the 
 law of France, but as they had given a true expression 
 to the political opinion of the whole civilized world, as 
 in them man had become conscious of his right and 
 his dignity, they are henceforth the guide of every 
 liberal constitution. Wherever we see afterwards a 
 struggle for constitutional rights, this "Declaration" 
 was either openly upheld as the ideal image, or formed 
 the pattern of all popular governments. Even in the 
 aristocratic Parliament of England, Mr. Fox dared to 
 declare, that he considered the new constitution of 
 France, " as the most stupendous and glorious edifice of 
 liberty, which had been erected on the foundation of 
 human integrity in any age or country." 
 
 * For instance in Berlin, after the battle of Jena. 
 
42 DEMOCBACY, EQUALITY, 
 
 VI. DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY, AND COMMUNISM. 
 
 DOWN to the most recent times the word Democracy has 
 had no good reputation in England. The English 
 people in general had connected with the idea of 
 democracy everything dreadful and unclean ; revolt, 
 barricades, murder, plunder, the guillotine, communism, 
 filth waved before their eyes when they heard the word 
 democracy pronounced. They have thought of the 
 ochlocracy of Athens, under the guidance of the Tanner 
 Cleon ; of the wild outburst of popular passion under 
 a Marat, and Collot d'Herbois ; they have fancied de- 
 mocracy to be the government of the rabble, or racier the 
 anarchy of the rabble. But the present war, and the 
 attention it has drawn towards the condition of the con- 
 tinental people, has to a great extent smoothed down in 
 England the hostile feelings towards democracy, so 
 much so that the most conservative newspapers have 
 changed the bad epithet, " democratic," into " ultra- 
 democratic ;" and, at the opening of the Crystal Palace, 
 at Sydenham, an official speaker pointed out justly, that 
 that glorious undertaking was a purely democratical oiie. 
 English society is more aristocratic than any society 
 in Europe ; nowhere are these exclusive and suspicious 
 feelings so strong as iu England, because the lower classes 
 have been kept so long in a state of ignorance and rude- 
 ness, without a parallel in any country of the continent. 
 It was natural, that the educated did not like to meddle 
 with the uneducated and rough. The merits which the 
 nobility have deserved in the development of English 
 freedom, gave a lustre to the nobles, before which the 
 other classes willingly bent. The institution of primo- 
 geniture, and the hereditary right of legislation on the 
 one side ; the costliness of a good education on the other 
 side, have kept the mediaeval state of society alive, the 
 
AND COMMUNISM. 43 
 
 more so as an insular position has allowed very little con- 
 nection with continental society. If we understand de- 
 mocracy to be the participation of all classes of society in 
 the government, by universal suffrage, the English people 
 naturally could not be democratical, because a large 
 portion of this people was neither educated enough for 
 such a participation, nor had they the desire for it. But 
 if we understand under democracy, the dominion of 
 public opinion, there is perhaps, with the only exception 
 of Switzerland, no country in Europe more democratical; 
 for all those who have an opinion at all, have in England 
 the power and liberty to pronounce this opinion, and to 
 make its value felt. But what is democracy, and on 
 what principle is it founded ? 
 
 Though the word democracy is a Greek word, (D/*O? 
 people, xpaTr>> to govern), and means the dominion of 
 the people ; the real value of democracy was never 
 known by the Greeks, nor by any other people of anti- 
 quity. As democracy means the domination of the peo- 
 ple, the question must naturally be, who are the people ? 
 The answer to this question is, in the different periods 
 of ancient and modern history, very different ; and how- 
 ever easy it seems, it is indeed very difficult to gain it. 
 In the most democratical times of Athens, the most de- 
 mocratical state of Greece, an Athenian would have 
 answered, all free Athenians are the people of Athens* 
 Thus, as there were about 140,000 freemen, and 400,000 
 slaves, in Athens, these 400,000 slaves did not belong 
 to the people ; and if we consider the democracy of 
 Athens in the light of modern democratical notions, the 
 constitution of Athens was an aristocracy, the domination 
 of the minority, of 140,000 men, over 400,000 fellow- 
 creatures. The same is to be said about the so-called 
 Roman democracy. But if democracy means not only 
 the domination of the people, but the equal participation 
 of all members of the people in the government, the 
 Athenian constitution deserves much less the name of 
 democracy ; for many public offices, as for instance that 
 of Ephetes, were only accessible to privileged persons, 
 
44 DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY, 
 
 and the differences of acrro? l| a/A^o>, voSo?, //STOXO$, etc., 
 were still in existence in the most democratical times of 
 Athens. 
 
 The fundamental principle on which the idea of de- 
 mocracy rests, is the dignity of man, or to use a German 
 philosophical phrase, "the infinite value of personality." 
 Man is an " image of God," as the Scriptures say, his 
 real essence is divine ; he is possessed of an immortal 
 soul, and a divine reason. In this all men are alike, 
 they are all children of God, they are all the " crown of 
 creation ; " the prince is like the beggar, the Negro like 
 the European, the slave like the master. This idea, so 
 simple, so intelligible, was unknown throughout thou- 
 sands of years of human history. 
 
 Aristotle, the greatest of Greek philosophers, with all 
 his metaphysical acuteness, could not perceive this simple 
 truth ; for him, slaves were born like beasts of burden, 
 that man might be able to devote himself to higher 
 occupations. Antiquity could thus produce no demo- 
 cracy, because it had no idea of humanity. 
 
 It was left to Christianity to pull down the barrier, 
 which men had raised amongst themselves. Christianity 
 is in its real character democratic, it proclaimed equality 
 before God, it told the world that men are born equal, 
 all children of God, and that the real value of man in 
 this world, depends upon how far he has realized that 
 which is born with him as a possibility ; how far he has 
 displayed this his true divine nature. If men are dif- 
 ferent, Christianity says, they are not so by nature, but 
 by their desertion from this nature, by their apostacy 
 from God. 
 
 It is often objected, why Christ and the first Christian 
 communities did not directly attack slavery, why Chris- 
 tianity allowed for centuries the existence of serfs and 
 slaves ? The answer is not very difficult. The Chris- 
 tianity of the first ages directed its efforts not to the in- 
 stitutions but to the heart and mind of men ; it wanted 
 to recreate the internal man, of whom the external 
 world is but a manifestation ; it marched directly to the 
 
AND COMMUNISM. 45 
 
 source of human affairs. But in the brotherhood of the 
 first Christians, slaves were received as well as freemen ; 
 and the Catholic Church of Hildebrand knew before its 
 tribunal no difference between a serf and an emperor. 
 Christianity showed so much its democratical character, 
 that it principally addressed itself to the lower classes ; 
 and the word of Christ, about the rich man and the 
 camel's going through the eye of a needle, proves suffi- 
 ciently that Christ expected the regeneration of man- 
 kind principally from the uncorrupted heart of the 
 lower classes. It is a peculiar observation, that in all 
 great periods of transition, when the common under- 
 standing of man is overpowered by enthusiasm for those 
 rising ideas which are destined to govern the coming 
 period, democracy has raised its head, accompanied 
 often by all the extravagances of an uncultivated and 
 excited mind. These accessory companions of demo- 
 cracy have been mistaken for innate parts of its 
 character, and have not a little contributed to make 
 democracy unpopular and hated by the higher classes. 
 In ordinary times the mind of man flows in the historic 
 channel, narrowed by all the prejudices and superstitions 
 handed down to the times ; but when Providence wants 
 to introduce a new world-moving idea, a recreating 
 principle, it excites the enthusiasm of a hero or a 
 martyr, who carries with him a crowd excited by his 
 genius. This enthusia'sm, generally excited first in 
 the lower grades of human society, which are less tied 
 to existing conditions, breaks through the ordinary flow 
 of existing opinions, and tries to reconstruct the 
 world by thoughts " a priori." But the mind lifted up 
 by enthusiasm into the region of ideas, gets dizzy when 
 it loses the existing world out of sight, and loses itself 
 in phantasms. Thus communism was the steady com- 
 panion of democracy, as well in the first Christian com- 
 munities, as in the popular excitements following the 
 Reformation ; and in the French Revolution, so much 
 so, that communism is with some people inseparable 
 from democracy. 
 
46 DEMOCBACY, EQUALITY, 
 
 But we return to our first question, who are the 
 people ? Any one who attended the popular meetings 
 on the Continent, during the years 1848 50, must 
 have got the impression that many of the popular 
 leaders answered the question thus : The working- 
 classes are the people ! Louis Blanc, in " Hist, des 
 dix ans," says, " Par bourgeoisie j'entendsl'ensemble des 
 citoyens qui, possedant des instruments de travail ou un 
 capital, travaillent avec des ressources, qui leur sont 
 propres et ne dependent d'autrui que dans une certaine 
 mesure. Le peuple est 1' ensemble des citoyens qui ne 
 possedant pas de capital dependent d'autrui complete- 
 ment, et en ce qui touche aux premieres necessites de la 
 vie." Now it is very intelligible, that a public speaker 
 should address himself a little to the vanity of his hearers, 
 but many of those popular leaders went further. They 
 called together a meeting of some thousand people, they 
 agreed, after some stormy discussions, upon certain 
 points referring to some political or social alteration; 
 went then to the parliament, and demanded the execu- 
 tion of these points, " in the name of the people." And 
 these same leaders proclaimed democracy to be dominion 
 of the majority ! The aristocrats had certainly a right 
 to say, "We also are a part of the people," and the de- 
 puties of the nation assembled in parliament objected 
 justly, " We are the lawful representatives of the people." 
 The working-classes are certainly a most necessary and 
 respectable portion of the people ; but it was a blunder of 
 those democrats, who pretended to acknowledge nothing 
 but the government of the majority, to mistake a portion 
 for the whole, pars pro toto. But this mistake was 
 caused by the historical process of social development. 
 The French Revolution had destroyed the reign of the 
 nobility and clergy, and established instead the reign of 
 the " bourgeois," or the " citoyen;" but the French 
 Revolution was more logical, it did not say, the " bour- 
 geois " shall govern and not the noblemen and the priest, 
 it went further, and said, there shall be no noblemen and 
 priest, all shall be '* citoyens." The French Revolution 
 
AND COMMUNISM. 47 
 
 was thus a social revolution as well as a political. But 
 the principle of political and social equality, proclaimed 
 in the first constitutions was violated, after the Septem- 
 ber days of '95, and the lower or working-classes were 
 excluded. 
 
 The bourgeois had pulled down the barrier between 
 himself and the nobleman, he erected now another be- 
 tween himself and the working-man. The whole ten- 
 dency of the revolutions of our days is directed to 
 destroy this new barrier, and to establish democracy, as 
 many democrats mistake it, as the reign of the working 
 classes ; as the reasonable democrats comprehend it, 
 as the reign of all, as the equal participation of all classes 
 in government, as the reign of the people. 
 
 Here we arrive again at our question, Who are the 
 people ? to which the still more complicated question 
 must be added: How can and must the people govern 
 itself? These are the two fundamental questions, which 
 democracy must answer, an answer which is open to 
 infinite discussions. 
 
 The first cry of our times is, " Universal suffrage ; " 
 even aristocratic England has so far proceeded, as to 
 admit that after a certain time, and under certain cir- 
 cumstances, the English people will be prepared for 
 " universal suffrage," and are certain to have it ; nay, has 
 established it already in the colonies. 
 
 Thus " universal suffrage " seems by common con- 
 sent to be the foundation-stone of a democratical govern- 
 ment. But there are people for whom universal suf- 
 frage is not universal enough. Under universal suffrage 
 is generally understood, that every male person, of the 
 lawful age of twenty-one, or as in some States of Ger- 
 many, twenty-four or twenty-five, has a vote in electing 
 a representative of the people, unless he be a criminal, 
 or an insane person. Now it is known that, especially 
 some American ladies, assisted by some courteous gen- 
 tlemen, consider that the " mulier taceat in ecclesia," the 
 exclusion of women from political rights, is a remnant 
 of barbarism, and contend, that Christianity has raised 
 the fp*^ale sex to an equal position with the male, and 
 
48 DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY, 
 
 that civilization demands imperiously, the participation 
 of ladies in political rights. It is in vain to tell them, 
 that by governing the men through the gentle bond of 
 love, they have in reality a larger share in conducting 
 public affairs than they themselves believe ; it is in vain 
 to assure them, that the greatest part of their sex does 
 not wish at all to trouble themselves with political con- 
 tests, that they are satisfied with the love of their hus- 
 bands, and the dominion of the household. 
 
 It would lead us too far to dip deeper into this com- 
 plicated question ; we wanted only to show, that the 
 answer to the question, who are the people ? is more 
 difficult than appears at the first glance. 
 
 But how can and must the people govern itself ? On 
 no political subject are there so many different opinions. 
 It will suffice to point out the principal differences. 
 Political science distinguishes, especially since Montes- 
 quieu, three principal actions or powers in the govern- 
 ment, legislation, (la puissance legislative) administra- 
 tion, (la puissance executive des choses, qui dependent 
 du droit des gens), and jurisdiction, (la puissance execu- 
 tive de celles qui dependent du droit civil). As to the 
 legislation, it is general that the people exercise this 
 right through the medium of representatives, as it is im- 
 possible that the whole people can in person partake in 
 every measure of legislation ; but in the " Ex*Arcna " of 
 Athens, and in the " Urversammlungen " of Switzerland, 
 the principal legislative questions are brought immediately 
 before the whole male adult population, which decides 
 thus without the interference of representatives. Another 
 kind of democratical legislation, if we may call it so, has 
 sprung up in our days in France. Here we see a 
 people, which have given their whole legislative power 
 into the hand of one single individual, whether willingly 
 or not does not concern the theory. The question would 
 be, whether such a government does not cease to be a 
 democratical one ; but mere theory must answer, that a 
 people have certainly the right to give their legislation 
 into the hands of one representative, as well as of 800 ! 
 
AND COMMUNISM. 49 
 
 Another consideration is, whether one individual is 
 capable of representing in all his measures the true will 
 of the people, even if he had the desire to do so, especi- 
 ally if he is not guided by a free press. The ingenuity 
 of modern statesmen has invented another kind of 
 representation, the " Urwaehler," all male members of 
 the people choose a certain number of electors (Waehler) 
 who have then to elect the representatives. 
 
 In the States General and national assemblies of the 
 middle ages there were, properly speaking, not the peo- 
 ple represented, but the nobility, the clergy, and the 
 towns ; to which in some countries in later times were 
 added the small landed proprietors (Bauern). Every 
 order acted in its own interest, and was constantly on 
 its guard, that these interests were not violated by the 
 other orders ; the grossest egoism and jealousy were 
 the chief actors in these assemblies, which seldom con- 
 certed any other measure in common than the support 
 of a foreign war; sometimes the common resistance 
 against an aggressive prince. These assemblies were 
 easily overturned on the continent by the rising abso- 
 lutism of royalty, which stood at least above the narrow- 
 minded and narrow-hearted interests of the orders ; and 
 acted often in a patriotic spirit, and for the benefit of 
 the oppressed. 
 
 Though there are still constitutions which rest on the 
 mediaeval principles of the representation of orders, 
 towns, and interests, as in England, the character of 
 modern constitutional policy is, that every representative 
 shall act in the spirit and the name of the whole people ; 
 that his opinion shall represent public opinion. The 
 democratical demand of our times is therefore, that the 
 representative shall be elected by a district, or by a 
 certain number of electors, without regard to their order, 
 profession, or occupation. The English constitution, 
 although theoretically based on mediaeval principles, is 
 practically acting in the spirit of modern times. The 
 human principles of our days have so far overpowered 
 the narrow-mindedness of special interests, that nobody 
 
50 DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY, 
 
 would dare to propose or support a measure, which by 
 promoting the interests of a certain order, violated the 
 common well-being ; on the contrary, every represen- 
 tative, whilst proposing a measure of special interest, is 
 anxious to show that this measure is as well for the 
 common interest of the country, and every speaker in 
 parliament takes great pains to present himself as the 
 organ of the public opinion of his country, or still more 
 as that of reason and humanity. This is the fundamen- 
 tal difference between the parliaments and legislative 
 assemblies of the nineteenth century, and the states- 
 general and diets of the fifteenth. 
 
 This is the great victory gained by the human mind, 
 of which the philosophy and the press of the eighteenth 
 and nineteenth century have not a little to boast, that 
 man is conscious of his dignity, as the representative of 
 humanity and of reason ; that he has ceased to consider 
 his own value only in the light of an Athenian acrroq, civis 
 Romanus, nobleman, or merchant; but that, whatever 
 he may be, his greatest pride is, to be a useful member 
 of his country, to be a worthy partner in the civilization 
 and humanity of his century. 
 
 The question in what way the people shall manage the 
 administration and jurisdiction is still more open to dis- 
 cussion. 
 
 It is a common error, that democracy demands abso- 
 lutely a republic, and that monarchy is irreconcilable 
 with democratical institutions. If by monarchy is 
 understood the divine right of monarchy, or mo- 
 narchy " by the grace of God," as the Germans call 
 it, of course nothing can be more opposed to demo- 
 cratical principles ; for this monarchy is the despotism 
 of the " Holy Alliance ; " but if the management of 
 certain administrative powers by an emperor, king, or 
 queen, either elected by the people, or hereditary with 
 the full consent of the people, is called monarchy, such 
 a monarchy is consistent with democracy, if not in its 
 purest form, still with its spirit. 
 
 It would lead us too far from our purpose to enter 
 
AND COMMUNISM. 51 
 
 upon all the different opinions which are held by demo- 
 crats, upon the way in which the administrative body 
 ought to be constituted : we will only point out that 
 there exist differences, whether this body is to be elected 
 directly by the whole people, or indirectly by represen- 
 tatives of the people, and how far the superior officers of 
 administration shall have the power to choose their sub- 
 officers and assistants ; then whether there shall be 
 placed at the head of the whole administration one 
 responsible president or a directorium. All these ques- 
 tions can be answered in a different way in different 
 states, without an essential difference in their democra- 
 tical character. The constitution of a people is but the 
 coat in which the social body is dressed, its form is not 
 only dependent upon the state of education and en- 
 lightenment in the different classes of society, but upon 
 certain opinions, and perhaps prejudices, which a people 
 may have gained in the course of their history, and by 
 their geographical position. Certainly there is a model, 
 which ought to be the end and aim of all constitutions; 
 but, even if all nations have agreed what this model is, 
 the ways in which it is to be realised can and must be 
 different. 
 
 Since the great French Revolution, since the time 
 that the world became conscious of the essence of de- 
 mocracy, and proclaimed it as the political form in which 
 true humanity and civilization must appear, many un- 
 successful attempts at democracy have been made, in 
 France, Germany, and other countries of Europe. We 
 have already mentioned, that the political influence of 
 Russia was one great obstacle in the way of the demo- 
 crats ; but we should give too much honour to that 
 barbarous power, if we believed that its influence alone 
 was capable of counteracting the efforts of all the people 
 of the Continent. What is the reason that the influence 
 of Russia is so great, or that she has any influence at 
 all upon the internal life of the European nations ? If 
 only one great nation of the Continent were thoroughly 
 convinced that democracy is its only fit political condition, 
 
52 DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY, 
 
 and this nation had agreed upon the form of democracy 
 which is bestto adopt, Russia would either have noinfluence 
 at all upon this nation, or would be obliged to influence 
 it by force of arms. Democracy on the continent has 
 not to fear so much its external as its internal enemies. 
 These internal enemies are in different countries very 
 different ; here it is the low state of education amongst 
 the lower classes, there it is the selfishness, and the 
 want of courage of the " bourgeoisie ;" there again it is 
 the false theories which are mixed up with democracy, 
 or a misunderstood notion of patriotism, or centralization. 
 Of all these different causes, which have prevented 
 hitherto the success of democracy in Europe, ignorance 
 of the true character of democracy is the greatest, be- 
 cause the source of all the rest. Democracy wants a tho- 
 roughly educated people. When we said, that the idea 
 of democracy is based on the dignity of man, it is 
 necessary that all members of the people should be 
 conscious of this dignity, and that they act in accordance 
 with this consciousness. The so-called lower-classes 
 can only vote freely and independently when they know 
 what they vote for, and when they are no longer obliged 
 to depend for this knowledge either on the explanation 
 of an employer or of a demagogue. An abstract equa- 
 lity of education, of course, will never be possible ; there 
 will always be higher-educated and lower-educated, but 
 there ought never to be a class of society which is not 
 educated at all. Education must not be the privilege 
 of certain orders, but the common good of a civilized 
 nation. One of the first demands which the democrats 
 in Germany raised was, therefore, that education should 
 not only be to a certain degree compulsory, but a public 
 and gratuitous institution, and that the expenses should 
 be paid out of the common treasury of the state or com- 
 munity. Certainly this demand was not less just, and 
 manifested no less an insight into the character of de- 
 mocracy, than the proceeding of democrats of a higher 
 education, to go amongst the workmen, to teach them 
 the doctrine of the dignity of man, and to tell them 
 
AND COMMUNISM. 53 
 
 that education was the surest way to form lasting derao- 
 cratical institutions. " If you want to be raised in the 
 political and social scale to an equality with the other 
 orders, you ought to raise yourselves to an equality of 
 civilization ;" thus the working classes were harangued, 
 and men of fifty years sat down in the established 
 evening lessons, to complete their neglected education, 
 to learn grammar, geography, history, and natural phi- 
 losophy. It was a grand sight this, and showed not a 
 little, an energy seldom to be met with in the higher 
 classes ; that men, after they had worked from five or 
 six o'clock in the morning till seven or eight in the 
 evening, spent the few hours of leisure and recreation in 
 the dry study of grammar and orthography.* 
 
 Another conquest which the civilization of modern 
 times has made, is the opinion, that labour, far from 
 being disgraceful, is an honour, for it is the activity and 
 labour of man by which he has subjugated nature, and 
 shows himself in reality the crown of creation. By the 
 assistance of the wonderful inventions of our age, which 
 take the hardest and most mechanical work from the shoul- 
 ders of man, and leave to him more the direction, the sur- 
 veyance of material forces, labour no longer oppresses 
 his intellect with its weight, or hardens his heart, but 
 refreshes his body, and keeps his energy vigorous. 
 Thus labour makes of a man no longer a beast of burden, 
 who works and suffers that the higher classes may have 
 leisure for the enjoyments of mind and heart, as Aris- 
 totle thought ; it no longer enslaves him, but leaves him 
 leisure enough to partake in all the higher thoughts and 
 feelings of mankind. 
 
 Nothing has more contributed to raise the fourth 
 order, as it is sometimes called, in the social scale, than 
 the splendid researches which science has made into the 
 
 * The Section I. of the statutes of the Mechanics' Institution 
 (Arbeiter Verein) at Rostock, says, "The Institution (Verein) aims 
 at the political and literary education, which is necessary for the 
 realization of civil liberty and equality, and by means of it at the 
 intellectual, moral, and material well-being of its members." 
 
54 PEMOCBACY, EQUALITY, 
 
 mysterious powers of nature, and the great inventions, 
 which are the result of these researches. The sombre 
 spirit of the middle ages, with its contempt for nature 
 and the material world, was unable to promote the 
 study of natural philosophy. When the prejudices about 
 an ungodly nature were broken, when man commenced 
 to admire in the material world God's creative power, 
 and one of his chief revelations, then man, by finding 
 God in nature, found a God in himself, and learnt that 
 he ought to be worthy of this God ; then, and no sooner, 
 he came to the true understanding of what Christianity 
 means. 
 
 It is repeatedly said, by Englishmen and Germans, 
 that only in the character of the Teutonic race is to be 
 found the foundation of a true democratical government. 
 The individuality which is so strong in their character 
 is justly praised as the fundamental principle on which 
 democracy or every free government must rest. The 
 history of I ranee has certainly created in that country, 
 in an opposite direction to her sister-country, Germany, 
 a centralization, not only of the government, but of the 
 whole life and ideas of the Frenchman. If this centra- 
 lization has prevented France from falling into small, 
 petty states, and thus united the whole strength of the 
 nation, which, moved by patriotism and glory, has pro- 
 duced such wonders in the world, it has been, on the 
 other side, the cause why all attempts at a popular or 
 democratical government have hitherto failed. France, 
 geographically considered, is thoroughly monarchical, 
 one cr --nrnct - ! stent tract of kjd, governed in all 
 her iclec.s ay faris. ""he history of the last century has 
 shown, that such an organization of a country is irre- 
 concilable with a free government, with democratical 
 peace and prosperity. Democracy is the full develop- 
 ment of the individual, in and by means of a union. 
 There are two points : the individual, in his full and 
 free development ; and the union, whether it be called 
 society or the state. In despotism, union is everything, 
 the life of individuals is centralized in one individual, 
 
AND COMMUNISM. 55 
 
 the individual is lost in the state. It seems as if the 
 individual exists only for the sake of the state. All 
 despots have therefore striven to centralize the govern- 
 ment and the life of the country in the capital and their 
 own person. The French kings succeeded in those 
 efforts more than others, and what the kings left undone 
 Napoleon finished. Centralization is thus, in France, 
 the product of her history ; the struggles of the parlia- 
 ments and of the Htigenots, as well as the earlier 
 history of France, show that individual character was 
 here as strong as elsewhere, and that it is only her 
 geographical position, and her other historical conditions, 
 that have created a centralisation, which has been the 
 cause of all her external glory, and her internal misfor- 
 tune and struggles. Nothing is more unjust, and shows 
 more ignorance about the principles of democracy, than 
 to point to France, and to contend, that because here 
 all the attempts at a democracy have failed, democracy 
 is not capable of living, at least in our times. Demo- 
 cracy and centralization are two opposite and irrecon- 
 cileable ideas. In democracy the development of the 
 individual is everything, in centralization the state is 
 everything. -Democracy is rather a society of free and 
 independent individuals, than a state ; it is a " contrat 
 social." In democracy the divine reason, as pronounced 
 by the eternal laws of equity and justice, is developed 
 by the individual himself, out of his own bosom ; whilst 
 despotism imposes the laws, in the name of this divine 
 reason, upon the individual. As long as France does 
 not understand this truth, France will never see a real 
 lasting democracy ; all attempts at uniting democracy 
 with her centralization, will and must fail in future, as 
 they have failed before. Why is England, in spite of 
 her aristocracy, the freest and wealthiest country in 
 Europe ? Because it has the least centralization, and 
 because the individual is here least prevented from de- 
 veloping his abilities and his reason. The Germans 
 have, in Europe, the reputation of being theorists, and 
 an unpractical people, but the first thing they demanded, 
 
56 DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY, 
 
 and tried to establish or to develope, in 1848 r was the 
 self-government of the smaller communities, villages, 
 towns, and provinces, the " Gemeindeordnung/' Self- 
 government commences at home, the state must not be 
 an all-devouring Moloch ; but as individuals freely unite 
 into the community of a village, or a town, so the vil- 
 lages and towns must freely unite into the community 
 of the state. The dissolution of the state into society 
 was a doctrine which some democrats shouted into the 
 ears of the people. The people understood this phrase 
 practically ; they called it the union of free societies into 
 a state.* 
 
 If we cannot quite agree with those who attribute an 
 innate ability for self-government and democracy to the 
 Teutonic race exclusively for the independent spirit of 
 Spanish and Italian towns and provinces is quite as 
 strong as that of the English and German it is not to 
 be denied that the Teutonic countries alone have yet 
 produced a true self-government, or are partly in the 
 right direction to do so. 
 
 The division of Germany into such a number of petty 
 states certainly tears asunder the national strength, 
 which is wanted in the political scale of European 
 affairs ; but it is at the same time the surest guarantee 
 that Germany in future will be a democracy ; it is the 
 next step to it. Political circumstances may more 
 easily rid Germany of the enemies of her national unity 
 and strength, than they will break up in France this 
 fatal centralization, and convince the mind of the 
 French nation, that before all they need emancipation 
 from Paris, and the self-government in their villages 
 and towns. f The Germans have only to change a po- 
 
 * Englishmen are justly jealous about nothing so much as 
 about the independence of their communities ; the strong oppo- 
 sition against the police-measures, proposed hy government, gave 
 latterly a sufficient proof of it. 
 
 f Louis Napoleon, before he was emperor, said in his "Opinions 
 on various political and administrative questions," " Thus, instead 
 of endeavouring to introduce into France the aristocratic constitu- 
 tion of England, it weuld be better, were our statesmen to adopt 
 
AND COMMUNISM. 57 
 
 litical coat, which they long since knew as too tight, and 
 wholly unfit for them. The French need a change of 
 their convictions, a thing the most difficult to get. 
 With all their revolutions, and all their bustle about 
 " democratic sociale," the French are much farther oft' 
 from the true character of democracy than the Germans. 
 The latter, in their high national education, and their 
 stronger individualism, expressed in their half-indepen- 
 dent communities, have all the preparations ready, and 
 need only to wait for events. The French, when the 
 events come, are unprepared as before ; and as the 
 Germans formerly looked to France for the commence- 
 ment of these events, so the French will have to look to 
 Germany for convictions. 
 
 There are persons who fear that the free develop- 
 ment of the individual will lead to a <( bellum omnium 
 contra omnes," to the dissolution of all order and 
 society. They think, far from allowing the develop- 
 ment of the individual, that the state exists and is 
 necessary to put a check upon the individual. The 
 state represents with them the divine reason, to which 
 the individual has to submit in silent obedience. If we 
 consider the individual as this collection of errors 
 and passions, certainly it would be madness to contend, 
 that such free individuals would form a society or state ; 
 on the contrary, every union of these individuals vrould 
 be impossible. But what we contend for, as that on 
 which all the ideas of self-government, public opinion, 
 reign of majority, are based is, that the true character 
 of men is good, reasonable, divine. 
 
 History has laboured for thousands of years to clear 
 this his true character from all the crimes, errors, and 
 passions, which darken its brightness. Christianity has 
 shown man his true nature, and the civilization of our 
 
 from British institutions those which protect individual liberty, 
 which, encourage the spirit of association, and develope a spirit of 
 legality. It would be well also, if they were to borrow from 
 Germany its system of public education, and of municipal and 
 military organization." 
 
 D 5 
 
53 DEMOCBACY, EQUALITY, 
 
 times has taught him, that that which he looked for 
 without was really within himself. Every individual is 
 gifted with a divine reason ; by a long education of 
 thousands of years, this reason has become so strong in 
 man, that on the whole, it has become master of his 
 passions. There are still, in our times, individuals who 
 do not participate in this strength of reason in man, 
 which we generally call civilization ; but the great de- 
 mand of the present time is, that civilization must 
 embrace all men, all classes, all countries. What is it 
 that connects civilized individuals together, without any 
 external force, into a society, but reason I Have we not 
 seen in our days, and do we not see daily, that when 
 hundreds of individuals from Europe go to the back- 
 woods of America, or to the gold-fields of Australia, 
 were no law can reach them, no gensd'arme or constable 
 can catch them, that they live together peaceably, and 
 that if any scoundrel should be amongst them, he will 
 soon be turned out or brought to reason. 
 
 Brought to reason ! The very phrase of the language 
 shows that reason is the law which governs ; that reason 
 is the tie which connects individuals into a society, society 
 to states. In a given century, and in a given country, 
 the development of reason, and its government, is of 
 nearly equal level amongst those who are called educated 
 persons ; and even the non-educated are so much in- 
 fected by the surrounding civilization, that if their 
 degree of reason is lower, it is in general far higher 
 than that of the uneducated a century ago. 
 
 When in our days appeals are made to public opinion 
 in a country, or to the opinion of the civilized world, so 
 and so many millions of individuals are considered as 
 united into one great court of judges, whose law is 
 reason, reason so far as it is developed in the present 
 state of civilization. Is not such an appeal, made so 
 often by emperors, princes, and governments, in its 
 very principle thoroughly democratical ? Where is the 
 divine right of the monarchy, if this very monarchy 
 expects the sanction of its actions from public opinion ? 
 
AND COMMUNISM. 59 
 
 Does not monarchy represent itself in such appeals as a 
 delegate of the people ? Such is the power of the spirit 
 of democracy, that the most despotic monarchs have 
 bent unconsciously to it ! 
 
 The United States started into existence with the 
 declaration, " We hold these truths to be self-evident, 
 that all men are created equal." This was but a repeti- 
 tion of that doctrine, which Christ taught to mankind 
 more than seventeen centuries ago. Alas, the Chris- 
 tians had forgotten the chief lessons of their Great 
 Teacher ! The wealthy and the powerful pointed the 
 oppressed, the suffering, to heaven ; in heaven the poor 
 slaves were told, you shall be free and equal to us ; 
 suffer our cruelties patiently, they are the trials for 
 which you will be rewarded hereafter. Into such lan- 
 guage were wrested the words of the Prince of love. 
 
 More than seventeen centuries had elapsed, before a 
 state dared to build its constitution upon the first dogma 
 of Christianity; and oh, the inconsistency of human affairs ! 
 this same great state upholds slavery, and has a fugitive 
 slave law in the nineteenth century. 
 
 The French Revolution repeated, " All men are born 
 free, and with equal rights," and when the armies of 
 France marched through Europe with the words liberty 
 and equality on their standards, the princes, the nobles 
 liberated their serfs, and slavery was declared a shame 
 for Christianity and civilization. 
 
 It is the singular fate of all great ideas, that they are 
 most liable to misunderstanding, that they seem the 
 most hollow. Equality! can there be any equality 
 amongst men, who are so different in all external and 
 internal qualities ? The idea of equality is a beautiful 
 dream of the philanthropists, but can it ever be a reality ? 
 
 The American declaration proclaims, that all men " are 
 endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights ; 
 that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
 happiness." The sixth article of the French " Rights 
 of man " define more clearly this equality : " The law is 
 the expression of the will of all men. All citizens have 
 
60 DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY, 
 
 a right to take part, either personally or by deputies, in 
 stating this will. The law must be equal for all, whether 
 it be protecting or punishing. As all the citizens are 
 equal before the law, the way to all dignities, employ- 
 ments, and public offices, must be equally open to all, 
 according to their ability, and without any other regard 
 than to their virtues and talents." The revolutions of 
 1848 went a step farther in carrying out these principles, 
 " Nobility, as an order, is abolished," and " All titles, 
 as far as they are not connected with an office, were 
 abolished, never to be introduced again ; " so says 
 Article II. of the fundamental rights of the German 
 people. (Grundrechte des deutschen Volkes) sanctioned 
 at Frankfort, the 12th April, 1849 : " Titles of nobility, 
 distinction by birth, by division of classes and casts, are 
 abolished for ever," proclaims the Tenth Article of the 
 French Constitution of 1848. 
 
 Thus there remained only two inequalities amongst 
 men, that of character and abilities, and that of property. 
 If character and ability can to a certain degree be in- 
 fluenced by education, nobody will contend, that this 
 inequality amongst men will ever entirely disappear ; 
 on the contrary, an equality in those qualities would 
 be a misfortune for human society, which only exists by 
 the different labours of different abilities and powers. 
 The higher we go in our researches into the kingdoms 
 of nature, the more difference we see amongst their 
 species. To bring all members of human society down 
 to an equal level, if it were possible, would extinguish 
 the spirit of men, the characteristic genius of human- 
 kind. But education can equalize to a certain degree 
 the internal man as well in his moral as in his mental 
 faculties ; and this equality, which rather develops his 
 native difference than abolishes it, is justly aimed at by 
 the humane legislation of our days. " For instruction 
 in national schools (Volkschulen) and in the lower in- 
 dustrial schools no money is to be paid." "Those who 
 have no means (Unbemittelten,) shall have gratuitous 
 instruction in all public educational institutions," says 
 
AND COMMUNISM. 61 
 
 Art. VI. of the fundamental rights of the German people, 
 and the exertions lately made in the English parliament 
 to establish a national education, show that this idea of 
 equality, for a long time so strange to the ears of the 
 English people, has gained ground in this refuge of 
 aristocracy, and will not rest till it is realized. 
 
 The French communist Cabet reasons thus:* "As for 
 us the more we study history, the more we are pro- 
 foundly convinced, that inequality is the primitive cause 
 (la cause gene>atrice) of misery, and opulence of all 
 the vices which come from both, of cupidity, ambition, 
 jealousy, and hatred, of disorders and struggles of all 
 kind, in one word, of all the evils by which individuals 
 and nations are overwhelmed." It certainly does not 
 require much study to find out, that if all men were 
 alike rich, misery and opulence would not be possible ; 
 and that if they were alike able, ambition, jealousy, and 
 hatred, would have lost their principal source. M. 
 Cabet draws the conclusion, "But if we seriously and 
 ardently dive into the question, to know how society 
 could be democratically organized, that is to say, upon 
 the basis of equality and fraternity, we must acknow- 
 ledge that this organization demands and entails ne- 
 cessarily the community of property (la communaute des 
 biens.") 
 
 Every statesman, however aristocratic he may be, will 
 own without hesitation, that it must be the aim of every 
 society and state, to spread wealth as much as possible 
 over all classes, to further a general prosperity among 
 all ; and perhaps he will not object even to the demand, 
 that society and the state shall aim at an equality of 
 prosperity amongst all their members. The great legis- 
 lators of all ages have tried to realize this aim. Moses 
 instituted the Jubilee as a solution of this question, f 
 Landed property was to be equally divided after every 
 fifty years. Lycurgus introduced another kind of com- 
 
 * Voyage en Icarie, Preface. 
 
 t Leviticus, chap. xxv. ; Exodus, chap, xxiii. v. 10 and 11 ; 
 Deut. chap. xv. 
 
I 
 
 62 DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY, 
 
 munity. ' The leges agrariae of Rome had also a com- 
 munistic tendency. The first Christian communities 
 established amongst themselves the Cabetistic commu- 
 nity of property. The demands of the peasants in the 
 peasant wars (Bauernkriege) of Germany, at the times 
 of the Reformation, were not much less communistic 
 than the reign of Johann von Leyden and Knipper- 
 dolling at Munster. The Jesuits tamed the savages of 
 Paraguay in South America by means of communistic 
 colonies. Thus communism has appeared in all ages, 
 down to the colonies of Owen on the banks of the Clyde, 
 and of the colonies of the Icariens in North America. 
 As mentioned before, it has been the steady companion of 
 democratic extravagances. At all times when the mind 
 of man is excited by the transition into a new era, com- 
 munism has raised its head from the first Christians 
 down to Babceuf, Fourier and Cabet. It has lived 
 like a fair dream in the head of many a great poet or 
 thinker.* Nowhere has it won a lasting reign, but 
 has disappeared with the excitement of the moment. 
 It is only the egoism of men, the selfishness of those who 
 are in possession, which has driven communism again 
 and again back into the regions of unpractical phan- 
 tasms, or is communism in reality a principle irrecon- 
 cilable with the fundamental laws of human society ; 
 is communism really the last consequence of demo- 
 cracy, as the communists will make us believe ? 
 
 We defined democracy as the free development of 
 the individual in society or state. In a democracy the 
 accent lies on the individual ; the individual must have 
 free room for displaying all his abilities, for exercising 
 all his powers. We showed that a society and a state 
 can exist where the individual has this power, yes, that it 
 does exist. The ability and power of the individual make 
 themselves felt in society, by the influence they have upon 
 
 * See Plato's Republic, Thomas More's Utopia, Bacon's Nova 
 Atlantis, Campanella's Civitas Solis, and Monarchia Meesia', 
 Harrington's Oceana, Fenelon's Talente, Voyage dans 1'ite des 
 Plaisirs, etc. 
 
AND COMMUNISM. 63 
 
 other individuals, and upon the material world. This 
 influence, intellectual and material, is the realization of 
 his individuality in the outward world, it is his pro- 
 perty. Property is in its widest signification the indi- 
 vidual as he appears, as he makes himself felt in the 
 outward world. The common notion of property is the 
 influence or the reign of the individual over the ma- 
 terial world ; but in the strictest sense, the intellectual 
 influence he has and the esteem in which he is held, 
 belong also to his property. Can now property be equal 
 as long as the individuals are so different, as long as 
 their abilities will make themselves felt with so different 
 a power, and in so different ways ? No, egoism is not 
 a principle which ought to be abolished altogether, but 
 only restricted by reason ; egoism on the contrary, is 
 the seed of every thing good and great in the world ; 
 true egoism sees that in order to promote its own hap- 
 piness it has to promote the happiness of all. Com- 
 munism abolishes the individual ; whilst killing a bad 
 egoism, it kills egoism altogether, it kills the source of 
 human greatness and prosperity. Communism becomes 
 thus the greatest tyranny, it changes human society into 
 a cabinet of automatons.* Despotism never goes so 
 far as to restrict man in his household, as to prescribe 
 for him what to eat and what to drink. Communism 
 descends into the family-parlour, prescribes the amount 
 of furniture, it enters the kitchen and orders the num- 
 ber of dishes. f In a word, the most intolerable tyranny 
 of a despot is freedom in comparison with communism. 
 
 * The State (la Pseatrie) says Babceuf, " must take (prendro) 
 the citizen at his birth, and must only leave him at his death." 
 
 f In the communistic colonies of Owen (New Harmony) all 
 men were dressed alike, and so were all women. The meals were 
 taken in common. In 1827, there were above thirty communistic 
 colonies in the United States, founded on the system of Owen. 
 See also the "Phalanstere " of Fourier. 
 
64 A CHAPTER OF 
 
 VII. A CHAPTEB OF PRUSSIAN HISTORY. 
 
 THE sufferings which a war naturally brings over the 
 country that happens to be the chief theatre of its 
 battles, roused at last, in 1813, the Germans out of the 
 indifference with which they had viewed the conquerors 
 of their princes. But it was not physical hardships 
 alone that were sufficient to make them sensible of the 
 humiliation of the French yoke, and to produce that 
 patriotic enthusiasm, which before was scarcely known 
 in Germany, except perhaps in the Prussia of the great 
 Frederick. So deeply was liberalism already rooted in 
 public opinion, that to drive out the French conquerors 
 the princes were obliged to resort to the same means, 
 which these had applied against them to fight them 
 with their own weapons. 
 
 The political history of the last centuries was not fit 
 to rouse any patriotic feeling in the heart of the Ger- 
 man, with the exception only of Prussia, where patriot- 
 ism was rather exclusively Prussian and un- German. 
 The popular recollections in Germany were but those 
 of internal dissensions and external humiliation. The 
 name of the empire of Germany was still alive till 
 1 806, but Germany herself had long since ceased to be 
 a political reality ; she has led but an ideal existence 
 in the glory of her science and art since the time of 
 Leibnitz, Kepler, Kant, Goethe, Schiller, Herder, Mozart, 
 Haydn, Beethoven, etc. What the thirty-years' war 
 had left of the glorious empire of the Hohenstaufen 
 the seven-years' war destroyed. There existed in 
 reality some 500 states, most of them consisting of a 
 few villages, which were often more hostile to each 
 other than to France or Russia, and which had no other 
 bond than a common language. Two ideas only were 
 able to rouse this people out of their unpatriotic 
 
PRUSSIAN HISTORY. 65 
 
 apathy Liberty and Unity. Two promises therefore 
 were to be made. 
 
 The march of the French Republicans was every- 
 where marked by the establishment of Republics, 
 and afterwards when Napoleon changed these creations 
 of Republican France into monarchies, he gave them, 
 or caused to be given, constitutions, which overthrew 
 entirely the old feudal world. Under his auspices the 
 equality of all citizens before the law was established in 
 the kingdom of Westphalia, serfdom and all industrial 
 monopolies were suppressed, all abuses of feudalism dis- 
 appeared, the civil codes, and the publicity of trials by 
 jury, in criminal cases, were introduced. In Bavaria, 
 king Maximilian, the faithful servant of Napoleon, gives 
 a constitution, which securing the liberties of the people, 
 abolishes all feudal privileges in 1808. In the same 
 year the influence of the French Emperor effects in the 
 grand duchies of Baden and of Berg, as well as in 
 Erfurt, Fulda, Hanau and Bayreuth, the abolition of 
 serfdom, compulsory labour and seignoral rights. To 
 the same influence Saxony owed her constitution of 
 1806, which included liberty of conscience. 
 
 The Prussian Statesmen, Stein, Schoen, Hardenberg, 
 saw, that without similar concessions the people would 
 not care whether they were ruled and oppressed by the 
 Hohenzollern or by French generals ; they understood 
 that liberalism alone could rouse the feelings of patriot- 
 ism, and lay the foundation of a regenerated Prussia and 
 a regenerated Germany. The fatal battle of Jena had 
 shown that there was something rotten in the state of 
 Prussia. Any, not too short-sighted politician could 
 easily detect, that the ruin of Prussia was the fruit of 
 despotism, which had adopted the absolutism of the 
 great Frederick without his genius. 
 
 Her humiliating condition after that fatal battle, drove 
 Prussia into the most splendid part of her political ca- 
 reer. 
 
 In 1808, the "Staedteordnung" was issued, which 
 gives self-government to the towns; 1811, " Leibeigen- 
 
66 A CHAPTER OF 
 
 schaft (serfage) abolished," and the " Abloesungsordre " 
 given to create the material independence of the former 
 serfs. In the "edict" about the finances of 1810, it 
 
 was said, " as We reserve to ourselves to give 
 
 to our nation a usefully organised representation (zweck- 
 maessigeingerichtete Representation) as well for the pro- 
 vinces as for the whole of the kingdom, whose council 
 We shall willingly make use of, and through whom 
 We according to our fatherly feelings (landervaterlichen 
 Gesinnungen) shall always give to our faithful subjects 
 the conviction that the condition of the country and 
 the finances are improving, and that the sacrifices which 
 are made for that purpose are not in vain. Thus the 
 bond of love and confidence between us and our faithful 
 people will become always closer." In the " edict" of 
 1811, the king pronounced that the will of free men is 
 the unshakeable pillar of every " throne." 
 
 If such words, uttered from an absolute throne, sound 
 beautifully in the ears of men, the effect is somewhat 
 weakened, when we bear in mind, that the territory of 
 this throne was reduced by the Peace of Tilsit (9th 
 July, 1806) from 5,952 German square miles to 2,793 
 German square miles, and was nearly wholly erased 
 from the face of Europe ; that under the influence of 
 Napoleon the same liberties had been already granted in 
 neighbouring states ; and that Frederick William I II., 
 had just experienced, that the alliance with Russia did 
 not spare him the loss of more than half his kingdom. 
 However guided the king then was by such men as 
 Stein, Hardenberg, Scharnhorst, we may suppose that 
 these concessions at that time were made in sincerity. 
 But opinions, if ever so sincere, which are created in 
 the time of danger, are easily overthrown by convictions 
 and inclinations, which are the tardy fruits of education 
 and position as soon as the danger is over. 
 
 " The independence and honour of the people are 
 only secured, if every son of the fatherland shares in 
 the combat for freedom and honour. My cause is the 
 cause of ray people," said Frederick William, in the 
 
PRUSSIAN HISTORY. 67 
 
 proclamation of 17th March, 1813, when he raised the 
 standard of independence from the French yoke. The na- 
 tion crowded to the battalions to fight, as it was thought 
 the battles of freedom. Boys of fourteen years rushed 
 from the school-benches to the battle-field.* The most 
 abstract philosopher Germany ever created, thundered 
 in Berlin against the invaders ; the hightest pitch of 
 enthusiasm reigned everywhere for freedom and na- 
 tional independence. Prussia, from the brink of des- 
 truction, rose at once to the leadership of Germany, 
 her courageous warriors were foremost in the great bat- 
 tles of European independence. 
 
 The abettors of absolutism do not cease to tell the 
 people, that the greatness of Prussia is the result of 
 the wisdom of the Hohenzollern and their absolute go- 
 vernment ; but they forget that the battle of Jena and 
 the Peace of Tilsit are also a result of that wisdom, 
 and that absolutism, and that the Prussia of to-day 
 owes her greatness, nay, her very existence, to the libe- 
 ralism of 1807-15, caused indirectly by Napoleon, and 
 to the valour, the genius, and patriotic enthusiasm of 
 her people. 
 
 The Art. 13, of the " Bundesacte" (the fundamental 
 law of the German confederation) prescribes that, " In 
 all the states of the confederation a constitution (eine 
 landstaendische Verfassung) shall be established." Be- 
 fore this "Bundesacte" was promulgated, the king of 
 Prussia had already on the 22nd May, 1815, issued a 
 law, of which section 1 runs, " a representation of the 
 people is to be established," the section 4, " the office, 
 (Wirksamkeit) of the representatives of the country 
 embraces deliberation about all the objects of legisla- 
 tion, which regard personal rights and the rights of 
 property, taxation included." The assembly of the com- 
 mission which was to prepare the execution of this law, 
 
 * In several of the " Gymnasia" in Berlin marble-plates are 
 to be seen with the names of those pupils, who have died, as it is 
 called " Fuer Gott, Koenig and Vaterland" in the battle-field of 
 Leipzig, Gross-Beeren, Ligny, Waterloo, etc. 
 
68 A CHAPTER OF PRUSSIAN HISTORY. 
 
 was fixed for the 1st September of the same year. The 
 final promulgation of this law, promised already in an 
 " edict" of 1810, a law which raised Prussia into the 
 ranks of constitutional monarchies, at least " de jure," 
 appeared in those very days, when Europe trembled 
 once more before the re-appearance of the French giant, 
 who had left Elba, had landed in France on the 1st 
 of March, and triumphantly re-entering Paris seemed 
 once more to shake the thrones of Europe. 
 
 When the battle of Waterloo was over, when Napo- 
 leon was at St. Helena, when Peace and the " Holy 
 Alliance" was established, when the despots of Europe 
 had taken up courage, the commission for preparing the 
 execution of the law" of the 22nd May, did not as- 
 semble at Berlin on the 1st September, 1815, and the 
 law of the 22nd May, 1815, remained unexecuted. 
 
 Two ideas, we said, moved the heart of the Germans to 
 their struggle against the foreign yoke national indepen- 
 dence and national unity. In their enthusiasm for these 
 two ideas they neglected the guarantees of constitutional 
 freedom. In the heat of the struggle against the French 
 yoke, nobody thought of preventing any return to their 
 former oppressions. Home affairs were forgotten in the 
 battle against foreign enemies. The Prussian history 
 was the history of the continent. When the thunder of 
 the battles had ceased, when the French armies had left 
 the foreign countries, when Napoleon was an exile at 
 St. Helena, when then the nations of Europe were at 
 leisure to think about their home affairs, then they 
 found out that they had only spilt their blood for the 
 independence of their despots ; nay, that they had only 
 changed the liberal master of the West for the bar- 
 barous despot of the East. Then royal promises were 
 left unfulfilled, laws remained unexecuted, concessions 
 were withdrawn, and constitutions overturned. Was the 
 change for the better ? 
 
THE SINS OP THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 69 
 
 VIII. THE SINS OP THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 
 
 THE people of Europe have read with disgust the hypo- 
 critical bombast addressed to his people by the Emperor 
 Nicholas. But these phrases of holy religion and ** holy 
 war," are only destined " to rouse the languid fanati- 
 cism of a barbarous people. The Emperor Nicholas 
 takes great care in speaking to civilized Europe. He 
 is well aware that the eastern phraseology of barbarians 
 sounds ridiculous to the ear of western civilization. 
 Whatever lies he tells the civilized world, he has good 
 sense enough not to dress them in the garment of re- 
 ligion and piety. When the three monarchs of Austria, 
 Russia, and Prussia, formed in the capital of the civi- 
 lized world the " Holy Alliance," on the 26th Sep- 
 tember, 1815, "In the name of the most Holy and 
 Indivisible Trinity," it is scarcely to be comprehended 
 whom they wanted to deceive, themselves, their fellow- 
 princes, or the nations of Europe. An Alliance, of 
 which the march over Europe is designated by broken 
 oaths, by overturned constitutions, re-introduced Jesuits, 
 re-established inquisitions and torture, persecutions, exe- 
 cutions, and a pitiless war against every thing which 
 smacks of liberty, proclaimed, that " having in conse- 
 quence of the great events, which have marked the course 
 of the three last years in Europe, and especially of the 
 blessings which it has pleased Divine Providence to 
 shower down upon those States, which place their con- 
 fidence and their hope on it alone, acquired the intimate 
 conviction of the necessity of founding the conduct to 
 be observed by the powers in their reciprocal relations 
 upon the sublime truths, which the holy religion of our 
 Saviour teaches they solemnly declare that the pre- 
 sent act has no other object than to publish in the face 
 of the whole world their fixed resolution, both in the 
 
70 THE SDfS OF 
 
 administration of their respective states, and in their 
 political relations with every other government, to take 
 for their sole guide the precepts of that holy religion, 
 namely, the precepts of justice, Christian charity and 
 peace, which far from being applicable only to private 
 concerns, must have an immediate influence on the 
 councils of princes, and guide all their steps, as being 
 the only means of consolidating human institutions, and 
 remedying their imperfections. In consequence their 
 Majesties have agreed on the following articles : 
 
 " Art. 1 . Conformably to the words of the Holy 
 Scriptures, which command all men to consider each 
 other as brethren, the three contracting monarchs will 
 remain united by the bonds of a true and indissoluble 
 fraternity, and considering each other as fellow-country- 
 men, they will on all occasions and in all places, lend 
 each other aid and assistance ; and regarding themselves 
 towards their subjects and armies as fathers of families, 
 they will lead them in the same spirit of fraternity with 
 which they are animated to protect religion, peace and 
 justice." 
 
 *' Art. 2. In consequence, the sole principle in force, 
 whether between the said governments or between their 
 subjects, shall be that of doing each other reciprocal 
 service, and of testifying by unalterable good will, the 
 mutual affection with which they ought to be animated, 
 to consider each other all as members of one and the 
 same Christian nation, the three allied princes looking 
 on themselves as merely delegated by Providence to 
 govern three branches of the one family, namely, 
 Austria, Prussia, and Russia ; thus confessing that the 
 Christian world of which they and their people form a 
 part, has in reality, no other sovereign than Him, to 
 whom alone power really belongs ; because in Him 
 alone are found all the treasures of love, knowledge, and 
 infinite wisdom, that is to say, God our Divine Saviour, 
 the Word of the Most High, the Word of Life. Their 
 majesties consequently recommend to their people, with 
 the most tender solicitude, as the sole means of enjoy- 
 
THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 71 
 
 ing that peace which arises from a good conscience, and 
 which alone is durable, to strengthen themseleves every 
 day more and more in the principles and exercise of the 
 duties, which the Divine Saviour has taught to man- 
 kind." 
 
 "Art. 3. All the powers who shall choose solemnly, 
 to avow the sacred principles which have dictated the 
 present act, and shall acknowledge how important it is 
 for the happiness of nations, too long agitated, that these 
 truths should henceforth exercise over the destinies of 
 mankind all the influence which belong to them, will be 
 received with equal ardour and affection into this holy 
 alliance. 
 
 " Done in Triplicate, and signed at Paris, the year 
 of Grace, 1815, 26th of September." 
 
 FRANZ, 
 
 FRIEDRICH WILHELM, 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 All monarchs were invited, except the Pope and 
 Sultan. Of course all those princes of the Continent, 
 whom the first rising of the storm of freedom had blown 
 off their thrones, hastened to join an alliance, which 
 they considered justly as an insurance of despotism. 
 England alone did not like to join an alliance, the prin- 
 ciples of which were laid down in so general and inde- 
 finite terms. Could the spirit of that league be mis- 
 understood? Because the Scriptures command "all 
 men to consider each other as brethren," therefore the 
 three contracting monarchs will consider themselves as 
 brethren, not that they will consider their, subjects as 
 brethren; these, on the contrary are their children, 
 whom they of course govern at their pleasure, and whose 
 duty it is to obey without grumbling, and without 
 inquiring the reason of the command. 
 
 When the monarchs of Austria and Prussia returned 
 from Paris, the " precepts of justice " did not command 
 them to fulfil their engagements. In spite of the law 
 of 22nd Sept., 1815; in spite of the edicts which in r 
 
72 THE SINS OP 
 
 corporated the Rhenish provinces, Posen, Sachsen into 
 the kingdom of Prussia, edicts in which these pro- 
 vinces were promised to have their share in the consti- 
 tution of the kingdom in spite of the Article XIII. of 
 the Bundesacte, the throne of Frederick William III., 
 who is called the Just (der Gerechte) remained absolute. 
 Neither thought the Emperor Francis of Austria of 
 executing the command of the Bundesacte. But the 
 spirit of freedom which had risen against the foreign 
 yoke, was not inclined to submit so easily to home 
 oppression. The people had seen, and many had even 
 tasted the first fruits of a constitution which proclaimed 
 the dignity of man. It was especially in the universities, 
 where the students, returned from the battle-field, and 
 covered with wounds, and the " eiserne Kreuz," (iron 
 cross of valour) were not disposed to part with all those 
 ideas of freedom and unity which the monarchs them- 
 selves had aroused in the hour of danger, and the 
 execution of which the learned warriors thought they 
 had fully deserved. From the Rhine Professor Goerres 
 made his powerful voice heard ; it was for Germany a 
 time of anxious expectation and excitement. This 
 condition of Germany could not fail to arouse the fear 
 of Russia, which kept everywhere her " Kotzebues," to 
 watch the ideas of the German people, and to report the 
 result of their espionage to St. Petersburg. "When the 
 monarchs were assembled in the Congress of Aix la 
 Chapelle, the Russian counsellor of state, Stourdza, a 
 Wallachian boyard, presented a document, which the 
 Emperor of Russia distributed amongst all the princes of 
 Germany. This memorable document said, that Divine 
 Providence had availed itself of the campaign of 1812, in 
 Russia, to bring back mankind, lost in dreadful corrup- 
 tion, to the true faith and condition by the influence of 
 Russia. But a new danger threatened the holy cause 
 of the monarchs, viz., the revolutionary spirit in Ger- 
 many in the heart of Europe. The anxious longing 
 for new constitutions, by which the power, which God 
 had given to princes, should be reduced to nothing ; the 
 
THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 73 
 
 abuses of the press, which was treated with too much 
 indulgence, and the spirit of the universities, it was said, 
 were the unmistakable forebodings of corruption. We do 
 not know, how far the rulers of Germany wanted this 
 Russian exhortation; but it is certain, that this Russian 
 view of things was the leading principle in the confer- 
 ences of Karlsbad (in Bohemia). Prince Metternich, 
 who presided in these memorable conferences, declared 
 that the danger which would arise from the establishment 
 of a representation of the people, had not been so clear 
 before the eyes of the governments in 1815. Constitu- 
 tions which were founded on an election by the people 
 were in open contradiction with the spirit of the "Bund" 
 such as it was established by the " Bundesacte ;" and 
 though this "Bundesacte" commanded, that all mem- 
 bers of the Bund were to introduce " Landstandische 
 Verfassungen," Count Bernstorff and Prince Metternich 
 interpreted this article, that " Landstandische Verfassun- 
 gen (constitutions with states-general) did not mean 
 " representative-constitutions," that they, on the con- 
 trary, excluded them. By such miserable Jesuitism, the 
 leading statesmen of Germany tried to explain away 
 concessions which were made in the hour of danger. 
 One interpretation was impossible ; Article XVIII. of 
 the Bundesacte declared openly, that the freedom of the 
 press should everywhere reign in Germany ; the diplo- 
 matists of Karlsbad re-established the " censure." 
 
 However in some states the constitutions given could 
 not be withdrawn directly. When king William of 
 Wirtemberg made an attempt at governing in a true 
 constitutional spirit, when he had even the courage to 
 declare that he " blessed the day" on which the con- 
 stitution was established by the free agreement of Prince 
 and people, the courts of Vienna, Berlin, and St. Peters- 
 burg, recalled their ambassadors from Stuttgard, and 
 threatened king William with still severer proceedings 
 if he continued his constitutional policy. Less pressure 
 was wanted to reduce to the admirer of Lola Montez, 
 king Ludwig of Bavaria, to obedience to the resolutions 
 
74 THE SIN'S OF 
 
 of Karlsbad, or to convince the Duke of Sachen-Weimar, 
 the Maecenas of Germany, that freedom of the press 
 was out of the question within the sway of the " Holy 
 Alliance." 
 
 How strange it sounds when the Prince Regent of 
 England says in a " rescript" to the Hannoverian diet, 
 that " Amongst all the renovations borrowed from foreign 
 nations, there is none so hurtful to the quiet and prac- 
 tical course of the debates of the states, as the publicity 
 of the sessions." The "Bund" wholly powerless, when 
 there was the question about a real improvement in the 
 material interests of Germany such as the abolition of 
 the custom-barriers between the states manifested an 
 astonishing vigour in oppressing every germ of liberal- 
 ism against the Princes as well as against the people. 
 But even these mock constitutions of the smaller states 
 were too hateful in the eyes of the cabinets of St. Pe- 
 tersburgh, Vienna, and Berlin. The infamous " Secret 
 Protocol" of the 12th July, 1834, of the "Secret 
 Vienna Conferences," ordered the princes of the con- 
 stitutional states to allow the diets " no influence upon 
 the course of their governments," and not to let the 
 soldiers swear upon the constitutions, but to aim at 
 (hinzuwirken) abolishing them. 
 
 It was principally from the Rhenish provinces * that 
 Frederick William III. of Prussia, was reminded of the law 
 of 22nd May, 1815. " Neither in the edicts of 22nd May, 
 1815, nor in the Article XIII. of the Bundesacte, the 
 time is fixed, when the constitution shall be established 
 (wann die landstaendische Verfassung eintreten soil). 
 Not every time is the right one for introducing a change 
 into the condition of the state (Staatsverfassung). He 
 who reminds the king, (Landesherrn), who gave these 
 assurances out of his entirely free resolution, of them, 
 doubts criminally (freventlich) the inviolability of his 
 promise (Zusage), and encroaches upon his judgment as 
 
 * In a memorial of the town-council of Cologne, 12th Sept. 
 1817, in a petition of the town of Coblenz, and of the town-council 
 of Cleve, etc. 
 
THE HOLY ALLIANCE. ,-> 
 
 to which time is the right one for introducing that con- 
 stitution, which must be as free as his first resolution 
 
 was, etc That representation (of the town of 
 
 Coblenz) can only excite my just displeasure. I shall 
 decide what time the promise of a constitution shall be 
 fulfilled, and shall not allow myself, by untimely repre- 
 sentations, to hurry too much in the right progress to 
 that end. It is the duty of subjects to confide in my 
 free resolution, by which that assurance is given, and 
 which caused the said Article of the " Bundesacte," to 
 await the moment, which I, guided by the oversight of 
 the whole (von der Uebersicht des Ganzen geleitet) 
 shall find fit for its fulfilment." This was the answer, 
 which the angry king gave, on the 21st of March, 1818, 
 to the address of the town of Coblenz. Nearly three 
 years had elapsed since the law of the 22nd of May ; 
 how could any subject have a criminal doubt in the in- 
 violability of his promise ! Since this answer twenty- 
 two years have elapsed. On the 7th of June, 1840, 
 Frederick William III., the Just, (der Gerechte), died ; 
 the law of the 22nd of May, 1815, was not executed ; 
 Prussia was still an absolute monarchy. How could 
 any subject have a criminal doubt in the inviolability of 
 a royal promise ! But perhaps no moment was, during 
 the whole twenty-five years, fit for the fulfilment of the 
 promise, and the law was given in anticipation of future 
 centuries. But what kind of constitution could this 
 Prussian people expect from a king who gave such an 
 answer ! And how would the spirit, which dictated that 
 answer, have agreed with the spirit of a constitutional 
 monarchy! In 1823, the king had established provincial 
 diets (Provinciallandtage), which were only allowed to 
 discuss, under the surveyance of a royal commissioner, 
 matters of local interest, and to lay their decision 
 as " petitions " humbly before the throne of his ma- 
 jesty." 
 
 The Swiss Cantons had requested Napoleon to give 
 them a constitution, which was adapted to the pecu- 
 liarity of their country and to the spirit of liberalism. 
 
76 THE SINS OF 
 
 Napoleon gave the " Mediations-acte " of 1803, under 
 which Switzerland in the midst of a stormy world, en- 
 joyed eleven years of peace and prosperity. When 
 the Austrian army under Bubna returned from France, 
 and stayed in the neighbourhood of Bale, Switzerland 
 was commanded to abolish the " Mediations-acte," and 
 to accept a constitution, which was created under the 
 influence of the Russian Ambassador Capodistrias and 
 the Austrian Lebzeltern. Some Cantons refused to 
 obey; but the menaces of the " Holy Alliance," sup- 
 ported by the army which entered the Swiss territory, 
 soon compelled them to accept a constitution which 
 was a continual source of all the internal struggles 
 which troubled Switzerland up to 1848, in which year 
 the Swiss succeeded in altering that constitution in 
 spite of the threatenings of Austria, Prussia, and 
 Russia.* 
 
 King Ferdinand VII. of Spain, a worthy member of 
 the " Holy Alliance," hastened to rid himself of the 
 constitution of the Cortes of 1815, to prosecute every 
 one who had lent his assistance to the former govern- 
 ment, and for the better effect of his Christian designs 
 to re-call the Jesuits, and to re-establish Inquisition and 
 torture. The consequence of these proceedings was 
 naturally an insurrection. General Quiroga and Colonel 
 
 * We were greatly astonished to see in a leader of the Times (Thurs- 
 day, August 24,) statements respecting Swiss history, which we cer- 
 tainly did not expect from that generally so well-informed journal. 
 That " the Switzerland of those times, that ancient confederation of 
 the middle ages," was destroyed by a purely democratic and repub- 
 lican government." Mr. Saunders, against whom that leader is 
 directed, could easily object that this Switzerland was entirely in 
 the hands of a few privileged families, who possessed all the po- 
 litical power and oppressed the people as much as any despot 
 in Europe could do. The towns were entirely at the mercy of 
 these aristocrats, and the " Landshaft" (country) had no political 
 right at all, except in the most bigotted and ignorant " I'lvantons" 
 where the catholic clergy had the people in their hands. This 
 Switzerland the French Republicans destroyed; and as the Swiss 
 could not agree upon a constitution, they received at their own 
 request the " Mediation s-acte of 1803," out of the hands ofNapo- 
 
THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 77 
 
 Riego proclaimed the Cortes constitution, and com- 
 pelled the king to sanction it. But the " Holy Alliance" 
 had no pity for such things as constitutions. A con- 
 gress was in 1822 held at Verona, and France was 
 charged with the execution of its decision. The Duke 
 of Angouleme entered Spain with a French army, the 
 king with the Cortes was besieged in Cadiz. Cadiz 
 was taken, the king dissolved the Cortes and re-esta- 
 blished despotism. What were the consequences ? A 
 glance at the history of Spain since this time and her 
 present condition will give the answer. 
 
 The example of General Quiroga was followed in 
 Portugal, Naples, and Piedmont. 
 
 Colonel Sepulveda in Oporto proclaims the Spanish 
 constitution of 1812, the king swears to it, but alters 
 it the next year (1822.) Don Miguel, the favourite of 
 Rome and the " Holy Alliance," abolishes this consti- 
 tution, March, 1823. Don Pedro gives a new consti- 
 tution, but the pupil of Rome cannot do with constitu- 
 tions. What Don Pedro had built up, Don Miguel pulls 
 down in 1827- Executions and confiscations are the 
 companions of his Christian acts. 
 
 In the year 1820, king Ferdinand of Naples, was by 
 a military revolution under General Pepe compelled to 
 grant a constitution after the pattern of the Spanish. 
 The three heads of the " Holy Alliance," frightened by 
 
 leon. This Mediations-acte was so dear to them, that only the 
 threatenings of the " Holy Alliance" and their armies, could in- 
 duce poor Switzerland to part with it. When the Times says 
 "the Switzeribnd of the present day, dates from 1814," this 
 journal forgets that the Switzerland " reconstituted under the 
 auspices and guarantee" of the great European powers, has been 
 changed not only in her territorial arrangements by the division 
 of the Canton "Basel," in consequence of bloody struggles, but 
 that the whole Swiss constitution has been changed in spite of 
 Austria, Russia, Prussia, and the Pope, ia the year 1848, as 
 well as that all the oligarchical governments of the Cantons, re- 
 established by the great European powers in 1814, have been 
 altered almost everywhere, often not without bloodshed, and that 
 therefore the Switzerland of the present day, is widely different 
 from that Switzerland as the great powers re- constituted it. 
 
78 THE SINS OF 
 
 these constitutional desires of the nations, assemble in 
 person in Trappau, (1820,) and Laibach, (1821.) King 
 Ferdinand is invited to appear and to abolish the con- 
 stitution which he had sworn. As he himself had pro- 
 mised to go to Laybach only in order to maintain the 
 constitution, and as the whole country is under arms 
 under the guidance of his son, to whom he had trusted 
 the government, an Austrian army is despatched to 
 Naples, and despotism re-established ; the despotism of 
 a Spanish Bourbon ! And the Austrian soldiery is 
 obliged to support for several years the tyranny of 
 Ferdinand. 
 
 The same service the Austrian troops performed 
 under Bubna in Piedmont, where a military insur- 
 rection had also proclaimed the Spanish constitution. 
 There too Austrian troops had to strengthen the re- 
 installed despotism by an occupation of several years. 
 
 To crown the work of re-action, Pope Pius VII., 
 when he returned to Rome, under the " aegis" of the 
 " Holy Alliance," hastened to re-institute the Jesuits, 
 whom another successor of St. Peter had anathema- 
 tized. 
 
 We need not mention the attempt of Charles X. of 
 France and its failure, or the misfortune of the patriotic 
 Poles in 1830. But it is, perhaps, not so well known 
 that the Russians in this struggle crossed the Vistula 
 by pontoons given by Prussia, and that Prussia deli- 
 vered to the hungry Russian troops provisions, whilst 
 a part of the Polish army which had crossed the Prus- 
 sian frontiers was immediately disarmed bytfrussia and 
 given up to Russia. This same service was done to the 
 Russians by the Austrians, who disarmed immediately 
 a corps of the Polish General Dwernicki, that had 
 entered the Austrian territory for strategical reasons. 
 If Russia speaks about thankfulness, she ought not to 
 forget these facts. 
 
 Such is a short glance at the reign of the " Holy 
 Alliance" in Europe, until the year 1831. 
 
 The question could be put, why the same " Holy 
 
THE HOLY ALLIANCE. U 
 
 Alliance," which persecuted with such unrelenting ri- 
 gour all the revolutionary movements in Europe, showed 
 so much enthusiasm for the freedom of Greece ? Was 
 it moved by a mere aesthetical feeling for the classical 
 soil of Homer ? The answer is easy. The revolutionary 
 plans of the Greeks agreed with the schemes of Russia ; 
 the independence of Greece weakened Turkey, and this 
 independent Greece was to be a focus of Russian in- 
 fluence and intrigues for Russia is the head and the 
 soul of the " Holy Alliance." 
 
 But where was the influence of constitutional England 
 in Europe all this time ? 
 
 It is true Sir Charles Stuart protested at Trappau 
 against any intervention in the affairs of Naples, but the 
 following year he was more pliant. At Laybach he pro- 
 tested only against any territorial aggrandizement of 
 Austria in Italy; but had no objection to an intervention 
 for the purpose of overturning the constitution, sworn 
 by the king, and defended by the king's own son and 
 all the people. 
 
 During the Polish revolution of 1830-31, Austria, 
 which began to feel uneasy about the proximity of 
 Russia, proposed to the government of France a re- 
 establishment of the kingdom of Poland in concert with 
 England. Count Walewski was charged to sound the 
 dispositions of the English government. He received 
 the following answer from Lord Pahnerston : 
 
 "The undersigned, etc., in answer to a note which 
 the ambassador of France has presented to him, in order 
 to engage the British government to an intervention in 
 concert with France in the affairs of Poland, by a me- 
 diation which should have the aim to stop the effusion 
 of blood, and to procure to Poland a political and na- 
 tional existence, 
 
 "Has the honour to inform H. E. the Prince Talley- 
 rand, that in spite of the great desire which the King 
 of Great Britain would have to concur with the King of 
 the French, in every step which might consolidate peace 
 in Europe, especially in that which would effect the 
 
80 THE SINS OF THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 
 
 end of the war of extermination, of which Poland is the 
 theatre to-day, H. M. sees himself compelled to de- 
 clare, 
 
 " That an officious mediation in the actual condition 
 of events would certainly be refused by Russia, so much 
 the more as the cabinet of St. Petersburg has just re- 
 fused offers of that kind made by France, that in con- 
 sequence the intervention of the two courts would have 
 to be supported in case of refusal, in order to be effec- 
 tive. 
 
 *' The King of England believes he is by no means 
 obliged to adopt the latter alternative. The influence 
 which the war can have upon the tranquillity of the other 
 states is not such a one, that it must necessitate such 
 steps, and the frank and friendly relations which exist 
 between the court of St. Petersburg, and H. M. do not 
 permit him to undertake them. H.B. M. sees himself there- 
 fore compelled to decline the proposition, which H. E. 
 Prince Talleyrand has just transmitted through the note 
 of 20th June, thinking that the time has not yet come 
 to be able to undertake it with success against the will 
 
 of a sovereign whose rights were incontestable." 
 
 ******* 
 
 Signed, PALMERSTON." 
 
THE FAILURE OF THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1848. 81 
 
 IX. THE FAILUBE OF THE BEVOLUTIONS OF 1848. 
 
 THE reactionary party have given themselves infinite 
 trouble to represent the revolutions of Milan, Rome, 
 Vienna, Berlin, Munich, as mere imitations of the Fe- 
 bruary revolution. Just as the people of the continent 
 use to look at Paris for the cut of their coats, these re- 
 volutions or revolts, as they call them, which have cost 
 hundreds of human lives, are said to be but a matter 
 of mere fashion. The nations were so satisfied, they 
 lived so securely, so prosperously under the paternal 
 regimen of the *' Holy Alliance," that they did not think 
 of revolutions when these wicked Parisians aroused 
 Europe out of its happy sleep. Can any one who has 
 but superficially glanced at the history of the continent 
 since the downfall of Napoleon, who has beheld all these 
 deceived hopes, these broken constitutions, unfulfilled 
 promises, violated oaths, these military insurrections, 
 Carbonari conspiracies, "Burschen-Verbindungen" per- 
 secutions of writers, confiscations of books, oppressions 
 of newspapers, depositions of Professors, these intrigues 
 of Jesuits and Russian agents, these Galician slaughters, 
 and that Silisian famine ; we say, can any one who has 
 witnessed all these things in the different countries of 
 the continent, believe for one moment that the people 
 were extremely satisfied, that the revolutions in the 
 capitals of Europe were but created by " Poles, French- 
 men and Jews,"* in imitation of Paris ? It would lead 
 us too far for our purpose to paint only in Prussia, a 
 country which is said to have had the least reason for a 
 revolution, the increasing dissatisfaction from year to 
 year, especially since the reign of the present king. 
 Some few incidents, however, may give an idea of the 
 
 * The professed opinion of the " Kreuz Zc-itung'* at Berlin. 
 E5 
 
82 THE FAILTTKE OF 
 
 state of public feeling in that country. The good peo- 
 ple of Prussia did not forget the law of the 22nd of 
 May, 1815, or those fine phrases so abundantly spent 
 in the hour of danger ; but they were too kind-hearted 
 to trouble the last days of an old king, who had gone 
 through so many reverses. We will wait, they thought, 
 till his son Frederick William IV. comes to the throne; 
 then we will remind him, that he, as the heir of his father, 
 has inherited the duty of paying his debts to the nation. 
 When Frederick William IV. according to the usage, 
 was crowned at Koenigsberg in 1840, the town-council al- 
 luded in submissive words to the royal promises of 1815, 
 " You will lose my grace," shouted the angry king, and 
 turned his back on the deputation. " Sire," answered 
 the burgomaster, " we ask for our right, not for your 
 grace." The provincial diets,* established by the late 
 king, were held in secret, nothing of their transactions 
 were allowed to be published, notwithstanding it was 
 whispered throughout the kingdom, that the diets of 
 the Rhenish provinces of Posen and Silesia, had de- 
 manded the final fulfilment of the law of 22nd May, 
 1815, and that the king had answered in a tone which 
 showed that anger and passion had over-stepped the 
 limits of royal dignity. The persecutions against the 
 universities by the hated minister Eichhorn; the attempt 
 against the independence of the judges ; a famine in a part 
 of the most fruitful province, unknown to the* govern- 
 ment before it had already killed whole villages ; the in- 
 corporation of Cracow into Austria, which damaged the 
 trade of Silesia by more than a million of thalers a 
 year, could not be counteracted by such half concessions 
 as the publicity of trials, though without a jury, or by 
 the establishment of a " Obercensur-gericht."-f" The 
 anxiety with which the prohibited writings of Schon 
 
 * These diets were composed of the most conservative elements, 
 such as great landed proprietors, great commercial men and bur- 
 gomasters of the larger towns. 
 
 f A commission of high functionaries to which an Author could 
 appeal against the "crossing over" of a ceusor. 
 
THE REVOLUTIONS OP 1848. 
 
 (minister of state with Stein), of Jacoby, Simon, and 
 other liberals were swallowed by the people, manifested 
 to every imperial eye the approaching storm. At last 
 the king saw himself compelled to do something to 
 appease the public excitement. The " Patent " of the 
 3rd February, 1847, was issued. The Provincial Diets 
 sent their deputies to the "United Diet" (Vereinigten 
 Landtag) at Berlin. Frederick William IV. was, as 
 usual on such occasions, very eloquent. " As heir of 
 an unimpaired crown which I must and will preserve 
 unimpaired for my successors, I know that I am en- 
 tirely free from every obligation in regard to that which 
 is not yet executed (gegen Nichtausgefiihrtes,) espe- 
 cially, that from the execution of which his truly pa- 
 ternal feeling has kept back my august predecessor." 
 
 " But I have preserved for me the especial 
 
 right, without those lawful occasions, to call together 
 this great assembly, whenever I consider it as good and 
 useful; and I shall do it willingly and oftener, if this 
 diet give me the proof that I can do it, without violat- 
 ing higher monarchical duties." "It urges 
 
 me to the solemn declaration, that no power on earth 
 shall succeed in compelling me 'to change the natural re- 
 lation between Prince and people, which with us creates 
 so much power by its internal truth, into a conventional, 
 constitutional one; and that I never will allow (nun and 
 nimmermehr,) to intrude a written leaf of paper be- 
 tween our Lord and God in heaven and this country, 
 like a second Providence, in order to govern us with 
 its paragraphs, and to replace by them the old and 
 
 holy fidelity." Such were the words with 
 
 which the king opened the " United Diet," on the llth 
 April, 1847. To talk too much is one of the weak- 
 nesses of this monarch. On the 18th of March, 1848, 
 a very, very small portion of the power on earth, the 
 inhabitants of one town, succeeded in compelling him 
 to change the natural relation between Prince and peo- 
 ple into a conventional, constitutional one the written 
 leaf of paper intruded. Kings should never tell be- 
 
84 THE FAILURE OF 
 
 fore what they will do, or what they never will do, if 
 they are not expressly obliged to do so ; bad enough 
 for them that they are often compelled to enter into 
 future engagements by a " political oath." Frederick 
 William mistook greatly his age ; his phraseology would 
 have worked well four centuries ago; but in the age of 
 material interests and " material guarantees," far from 
 exciting submissive admiration, it afforded but a rich 
 harvest to the wit and irony of the people. No king, 
 indeed, has been in Germany so much the object of 
 incessant caricature and blasphemy, as the " Spree- 
 Romantiker." 
 
 The eyes of the people of the continent were directed 
 owards Paris. The Holy Alliance had long since suc- 
 ceeded in changing the hatred towards the French, 
 which naturally animated the Germans during the so- 
 called "Freiheitskriege" into sympathy. The hatred 
 was now directed towards the East. Russia was justly 
 acknowledged as the head of the Holy Alliance, as the 
 head quarters of despotism. Her influence, especially 
 in Germany, worked not only in secret intrigues, but 
 was openly manifested by incessant demands to restrict 
 the freedom of the German universities, by her de- 
 nunciations of everything which indicated a spirit of 
 liberalism. The intimate friendship of Nicholas with 
 his father-in-law, king Frederick William III. entailed 
 by no means a friendship between their two countries. 
 
 The Italians had never hated the French ; the 
 " Tedeschi," popery, and the king " Bomba," were 
 the objects of their antipathy ; the Spanish Peninsula 
 also had forgotten its days of Saragossa. Conti- 
 nental Europe, dissatisfied and oppressed, waited for 
 France. Every word spoken in the " Chambre de 
 Deputes " was listened to with the greatest anxiety ; 
 and Louis Blanc has certainly, as far as politics go, the 
 right to say, " ce Paris, cceur et cerveau du monde." 
 From France was expected the rise of the storm. Can 
 we commence the struggle against despotism, said the 
 liberals in Germany, whilst Paris is tranquil ; will not 
 
THE REVOLUTIONS OP 1848. 85 
 
 our own legions, if necessary, assisted by a hundred 
 thousand Cossacks, pour down upon us at once, and 
 crush the first germ of freedom ? And where shall 
 we commence, in Vienna, Berlin, Cologn, Koenigsberg, 
 Dresden, or Frankfort ? We are too decentralized. A 
 revolution in Vienna will be but a revolution in Vienna 
 and nowhere else; and Berlin in arms will see Frank- 
 fort, Dresden, or Munich, quiet and looking on. But 
 a revolution in Paris means a revolution in France, and 
 a revolution in France will be a revolution in Rome, 
 Milan, Vienna, Berlin. The centralization of France, 
 the cause of all her internal misfortune, made her the 
 heart and brain of political Europe. The " July-days" 
 of 1830, in Paris, were the author of the 26th of Au- 
 gust in Brussels ; of the 29th of November in Warsaw, 
 they created the insurrections of Modena, Parma, Sicily, 
 and the State of the Pope; they even taught the king 
 of Saxony, the elector of Hessen-Cassel, and the Duke 
 of Brunswick, that they cannot always rely on the 
 wonted patience of German subjects. 
 
 The general opinion in Europe was, that Louis Phi- 
 lippe would manage to keep himself on the throne to the 
 end of his days, but that his death would be the signal 
 for a universal stir. All popular demands were deferred 
 to this moment. When the reform banquets com- 
 menced in 1848, Europe listened in feverish anxiety. 
 The throne of the bourgeois king was burnt, and the 
 Republic proclaimed once more. The effects in Italy 
 and Germany are well known. 
 
 But why did a revolution fail which was so long pre- 
 pared in the public opinion of Europe, and justified by 
 the proceedings of the " Holy Alliance" and the sway 
 of barbarous Russia ? 
 
 We speak here especially about the revolutions in 
 France, Italy, and Germany. One object was, perhaps, 
 common in these three countries, which we might call 
 " freedom;" but what practical shape this general idea 
 had to assume, in that the three countries were na- 
 turally different. 
 
86 THE FATLUBE OF 
 
 
 
 France possessed already a constitution, the purpose 
 of the revolution was here but to liberalize more this 
 constitution, and perhaps to destroy a throne, the aim 
 of which was constantly to counteract the popular influ- 
 ence, and to approach as nearly as possible to an absolute 
 government. We say, perhaps, for the different poli- 
 tical and social parties had here more than elsewhere a 
 different object. In one point the February revolution 
 was no failure, France did rid herself of a perfidious 
 government, which tried to neutralize the constitutional 
 liberties, and betrayed the honour of France, by cring- 
 ing before the Muscovite and the " Holy Alliance." 
 It was often remarked before 1848, not without reason, 
 that the Cossacks govern on the banks of the Seine. 
 We will not compare the internal liberties of France 
 under the reign of Napoleon the Third, with those under 
 Louis Philippe; but one thing is certain, France has 
 assumed a place amongst the powers of Europe which 
 she had lost with the downfall of Napoleon I., and if 
 she has no liberal government, she has at least a pa- 
 triotic one. Louis Philippe's government was neither 
 liberal nor patriotic.* Thus the effect of the February 
 revolution is the detachment of France from the sway 
 of St. Petersburg. As the French democrats did not 
 understand how to keep the government in their own 
 hands, they ought to consider, that the glorious union 
 of England and France, and their united resistance 
 against the sway of a barbarous power, the iron hand 
 which they themselves have so often felt, would scarcely 
 have taken place under a Louis Philippe. 
 
 Our age is the age of material interests. A high- 
 minded people can fill itself with enthusiasm for theo- 
 retical doctrines for a short time, it can even make ma- 
 
 Louis Philippe hastened to announce his accession to the 
 throne to the Emperor Nicholas in a letter, in which he said, " It 
 is upon you, Sire, that France has above all fixed her eyes. She 
 likes to see in Russia her most natural and most powerful ally." 
 The Emperor Nicholas answered in menaces, and did not use the 
 address. "Monsieur mon frere," which is common amongst 
 reigning princes. 
 
THB REVOLUTIONS OF 1848. 87 
 
 terial sacrifices for them, but it will always return to the 
 sober calculation of the s. d., for it is conscious that 
 material prosperity entails freedom at the end ; and no- 
 thing is truer than the word of a statesman, that in 
 order to govern a people, it must be kept half hungry. 
 The *' bourgeois " is indeed the representative of 
 materialism, as the nobleman is the representative of 
 romanticism. The "bourgeois" has been often alike 
 attacked by the nobles and by the democrats. They 
 call him narrow-minded, narrow-hearted, bare of every 
 higher flight of mind than the mere calculation of 
 money. This may be true to a certain degree, for he 
 is as far from this romantic view of the superiority of 
 blood, as he is from the enthusiasm of the half-educated 
 lower classes. But the barrier which is erected by some 
 between him and the working man is as untrue as mis- 
 chievous. The interest of the "bourgeois" well un- 
 derstood is the interest of the working man : America 
 shows this practically, where this division which has 
 done so much harm in the old world, and has hitherto 
 alone prevented the lasting success of liberalism, seems 
 to be altogether unknown. The basis on which the 
 existence of these two classes rests, is industry and 
 commerce, the great promoters of civilization. The 
 " bourgeois" not only supplies the capital, but he had 
 supplied hitherto the higher intellectual labour, whilst 
 the working man undertook the more manual labour. 
 The " bourgeois" is as well a working man, and his 
 work is certainly the most difficult. There must be 
 always these two labours. But another question is, whe- 
 ther the present distribution of them is the natural 
 state of things, and will, as such, always continue ; or 
 whether another organization shall take place as soon 
 as the now so-called working classes have advanced in 
 education, and have come to a true understanding of 
 the natural laws of commerce and industry. This ques- 
 tion can be solved not at once by realizing any theory, 
 but by the slow and sure advance of commerce and 
 industry itself, and by the alteration which this advance 
 
88 
 
 THE FAILURE OF 
 
 will entail in all their conditions. Whether or not the 
 theoretical discussion of that which is called the " social 
 question," will assist in promoting this great object, the 
 decided answer can only be given by the practical de- 
 velopment of those conditions. 
 
 It seems to us that the misunderstanding which has 
 existed about this "social question,'' and which still 
 exists here and there, is the principal cause of the fail- 
 ure of the revolution of 1848 and 1849. The material 
 interests, which rightly understood, are inseparable from 
 the higher destiny of man, are in our age at war with 
 all the remnants of romanticism, handed down to us 
 from the middle ages. The head of this romanticism is 
 despotism. He who will get a true idea of this roman- 
 tic nature of despotism, should read the treaty of the 
 " Holy Alliance," or one of the speeches of king Fre- 
 derick William IV. of Prussia, a prince who has the 
 merit of bringing the romanticism of despotism to its 
 clearest expression. Let us listen to what he said to 
 the assembled nobles of the kingdom, who had come to 
 take the oath of allegiance, 15th October, 1840. 
 
 " It was formerly the custom that the states of Ger- 
 man countries did not take the oath of allegiance, till 
 they had obtained the homage guarantees (the guarantee 
 of their rights and privileges.) I will " quasi" join this 
 custom. Yet I know and acknowledge willingly that 
 I have got my crown from God alone, and that it be- 
 comes me well to say : Woe to him who touches it ! 
 but I know also, and acknowledge it before all of you, 
 that I wear my crown as a fief of the Most High Lord, 
 and that I owe him account of every day and of every 
 hour of my government. He who demands a guarantee 
 for the future, to him I give these words. A better 
 guarantee neither I can give nor any man on earth. It 
 weighs heavier and lies more strongly than all the coro- 
 nation oaths, than all the assurances laid down on brass 
 and parchment, for it streams from life and is rooted in 
 faith." 
 
 England and America, where materialism reigns the 
 
THE HE VOLUTIONS OP 1848. 89 
 
 most, are the freest and the wealthiest countries, and 
 where the poetical ruins of a romantical knighthood 
 have given way to the tall chimney of materialism in 
 Germany, a prosperous activity has taken the place of 
 a dreaming laziness. 
 
 The failure of the revolutions is caused by the di- 
 vision in the camp of materialism. The " bourgeois" 
 and the workman instead of uniting in the common 
 struggle against despotism and aristocracy, ^ok upon 
 each other with suspicion and fear ; and landed pro- 
 perty, which by its nature should side with industry 
 and commerce, fancies its interests opposed to them, 
 and increases the camp of the common enemy. 
 
 The " bourgeois" demands from any government no- 
 thing but the security of his property, and not to disturb 
 his industrial and commercial enterprises. When he 
 saw that democracy was interpreted as communism, 
 that communists and socialists descended into the streets 
 to attack his property, from this moment his democra- 
 tical sympathies ceased, and he was ready to throw 
 himself into the arms of every government which 
 defended his property. Such was the case in France : 
 the dreadful days of June created the dictature of 
 Cavaignac, which was only changed by that of Louis 
 Napoleon. 
 
 The revolutions of Italy and Germany had a more com- 
 plicated object. In Italy the question of liberalism was 
 inseparably connected with national independence and 
 national unity. The delivery from a foreign yoke was 
 the object which was first to be achieved, the overthrow 
 of the native tyrants and the establishment of liberal- 
 ism was to follow. But Austrian and French armies 
 were, as in former days, too strong for the patriots 
 of divided Italy. Whether Italy, once free from 
 foreign yoke, could have succeeded in her other ob- 
 jects or not, we dare not to decide. The difficulty 
 of the Italian patriots as well as the German lies in 
 the fact, that unity and liberalism cannot exist the one 
 without the other. The Republican party wish to 
 
90 
 
 THE FAILUBE OF 
 
 establish a union of republics as in America or Switzer- 
 land ; for this purpose the monarchies must be changed 
 into republics. If Italy were free from foreign tyranny, 
 nothing could be easier than to turn out "re Bomba" 
 and the petty monarchs of middle Italy; but Piedmont 
 is the obstacle. The hostility shown by Italian Re- 
 publicans towards that country is natural, although un- 
 just. The government of Turin, with its liberal rule, 
 seems to have succeeded in detaching the Piedmontese 
 from a united Italian republic; a liberal king is always a 
 misfortune for the prospects of a republic. 
 
 The best thing would be for the Italian republicans 
 to leave Piedmont alone, or receive it cordially into the 
 alliance so far as a constitutional kingdom can join a 
 unity of republics, till the spirit of republicanism shall 
 sooner or later be strong enough in this kingdom to 
 complete the number of the united republics of Italy. 
 Much more complicated is the question in Germany. 
 Germany has not to fight against a foreign yoke, she 
 has all her enemies within ; but they are the more 
 dangerous as they seem to be natives, but are in reality 
 foreign to the interests and nationality of the German 
 people. There, as in Italy, freedom is inseparable from 
 unity. That indeed is the general conviction of every 
 German. Unity of Germany was the " pathos" of the 
 enthusiasm of 1813 to 1815 ; unity of Germany was the 
 cry in 1848, and the black-red-golden standard of old 
 imperial Germany, became the standard of " freedom." 
 In Germany it was no fear for communism which 
 strengthened the camp of absolutism. Although the 
 Germans have the fame of being unpractical, and prone 
 to theoretical speculations, these very speculations are 
 too deep with them, not to manifest the hollowness of 
 communism, and its discrepancy with individual free- 
 dom. The German "bourgeois" did not fear the es- 
 tablishment of a constitution which destroyed property; 
 but on the other side he was not quite sure, whether 
 a democratical or republican government would havo 
 power enough to maintain security and order. The few 
 
THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1848. 91 
 
 extravagances in the capitals, but which never went so 
 far as to attack private proverty, which are inevitable in 
 a time of general excitement, and the still stand of trade 
 in such a time made him tired of a state of uncertainty, 
 and created an apathy against that freedom and liberal- 
 ism for which he himself had taken up arms a few 
 months ago. 
 
 It 'ought to be the chief care of every revolutionary 
 government to establish, as soon as possible, security 
 and order for everything which concerns material in- 
 terests, and to finish the state of uncertainty as to com- 
 mercial and financial matters. When we look back to 
 the state of Germany in 1848-9, we can hardly under- 
 stand how quiet and patriotic the people were in this 
 general political confusion. There was a parliament 
 elected by all the people of Germany at Frankfort ; 
 this parliament, representing the will and sovereignty of 
 forty millions of Germans, was to be the highest legisla- 
 tive power in the country. It was to give laws to the 
 Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia. But 
 what means had this assembly of four hundred citizens 
 of enforcing these laws from monarchs, who had no idea 
 of constitutionalism but powerful armies ? They could 
 only appeal to the patriotism of the people, that is to 
 say, to a patriotic insurrection against those princes, 
 who did not obey the commands of Frankfort. The 
 " assemblee nationale " of France had, in 1851 at least, 
 a parliamentary army, and a general to command this 
 army, in defending the ''assemblee." The Frankfort 
 parliament had neither an army nor a general, Besides 
 this parliament every petty state had its own parliament, 
 and discussed the same political questions, and settled 
 them sometimes, before they were discussed at Frank- 
 fort The democrats who acknowledged Frankfort as 
 the highest authority, saw soon, that not only the 
 princes intrigued against Frankfort, and tried to disobey 
 its commands, but that also the parliaments of the states 
 were often in discrepancy with the representatives of 
 Germany. The Frankfort parliament took refuge in a 
 
92 THE FAILUEE OF 
 
 prince of the imperial house,* to give to its commands a 
 greater weight with the princes by his imperial name ; 
 but this prince was not equal to his position, even if he 
 had the will. "When things began to look dangerous he 
 ran away, and buried himself again in the Alps of 
 Styria, with his postmaster's daughter. It was clear, 
 that the parliament without an army could not stand the 
 united power of the princes. Indeed, an impartial 
 foreigner must admire the somewhat inconsiderate con- 
 fidence the German people had in their princes, to 
 expect that they would submit to an assembly of 
 German citizens, with no other power than the moral 
 sympathy of the German patriots, who themselves were 
 neither organized nor ar^ned. It is true, the " national 
 guard," (Biirgerwehr), which was established, and after- 
 wards sworn on the Frankfort constitution, was destined 
 to form a kind of parliamentary army; but this " national 
 guard," without any connection and general organization 
 over Germany, of course became nothing but a kind of 
 town-watch, or police-institution, turned against street 
 riots, and republican clubs, and was besides, in most 
 places, neither effectually organized and drilled, nor 
 commanded by able men. The confusion of ideas 
 which reigned in those days is not astonishing with a 
 people who had no experience in revolution, and no 
 opportunity for any self-organization in political affairs. 
 The republicans were the most clear-sighted ; they knew 
 that it was an impossibility to effect a real unity of 
 Germany with a German parliament, or the union of 
 some thirty constitutional states under one constitutional 
 government. As one constitutional government is 
 founded on the balance of power, there would have been 
 too much balance wanted to balance first the powers in 
 each of the states, and to bring these thirty-seven states 
 in balance with the central government, which also 
 wants a balance of its parts. The illusion of the con- 
 
 * The Archduke John of Austria, who was elected by the p;irliu- 
 ment as " iU-ichsverweser," (Regent of the Empire.) 
 
T1IK REVOLUTIONS OF 1848. ( -M 
 
 stitutional party was certainly wonderful. Can any one 
 who has the slightest insight into a constitutional 
 government doubt, that if Germany is to be united at 
 all, this unity can only be effected, either by one single 
 imperial government, with or without a constitution, or 
 by a union of republics like America or Switzerland. 
 As long as there are those thirty-three royal families, 
 a unity of Germany will be but the fine dream of the 
 German patriots. 
 
 King Frederick William IV. is reproached by the 
 constitutional party for not having accepted the 
 emperor's crown, offered to him by the Frankfort 
 parliament, in spite of his declaration of the 19th of 
 March, 1848, that he would put himself at the head 
 of Germany. But can he be reproached for this re- 
 fusal. Could he accept the crown without involving 
 himself in a deadly struggle with Austria, and all the 
 other princes of Germany, and with some foreign 
 powers too ; whilst he was not quite sure of the sym- 
 pathies of the whole of the German people ? Could he 
 undertake this dangerous task for the sake of a crown, 
 which was given him by the people on conditions, which 
 a hitherto absolute monarch could not consider very fa- 
 vourable to imperial dignity ? 
 
 Is it astonishing, that a revolution failed, the success 
 of which depended on the solution of such complicated 
 questions ? The Frankfort parliament could be no 
 " long parliament," without a power to enforce its com- 
 mands ; her commissioners were laughed at, and itself 
 forsaken by the " Reichsverweser," and the greatest 
 part of its members were driven from Frankfort, and 
 dissolved at Stuttgard. 
 
 The constitutional party used to lay the failure of the 
 revolution at the door of the democrats. They said, 
 the democrats were to oextravagant in their demands; but 
 in reality the democrats demanded nothing which the 
 constitutional party did not approve of in theory. All 
 these doctrines, handed down from the American " de- 
 claration," and the French " rights of man," were the 
 
94 THE FAILUHE OF 
 
 creed of the democrats, as well as of those consti- 
 tutionalists who had any political conviction at all. 
 The constitutional party sacrificed their conviction in 
 order to reconcile the absolutism of the " holy alliance " 
 with democracy ; they forgot that the devise of this 
 alliance was the Emperor Nicholas' word, " Je conQois 
 bien la republique mais je ne conQois pas la constitution," 
 and they forgot that this very emperor stood behind the 
 princes with some hundreds of thousands of cossacks. The 
 English people, with their happy constitutional govern- 
 ment, are but too prone to take the part of the consti- 
 tutional party, and commonly overlook the fact, that the 
 political situation of the continental states is entirely 
 different ; that in these states all the " materiel " is 
 wanted, which forms in England, so happy a union 
 of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. For in- 
 stance, the English are almost horrified when they see 
 the paragraph which goes through all the continental 
 constitutions, that " Nobility, as an order, is abolished." 
 Now this very paragraph was long since in actual ex- 
 istence. Nobility in the English sense has long since 
 ceased to exist, as well in France as in the most states of 
 Germany. The only " political right," if we dare call it 
 so, left to a nobleman in Prussia, for instance, before 
 1848, was the situation of chamberlain, groom of the 
 horses, master of the ceremonies, and other similar titles 
 and employments about the person of the king. No- 
 bility had become an empty title, before which nobody 
 bowed any longer, except the tradesman of a provincial 
 town, if this title was supported by a good purse. Po- 
 litical power was concentrated in the hands of the king ; 
 education was spread over the whole people ; * wealth 
 was more often to be found in the hands of commercial 
 men ; landed property was equally possessed by " Biir- 
 gerliche," (not noblemen). The democrat added to that 
 
 * It is a singular fact, that in Prussia all those public offices 
 which demand the most knowledge, are filled with " liurgerliche," 
 as for instance, the highest courts of justice. Thus the artillery 
 officers are almost all " Biirgerliche." 
 
THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1848. 95 
 
 paragraph, that " the title of nobility is to be abolished." 
 This addition, though perhaps not politic at the time, 
 was the natural expression of the feelings of the people, 
 who had no great respect for names, which, when they 
 had ceased to be connected with highway robbery, be- 
 came the most humble and most obedient supporters of 
 despotism. This is the very reason why a house of 
 lords, or a chamber of peers, is impossible in Germany, 
 and why the King of Prussia saw himself compelled 
 to take refuge in other elements, to make up a first 
 chamber. Nobody, who has the slightest insight into 
 the social condition of most of the continental states, 
 can overlook this essential difference between them and 
 England ; where there is a real nobility with political 
 power, immense wealth, and a glorious recollection of 
 their merits in striving for the freedom and greatness of 
 their country. 
 
 The democrats, on the contrary, reproached the con- 
 stitutional party, for having, by their cowardice and 
 vacillation, betrayed the cause of freedom. The con- 
 stitutionalists followed no conviction, their maxim was 
 to save as many liberties as possible ; absolutism, of 
 course, took advantage of their weakness, it conquered 
 first, with their assistance, the democrats, and threw 
 them aside as a worthless tool after this was done. The 
 democrats were then only persecuted, the consti- 
 tutionalist both persecuted and despised. In fact if the 
 democrats could have been more moderate, and the 
 constitutionalists more courageous, the result would 
 have been the same, at least, in Germany. The mem- 
 bers of the " holy alliance " did not want any constitu- 
 tion at all ; and when they were compelled to yield to 
 the popular storms of 1848, in the very moment they 
 granted the liberties, they thought of the first oppor- 
 tunity to take them away again, and looked towards 
 their protector at St. Petersburg. The streets of Berlin 
 were almost still red from the blood of the 18th and 
 19th of March, when Frederick William IV. hinted to 
 
O THE FAILURE OF 
 
 a Polish deputation from Posen, that he would soon be 
 able to change his situation, by the aid of the " colossus 
 of St. Petersburg." And if the German princes were 
 in reality inclined to a sincere constitution, a supposition 
 which nobody will assume now, they were not allowed 
 to be so. The failure of the revolution was, as we 
 pointed out, the complication of the question of liberty 
 and unity, and the suspicion between the " bourgeois " 
 and the working-man ; but the other great cause of this 
 failure was the neighbourhood of Russia. It is the old Euro- 
 pean evil over and over again. Before liberalism could set- 
 tle itself, everything and everyone that was bound by in- 
 clination or interest to despotism, after the first dread 
 was over, crept out of their holes, and rallied around 
 St. Petersburg. Those gallant knights of the " Kreuz 
 Zeitung," who were nowhere to be found when the 
 pale and tottering monarch was compelled to lift up his 
 cap before the power of the people, raised first the 
 standard of despotism, when they saw that the people 
 were no jacobins, and had no guillotine, and that the 
 freedom of the press was a reality. But they did not 
 dare unfold the Russian flag as to-day ; they intrigued 
 under the " black and white banner " of Prussia, and 
 tried, with the cross of 1813, to rouse hatred against 
 France and freedom. The evil was, that since Frederick 
 the Great, there had sprung up in Prussia a particular 
 Prussian patriotism, the recollections of which were 
 often in antagonism against Germany. In the first 
 enthusiasm of 1848, the Prussians threw away the 
 " black-white " cockade, and took the " black-red- 
 golden " one of old Germany, " Prussia must be 
 dissolved into Germany," was the word of the king, 
 who meant perhaps, that Germany should be dissolved 
 into Prussia. When the first excitement was over, and 
 the ** bourgeois " of Pommern or Brandenburg began 
 to think how the unity of Germany should be accom- 
 plished, and what a part his dear Prussia would play in 
 this unity, when he then perceived that the question 
 was, cither Prussia or Germany, he resumed his " black- 
 
THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1848. 97 
 
 white " cockade, and became a member of the Preussen 
 Verein.* 
 
 This particular Prussian patriotism, so strong in the 
 most of the eastern provinces of the kingdom, connected 
 with all the glorious recollections of the Great Elector 
 and the Great Frederick, is a great obstacle in the way 
 to German unity. 
 
 We can comprehend the failure of the revolution in 
 two words. As every revolution by necessity entails a 
 time of uncertainty, in which the condition of the coun- 
 tries have to be settled, the different parties have to 
 agree upon one form, and as this uncertainty is always 
 accompanied by a certain reaction, this reaction morally 
 and materially assisted by Russia, will always get so 
 strong as to overturn the gained liberties before these 
 are settled and secured. 
 
 But every failure of a revolution is a victory of Russia, 
 is for her a step further in the conquest of Europe. 
 The failure of the revolutions of 1848 and 1849, have 
 added more strength to the Czar than the acquisition of 
 Turkey would have done ; it has brought proud Austria 
 to his feet, and has made him protector of the King of 
 Prussia, and all the princes of Germany ; it has secured 
 him the possession of Denmark and the Sound in no 
 distant time. Since 1849, the Czar Nicholas has been 
 the real Philip in the despotical amphicthyonic alliance of 
 Europe. Is there in reality no hope for freedom ? 
 
 * A society which was founded by the same men who are to- 
 day the well known leaders of the Russian party. 
 
RUSSIA, AND THE 
 
 X. RUSSIA, AND THE SlATE OF THE CONTINENT. 
 
 WHEN man got an insight into the nature of human 
 affairs and their historical development, he saw that all 
 progress in the world is caused by the struggle of an- 
 tagonistic principles. Since this time the civilized 
 world (for the possession of this insight is a particular 
 sign of civilization) has divided itself into two camps, 
 it rallies around two standards, progress and reaction, 
 liberalism (or democracy) and despotism, materialism 
 (in the better sense of the word) and romanticism. 
 
 Though this battle has been fought from the begin- 
 ning of history, it is due to modern times, especially to 
 the American war of Independence, the French revolu- 
 tion, and the present struggle of the Western powers 
 against Russia, that man fights with full consciousness 
 of the principles which are at stake, that he is no longer 
 a blind tool in the hand of Providence. In this consci- 
 ousness not only statesmen and philosophers partake, 
 but the last private soldier sent to the east from England 
 or France, is proud of his marching against the arch-fiend 
 of freedom for the independence and civilization of 
 Europe. 
 
 In the latter part of the middle ages it was material- 
 ism which first commenced the struggle for liberalism. 
 The material interests of the towns drove them to 
 defend themselves from the robberies of nobility. Every 
 thing which was connected with commerce, industry, art, 
 and law, assembled in the towns and cities ; the high 
 walls and deep ditches of the cities enclosed the whole of 
 civilization ; without these walls there were barbarism, 
 ignorance, arbitrariness, but allied with those virtues of 
 courage and valour, which spread a romantic hue over 
 barbarism and inhumanity. Monarchy sided then with the 
 towns and the material interests, and was constantly at war 
 
STATE OP THE CONTINENT. 99 
 
 with the insolence and lawlessness of the feudal-aristo- 
 cracy ; it became in reality the protector of civilization, 
 the promoter of art, science, and industry. But as in 
 the Italian republics, the people gave themselves into 
 the hands of the " podestV to be protected against the 
 eternal disturbers of peace, the nobles, and gained peace 
 and security in exchange for liberty ; so when the com- 
 merce of the towns saw itself secure, their freedom was 
 gone ; absolutism had established itself with its standing 
 armies, and its uncontrolled taxation. However, it was 
 a change for the better ; if the taxation was sometimes 
 heavy, and much like robbery, it was at least regulated. 
 Absolutism surrounded itself with the glory of art and 
 science, and contributed not a little to the education of 
 mankind. Every petty monarch liked to be called a 
 Maecenas. These merits of absolutism, which the 
 fiercest democrat cannot deny, won for it a stronghold 
 in the heart of the people of the continent ; and where, 
 as is the case in Prussia, monarchy was represented by 
 individuals, of whom many commanded the esteem of 
 mankind, absolutism was at a certain period settled 
 firmly by general consent, the more so as it neither 
 violated material interests, nor was in discrepancy with 
 the ideal views of the people. This is the first period in the 
 history of absolutism ; the second is less glorious. Mo- 
 narchy, after it had subjugated feudal-aristocracy, forgot 
 its former policy, and concluded an alliance with its former 
 enemy. The nobility succeeded in persuading the monarch 
 that his interest and theirs were the same, that they were his 
 strongest supporters, the pillars of the throne. Monarchy 
 thus lost its democratical character, it became nothing 
 but the head of the aristocracy. Instead of uniting its 
 idea with progress and civilization, the faithful com- 
 panions of commerce and industry, it protected the 
 remnants of feudalism, and preserved the obnoxious and 
 mediaeval privileges of the nobles. Under the shelter 
 of the throne, the nobles continued, as in former times, 
 to wage war against the development of civilization ; 
 under the sanction of the monarch, and self-made laws, 
 
100 RUSSIA, AND THE 
 
 they pursued their old policy, their contempt for indus- 
 try and knowledge. It is this alliance of absolutism 
 with the feudal aristocracy which has ruined the mo- 
 narchy in most states of the continent. 
 
 To understand the present condition of most of the 
 continental countries, we must comprehend these two 
 periods in the history of absolutism. By this alliance 
 in the second period the aristocracy carried its chival- 
 rous spirit into the monarchy, and got hold of the 
 standing armies. The legislation became but a benefit 
 of the nobles. Material interests were neglected or 
 mismanaged. It is true, some monarchs tried to de- 
 tach themselves from the bonds of the nobles, and to 
 return to the former policy of absolutism as Frederick 
 the Great, Leopold, and Joseph II., but this was but 
 transient. 
 
 This history of continental monarchy produced a 
 state of things on the continent, entirely different from 
 that of England. The English too often overlook this 
 difference, they have an antipathy against every thing 
 which is not exactly like England ; they think that 
 continental countries can only prosper under a consti- 
 tution like that of England ; but they forget that 
 a constitution must grow out of the history and 
 character of a people, as the English constitution has 
 done, and that because the history of the continental 
 nations has been so entirely different, their constitutions 
 must be different too. 
 
 It is natural that a nobility, which at first were mostly 
 robbers and lawless freebooters, and afterwards detached 
 the monarchy from the interests of the people, should 
 become an object of hatred, or at least should never 
 possess that moral influence and esteem which the 
 English aristocracy possess. Besides this, as the primo- 
 geniture is only in a few cases preserved, the nobility 
 lost its wealth, and with it its material influence. Thus 
 nobility has become politically extinct, and is reduced to 
 intrigues to retain at least an influence over the prince, 
 which they employ not only for the promotion of their 
 
STATE OF THE CONTINENT. 101 
 
 own, but also of foreign interests as the " Junkerpartei" 
 at present in Berlin. 
 
 History has thus especially in Germany and France 
 produced a social equality, which is not to be found in 
 England. The liberal movements tend to equalize so- 
 ciety more and more, and to abolish the last remnants 
 of a hated and anti-national aristocracy, remnants which 
 consist in scarcely more than the mere title. On the 
 other side the nobility, on recollection of their former 
 power and privileges, strive to regain them, and re- 
 gain them by bringing the monarchy into their hands. 
 Monarchy is but a tool in their hands, but a necessary 
 tool. This necessity drives their sympathies towards 
 Russia, which they consider as the protector of mo- 
 narchy, and therefore as the chief guardian of their own 
 interests, It is not too much to say, that the whole 
 nobility of Germany, with very few exceptions, is Rus- 
 sian to the back bone not only because their leaders 
 are covered with Russian stars and crosses, receive 
 Russian pensions and diamond snuff boxes, because a 
 great number of their sons are in Russian service; but 
 because they consider Russia as the natural protector 
 of absolutism, and absolutism as the natural protector of 
 their privileges. 
 
 The present struggle has shown to Europe this sad 
 truth, that all the great generals* of the Emperor Francis 
 Joseph, are less Austrian than Russian ; and we can af- 
 firm, that not only the generals but the great majority 
 of all the officers of the Prussian army, down to the 
 " second lieutenant," are also entirely Russian in their 
 sympathies. The people on the contrary hate Russia ; 
 they know very well what fatal influence that power has 
 exercised over the counsels of their government, that 
 every oppression has originated in that quarter, that every 
 persecution of liberalism was directed from St. Peters- 
 burg. It was a common saying amongst the people, 
 
 * The Soldatenfreund, the chief military journal of the Empire, 
 is also thoroughly Russian. 
 
102 BTJSSIA, AND THE 
 
 " We would rather have the French as enemies than the 
 Russians as friends ;" and even the privates of the 
 Prussian army manifested no desire at all to fraternize 
 with the dirty Russian soldiers, when they were brought 
 together for that purpose in the camp of Kalisch. Since 
 1848, the gap between the nobles and the people has 
 become still greater. The nobility have become more 
 Russian and the people more anti-Russian. The sympa- 
 thies of the people were till 1851, entirely with France. 
 Towards France the eyes of all the liberals were di- 
 rected ; from France was expected the first check against 
 the progressing despotism and aggression of Russia. 
 England did not exist for the people of the continent. 
 They knew well that there was living on an Island a wealthy 
 people, with much individual liberty, a wide spread 
 commerce and a large navy, but they knew also that 
 the government of this people had always been in al- 
 liance with despotism, and had never shown any sym- 
 pathies for the rising of those liberties abroad, which 
 their people themselves enjoy at home. And as the 
 general opinion was, that the English government was 
 the real expression of the will of the English people, 
 the English people themselves were considered as 
 selfish, and led only by considerations for their own 
 material profit. 
 
 Since 1851, the expectations from France have ceased. 
 The vacillations of the political life of that country have 
 at last convinced the nations of Europe, that with all 
 their love of liberty and sympathies for the freedom of 
 other countries, the French are wanting in that steadi- 
 ness which alone can procure the foundation of lasting 
 liberty. Since this time, England has begun to 
 take the place of France. The sympathy which the 
 people of England manifested for the cause of Hungary 
 and the Hungarians, the severity with which the Eng- 
 lish press, even the most diplomatic part of it, chas- 
 tizes the actions of continental despots, and above all 
 the enthusiasm throughout England, for a war against 
 the arch-fiend of freedom, have convinced the people of 
 
STATE OP THE CONTINENT. 103 
 
 the continent, that under the cool and restrained ex- 
 terior of the Englishman, there beats still a heart for 
 freedom and justice beyond the limits of his island; 
 and that as far as the will of the English people goes, 
 England should be that head-quarter of freedom and 
 liberalism, which she has every right to be on account of 
 the wealth and spirit of her people. 
 
 Wherever we look into the present struggle on the 
 continent, society is divided into two camps of po- 
 litical principles and national sympathies. The princes, 
 the nobility,* and a very small portion of the people 
 whose present interests are connected with the former 
 two, as in Germany, (especially the clergy, Protestant as 
 well as Catholic,) are on the side of Russia ; all the other 
 classes as far as they have any opinion at all, are body 
 and soul on the side of the Western powers. It is un- 
 necessary to mention, that to the latter belong especially 
 the commercial classes,f and above all, the young ge- 
 neration of intelligent mechanics; but also amongst the 
 " Beamte" (government employes) in Germany, by far the 
 largest number may be considered to belong to the na- 
 tional and liberal party. The proud Prussian " Beamte" 
 perceives with indignation the humiliating and antinational 
 
 * The Austrian nobility took verylittlc part in the new Aus- 
 trian loan, as such a measure is contrary to their Russian sym- 
 pathies. 
 
 f The present war has to a great extent contributed to avert 
 the sympathies of the commercial world, principally in the sea- 
 port towns of the Baltic, as Stettin, Danzig, Elbing, from the 
 Prussian government. Their principles of free-trade have long 
 since attached them to the policy of England. It is known that 
 the nearer the Russian frontier, the stronger is the hatred of the 
 Prussian people towards Russia, which closes her frontier her- 
 metically against any intercourse, not only commercial hut even 
 social with her neighbour. The sympathies of the Rhenish pro- 
 vinces for France till the year 1851, are known. On the 18th of 
 March, 1848, a few hours before the outbreak of the Revolution, 
 there was a deputation from Cologn before the king, demanding 
 the final execution of the law of 22nd May, 1815, and stating that 
 a negative answer would endanger the allegiance of the Rhenish 
 provinces to the Prussian crown. 
 
104 RUSSIA, AND THE 
 
 policy to which his country is condemned, in a struggle, 
 in which that civilization is at stake, of which he con- 
 siders himself one of the foremost representatives. 
 
 As far as regards the armies there is a decided dif- 
 ference between the Romanic nations and the Germanic. 
 Whilst the armies of Spain, Portugal, Italy, have often 
 been the first defenders of liberty, their generals have 
 first raised the standard of constitution, as at present in 
 Spain ; the armies in the Germanic states are so attached 
 to the person of the monarch, that they are but a too 
 willing tool of his despotic plans and policy. The rea- 
 son is that these armies are entirely in the hands of the 
 nobility, and that the privates are animated by such an 
 " esprit de corps," that as long as they wear the king's 
 jacket, they consider themselves in opposition to the 
 people, and are estranged to their interests. Especially 
 is this the case in Austria and Prussia. The monarchs 
 of Germany know but too well, that in most circum- 
 stances they can depend on the faithfulness of their 
 soldiers.* We speak here about the standing armies; a 
 difference may be found in Prussia with the " Landwehr," 
 which forms as it is known the greatest part of the mili- 
 tary strength of that kingdom. It is assuredly the un- 
 certainty, whether the king of Prussia can rely on them, 
 in the case of his joining Russia, that keeps him in this 
 vacillation; the influence of the " Kreuz Zeitung" party 
 would long since have driven him to an open alliance 
 with Nicholas. Less to be depended on are the soldiers 
 of the smaller states, in which the " esprit de corps," 
 created generally by glorious recollections of past ser- 
 vices to prince and country, are more or less wanting, 
 It is not too much to say, that without Prussia and 
 Austria, the princes of the smaller states would not be 
 able to maintain their petty thrones for one day. The 
 revolutions of Baden, Saxony, and Hessen-Cassel, have 
 
 * The only exception was formed by some Baden regiments, 
 and some high military men in Hessen-Cassel in that disgraceful 
 overturning of the Constitution of 1834. 
 
STATE OP THE CONTINENT. 105 
 
 given sufficient proof of it The fear of the Prussians, 
 who are considered as the policemen of Germany, alone 
 retains for these princes a power, which they so often em- 
 ploy against their protector. 
 
 Russian sympathies of course are irreconcileable with 
 constitutionalism. The constitutions find no admirers 
 amongst the German nobility, with very few excep- 
 tions. The nobility know but too well, that a constitu- 
 tion brings the power into the hands of the middle 
 classes, if not into that of public opinion ; much more 
 are they opposed to anything like an oath of the army 
 sworn upon the constitution. This is for them a very 
 horror to think of, to make the generals and officers 
 dependent upon a number of " talkers" and " scribblers." 
 They have even no inclination towards a " House of 
 Lords :" first, because they see that such a " House" 
 would hardly be possible in a country where wealth and 
 education is so equally divided, and where nobility is 
 but an empty title ; secondly, because they are afraid of 
 being too much thrown into the shade by the intelli- 
 gence of an " Under House." The more intelligent 
 amongst them are almost all in the service of the go- 
 vernment in the different parts of administration, and 
 in the diplomatic career. The English people must 
 know that under those conditions, in which the nobility 
 in Germany and France exists, it is impossible to form 
 a " House of Lords." The king of Prussia was there- 
 fore obliged to take other elements into the " Upper 
 Chamber," high functionaries of the state, wealthy landed 
 proprietors and industrial men ; those whom he consi- 
 dered most willing to support what is called, " the 
 prerogatives of the crown" against liberalism. These 
 members are then of course elected by the king, and 
 their dignity is not hereditary. It is but natural that 
 such an " Upper Chamber," is neither popular with the 
 nobility nor with the people. 
 
 The feelings of the people towards a constitutional 
 government on the other side, have undergone a great 
 change in Germany, perhaps so in France. Before 1848 
 F 5 
 
106 BUSSIA, AND THE 
 
 it was the general desire to possess a constitution, per- 
 haps, like that of Belgium, with those alterations which 
 the different conditions of the country require. The 
 popular demands were in the spring of that year, above 
 all, " liberty of the press and of assembly," (freies Ver- 
 sammlungsrecht,) an " habeas corpus act," " trial by 
 jury," and as a guarantee of the constitution and of 
 these rights, "Volksbewaffnung," (national guard.) We 
 do not remember that " general suffrage " was espe- 
 cially named in the days of March, but the " March- 
 ministries" granted it, as it was too natural to the mind 
 of an almost equally educated people. The people 
 were kind-hearted enough to believe, that their princes, 
 hitherto absolute, or but restricted by a sham-consti- 
 tution, would be really constitutional. In their confi- 
 dent enthusiasm they forgot Frederick William IV.'s 
 speech to the " united diet " a year ago, they forgot the 
 *' secret conferences of Vienna," they forgot also that 
 there was a Russia at their door. The fate of the con- 
 stitutions of 1848 and 1849 is known. Most of them, 
 although sworn by the princes, have made room for the 
 former absolutism ; and where they are kept they have 
 been changed at every period, when the fear of the 
 people decreased and the confidence in Russia in- 
 creased. What has become of the liberty of the press ? 
 what of that of assembly ? where is the " habeas corpus 
 act?" And wherever the trial by jury is not yet 
 abolished, political offenders are brought before a spe- 
 cial commission. 
 
 The king of Prussia expelled the parliament of 1848 
 by force of arms, and twice changed the constitution 
 and the " electoral law," given by himself, till he got 
 " a chamber" which did not dare to oppose him. The 
 English correspondents from Berlin sometimes show 
 confidence in the present constitutional life of Prussia ; 
 they seem to think that the present constitution will be 
 further developed. The people of Prussia are of a dif- 
 ferent opinion. They know the feelings of the king 
 about constitutions, they know also that the king is en- 
 
STATE OF THE CONTINENT. 107 
 
 tirely in the hands of the " Kreuz-Zeitung " party, a 
 party which neglects no opportunity of manifesting its 
 utter contempt for anything like a constitution. It is 
 obvious to the people, that as soon as circumstances will 
 allow, even that mock constitution, which now exists, 
 will share the fate of so many others within the sway of 
 the " holy alliance." The English correspondents ought 
 not to be astonished that the nation shows little or 
 no interest in the debates of the chambers, for neither do 
 these assemblies express the public opinion of Prussia, 
 nor will the fate of the country in any way be decided 
 by their decisions.* The famous elector of Hesse-Cassel 
 abolished even a constitution which was not too liberal 
 in 1834, when it was given. 
 
 That which is left of the constitution is not executed. 
 More than that, religious persecution has sprung up 
 where it was unknown as in Prussia ; the liberal sects 
 are persecuted, whilst Jesuitism is favoured, or at least 
 suffered. 
 
 Such is the reward of the people for their confidence 
 in the faith of their princes ! Is it to be wondered at 
 that the German people, patient as they are, twice de- 
 ceived, have at last given up the idea of reconciling 
 their dynasties with popular liberty; that they have lost 
 their faith in German constitutional governments; that 
 they think, if we will have " liberty of the press and 
 meeting," a " habeas corpus act," " trial by jury," free- 
 dom of religion," in short all those individual rights 
 which exist in England under a monarchy, and which 
 ought to exist in every civilized country, we must part 
 with our kings, grand dukes, dukes, elector, and princes ;] 
 
 * An exception is found in the manly speeches of Bethmann- 
 Hollweg and von Yincke about the loan. 
 
 f We are at a loss to imagine how the writer of a leader in 
 the Times, (Saturday, August 12,) could pen the following sen- 
 tences : " The people hate and despise their own courts for their 
 submission to the intrigues of the Russian agents, but they know 
 not how to free themselves from the calamity without incurring 
 anarchy ;" or " still in connexion with the sudden and tragical 
 end of a royal personage (King of Saxony,) we may be permitted 
 
108 RUSSIA, AND THE 
 
 and if we will keep our kings, grand dukes, dukes, elec- 
 tor and princes, we must resign " liberty of the press 
 and meeting," habeas corpus," " trial by jury," " free- 
 dom of religion." It is a fatal alternative, but a true 
 one. Germany divided, masked by the " Bund," pro- 
 tected by Russia, can only have either the one or the 
 other. A really constitutional government with so and 
 so many German princes, with an intriguing, anti- 
 national and anti-liberal nobility, at the door of Russia 
 is an impossibility. Cripple Russia in the Black Sea, 
 cripple Russia in the Baltic, but leave her the neigh- 
 bour of Germany, and keep those thirty princes on their 
 thrones, and Russia will laugh at your exertions. 
 
 In March, 1848, there were but very few republicans 
 in Germany; in 1849, the republican party embraced all 
 
 to wonder if the German people will not find some way to rid 
 themselves of the incubus of Eussian influence without having 
 recourse to violence and tumult." Now, we would request 
 this spirited writer, to point out to the German people the way 
 in which they are to free their countrymen from Russian in- 
 fluence without turning out their lot of petty kings and princes, 
 and how they could turn out some thirty of these without vio- 
 lence and ttimult as he must well know, that not only all mem- 
 bers of the German "Bund," but llusuia too, have pledged them- 
 selves to uphold their thrones. Or does he think that all those 
 princes would run away as soon as the people declared they did 
 not want them any longer. What does this author mean by 
 "anarchy?" If a state is called "anarchy," in which there is 
 no firmly established government, we should like to know how 
 a country could turn out some thirty princes and dissolrc their 
 governments into one, without undergoing that state of" anarchy" 
 for a certain time. And if he means by " anarchy," the violation 
 of personal security and property, he ought to know that in the 
 whole year 1848, there was not so much of this anarchy in 
 Germany, as in the time of the last Parliamentary election in 
 England. This same writer says also, "It may be true, that the 
 Germans are not as yet fitted for the forms of Parliamentary go- 
 vernment." AVe have, we believe, sufficiently pointed out why 
 the Germans are not fitted and will never be fitted for such a 
 kind of Parliamentary government as England has. It is really 
 a pity that so many English cannot understand, that the same 
 forms of government which are fitted for one people are not so 
 for the other, and that an English parliament cannot be esta- 
 blished in Germany. 
 
STATE OF THE CONTINENT. 109 
 
 the working classes, a great many of the " bourgeoisie," 
 and counted even in higher circles some members. To- 
 day there is no longer a constitutional party, or at least 
 not one worth the name. The constitutionalists of 1848 
 have at last got the conviction, that there is no recon- 
 ciliation possible between liberalism and Russia. With 
 sorrow they have given up their favourite idea of the 
 " balance of power," and turned republicans. English 
 newspaper correspondents, who move in circles near 
 the court, and read that which the newspapers are 
 allowed to print, do not see the true state of affairs. 
 They should go into the cafes, they should enter the 
 provincial inns, and listen to that which is spoken, and 
 guess that which is hinted at. Communism, with which 
 the French " bourgeois" was frightened into despotism, 
 has no terror for the German tradesman ; he has learnt 
 that republicanism and communism are two different 
 things ; that a republic can not only guarantee liberty, 
 but protect order and property. Except a handful of jour- 
 neymen tailors in Cologn, there are no communists in 
 Germany.* 
 
 We mentioned before, that the question of liberalism 
 in Germany as well as in Italy is inseparable from na- 
 tional unity. Since the great war against Napoleon, 
 no period has brought the necessity of the unity more to 
 the eye of the German than the present eastern ques- 
 tion, no time has brought it clearer to the mind of Eu- 
 rope. Russia, the neighbour of an independent, united 
 Germany, would never have ventured upon her present 
 aggression in the east; and if she had been bold enough, 
 England and France need not have sent their armies and 
 their ships. Germany is the natural guardian of civili- 
 zation and independence towards the east. Russia is 
 
 * A trial which the Saxon and Prussian governments got 
 up with great ostentation in 1851, against a journeyman tailor 
 from Cologn, who had visited the mechanics' institutions of 
 northern Germany, only showed that he has been well treated with 
 beer and tobacco, and sent away as soon as he developed his 
 communistic ideas. 
 
110 RUSSIA, AND THE 
 
 dangerous to Turkey and Europe, only because Germany 
 is divided, and because her princes are Russian satraps. 
 The diplomatists talk of " balance of power," and they 
 have counteracted every effort the German people made 
 at uniting their strength and gaining independence 
 from Russia ; and when even the king of Prussia made 
 such trial at Erfurt, feeble enough as it was, he had no 
 greater enemy than English statesmen of course in 
 alliance with Russia and Austria. 
 
 The " Kaiseridee" (the idea of an German Empire) 
 has almost disappeared, but nobody thinks more of that 
 inconsiderate attempt of uniting some thirty constitu- 
 tional states with their princes under a constitutional 
 Emperor. For who should be Emperor ? Austria is too 
 un-German in her character and institutions, too much 
 affected by half barbarous countries ; and Prussia has 
 especially under this king entirely lost her "prestige" in 
 Germany. Where is there in Germany any prince who is 
 liberal-minded and courageous enough to undertake the 
 dangerous task of ridding Germany in alliance with the 
 nation from her anti-national royal families, and to es- 
 tablish one government liberal at home, strong and pa- 
 triotic abroad ? What is left ? Either no unity at all, 
 or horribile dictu to an English ear, united republics. 
 The German mind has accustomed itself to this idea, 
 that only in a republic there is independence, freedom 
 and glory for the German people. The German princes 
 have taught them this lesson ever since the French Re- 
 volution, we might say since the thirty -years' war ; and 
 they teach them this lesson still more to-day. 
 
 And no people is, perhaps, more prepared for a re- 
 public. Intelligent, industrious, of sober habits, with 
 almost an equality of education, without great distinc- 
 tion of social orders, and accustomed to a kind of self- 
 government in their municipal institutions, the founda- 
 tion on which a great and prosperous republic could be 
 erected is already there. Her divisions into so many diffe- 
 rent states, so fatal for her power and independence to- 
 day, would be the surest foundation of her liberty, without 
 
STATE OF THE CONTINENT. Ill 
 
 impairing when united by a democratical, central go- 
 vernment, the power and glory of the nation abroad. 
 They will have it ! It is but a matter of time. 
 
 The condition of Italy is similar to that of Ger- 
 many. National independence, national unity and li- 
 beral government, are here as in Germany, the great 
 " Lebensfragen" (questions of life.) To get rid of the Aus- 
 trian yoke is as much the national struggle now as in the 
 time of Frederick Barbarossa ; all classes are united in this 
 purpose. The nobleman is as national, as patriotic as the 
 peasant. It is true that there are in Italy different po- 
 litical parties, that especially the aristocracy of Lom- 
 bardy does not entirely agree with Mazzini in his views 
 about the future government of Italy ; but whatever may 
 be their differences in those questions, all parties agree 
 in this point, that Italy ought to be freed from foreign 
 yoke, and in some way united to maintain her indepen- 
 dence. The means which Mazzini employs to gain 
 this end are certainly not approved of by every one in 
 Italy ; but it is a mistake to think that there is any party 
 in Italy who set their hope upon the diplomatists of the 
 Great Powers, and who are not willing to take up arms 
 for their independence as soon as there is the slightest 
 chance for success. We ought scarcely to mention that 
 the commencement of Italian liberty and independence 
 will be the end of the papacy. It is known that popery 
 and papal government is, perhaps, no where so much 
 hated as in Rome itself, and that without the French 
 bayonets the see of Peter would now have become 
 almost a myth. For the only anti-national element in 
 the country is the see of Rome and the bigotted Ca- 
 tholic clergy. The Pope is a vacillating character, en- 
 tirely guided by the Cardinals, who know well that their 
 very existence is owing to foreign influence, and who 
 have much greater sympathy for Austrian and Russian 
 depotism than for Italian liberty. The least Russian 
 amongst the higher clergy in Rome is, perhaps, the 
 Pope himself, who consults more his religious antipa- 
 thies than political interests. Louis Napoleon reinstated 
 
112 RUSSIA, AND THE 
 
 the Pope, because he wanted the support of the Catholic 
 clergy for his Imperial schemes, and because he would 
 not allow Italy to fall entirely under the sway of Austria. 
 The French army is still at Rome ; what part it will 
 play, when by any successful revolution the Austrians 
 are driven from the Italian soil and their influence no 
 longer to be feared for France, we cannot conjecture. 
 The kingdom of Italy is not yet entirely forgotten, 
 and it would at least fulfil one desire of the Italian 
 patriots, that of unity, without which there is no in- 
 dependence and liberty. The king u Bomba," is still 
 haunted by the ghost of Murat, whose memory the pre- 
 sent abominable tyranny has made dear to the Neapoli- 
 tans. 
 
 The position of Piedmont in Italy we have already 
 mentioned ; she is the only state in which there is a 
 patriotic government. If we glance at the constitu- 
 tionalism of the continent, we see there are only Pied- 
 mont and Belgium which deserve the name of con- 
 stitutional states. Piedmont, between France and 
 Austrian Italy, can find anything like an independent 
 existence only in a constitutional goverment, she is the 
 soil in which the antagonistic interests of France and 
 Austria uphold a liberal government, and in which the 
 plans of a Carlo Alberto to unite Italy, under the 
 House of Savoy, are, perhaps, still alive, and contribute 
 essentially to the liberalism of the government, and to 
 that opposition which it has shown to papal aggression. 
 When Leopold was called to the newly-created throne 
 of Belgium, his position was extremely difficult. A 
 Protestant king in a Catholic country, in which French 
 is not only the language of the educated classes, but in 
 which there is a not uninfluential party which desires 
 annexation with France, he had no other chance than 
 to be as liberal as possible ; and above all, to observe 
 strictly and sincerely those constitutional forms which 
 constituted the conditions of his power. For in all the 
 other countries of the continent, in which constitutional- 
 ism has been tried, the constitutions soon gave way 
 
STATE OF TUB CONTINENT. 113 
 
 either to open or masked despotism, a sufficient proof 
 that constitutionalism is not congenial to the political 
 and social soil of the continent, that it is but an imi- 
 tation of England, an imitation without blood, without 
 immanent power of life, because it has not grown out 
 of the historical and social soil of the countries. 
 
 The only republic of the continent, Switzerland, in 
 the midst of powerful despotisms, and in spite of their 
 manifold menaces and insinuations, has lived already 
 more than five hundred years. 
 
 Louis Napoleon boasts of having closed the revolution 
 in France. It is true that he has silenced that party-strug- 
 gle, which before 1851, kept France in a state of conti- 
 nual excitement. But, on the other side, the excitement 
 and uncertainty about the future, which reigned in France 
 before the 2nd December, was to a great extent caused 
 by the intrigues and schemes of the Prince-President 
 himself. The vacillating character of France is difficult 
 to understand ; but we should say, that the present 
 order established by the Emperor Napoleon, could have 
 been also established by a government of moderate re- 
 publicans, if the plans of the Prince-President had not 
 prevented it from being firmly settled. Perhaps, this 
 order would have been consistent with a greater amount 
 of individual liberty. However, Louis Napoleon has 
 suceeded in reconciling the feelings of the many, who 
 were shocked by the violence and immorality of the 
 coup d'etat ; and the political circumstances of Europe 
 have greatly assisted him in this reconciliation. 
 
 We have already mentioned that the government of 
 Louis Napoleon is a patriotic one. For the first time 
 since Napoleon the Great, France has detached herself 
 from the sway of the Holy Alliance, and has re-occu- 
 pied that place amongst the powers of Europe, which 
 she had lost by the restoration of the Bourbons. The 
 French press boasts justly, that the hand of France is 
 felt all over Europe, in Rome, Athens, Constantinople, 
 on the Circassian coast, and in the Gulph of Bothnia 
 and Finland. Thus what the French have lost of 
 
114 BUSSIA, AND THE 
 
 liberty at home, they have won of glory abroad ; it 
 is the system of the first Napoleon over again ; and 
 the world knows how much the word " gloire" indem- 
 nifies the enthusiastic Gauls for so many privations and 
 dangers. But it is not on "gloire" alone, that the 
 third Napoleon has founded his empire. The French 
 Socialists demanded that the working classes, " la classe 
 la plus nombreuse et la plus pauvre," should at least 
 have their due share in the government. They de- 
 manded this that they might be able to turn the power 
 of the government to the material improvement of that 
 class. Louis Napoleon's maxim is, " every thing for 
 the working classes, nothing through them." Whether 
 this maxim is a right one we shall not discuss; but no 
 one can deny that the untiring exertions of the present 
 Emperor of the French for the material welfare of the 
 working classes have made these classes the surest pil- 
 lars of his throne. If Louis Philippe's government is 
 called the reign of the " Bourgeoisie," Louis Napo- 
 leon's government might be called the government of 
 the working classes, with this difference, that the ma- 
 terial welfare of the working clases is a benefit to the 
 whole country, whilst the riches of bankers and stock- 
 jobbers did not contribute to increase the wealth and 
 industry of the nation at large . 
 
 There are still in France those old dynastic parties, 
 but they have lost the hope of succeeding with their 
 intrigues and their schemes under the sway of Louis 
 Napoleon; they have postponed the execution of their 
 plans for the moment, when his reign will cease, or his 
 policy take a less popular course. Their intrigues, in 
 spite of their " fusion," are powerless, their cause is the 
 more hopeless, as it is closely connected with Russian 
 influence and Russian support. The Bourbons must see, 
 that only the Cossacks can bring them back to Paris, and 
 that there is little hope for that, as these Cossacks are not 
 even able to reach Constantinople. The moderate repub- 
 licans, without giving up their hope for the future, have 
 dropped that hostility, which naturally animated them 
 
STATE OF THE CONTINENT. 115 
 
 against the perpetrator of the 2nd Decemher, and if they 
 do not assemble around the standard of the empire, they 
 at least have given over the war against a government, 
 which has on the side of England undertaken the great 
 combat for independence and civilization. The leaders 
 of the Socialist parties are mostly disarmed by the care 
 which the Emperor manifests for the interest of the 
 " ouvriers." 
 
 The Court of Vienna has succeeded in changing the 
 loyalty of Hungary into the strongest hostility, which 
 is only oppressed but not extinguished by the Russian 
 and Austrian armies. The enthusiasm with which the 
 Hungarians supported their Queen Maria Theresa in 
 her struggles with Frederick the Great, has given way 
 to the most profound hatred amongst the influential 
 classes, who but wait for an opportunity to throw off 
 a yoke that has been so treacherously laid on them. 
 We cannot help thinking, and the middle classes in 
 German Austria are of the same opinion, that the 
 powerful armaments in Hungary will serve more to 
 keep down any attempt at a rising, which would per- 
 haps find support in a neighbouring Turkish army, than 
 to threaten the Russians. Austria excuses herself for 
 not having entered the Principalities by the attitude 
 of Prussia and Germany ; but neither Prussia nor the 
 minor states of the confederation could dare attack 
 Austria if she entered the Principalities, or joined 
 openly the Western Powers. 
 
 As everywhere else, there are in Hungary, and amongst 
 the Hungarian refugees, parties which coincide in the 
 desire of national independence, but differ in the form of 
 government, which independent Hungary should assume. 
 But the aristocratic party under Bathiany, who lately 
 died at Paris, Kossuth with his followers, and the more 
 radical Szemere are not so hostile, that they will not 
 unite into one great national party when the day of 
 action should arrive. The Slavonians in Hungary them- 
 selves, formerly so hostile to the Magyars, have learnt 
 that this hostility was strong enough to do harm to the 
 
116 
 
 RUSSIA, AND THE 
 
 Hungarians, but not sufficient to do any good to their 
 own interests. 
 
 That "Poland is not lost yet" is the hope which 
 keeps the vigorous national feelings alive in the divided 
 territories of old Poland. In spite of so many slaughters 
 and transportations in spite of the artifice of educating 
 the young Popish nobility in schools in the interior of 
 Russia, and the many means of Russifying the country, 
 the Poles are ready to encounter death for their inde- 
 pendence as soon as there is the slightest hope for 
 success. It is said that the Poles do not hate so much 
 the Russians as the Germans. It is a natural fear, 
 that the German civilization, with its sober, industrial 
 town-life, may peaceably conquer that part of Poland 
 which is under Prussia and Austria, as it has already 
 done in West Preussen (in Prussia) and the West of 
 Posen. We can understand that the Poles would even 
 be willing to accept from the hands of the Emperor 
 Nicholas a kind of independence, though they know well 
 this act would be but a threat to Prussia and Austria, 
 and that this independence would disappear as soon as 
 circumstances are more favourable for Russia. We 
 have in another place alluded to the difficulty which, 
 by the re-establishment of Poland in any way, must arise 
 between the Poles and the Germans, who inhabit ter- 
 ritory formerly Polish, but these territories do not 
 belong to Germany. To let loose the Poles on Ger- 
 many, as it is called, would be more dangerous to Rus- 
 sia herself than to Prussia and Austria. As it could 
 only take place in case these powers openly join the 
 Western States, the Prussian armies released from the 
 watch of the Rhenish provinces by the alliance with 
 France, and sheltered on the Baltic coast by the united 
 fleets, could easily cope with any attack in the East, and 
 give assistance to Austria too, the more so as, by an anti- 
 Russian policy the King has not. so much to fear a rising 
 of his own subjects. The King of Prussia, as he has too 
 often done before, again shows himself utterly incapable 
 of understanding his situation, and of taking advantage of 
 
STATE OF THE CONTINENT. 117 
 
 the opportunity of reconciling his people and playing a 
 glorious part in the history of the present. It is certain, 
 that in taking part with the West, he would see himself 
 under the necessity of making liberal concessions to the 
 people, or of changing this farce of a constitution, per- 
 formed now in a back building, into a sincere and liberal 
 action; but by this very change, combined with a decla- 
 ration of war against Russia, he would almost abolish 
 the republican party and gain the sympathies of the 
 whole German people. He, on the contrary, could let 
 loose the Poles on Russia, an act which would turn out 
 a real advantage to Prussia herself. What Prussia 
 would lose in Posen she would more than regain by the 
 annexation of those surrounding states, which would be 
 too willing to put their hated and despised petty despots 
 on half-pay, as the two Mecklenburgs, the kingdom of 
 Saxony,* the Electorate of Hesse-Cassel. It lies in the 
 hand of Frederick William IV. again, by a sincere, 
 liberal, and anti-Russian policy, to do immense service 
 not only to Germany but to Europe. But this monarch 
 has been born to ruin monarchy on the continent. 
 
 The Danish democrats, so zealous against the Schles- 
 ing-Holsteiners and Germans in 1848-49, begin to see 
 that they have been the blind tools of Russia. They be- 
 lieved they were fighting for the integrity of the Danish 
 Empire, and this very integrity has been converted by the 
 statesmen of Europe into a not very distant annexation 
 of the entire Danish monarchy to the Russian Empire. 
 The King of Denmark is a man of rude manners, and 
 no political capacity, despised by the people, a mere 
 tool in the hands of his ministry, who are thoroughly 
 Russian, and wait but for an opportunity of abolishing 
 the inconvenient constitution. As in Denmark, the 
 people in Sweden are heart and hand against Russia; 
 the antipathy to the political principles of this 
 
 * The present King of Saxony, Johann, unites with a most 
 bigoted, absolutistic, and overbearing character, an energy which 
 is too well fitted to bring his Protestant country to a crisis. Russia 
 also has gained in him an energetic supporter. 
 
118 HUSSIA, AND THE 
 
 neighbouring country is still increased by the historical 
 recollection, that it was principally this power which 
 robbed the country of Gustavus Adolphus, not only of 
 its best provinces, but of its position as a first-rate power. 
 The Court of Stockholm, though affected with Russian 
 sympathies, cannot venture to act against the so strongly 
 expressed national feelings, especially of the middle 
 classes of the people. The nobility here counts many 
 a Russian friend amongst its members, but is in general 
 more actuated by patriotic sentiments than in Ger- 
 many. 
 
 When the present revolution in Spain broke out, the 
 correspondent of an English newspaper wrote from 
 Madrid, that a republic in that country was out of the 
 question. Spain was certainly always considered as the 
 most loyal and monarchical country in Europe; but the 
 world must indeed be astonished at the untiring patience 
 that unfortunate country exercises towards monarchy, and 
 a monarchy which, since the death of Charles V., has 
 always been the worst specimen of its kind. If we 
 observe, that all things and circumstances of the present 
 civilised world tend to abolish an institution which was 
 well adapted to the childhood of mankind, we see that 
 as far as personalities can contribute to this end, the 
 future republican world will be especially indebted to 
 the Spanish Bourbons. No royal family has perhaps 
 heaped so much disgrace on a crown. We had there- 
 fore doubts in the assertion of that correspondent, a 
 doubt which was justified by a later communication, 
 that the monarchy was in great danger. The intelli- 
 gence respecting the most important province of Catalonia 
 is enveloped in entire darkness; we hear that this pro- 
 vince is in a troubled state, but no body tells us what 
 the meaning of these troubles is. In a private letter the 
 word Republic has been mentioned in connexion with 
 Communism; but we know very well that in the head of 
 some monarchists these two ideas are inseparably con- 
 nected, in spite of all historical proofs of their anta- 
 gonism. It seems to us that the Spanish people in 
 
STATE OF THE CONTINENT. 119 
 
 general are heartily tired of monarchy and of constitu- 
 tionalism, and that only the confidence, which they have 
 in the personal liberalism and probity of Espartero 
 can induce them to make once more a trial of con- 
 stitutional monarchy, or at least with the form of it, for the 
 Spanish people cannot and certainly will not wish that 
 the present Queen should have any power, however small 
 or constitutional, but that she shall be a mere name, 
 given to the liberal government of Espartero. Thus, if 
 monarchy is allowed to live further in Spain, it will be 
 under conditions, which strip it even of the appearance 
 of power. There is no doubt that even the higher 
 classes, the generals and soldiers, are as little monarchial 
 as the people ; but they fear that the abolition of the 
 name of Queen will be the commencement of that party- 
 struggle which has brought Spain to the brink of 
 destruction, and especially that it will open again that 
 country to all the contending foreign influences which 
 have always been the misfortune of the peninsula since 
 Charles V. 
 
 There is, above all, the question what the French 
 Emperor will say to the Spanish republic; and it is 
 already whispered, that it will find no favour with him. 
 Though Queen Isabella is by almost all parties con- 
 sidered as a necessary evil for the present, the dynastic 
 question is not settled yet. The country waits with 
 anxiety the assembly of the Cortes in November; and 
 though it is reported that these Cortes are not assembled 
 to discuss whether Queen Isabella or not, whether 
 monarchy or not ; this question will certainly be im- 
 posed upon them by the whole country. If there were 
 no fear for embroilments with mighty foreign powers, 
 nothing is so likely as that Spain would pull down a 
 monarchy, under which she has suffered and has been 
 degraded so much. But even with this fear, a Spanish 
 republic is certainly far from being out of question.* 
 
 * An English newspaper regrets that Espartero has not 
 hastened to dissolve the provincial Juntas, which, he says, are 
 influenced by the " populace." Every one knows that these 
 
120 RUSSIA, AXD THE 
 
 The condition of the different countries and races 
 which form the Ottoman Empire, has by the present war 
 been so much brought to light, that we shall only point 
 in another chapter to that question, which so much 
 troubles the statesmen of Europe, as to what the condition 
 of the Ottoman Empire, and we may add, of Greece, 
 will be in future. 
 
 If we take one short general view of the state of 
 the European continent, we shall observe that the com- 
 bat between those two principles, which strive for the 
 domination of the world the principle of despotism 
 and of self-government is everywhere active ; that this 
 struggle of the new world against the old world appears 
 almost everywhere as a struggle for national independ- 
 ence and for democracy. One striking difference the 
 reviewer cannot fail to observe between the Germanic 
 nations, especially Germany and the Romanic countries, 
 in their social elements. The feudal aristocracy, and 
 in connection with them the military power, are in Ger- 
 many, and more or less in other Germanic countries, the 
 strongest and most faithful supporters of despotism and 
 everything which is in alliance with it ; whilst in Italy 
 and in Spain the nobility, and in the latter principally, 
 the army have more than once taken up arms for 
 liberalism, and have lent their powerful assistance to 
 the defence of the popular rights. But the most active 
 supporters of despotism on the continent are the clergy. 
 The Catholic clergy, especially the higher, out of 
 
 Juntas have been of the greatest use to Spain by maintaining 
 order and establishing a kind of authority in the hottest days of 
 insurrection. Political life is not so centralized as in France ; 
 and Spain under the rule of these Juntas is like so many republics 
 united under the authority of Espartero, whose rules are only 
 based on confidence. The abolition of these provincial Juntas, 
 which maintain at least order in the provinces and protect pro- 
 perty, would be an act of utter folly on the part of Espartero, as 
 he is not strong enough to replace them by an authority, which 
 is as popular, and therefore as able to maintain order as the 
 Juntas. That abolition would also certainly, hd'ore the fate of 
 Spain is definitely settled by the Cortes, be connected with 
 violence and endanger the position of the central government. 
 
STATE OF THE CONTINENT. 121 
 
 principle; the Protestant clergy, because they are de- 
 pendent for their existence upon the governments. The 
 middle and lower classes stand everywhere on the side 
 of self-government. In the Catholic Romanic countries, 
 where the education of the lower classes is less ad- 
 vanced, there is no decided leaning towards any one 
 political form. They follow here more the influence, which 
 a personality has understood how to gain over them, or 
 desire a form of government, which promises them material 
 improvement. In Germany, where the education of 
 the lower classes, principally in the Protestant states, is 
 higher than in any other country, except America, the 
 working classes are thoroughly republican, and among the 
 middle classes the constitutional party has been fast de- 
 creasing since 1848, and is at present almost distinct. 
 
 A deadly struggle of the two principles and their 
 confessors is almost in all countries ready for an out- 
 break; a reconciliation is no longer possible. In Ger- 
 many such a reconciliation would be considered as 
 insincere and deceptive. The Germans, the Italians, 
 the Hungarians, the Poles, wait but for the favourable 
 moment to shake off their intolerable yoke. Will the 
 present war bring this moment ? 
 
122 DIPLOMACY, AND THE 
 
 XI. DIPLOMACY, AND THE KEVISION OF THE MAP 
 OF EUROPE. 
 
 IN the feudal Europe of the Middle Ages the Emperor, 
 or the kings, if they were about to wage a foreign war, 
 called their vassals together, and discussed openly not 
 only the assistance in men and money to be granted, 
 but also the whole subject of the war. In one word, 
 that which is called to-day foreign policy was almost a 
 matter of public discussion. With the rising of abso- 
 lutism, and with the introduction of the idea of a 
 "cabinet" and " diplomacy," foreign policy ceased to 
 be a public affair, it became " cabinet-policy," that is 
 to say, the secret business of the prince and his con- 
 fident councillors ; and its execution was entrusted to 
 the hands of diplomatists, especially when by means of 
 standing armies the princes could dispense with the 
 popular consent to the levy of war-taxes. When ab- 
 solutism was obliged to yield to transient constitutional 
 forms, the monarchs were extremely anxious to keep 
 the foreign policy to themselves and their secret irre- 
 sponsible councillors. The people fancied they had 
 placed the transaction of public affairs, external as well 
 as internal, in the hands of a responsible ministry, and 
 there was, indeed, a responsible secretary of foreign 
 affairs; but besides this minister, the constitutional 
 monarchs kept their own private diplomatists, and con- 
 versed behind the back of the responsible secretary with 
 any foreign power they liked. It often happened that 
 on one and the same day two envoys started for 
 St. Petersburg or Vienna, the one with instructions 
 from the ministry, the other with secret instructions 
 from the " cabinet," and that these instructions were of 
 a contradictory character. Sometimes the people were 
 so careless as to forget to change their ambassadors, or 
 
REVISION OF THE MAP OF EUROPE. 123 
 
 they thought it sufficient that these ambassadors were 
 under the control of a responsible ministry; in that case 
 the ambassadors transacted two kinds of business, 
 the one responsible for the government, the other irre- 
 sponsible for the " cabinet." At other places the regular 
 ambassador saw that he was counteracted by an invisible 
 power. If ever the public light penetrate into the 
 secret drawers of the "cabinet" containing the for- 
 eign transactions of the years 1848-50, and of the 
 present war, the world will behold wonders of " diplo- 
 matic" skill. Perhaps there may be found in the 
 drawers of the King of Prussia letters to his brother, 
 the King of Denmark, informing him that he waged 
 only a sham-war in Schleswig-Holstein ; that he killed 
 his own soldiers not to do injury to the Danish monarchy, 
 or to defend any thing like that revolutionary idea, called 
 the " Rights of the Duchies," but to prevent the 
 army of the Duchies from doing harm to his dear brother 
 of Danish majesty. There may be also found the pro- 
 mises of his brother-in-law, Nicholas, to be ready with 
 a hundred thousand bashkirs and cossacks to pounce 
 upon the Berliners, if they should dare to oppose the 
 turning out of the representatives of the people. Per- 
 haps the future historian may discover some documents 
 which state, that the peace-loving king did not mobilize 
 the army in November 1850, to make war on Austria, 
 or to support that abominable thing, the Constitution of 
 Hessen-Cassel ; but that he did so only to appease the 
 feelings of indignation in the Prussian army. But 
 nothing would be more interesting than to hear the 
 promises which Russia has held up to Austria, Prussia, 
 and the smaller German states in the present struggle. 
 It has almost become a fixed idea, even in liberal 
 statesmen, that foreign affairs cannot be conducted 
 without the greatest secresy, and that diplomacy is 
 necessarily secret in its very character, so much so, that 
 the government of a great and free country has often 
 surprised the representatives of the people with a "fait 
 accompli," and that it has answered to questions in 
 
J - DIPLOMACY, AND THE 
 
 parliament about foreign transactions, that they could 
 not communicate anything, " as matters were still going 
 on." The people and their representatives have been 
 constantly kept aloof from influencing foreign policy ; 
 the consequence is, that the foreign policy of this free 
 government has been as despotic in its spirit as that of 
 the Emperor of Russia ; that it has been not only in- 
 jurious to those principles of liberalism abroad, which it 
 defended at home, but detrimental to the moral and 
 material interest of the country itself. 
 
 We understand well, that governments of free coun- 
 tries are under an obligation to keep confidential pro- 
 positions secret, out of courtesy, especially if they regard 
 only other countries ; but we contend, that this secresy 
 should cease if these propositions become actions, and 
 if these actions touch the general interest of Europe 
 and civilization. We contend further, that secret di- 
 plomacy will give way to public transactions, conducted 
 by the people or their representatives as soon as the 
 chief countries of Europe shall be free like England. 
 We need not mention that the English people is already 
 aroused to the consciousness that, if English foreign 
 policy shall be just and worthy of the straightforward- 
 ness of the English character, the people must have an 
 influence upon its transactions. It is all very well to 
 talk about responsible ministers; but if the mischief is 
 done, if any unjust foreign transaction is brought before 
 the people as a " fait accompli," there is no cure with- 
 out serious complications, and an injustice, which could 
 have been prevented by a single word, can often not be 
 mended without a bloody war. Publicity, considered 
 as indispensable for the internal life of a free people, 
 must and will also penetrate into the intercourse with 
 foreign nations. If diplomatists laugh at this idea, they 
 are right, supposing us to mean, that the intercourse of 
 despotic governments could ever be publicly transacted. 
 We know very well, that diplomacy here consists in 
 nothing but cunning duplicity; the Russian diploma- 
 
REVISION OF THK MAI' OP EUROPE. 125 
 
 lists, who are considered as the cleverest in their pro- 
 fession, give sufficient proof of it. 
 
 The democratic idea of a " Tribunal of nations," or a 
 " great European Parliament," before which all ques- 
 tions of international policy are decided by majority, will 
 be the more practicable when the power of the nations is 
 no longer abused for the dynastic interests of royal 
 families, but when free peoples live in a friendly inter- 
 course with each other, and know no other jealousy 
 than which of them will be foremost in the arts of 
 peace and civilization. Of course, such a true " Holy 
 Alliance" of nations is only possible, if there is no longer 
 an Emperor of Russia, who dares to defy the judgment 
 which the undivided public voice of Europe has pro- 
 nounced upon him. If the secret and intriguing policy 
 of monarchs has already been able to maintain thirty 
 years of peace amongst the leading powers of Europe, 
 how much more would the open policy of a general 
 European parliament be able to remove everything 
 which could lead to that remnant of barbarous times 
 war ! The principles of free trade too, will powerfully 
 contribute to the reign of peace on earth, as they abolish 
 the strongest reason, why one people should invade the 
 territory of another. 
 
 The Popes, at the height of their power, considered 
 themselves as the proprietors of the kingdoms of the 
 earth.* When Hadrian IV., the only Englishman who 
 was ever Pope, bestowed Ireland upon King Henry II., 
 he said in his deed of gift, " All the islands are the ex- 
 clusive property of St. Peter." When the power of 
 Rome was broken, this holy monarchy became a profane 
 aristocracy. A certain number of the most powerful 
 princes of Europe inherited the power of the Pope to 
 
 * The celebrated Damianus, at the times of Pope Gregory VII., 
 puts the following words into the mouth of the Saviour: 
 " Ego claves totius universalis eculesise me.e tuis manibus tradidi 
 et super earn te mihi vicarium posui quam proprii sanguinis 
 effusione redemi. Et si pauca sunt ista, etiam monarchias addidi, 
 etc." 
 
126 
 
 DIPLOMACY. AND THE 
 
 dispose of the nations of the earth, as a landlord dis- 
 poses of his landed property. The number of these 
 great European Feudal lords is five to-day, the five great 
 European Powers, the smaller princes are in reality 
 but the vassals, who must submit to the territorial ar- 
 rangements which the great Powers please to make, or 
 have but a consultative voice. But no voice at all is 
 allowed to the people; they must not only silently sub- 
 mit to any petty tyrant, who has been placed over them, 
 but they are ordered to revere this prince as their legi- 
 timate monarch, " by the grace of God." Here are 
 Greeks given into the care of a German petty prince, 
 who understands neither their language nor their man- 
 ners; there are Italian countries entrusted to Austrian 
 rule, which they hate and despise. Difference of lan- 
 guage, of manners, of religion, of character, is no con- 
 sideration at all in the wise councils of this earthly 
 Providence. " Balance of Power" is the only idea by 
 which they are actuated. Like Montesquieu, who in- 
 vented the three constitutional powers, legislation, 
 administration, and jurisdiction, to form a check upon 
 each other ; so these five powers are to be equally strong, 
 that each may be a powerful barrier against the aggres- 
 sion of any of the other : for, although three of them 
 professed in the " Holy Alliance" '* mutual affection" 
 and to " consider themselves ail as members of one and 
 the same Christian nation" as their "sole principle in 
 force," yet the ideas which are at the bottom of the 
 "balance of power," are jealousy, distrust, and fear. 
 
 When Napoleon was, by his own extravagance 
 and the united strength of Europe, exiled to Elba, 
 monarchy trembling assembled at Vienna to prevent the 
 return of a catastrophe, from which it had just escaped, 
 not without great pains. The map of Europe was revised. 
 In this revision three great blunders were committed. 
 Could the addition of the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom, as 
 it was called, give any additional strength to the Austrian 
 Empire, which was already composed of too many 
 different nationalities; or could the politicians of the 
 
REVISION OP THE MAP OP EUROPE. 127 
 
 Vienna Congress for one moment fancy, that the Italians 
 would forget their inveterate hatred towardsAustrian rule, 
 or that they would renounce their long cherished idea of 
 a united Italy? On the north-east side a part of the divided 
 kingdom of Poland was added to Austria. Thus, on her 
 most exposed frontiers provinces were connected with 
 her, which were always too glad to receive any enemy 
 who would attack their rulers. Upper Italy ought at least 
 to have been united under the Italian rule of Piedmont, 
 which would have given more satisfaction to the Italians 
 themselves, and raised a considerable barrier against 
 attack from the side of France or Austria upon the inde- 
 pendence of Italy. Austria can only be strengthened 
 either by an acquisition of German territory, or of pro- 
 vinces without any distinct national antipathy against a 
 foreign rule. The house of Bavaria would have been 
 but jusfly rewarded for its anti-national conduct during 
 the war, if Bavaria were added to Austria, and so Wur- 
 temberg and Baden, or the kingdom of Saxony. 
 
 Another great blunder was made in the re-establish- 
 ment of the Prussian kingdom. One glance at the map 
 of Prussia shows, that the policy of the Hohenzollern 
 must be aggrandizement. Stretched between Russia and 
 France with an immense frontier, torn asunder in the 
 middle, Prussia is, above all things, driven to the necessity 
 of blending her two parts together into one. With a coast 
 of several hundred miles, and a flourishing trade along 
 the Baltic, Prussia must naturally strive to protect this 
 trade by a navy ;* one of the Great Powers, with an 
 army of more than half a million, she is obliged to allow 
 her coast to be blockaded by any of the small Baltic 
 
 * Frederick William, the great Elector of Brandenburg, formed 
 the design of establishing a navy ; he even acquired a colony 
 on the west coast of Africa, which was called " Fridericia." 
 After vast expenses the parsimonious Elector ceded the colony to 
 the Dutch, and gave up his maritime ideas. If we are not much 
 mistaken, this same colony is to-day the free Negro- Republic 
 " Liberia." The plans of the great Elector have been taken up 
 under the present king, especially by the exertions of Prince 
 Adalbert. The recent acquisition of the port of "Jahde" in the 
 German ocean, shows Prussia's desire to approach this sea. 
 
128 DIPLOMACY, AND THE 
 
 maritime powers, as in 1848, by Denmark. No wonder 
 that Austria and England have always to be on the watch 
 against Prussian aggrandizement. 
 
 The third great blunder is to have neglected the 
 opportunity of re-establishing Poland. The question 
 was at that time less complicated than it is now. The 
 duchy of Warsaw existed already as an independent state, 
 and might have formed the basis of the re-establishment. 
 Galicia, which Russia gave up to Austria could have been 
 added ; the tie which holds Austria to Russia, would thus 
 have been broken. The English statesmen were espe- 
 cially under an obligation to destroy any close connection 
 of the three northern Powers, as indeed such a connection 
 was nothing les* than a protection of Russia over Austria 
 and Prussia. The re-establishment of Poland was the 
 best means to break the bond which, by the division of 
 Poland, Russia had laid around the neck of Austria and 
 Prussia. But the English policy was influenced by 
 other considerations ; the independence of Hanover was 
 for the English king a matter of greater importance 
 than the independence of Poland. To-day the re- 
 establishment of that country, which is so ardently 
 demanded by all the Liberals as a matter of justice and 
 policy, would be connected with many serious compli- 
 cations, ftot only that Poland is now possessed by three 
 powerful states, which would not feel inclined to give 
 willingly up a portion of their territory*, but there are 
 questions of still greater difficulty. It is perhaps not 
 forgotten what embarrassments the Polish question 
 caused to the German parliament at Frankfort in 1848. 
 The Poles would of course demand the whole of the 
 territory, which made up the kingdom of Poland before 
 the first partition. Now a great part of the west has, 
 under Prussian rule, been so Germanized, that at least 
 in many towns the German population is not only more 
 
 * As Poland would re-demand at least the provinces Posen and 
 -Preussen, Ost-Preusscn with Kcini^bi-rg would be cut off 
 from the main body of the State, and the monarchy oi Prussia 
 divided into three separated portions. 
 
REVISION OF THE MA1> OP EUBOPE. 
 / 
 
 numerous, but more important; everything, which be- 
 longs to a higher civilization, being more or less in the 
 hands ,of Germans. This is the case especially in West- 
 Preussen, where for instance Danzig (Dantsick) has 
 entirely lost its Polish character ; and even in Posen, 
 German civilization is beginning, entirely to subdue the 
 Polish element. We fully agree with the author of the 
 pamphlet " The Revision of the Map of Europe," that, 
 " If it were possible to reconstitute the ancient Polish 
 nationality, so great an act of reparation would make 
 every generous heart beat with joy." " Turned against 
 her mortal enemy, might not Poland be made to serve 
 as a guarantee for the independence of Germany ?" 
 says that author, and many Germans have considered 
 the question in the same light. But what would be 
 the independence of a nation if it has not the guarantee 
 in its own strength ? The Prussians would certainly 
 be glad to get rid of so disagreeable a neighbourhood as 
 that of Russia; but if they expect independence from 
 the reconstitution of Poland they are to be pitied. The 
 solution is to be expected just in the opposite way. 
 Poland can never be reconstituted and made inde- 
 pendent without an independent Germany. Suppose 
 Russia, Austria, and Prussia, were compelled by some 
 necessity to re-establish Poland, would not this Poland, 
 situated between these powers, be open to all kinds of 
 intrigues and influences* before the condition of the 
 country was settled, before the different political parties 
 had agreed upon a form of government, and before the 
 German element of the West had submitted to Polish 
 rule. Greece, less dangerously situated than Poland, 
 had sufficiently proved how difficult it is to raise a once 
 
 * These intrigues would now be the more efficient, as the Eus- 
 siaa, Austrian, and Prussian governments have striven to bring 
 the estates of the Polish nobility as much as possible into the 
 hands of Eussian or German noblemen, whom they have ever 
 assisted with money for purchasing them. These landed-proprietors 
 would, of course, be the best tools for the intrigues of the respective 
 governments. 
 
 G 5 
 
130 DIPLOMACY, AND THE 
 
 subjugated nation to independence. The author of the 
 "Revision" seems to feel that difficulty. He there- 
 fore will give Poland to Prussia. But would Poland 
 add a real strength to Prussia?* Perhaps the Poles 
 would prefer the more humane rule of Prussia to that 
 of Russia and Austria; but they would submit to this 
 annexation only as to a preparation for their independ- 
 ence. The Polish possessions united under one rule 
 would give so much the more trouble to that rule, as 
 the exertions of the united Polish nationality would 
 then not be divided by hermetrically closed and carefully 
 watched frontiers such as now exist between the different 
 parts of Poland. This united struggle after < ntire inde- 
 pendence would of course give to Russia the greatest 
 field for her intrigues. Thus Poland would be for 
 Prussia a much more dangerous wound than Lombardy 
 is for Austria, as Prussia would scarcely find the means 
 to keep in check a valorous nation, which is in number 
 not inferior to her own. Poland annexed to Prussia 
 would lay this country entirely at the feet of the Czar ; 
 for only with the assistance of the Czar would Prussia 
 be able to uphold her rule over the united Polish 
 nationality. Nay, Austria as well as Prussia can only 
 be strengthened by the addition of German countries. 
 Every one, whose heart beats for justice, must wish the 
 revival of a country whose sons have by their valour 
 and patriotism shown themselves so worthy of freedom ; 
 but if this revival is connected with so many and so 
 
 * The revision justifies the annexation of Poland to Prussia 
 partly by "the relations of race, language, and religion, which 
 exists between the Poles and the inhabitants of Posen and Silesia." 
 This is a great mistake. As far as regards Posen, her inhabitants 
 are not related to the Poles "in race, language and religion," 
 but are Poles themselves in the full sense of tbe word, and only 
 one small portion of Silesia, in Upper- Silesia, is Polish, and here 
 scarcely more than the country people, whilst all the most nourish- 
 ing parts, and all the greater towns are entirely (it i inan. Whilst 
 the Western parts of the two government circles of Breslau and 
 Leignitz are entirely German, in the villages of the eastern parts, 
 only the names remind us here and there of their Slavonian 
 founders. 
 
OF Tflfi MAP OP EUROPE. 131 
 
 great difficulties, now, much more than in the time of 
 Napoleon I., is it impossible without a free and united 
 Germany. Poland cannot be a guarantee for the inde- 
 pendence of Germany; but Germany must be the 
 guarantee for the independence of Poland. The German 
 nation has in general no desire for conquest; it takes no 
 pride in being the ruler over another nationality. 
 
 The Berliners opened the doors of the Polish prisoners, 
 who had fought for their independence, the very day 
 after the revolution, and carried Mieroslawsky and his 
 companions in triumph through the streets ; the Liberals 
 in the Frankfort Parliament declared openly their sym- 
 pathies for the Italian patriots in their struggles against 
 the Austrian Government ; and the heart of all Ger- 
 many beat with the Hungarian heroes. Poland has 
 no aggression, no intrigues to fear from the free German 
 people ; on the contrary as the hatred of the Germans 
 in general towards Russia is not less strong than that of 
 the Poles, she can be sure of every possible assistance 
 in case of a war with Russia. 
 
 When the diplomatists of Europe assembled in the 
 Congress of Vienna to revise the map of Europe, and to 
 re-establish a balance of power, which should shelter 
 the world from any future war, they were only animated 
 by the fear of France. It was only from the West that 
 they expected the rising of the storm; the East was 
 entirely lost sight of. The truth is, that these diplo- 
 matists were, with the exception of the English lord 
 Castlereagh, the representatives of despotic Govern- 
 ments, and that they dreaded less the armies of the West, 
 than the ideas which marched in company with these 
 armies. Nothing could be more favourable for Russia. 
 In spite of her vast dominions which she had taken the 
 opportunity to enlarge in the general confusion by the 
 conquest of Finland and Bessarabia, the " balance of 
 power" was not so interpreted, that she, already vast 
 enough, should give back Finland to weak Sweden, or 
 Bessarabia to decaying Turkey ; but that she gained 
 besides the duchy of Warsaw. Lord Castlereagh was 
 
132 DIPLOMACY, AND THE 
 
 flattered into consenting to almost everything, if only 
 Hanover would not be given up to Prussia. 
 
 Nearly thirty-eight years were wanted to open the eyes 
 of the leading statesmen towards the East, and to ap- 
 prise them that the " balance of power," if ever such 
 a thing exists, was less in danger from the " revo- 
 lutionary" West, than from the "conservative"' East. 
 Was it not even the other day that a leading statesman 
 could perceive no danger from Russia, in spite of the 
 "disastrous" treaty of Adrianople, in spite of the 
 Menschicoff mission, in spite of the invasion of the Prin- 
 cipalities and Sir Hamilton Seymour's despatches ? 
 It was in the year 1853 that European statesmen, 
 with the exception of one, began to perceive that the 
 "power" was out of "balance," or that one power 
 has been allowed to out-balance the others; and we fear 
 that the " establishment of effective guarantees for the 
 future" will demand not only the "revision" of " trea- 
 ties," and a few other things of no great consequence, 
 but a revision of the map of Europe altogether. In the 
 struggle of Turkey and the Western powers the " status 
 quo ante bellum" seems to be out of the question; on 
 the contrary, the Western politicians do not conceal 
 their pleasure in having iound an opportunity for cor- 
 recting one of the blunders of the Vienna Congress. 
 " The aggressions of Russia" must be checked for ever; 
 " Russia must be crippled," or driven back to Asia; 
 such are the cries which are uttered by the same people 
 who, a few months ago, called the Emperor Nicholas 
 the great guardian of peace and order. But how are 
 the aggressions of Russia to be efficiently checked for 
 ever; how are limits to be set " to the pernicious ascend- 
 ency which Russia has too long exercised beyond the 
 boundaries of her own empire?" That is a question, 
 of which the answer will be more difficult than some 
 politicians imagine, and will contain more radical mea- 
 sures than " the revision of the treaties, the freedom of 
 the Danube, the destruction of the extensive domination 
 of Russia in the Euxine, and the independence of the 
 
REVISION OF THE MAP OF Kl Hoi'K. 133 
 
 Circassian coast." The destruction of the exclusive 
 domination of Russia in the Euxine, for instance, would 
 be a great check to the Russian schemes in the South ; 
 but is this destruction to be accomplished simply by 
 opening the Euxine to the navies of all nations, or will 
 it not be necessary to wrest the Crimea from Russia 
 and give it to Turkey, or to somebody else ? What 
 means the independence of the Circassian coast ? If 
 this coast is independent, if the fortresses on this coast 
 are either destroyed, or in the hands of the Circassians, 
 Russia has lost her chief " point d'appui" in her 
 struggle against this gallant people, and the consequence 
 would soon be the independence of all the Circassian 
 tribes ; or in other words, Georgia or the " govern- 
 ment of Tiflis" would be cut off from the main body of 
 the Russian empire, as there would be no access to it, 
 neither by sea nor by land. But even if the treaties 
 are revived in favour of Turkey, if the Danube is freed 
 from Russian quarantines and obstructions, if the 
 Crimea is wrested from the Russian sceptre, the Cir- 
 cassians independent, and Georgia given back to the 
 Turks or to Persia, of course a considerable stop would be 
 put to the aggression of the Czars in this quarter of 
 the globe ; but Russia would still be the neighbour of 
 Turkey on the Pruth, and the mouth of the Danube, 
 and Russian intrigues would still go on amongst the 
 Greeks and Sclavonians of the Ottoman empire, and the 
 chief cause of Russian influence would not be removed. 
 Stopped or diminished here in the South for some time, 
 the energies of the Czars will then be the more ardently 
 directed towards the West and the North, to regain in 
 the Baltic, in Posen, Gallicia and Hungary, what they 
 have lost in the Euxine, in Circassia and in the Princi- 
 palities. We now come to the main point of our argu- 
 ment. The aggressive policy of Russia can only be 
 efficiently stopped by a strong united and free Germany. 
 Germany's weakness is Russia's strength. The im- 
 portant influence which Germany exercises over the fate 
 of Europe has, perhaps, never been clearer to the eyes of 
 
134 DIPLOMACY, ETC. 
 
 politicians than at present. When France and England 
 were united, when they sent tremendous fleets to the Bal- 
 tic and Black Sea, when they despatched powerful armies 
 to the East, the statesmen looked still at Austria and 
 Prussia, well aware that the decision must come from 
 that quarter. 
 
 " The German Powers have the peace of Europe so 
 entirely in their hands, that the attention of all is turned 
 to them," writes the Times Correspondent from Paris; 
 and the leading papers of England and France daily 
 almost fill their columns with the question, What are 
 Austria and Prussia going to do in the present contest ? 
 Germany, with forty millions of people, intelligent, in- 
 dustrious, and brave, is the natural guardian of civili- 
 zation against the barbarous East. Wrest from Russia 
 the Crimea, Circassia, Finland; destroy Cronstadt and 
 Sweaborg, but allow her influence over the rulers of 
 Germany, and she will soon regain what she may have 
 lost, and thirty years will see her as formidable and as 
 aggressive as before. 
 
TILE WAR AND ITS PROSPECTS. 135 
 
 XII. THE WAB AND ITS PROSPECTS. 
 
 IT was the declared policy of the European govern- 
 ments since 1815, to maintain the "status quo" of 
 Europe, fixed by the Congress of Vienna. Into these 
 engagements England entered as well as the Holy Al- 
 liance, but we said that the intention of the latter was of 
 another kind, an intention in which England did not par- 
 ticipate, although she did nothing to prevent its execution. 
 Everyone knows how that " status quo" is maintained. 
 Greece, Belgium, and Cracow, are the living testimonies 
 that the alliance of all the powers of Europe, did not 
 save the territorial arrangements from that change to 
 which everything in the world is subjected. But these 
 changes did not seriously affect the general feature of 
 Europe. When the storms of 1848 and 1849, threatened 
 to cause an essential alteration in the state of Europe, 
 the English government thought it its chief duty not 
 to listen to the complaining voice of oppressed and de- 
 ceived nations, but to sacrifice everything to the vague 
 idea of the "European equilibrium." The Hungarians, 
 the Italians, the Schleswig-Holsteiners could not be 
 astonished that they did not find a willing ear for their just 
 complaints in London. The English government thought 
 the integrity of the Austrian empire and of the Danish 
 monarchy indispensable for the " balance of power" in 
 Europe. We have seen how English statesmen un- 
 derstood this equilibrium and balance of power. They 
 could not allow that a portion of the Austrian empire 
 should be torn off ; but they could allow that the whole of 
 the Austrian empire should be laid at the feet of the Czar. 
 They could not allow this equilibrium to be shaken by 
 permitting the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein to be 
 independent of the Danish crown; but they could allow 
 that the whole Danish monarchy, at no very future time, 
 
136 THE \VAH 
 
 should fall into the hands of the Czar. It would have 
 shaken the balance of power in Europe, if the Germans 
 had succeeded in uniting their strength into one inde- 
 pendent and powerful empire as a wall against Russia's 
 barbarous influence; but it does not shake this European 
 balance, that all the German princes become puppets 
 in the hand of the Czar, and that Germany becomes thus 
 the chief tool for Russian schemes in Europe. A strange 
 notion this equilibrium and balance of power in the nine- 
 teenth century ! We could understand its meaning at the 
 time when the House of Austria threatened to unite the 
 greater part of Europe under her sway ; we could un- 
 derstand its meaning when opposed to the ambition of 
 Louis XIV., or the conquests of Napoleon ; but we can- 
 not understand its meaning when directed against the 
 freedom of Hungary and Italy, against the unity of 
 Germany, and the independence of the Duchies. 
 
 The idea of " balance of power" has become tradi- 
 tional, and like everything traditional must either be 
 changed and applied to the spirit of the age, or if that 
 is impossible, be abolished altogether. This idea wants at 
 least a thorough revision, for no longer are tracks of culti- 
 vated or uncultivated lands the leading powers of the 
 present world. 
 
 The present war, if it has not done so already, will 
 convince statesmen that the idea of maintaining the 
 " status quo," for which they went to war is obsolete, and 
 has no application to the present time and condition of 
 Europe. The organs of the governments of the West 
 have already told us, that if this war has been first un- 
 dertaken to maintain Turkey, or the " status quo," these 
 governments have at length found out that this will 
 lead to no purpose, and that the war cannot end, till it 
 has altered that very " status quo," for the maintenance 
 of which it was undertaken. Tl.us Europe sees that 
 that notion of balance of power, held up by the govern- 
 ments, and by the English government especially, as 
 their leading doctrine, was wrong; and it is only to be 
 lamented for the sake of the Italians, Hungarians, Poles, 
 
AND ITS PROSPECTS. 137 
 
 and Germans, that they did not find this out six years 
 ago, much blood, much money, much trouble, would 
 have been saved to England and the whole of Europe. 
 All the nations of the continent knew, and knew it with 
 certainty, before Prince MenschikolFs mission, what a 
 great many statesmen did not seem to know, that there 
 had been no such thing as balance of power ever since 
 1815 ; that, on the contrary, not only Russia was Russian, 
 but almost all the governments of the continent were 
 so. The revolutions since 1815, are but attempts to 
 rid Europe of the pernicious influence of this Colossus, 
 the iron hand of which distant Spain felt as well as 
 neighbouring Germany. For what the statesmen of 
 England and France neglected to do, the people tried 
 to take into their own hands. When in 1848, the people 
 had the command in Berlin, war with Russia was their 
 chief desire. However imprudent and impolitic such a 
 demand may have been under those circumstances, the 
 instinct of the people pointed the right way, it directed 
 the attention to the real source. 
 
 Since the idea of " balance of power "became a creed 
 of European statesmen, history has beheld a series of 
 alliances against any royal family which threatened to 
 be dangerous to the European equilibrium. An alliance 
 against the house of Austria, an alliance against Louis 
 XIV. and Napoleon. The question was then merely 
 dynastic, the alliances counteracted an increase of ter- 
 ritory under the sway of their antagonist. He who in 
 studying the history of Europe, comes to the nineteenth 
 century, would after the downfall of Napoleon I., na- 
 turally expect an alliance against Russia, as the aggres- 
 sive spirit of so vast a power surpassed already by far 
 the dangers with which the European states were threa- 
 tened by a Charles V. or Louis XIV. But no ! -No 
 alliance against Russia is to be found in the annals of 
 history until the year 1853. Russia was up to this 
 time allowed to aggress in every direction, on all her 
 neighbours European statesmen were quiet they had 
 
138 THE -WAH 
 
 no fear of Russia. Danger for Europe they feared but 
 from France. 
 
 The Europe of the nineteenth century was no longer 
 the Europe of Richelieu or Fleury. Dynastic questions 
 once so powerful, had become of secondary importance ; 
 it is now principles which make the thrones tremble ; 
 it is liberalism against which all alliances are directed. 
 
 We have traced a short history of this liberalism. 
 Commencing with the importance of the towns, their 
 middle classes and their industry, nursed and pro- 
 tected on the continent by despotism itself, rendered 
 conscious of its principles and its nature by the litera- 
 ture of the eighteenth century, by the American inde- 
 pendence and the French revolution, liberalism swelled 
 on from year to year to a mighty stream, which threa- 
 tened to overthrow all thrones and all remnants of a 
 by-gone world. 
 
 Against this stream it is that despots formed the 
 " Holy Alliance," and English aristocrats lend their 
 powerful assistance to tyranny. Dynastic jealousies no 
 longer disturbed the friendship of the allied monarchs, 
 they all had one common foe to encounter and to fear. 
 
 There is only one power, which thanks to the bar- 
 barity of its subjects, is considered as free from fear, 
 and forms thus the stronghold of those who tremble for 
 liberalism. 
 
 It is but natural that that power should take advan- 
 tage of its position, that it should base its aggression 
 upon the fear of Europe. 
 
 Germany had ceased to be independent, her will was 
 directed from St. Petersburg. 
 
 France during the restoration and in the time of Louis 
 Philippe was under the tutelage of Russia and England, 
 like a child that has been naughty, and had to be kept 
 under strict surveillance. 
 
 England, though liberal in her internal government, 
 was allied by the traditional policy of her aristocracy to 
 Russia, whilst her people thought but of getting wealth 
 by commerce and industry. 
 
AND IT8 PROSPECTS. 139 
 
 The other nations had no voice in the European coun- 
 cil. Russia thought the time was come when she could 
 venture upon an important step further in her schemes. 
 But she deceived herself. Had she to deal only with 
 statesmen, perhaps, she might have succeeded. The 
 Petersburg autocrat overlooked the fact, that there was 
 a people in Europe, that these people watched closely 
 his proceedings, that they denounced his aggression, and 
 that in England and France they pressed on the go- 
 vernment to allow no longer these shameful attacks on 
 the rights of Turkey, and the honour of the four powers. 
 We know the indulgence was great, the resistance slow. 
 But public opinion about foreign affairs had become en- 
 lightened and powerful in England, within these last 
 years, and Louis Napoleon in France had to strengthen 
 a self-erected throne and to create a popularity. 
 
 At last the nineteenth century beholds an alliance 
 against Russia, the first general alliance which is formed 
 against that power. England is detached from a friend- 
 ship which was so fatal to the liberty of Europe* she 
 has at last taken her proper place as enemy of despo- 
 tism and Russia. France has regained her interna- 
 tional independence, she appears once more as the 
 champion of humanity and the foe of Moscow. 
 
 England and France have undertaken the war to repel 
 the shameful attack upon the Turkish empire, as they 
 considered this attack to be but a forerunner of the con- 
 quest of Constantinople. However great their friendly 
 relations to the government of Russia were, neither Eng- 
 land nor France could allow the violation of the first 
 paragraph of their political creed the " integrity of 
 the Ottoman empire." 
 
 When once driven to resistance and hostility against 
 an old friend, the Western Powers went a step further. 
 The commercial world, disturbed in its peaceful transac- 
 tions, demanded guarantees that that disturbance should 
 not occur so easily again. By and bye, the belligerent 
 powers found out that they had formerly been too 
 indulgent to the aggressor, and that now was the 
 
140 THE WAB 
 
 opportunity of mending the blunders their diploma- 
 tists had committed. What these guarantees are, is 
 known even Austria has acknowledged their necessity. 
 
 The object of the war now, after the attack is re- 
 pulsed, is to bring Russia to such a condition, that she 
 shall give over all thoughts of getting at Constantinople, 
 and applying the last kick to the " homme malade." 
 The war, from the moment that the Principalities are 
 evacuated, and, perhaps, an indemnification for the 
 aggression is wanted, becomes a condemnation of the 
 former policy of England and France, it becomes an 
 acknowledgment either of their former short-sightedness 
 or indulgence. The object of the war is now to take 
 back what formerly was conceded, to destroy what for- 
 merly was allowed to exist. The government of France 
 has an excuse, Louis Napoleon is not answerable for 
 that which Charles X. and Louis Philippe had failed 
 in ; but how with England ? are not here the very same 
 men compelled to condemn in 1854, what they have 
 done in 1828 or 1841 ? 
 
 So far the intention of the governments of England 
 and France with this war. But there is another power in 
 the world of the nineteenth century, a power if not 
 always able to direct the actions of their governments, 
 sometimes at least strong enough to defy them. A his- 
 torian and politician of the century of Richelieu had 
 easier work, he had but to sound the ideas and inten- 
 tion of the monarchs, and their ministers and mis- 
 tresses ; a politician of the nineteenth century knows, 
 that there is another power without the circles of the 
 court, that there is a people that these people have an 
 opinion of the matter, and that whether the government 
 be constitutional or absolute, this opinion can no longer 
 be left out in political calculations. 
 
 Why were the governments of England and France 
 so slow in commencing a war so just, so important for 
 the independence of Europe ? Why is the government 
 of Austria so undecided and why is Prussia still so va- 
 cillating ? Because they know that there is a people in 
 
AND ITS PROSPECTS. 141 
 
 their countries, a people which have, or may have other 
 purposes with a war against Russia, and that there may 
 come a time in which they can no longer master the 
 opinion and the will of that people. 
 
 At the commencement of this war we heard on all 
 sides the " words disturbance of the peace of Europe." 
 Da these words only apply to the war waged on the re- 
 mote banks of the Danube, or in the sixty-fifth degree in 
 the Baltic ? Does it not rather mean that at least the 
 whole continent is one large heap of combustibles, that 
 there is only one spark wanting to cause a general con- 
 flagration, and that any war would be such a spark, but 
 above all a war against Russia? 
 
 When the nations of the continent were once more 
 reduced to thraldom after the failure of the revolutions 
 of 1848 1849, they did not give up the hope of 
 gaining at last those ends they have so long struggled 
 for. They looked to France there must come a crisis. 
 The crisis came they were deceived. Revolutions will 
 never do, thought the more sober, unless they are as- 
 sisted by an actual war, a war of two or more govern- 
 ments with all their disciplined and drilled armies and 
 their resources. Such a war will sooner or later be- 
 come a war of political principles, a war of freedom 
 against despotism. The battle which governments 
 commence, will be in our times decided by the nations. 
 With such thoughts the people of the continent looked 
 at the battles on the banks of the Danube, and look 
 still towards that which is to come in the Black Sea and 
 the Baltic ? 
 
 The nations of the continent do not deceive them- 
 selves ; they are well aware that neither the English nor 
 the French governments are at present inclined to ally 
 themselves with revolutionary elements, or to lead re- 
 volutionary arms into the battle ; but they know that he 
 who sets the house on fire, is not able to command the 
 directions of the flames, nor to prevent the destruction 
 of the whole town. The people of Germany, Italy, 
 Hungary, Poland, know very well that France and Eng- 
 
142 THE WAR 
 
 land have pledged themselves to Austria and Prussia, not 
 to allow that any revolutionary element should meddle 
 with the war, that the Western powers only purchased 
 the co-operation of the former by this pledge, that 
 especially the French Emperor undertook to keep 
 down any movement in Italy. So far freedom on 
 the continent seems to have no hope. But the war 
 since the evacuation of the Principalities has entered a 
 new phase, and how many more phases may there be? 
 The people on the continent are convinced that the 
 power of Russia stands and falls with despotism, and 
 that whoever undertakes now to destroy Russian in- 
 fluence in Europe, must be prepared to destroy des- 
 potism, that is to say, he must be prepared to aid the 
 revolution. 
 
 And does not the conservative press of England, even 
 that important journal, which is considered to be the 
 organ of the government speak against monarchs in a 
 language, which uttered from the mouth of a conti- 
 nental democrat, would be considered extravagant and 
 red republican ! Did not this same journal the other 
 day complain that the people of Prussia have given no 
 sign of the disapproval of their king's policy ? And 
 how could the people of Prussia, whose press is gagged, 
 whose public meetings are hunted by policemen and 
 gensdarmes give a disapproval otherwise than by a re- 
 volutionary movement ? Does not this same journal 
 almost daily ask, why the German nation does not rid 
 themselves of those petty princes who are nothing but 
 tools of Russia ? Ah, what a justification at least the 
 German democrat receives almost daily out of the mouth 
 of these conservative organs ! Now, let but Prussia, 
 and in her suite, the minor states of Germany, openly 
 join Russia an event to which the king will very 
 likely be driven by the Kreuz-Zeitung party, after 
 the evacuation of the Principalities, let then a re- 
 volution break out in the Rhenish provinces or in the 
 commercial towns of the Baltic, what will be the atti- 
 tude of France and England ? Will they still continue 
 
AND ITS PROSPECTS. 143 
 
 to aid a king who is against them, against a people who 
 are with them. And certainly the people of Prussia 
 who are utterly disgusted with the Russian set at Berlin 
 and Sanssouci, want but the slightest hint, that they 
 may find assistance, or at least that any assistance brought 
 from another quarter will not be prevented. Prussia up, 
 the Rhenish provinces in a blaze, what will become of 
 Hessen Cassel with her Elector and M. Von Hassen- 
 pflug, what of Saxony with her bigotted despot and 
 the Russian Von Beust, what of Mecklenburg, etc. ? 
 Will the people of these states neglect the opportunity 
 of speaking a word to their rulers about their broken 
 oaths, violated royal promises, about all their persecu- 
 tions, their insolence, and their sympathies for the 
 "knout?" And when the whole of Germany is in 
 flames, what is Austria going to do ? She will be 
 obliged to give up all co-operation against Russia. A 
 revolution on the Rhine and at Berlin will be a revolution 
 of the Poles in Posen. Will England and France then 
 withdraw their force from Turkey, and in community 
 with the Emperor Nicholas, keep down the Germans, 
 re-instate their Russian rulers, and give Germany back 
 to a Russian protectorate, which must needs be far 
 stronger and far closer. The king of Prussia has the 
 fate of Europe in his hands. If he listen to a criminal 
 sympathy for relationship, if he lend his ear to the pro~ 
 mise of getting Hanover, and so to approach the Ger- 
 man Ocean, if he follow the principles of his inclination, 
 he will alter the fate of Europe, and Prussia will be no 
 longer a monarchy. The question is, whether he will 
 take this step ? 
 
 Frederick William IV. is the first Prussian monarch 
 who has added hitherto no territory to his monarchy except 
 the little principalities of Hohenzollern; on the contrary, 
 he has lost Neufchatel. We mentioned that the policy of 
 the Hohenzollern was aggrandizement, and must be so 
 still. Almost every monarch, but especially since the 
 Great Elector, has enlarged his dominions by one bit of 
 territory or other. Prussia is still torn into two pieces ; her 
 
144 THE WAR 
 
 long coast is still at the mercy of Denmark or Sweden. 
 It is no wonder that the policy of the Prussian Court is 
 widely different from that of Austria. Austria is essen- 
 tially a conservative power ; Prussia is aggressive. 
 
 In the present war Austria is anxious not to be sur- 
 rounded by a vast power, related by blood to many 
 millions of her subjects ; Prussia, with her essentially 
 German population, has not this fear, she shrinks of 
 acquisition and conquests in the midst of the general 
 confusion. The newly-acquired port of " Jahde," on 
 the German ocean, shows the direction. By the ac- 
 quisition of Hanover, Prussia would blend her two parts 
 together, would get a coast on the German ocean, and 
 the King of Hanover, be it remembered, is an English 
 prince. With his sympathies for absolute government, 
 his love for his sister, the Empress of Russia, with 
 prospects of getting Hanover, and the immense advan- 
 tage it would bring to his dominions, and the natural 
 aim of not falling short of his predecessors in aggran- 
 dizing Prussia, add to this the power, which the 
 " Kreuz-Zeitung" party exercises over him, what is the 
 King of Prussia likely to do as soon as his conscience is 
 relieved by the evacuation of the Principalities ? One 
 consideration alone could neutralize all these intentions 
 the fear of his people. That is the great acquisition 
 of our time, that the people, and always the people, 
 come to give their vote for the fate of the countries. 
 
 Fredrick Wilhelm knows well, that siding with Russia 
 would arouse all the revolutionary feelings of his 
 people, feelings which are but forcibly kept down since 
 1848. But another question exists for him, whether 
 these people will rise before they see any assistance by 
 a foreign power, or whether in the case of their rising 
 he will be able to oppress them ? We mentioned, that 
 he can be almost sure of the faithfulness of the standing 
 armies; and as the people are not organized and pre- 
 pared as he is, he will be able to keep down any rising 
 in the capitals, if he is not obliged to send assistance to 
 the smaller states. The " Bund," this old German 
 
AND ITS PROSPECTS. 145 
 
 police-office, and more, the recent alliance with the 
 minor German states, procures him the active co- 
 operation of the whole military power of Germany in 
 keeping down any attempt at a revolution. Two points 
 are most important. Should he openly go with Russia, 
 the Baltic coast will be exposed to the allied fleets, and 
 the Rhenish provinces to the French armies, which are 
 already encamped in a threatening neighbourhood to 
 the frontiers. If the people of Prussia remain quiet, 
 the French will have hard work with the fortresses on 
 the Rhine, and the chances here are at least on the side 
 of Prussia ; the Baltic towns are, of course, open to a 
 bombardment; but any landing of troops would scarcely 
 be possible. But things are entirely different as soon 
 as France and England appeal to the revolutionary 
 spirit of the nation. An attack of France in the Rhenish 
 provinces and of the allied fleets in connexion with a 
 rising of the people, would not only cost Friedrich 
 Wilhelm TV. his crown, but be the last day of monarchy 
 in Germany. This the King well knows, and this is 
 the reason why he is compelled to keep up as long as 
 he can a "neutrality." But if he should be driven to 
 declare himself, he certainly will not fight against Russia. 
 
 It is impossible to foresee all the chances which the 
 war might create in its course ; but nothing is so likely 
 as that Prussia, or Northern Germany in general, will 
 be that point, which will give a new direction to the 
 present crisis, and where the sun of freedom will rise on 
 the continent. The present King of Prussia seems to 
 be born to bring about in his country that crisis, which 
 the Liberals of Europe so anxiously expect. 
 
 A rising of Italy is hopeless as long as Austria sides 
 with France and England; and Hungary is kept down 
 by the numberless armies which are collected in her 
 provinces. 
 
 We pointed in different places at the important in- 
 fluence which Germany exercises on the fate of Europe, 
 an influence which is now no longer denied by any 
 party. Neither Poland, nor Hungary, but Germany is 
 H 
 
146 THE WAR 
 
 the natural guardian of civilization against the aggressive 
 barbarism of the East. But the history of civilization 
 has come to that period when civilization and freedom 
 can no longer be separated. Whoever may be the 
 guardian of civilization, must also be the guardian of 
 freedom; nay, more, he must have developed this free- 
 dom to a form which is the purest possible in the present 
 age. This doctrine gives us the reason why a consti- 
 tutional monarchy is impossible by the side of a powerful 
 despotism. The constitutional monarchy is but a com- 
 pact, a truce between despotism and self-government; 
 and however well it may work, where the social element 
 demands such a compact, it is never sincere where the one 
 or the other side is supported by a powerful neighbour 
 of its own creed. A constitutional monarchy at the side 
 of a powerful republic is but a masked republic; and a 
 constitutional monarchy at the side of a powerful des- 
 potic state is but a masked despotism. The doctrine of 
 non-intervention has always been a political hypocrisy. 
 The states of the modern world are too closely con- 
 nected by manifold ties; they are too often brought 
 into contact to admit of their being indifferent about the 
 affairs of a neighbour. The " Holy Alliance" on the 
 one side, and the United States on the other, show that 
 opposite political principles cannot live together without 
 making "propaganda" in the dominion of their neigh- 
 bours. 
 
 Germany is, by her situation as well as by the course 
 of her social and political history, destined to be a re- 
 public, a democratic republic, and to form as such not 
 only an impregnable wall against Asiatic despotism ; but 
 to spread, at least by peaceable means, the seeds of civi- 
 lization and self-government in the East. 
 
 Monarchy, on the continent, knows very well that its 
 hours are numbered; and it suspects, not without reason, 
 that the present \\ar will sound its knell. The Divine 
 right of Monarchy, preached so anxiously by the clergy 
 on the continent, a clergy paid and promoted by kirn's, 
 has ! ..: ago ceased to be the creed of the people. 
 
AND ITS PROSPECTS. 147 
 
 Monarchy itself has almost in every continental country 
 broken its spell by the profligacy, folly, or baseness of 
 its representatives, or their counsellors; the world has 
 beheld kings on the scaffold ; it has seen them with pale 
 faces and trembling limbs before the people in arms, or 
 more, disgraced and forsaken flying from a soil where 
 they found but contempt or pity. The world has almost 
 seen a Queen tried before the tribunals of the people 
 for forgery, embezzlement, and robbery. Who will 
 venture to speak any longer of the Divine right of 
 monarchs in the face of such facts ? 
 
 Where monarchy is preserved, it is with the expecta- 
 tion that it may work some good ; its usefulness is 
 questioned, not its right. In many countries the mo- 
 narchs are but a necessary evil. Shall not a nation have 
 its own judgment, whether under altered circumstances 
 this evil is still necessary ? 
 
 When a nation sees that its most sacred rights, 
 national honour and national independence, are betrayed 
 by monarchy to a chieftain of barbarians, shall it not 
 have the right, is it not its first duty, to turn out this 
 enemy of what is most sacred ? And who will deny that 
 the Germans are this nation ? 
 
 We pointed out, that the success of a revolution in 
 Germany has two principal enemies, Russia, and the 
 confusion and uncertainty which must naturally exist 
 before an authority is established. 
 
 If the King of Prussia sides openly with Russia in 
 the present contest, and a revolution at least not dis- 
 countenanced by the Western powers breaks out, this 
 revolution would have every hope of success. The 
 power and influence of Russia are paralyzed by the 
 war. The confusion and uncertainty of the political 
 condition of the country can and will to a great extent 
 be avoided, because all democrats, we can say almost 
 all Liberals of Germany, acknowledge the "Consti- 
 tution of the German Empire, given by the Frankfort 
 Parliament on the 28th of March 1849, as " de jure" 
 existing ; and this Constitution would, with the excep- 
 
148 THE WAR 
 
 tion of those paragraphs which refer to an emperor, 
 form the fundamental law of the united republics of 
 Germany. The same danger would be avoided within 
 the particular states which form the unity. Every- 
 where there is a constitution of 1848 and 1849 in ex- 
 istence, which after slight alterations would save the 
 country that troublesome state of uncertainty which 
 naturally prevails, when a constituent assembly discusses 
 with more or less excitement the fundamental law of 
 the country. 
 
 We are well aware that neither the government of 
 France nor that of England will look with favour upon 
 the establishment of republics in Germany ; but will not 
 circumstances drive them to yield to things which are 
 not agreeable to them, especially if they are really in 
 earnest in the war against Russia ? And will not public 
 opinion in both countries, now so attentive and so 
 strong about foreign affairs, have an irresistible influence 
 on the policy of the Governments ? The consequences 
 which the establishment of a German republic would 
 have for Poland, for Hungary, for Italy, are immense. 
 We will abstain from indulging in following out the 
 hopes which Liberalism forms from such an event. 
 
 There are other chances. It is undeniable that 
 Louis Napoleon is the most important personage in the 
 present drama of the world. The Emperor Nicholas 
 may die suddenly without effecting any considerable 
 change in the situation of Europe. What he does and 
 what he has done is but the fulfilment of a policy, tra- 
 ditional not only in his family, but almost in all classes 
 of the empire itself. What he has commenced there- 
 fore, his successor will continue. It is a mistake to 
 ascribe the present war to the pride and despotic 
 humour of the person of the Emperor, -it is the pride 
 and the aggressive humour of the whole nation, of every 
 real Russian, that has aggressed upon Turkey. 
 
 But how is it with the Emperor of the French ? It is 
 certain, that Louis Napoleon, as far as he fights against 
 the Russian legions for the deliverance of Europe 
 
AND ITS PROSPECTS. 149 
 
 from the Russian influence, acts entirely with the 
 universal applause of the Freiuh nation. Any de- 
 mocratic government would have done and will do the 
 same ; but besides this, Louis Napoleon has pledged 
 himself to England, and particularly to Austria, to keep 
 as much as possible any revolutionary element out of 
 the present struggle. There is no doubt, that this 
 pledge is not in concord with the spirit and the desire 
 of the French nation, which generally boasts of having 
 a particular mission from Providence, to be the shield 
 and the protector of oppressed nations, the great teacher 
 and defender of liberalism. Let us think for one mo- 
 ment what emergencies may arise, should Louis Napo- 
 leon in the midst of the present war suddenly leave the 
 stage of history we will not think of daggers and in- 
 fernal machines, a fall from his horse, an overthrowing 
 of the carriage, what an immense effect it would bring 
 about in the aspects of Europe ! We like to boast of 
 the civilization of our country ; but what a miserable 
 condition is it, that the life, the happiness, the pros- 
 perity of millions of men depend still upon the change- 
 able will or the mortal body of one individual ? Is 
 this system really better than the state of an Asiatic 
 despotism, or the condition of a Russian serf? When 
 will the peace and happiness of the world be established 
 on a firmer basis than the frail frame of one human 
 body ! The king of Prussia is after all not so destitute 
 of reason. He may have confidence in the intentions 
 of Louis Buonaparte ; but this confidence relies but on 
 the fragility of one human body, whilst his confidence 
 in Russia is a confidence in a system of a hundred 
 years old, and supported by a nation of sixty millions. 
 The mission of Russia is clear to us. This barbarous 
 empire is called by Providence to assist by its antagon- 
 ism in the birth and development of democracy in Eu- 
 rope. Every new principle wants an antagonist, an 
 enemy, in the struggle with whom it strengthens its 
 power and purifies its doctrine. The stronger the enemy, 
 the more rapid the development of its character, the 
 
150 THE WAR 
 
 earlier its accession to the dominion of the world. When 
 history beheld in the West the first attempt to make 
 the doctrine of the dignity of man, self-government, and 
 democracy, a reality, it saw in the East the rising of 
 an empire which was destined to he the greatest foe of 
 this doctrine and its most powerful lever. Rome rose 
 by the wars with Carthage ; without a Carthage, Rome 
 would not have been the Empress of the world. 
 
 The "historical" mission of Louis Napoleon is less 
 clear; but whatever may be his intentions, he must assist 
 in bringing to power the great doctrine of the future 
 democracy. 
 
 The situation of England has by the present war un- 
 dergone a happy change. Enjoying a happy individual 
 liberty within, England was always to be found a faithful 
 ally of Russia; and if she did not join actually the 
 " Holy Alliance," she pledged herself to the policy of 
 the continental despotism in the treaty of Aix la Cha- 
 pelle. But when we say England, we should say the aris- 
 tocratic government of England for however dependent 
 this government may have been in its internal policy 
 upon the public opinion of the country, in foreign mat- 
 ters it ruled entirely according to traditional party- 
 principles, or wa:s actuated by an aristocratic hatred 
 towards France. The people of England in general 
 took no interest in the fate of continental Europe ; its 
 history and even its geography was a sealed book for 
 them. The great merchants of London, Manchester, 
 or Birmingham, looked upon the continent as they 
 looked upon Australia or the country of the Gaffers. 
 Europe had interest for them only as far as it furnished 
 a soil for their commercial operations. No wonder 
 that there was no sympathy on the continent for Eng- 
 land. The present war has brought the people of 
 England nearer to the people of the continent. They 
 feel that they have a common interest to defend, a 
 common foe to encounter. As at length the attention 
 of the English people is directed towards that which is 
 going on on the continent ; it is no longer the govern- 
 
AND ITS PROSPECTS. 151 
 
 ment alone or political party considerations, which will 
 direct the foreign policy, but a public opinion, which 
 enlightened by a free press, will oblige the government 
 to throw the voice and the will of the English people 
 into the scale of continental history. It is this popular 
 influence which has raised England in the eyes of the 
 people of the continent to that esteem, which the go- 
 vernments of former days were never able to gain. 
 For the first time since the French Revolution, England 
 is detached from the Russian friendship, she has lost 
 her fear and jealousy of France, and has decided to re- 
 present those principles of justice and freedom on the 
 continent, which govern in her own dominions. 
 
 The enthusiasm with which this happy change is 
 hailed by the people of Europe, is the stronger and the 
 more sincere, as it is not lavished on an individual that 
 can die to-morrow, but on a great and powerful people, 
 which once rightly instructed about the situation of 
 Europe, will never relapse into that state of indiffer- 
 ence which was so obnoxious to the development of 
 liberalism. That is the great blessing of true liberty, 
 that a great principle can indeed be born with an indi- 
 vidual but never die with him ; that once brought into 
 existence it becomes all-powerful and invincible. Great 
 Britain will henceforth be the champion and guardian 
 of liberalism, as it long has been the asylum of its 
 defenders. And should Great Britain not understand 
 her mission, or not have courage enough to act up to 
 it, America will come over and plead the cause of free- 
 dom, as soon as those millions of European refugees 
 and emigrants have made their voice heard in the 
 councils of Washington. 
 
 But is a revolution necessary on the continent ? Can 
 not the people obtain those liberties which their state of 
 civilization demands, by a quiet and steady progress on 
 the road of liberalism ? 
 
 Sincere friends of freedom in England think that 
 those first attempts at a constitutional monarchy ought 
 to be developed, and that if the people be but patient 
 
152 THE WAR 
 
 and the monarchs but sincere, such a development must 
 lead to such a result as we see in England, a happy 
 alliance of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. Alas, 
 the people have been but too patient, but the monarchs 
 never sincere ! Study the history of Germany since 
 the commencement of this century, and where can you 
 find a stronger example of patience ? Look at the 
 people of Prussia, which waited patiently thirty- three 
 years for the final execution of the law of the 22nd 
 May, 1815 ! Constitutional monarchy is a reconcilia- 
 tion of two principles of the divine right of royalty 
 and of self-government. A reconciliation of these prin- 
 ciples is no longer possible on the continent. The mo- 
 narchy has lost all confidence in the people, and the 
 people have lost all confidence in monarchy. The 
 monarchs know that once become constitutional, they 
 must part with their doctrine of the divine right, they 
 are in the eyes of the people but a question of useful- 
 ness, and the door to liberalism once opened, they are 
 no longer the masters of its progress. The people 
 know that the monarchs on the continent have never 
 been sincere, and will never be sincere; that more than 
 one king has declared he cannot understand what con- 
 stitutional means, that the monarchs use the consti- 
 tutions as a transition to their old despotism, just as they 
 themselves use it as a transition to democracy. Do we 
 not see in the present affairs of Spain, the most loyal 
 country hitherto in Europe, this utter want of confi- 
 dence in monarchy, in spite of the exertions and 
 assurances of Espartero ? And then constitutional mo- 
 narchies with a neighbour like Russia, and without a 
 real aristocracy ! 
 
 And do the English people think, that with the de- 
 struction of Sebastopol, the hold Russia has got over 
 the governments of Europe will be destroyed ? There 
 is a stronger bond which ties the monarchs of the con- 
 tinent to Russia, the creed of the divine right of mo- 
 narchy, the hatred of constitutionalism. 
 
 Alas, it is a sad conviction, that sometimes storms 
 
AND ITS PROSPECTS. 153 
 
 are necessary to clean the atmosphere from pestilen- 
 tial influences. And what great principle has ever 
 been brought to power in the affairs of mankind by the 
 gentle weapons of persuasion and mutual indulgence ? 
 The great spirit of history has ever marched over battle- 
 fields and scaffolds ! 
 
 When mankind was lost in barbarism, the divine 
 reason which governs the world, was represented by 
 priests and despots. When the dignity of man dawned 
 on earth, priests and despots were compelled to share 
 their power with aristocrats, the theocratical despotism 
 became an aristocracy. 
 
 Reformations, revolutions, and the great spirit of 
 modern materialism have wrested the monopoly of the 
 divine reason from priests, despots, and aristocrats, 'they 
 have given it as a common property to all men. Aristo- 
 cracy became democracy. Civilization and humanity 
 born in the East under despotism and theocracy, ob- 
 tained its manhood in the West under democracy ; but 
 here like a beautiful flower it sends its refreshing odour 
 in all directions, it grows to a powerful tree which 
 overshadows the whole earth. 
 
 The present war was commenced by governments, 
 it will be decided by peoples ; it was declared in the 
 name of nationalities, it will be waged and ended in the 
 name of principles. The fear that Russia maybe victo- 
 rious has rapidly disappeared in consequence of her de- 
 feats ; but Russia can be conquered not by the destruction 
 of Sebastopol or Kronstadt, but by the destruction of 
 despotism on the continent. Will Russia be conquered 
 will despotism be destroyed ? This war will answer 
 the question, this war with all its battles, contingen- 
 cies, and phases. We have faith in Providence, in the 
 progress of civilization and humanity. 
 
 There are two powers in our modern world which 
 guarantee that civilization will not leave us, as it has 
 left its birth-place, that it will no longer wander towards 
 the West, that its future will be to embrace the whole 
 world, all nations of the earth, that Asia as well as 
 
154 TIIK WAR AND ITS PROSPECTS. 
 
 Africa shall enter her prosperous dominions. These 
 two powers, mechanical in their nature are, notwith- 
 standing, the strongest levers of the intellectual man, 
 the greatest promoters of his material well-being and 
 his moral happiness STEAM AND THE PRESS. Armed 
 with these weapons the goddess of Civilization will no 
 longer die, will no longer abide in the West only, but 
 will spread her thoughts of humanity, her principles of 
 love over the whole face of the earth, will embrace all 
 mankind. 
 
 Our age is sometimes called the mechanical age, the 
 age of materialism; but we may thank our researches 
 into the mysteries of the material forces, our acquain- 
 tance with the great spirit of nature, that despotism, 
 war, barbarity, ignorance, injustice, poverty, will at 
 length disappear before the Sun of civilization and 
 u inanity. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 ROBERT THEOBALD, 26, PATERNOSTBR-ROW, LOSDOK 
 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
V'V ! 
 
 1 
 
 is?