LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 RIVERSIDE
 
 <w
 
 Essays, Speeches, and Memoirs
 
 UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME. 
 
 LITTERS OF FIELD-MARSHAL COUNT HELMUTH VON 
 MOLTKE TO HIS MOTHER AND HIS BROTHERS. 
 Translated by Clara Bell and Henry W. Fischer. Portraits 
 and Illustrations. 8yo, Cloth, $3 00. 
 
 THE FRANCO-GERMAN "WAR OF 1870-71. By Field-Marshal 
 Count Helmuth von Moltke. Translated by Clara Bell and 
 Henry W. Fischer. With a Map and Portrait. 8vo, Cloth, 
 $3 00. 
 
 MOLTKE ; HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER. Sketched in Jour- 
 nals, Letters, Memoirs, a Novel and Autobiographical Notes. 
 Translated by Mary Herms. With Illustrations from water- 
 colour and black and white Sketches by Moltke. Portraits 
 and Fac-simile Letters. 8vo, Cloth extra, S3 00. 
 
 Published by HARPER ft BROTHERS, New York. 
 
 U^eF The above works are for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent 
 by the publishers, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, 
 Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price.
 
 ESSAYS, SPEECHES 
 
 AND 
 
 MEMOIRS 
 
 OP 
 
 Field-Marshal 
 COUNT HELMUTH VON MOLTKE 
 
 THE ESSAYS TRANSLATED BY 
 CHARLES FLINT McCLUMPHA, 
 Ph.D.; THE SPEECHES, BY MAJOR 
 C. BARTER, D.A.A.G. ; AND THE 
 MEMOIRS, BY MARY HERMS 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 NEW YOEK 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 
 
 1893
 
 13 
 
 Note. — Acknowledgment is due to Privy Councillor Streckert, of the Imperial 
 Railway Administration in Germany, who has carefully edited the essay entitled 
 " Considerations in the Choice of Railway Routes." The footnotes which he has 
 added are indicated by the letters, Str. The other footnotes throughout the 
 volume are for the most part from the pen of Moltke himself. 
 
 It should be remarked that in this volume the terms mile, rod, etc., refer to the 
 German scale of measurement, unless a different scale is expressly mentioned.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Holland and Belgium in their Mutual Kelations with 
 each other since their separation under philip ii., 
 
 UNTIL THEIR Ke-DNION UNDER WlLLIAM I. . .1 
 
 Philip II. of Spain (p. 6) — William of Orange (p. 9) — 
 Revolts of the Spanish troops (p. 10) — The pacification of 
 Ghent, and its results (1576) (p. 12) — Union of Utrecht 
 (1579) (p. 14) — The Reformation. Prosperity of Antwerp 
 (p. 17)— Sacking of Antwerp, 1577 (p. 18) — Siege of Ant- 
 werp, 1584-5 (p. 21) — Voyages of the Dutch (p. 22) — The 
 Spanish Netherlands laid waste (p. 24) — The florescence of 
 the United Netherlands (p. 25) — Independence of the 
 Netherlands (p. 28) — The House of Orange (p. 29) — Louis 
 XIV. and John de Witt (p. 32)— William III., Stadtholder 
 (p. 37) — The prosperity of the Netherlands, a result of the 
 war (p. 37) — Fall of the Netherlands. William IV., heir of 
 the Stadtholder (p. 38) — The Prussian Expedition (1787) 
 (p. 39) — The reforms of Joseph II. (p. 41) — State of fermen- 
 tation in the Austrian Netherlands (p. 42) — Interference of 
 France. Death of Joseph II. (p. 47) — Popular riots in 
 Brussels (p. 48) — Union of Belgium with France. The 
 Batavian Republic (p. 51) — The kingdom of the Nether- 
 lands, 1815 (p. 52) — Dissatisfaction in Belgium (p. 54) — 
 Reasons for the separation of Belgium from Holland (p. 56). 
 
 An Account of the Internal State op Affairs and of the 
 
 Social Condition of Poland. . . . . .59 
 
 The Polish Constitution. The right of the liberum veto 
 (p. 65) — The Polish Constitution, the election of king, the 
 senate (pp. 66, 67) — The Polish Constitution. The right of 
 the Confederation (p. 69) — The Polish Constitution. The
 
 vi Contents. 
 
 imperial diet (p. 70) — The array. Keligious tolerance (pp. 
 71 -73) — The rise of great noble families (p. 75) — Fall of the 
 lesser nobles (p. 78) — The diminution of the royal power 
 (p. 78) — Increasing power of the nobles (p. 79) — The mo- 
 narchy of the nobles. The pacta conventa (p. 83) — The elec- 
 tion of provincial deputies to the diet (p. 84) — Stubbornness 
 of the provincial deputies (p. 86) — The religious differences 
 (p. 88) — The condition of the peasantry until the sixteenth 
 century (p. 88) — The bondage of the peasants (p. 90) — No 
 middle-class, no trade (pp. 93, 94) — Danzig, the only com- 
 mercialcityof Poland(p. 95) — Characterof the Jewish people 
 (p. 97)_The invasion of Poland by the Jews (p. 102)— Wealth 
 and power of the Jews (p. 102) — Stoppage of all activity of 
 the government (p. 103) — Anarchy at home, defencelessness 
 abroad (eighteenth century) (p. 105) — Condition of Poland 
 after the death of Augustus III. (p. 107) — The parties : the 
 court (1764) (p. 109)— The parties : thePotocki (1764) (p. 
 Ill)— -The parties : the Czartoriyiski (p. Ill) — The relation 
 of Austria and Prussia to Poland. The Turks (p. 1 1 4) — A 
 glance at the development of Russia (p. 116) — The Czartori- 
 jiski make overtures to Russia (p. 119) — Stanislaus Ponia- 
 towski, the candidate of the Russian party for the crown (p. 
 119) — Opposition of the republican party(p. 122) — The Con- 
 vocations diet, 1764 (p. 123) — The diet increases the royal 
 power (p. 126) — Stanislaus Poniatowski king (p. 127) — End 
 of Poland (p. 128)— The Duchy of Warsaw (p. 130)— The 
 war of 1812 (p. 134) — Results of the partitions for the in- 
 habitants (p. 134) — Measures taken in the Austrian portion 
 of Poland (p. 137) — The extension of the Jews in the Polish 
 territories (p. 139) — Various business occupations of the 
 Jews (p. 140) — Joseph II. 's care for the Jews (p. 143) — The 
 Polish provinces of Prussia (p. 144) — The Prussian edict of 
 September 14th, 1811 (p 147) — Creation of a free peasantry 
 in Prussian Poland (p. 147) — Dissatisfaction with the reforms 
 (p. 149) — Great success of the Prussian government with the 
 Polish possessions (p. 152) — The number of Poles in the 
 territory of the three powers between which it was divided 
 (p. 153) — The Russian kingdom of Poland (p. 155) — State 
 of affairs in the Russian kingdom of Poland (p. 156) — 
 Increasing dislike towards Russia (p. 160) — The revolution 
 of 1830-31 (p. 160). 
 
 The Western Boundary . . . . . . .165 
 
 Gaul under Roman rule ; conquered by the. Germans (pp. 
 169-171) — Separation of France from Germany under the 
 Carolingian dynasty (p. 173) — The language boundary 
 between Germany and France (p. 174) — Charles the Bold,
 
 Contents. vii 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Duke of Burgundy (p. 177) — Interference of France in the 
 German Reformation (p. 178) — France, during the Thirty 
 Years' War (p. 179) — Louis XIV. 's policy of conquest (p. 
 181) Louis XIV. and the German princes (p. 184) — Treaty 
 of Ximeguen. Sacking of Strasburg (p. 188) — Ammeistcr 
 Dietrich of Strasburg, a German patriot (p. 188) — The 
 desolation of the Palatinate, treaty of Ryswick (p. 189) — 
 Review of the German territory seized by France (p. 192) — 
 Deterioration of German spirit by French influence (p. 193) 
 — Rise of the German "citizenship of the world" (p. 197) 
 — Attitude of Frederick the Great towards France and 
 French affairs (p. 198) — Supremacy of French culture at the 
 beginning of the Revolution (p. 199) — The participation of 
 the Germans in the French Revolution (p. 200) — The desire 
 of conquest of the French republic (p. 203) — Napoleon 
 Bonaparte Emperor (p. 206) — The Rhenish Confedei'ation ; 
 Prussia's defeat (p. 208) — The union of Romanism with 
 Slavicism (p. 209) — The war of emancipation and its results 
 (p. 210) — Germany and France after 1815 (p. 214)— The 
 citizen-king. Desire of the French for the left bank of the 
 Rhine (p. 217) — France ever meditating to attack Germany 
 (p. 21<S) — Warning for national unanimity (p. 219). 
 
 Considerations in the Choice of Railway Routes . . 221 
 
 Roadways and railways (p. 227) — The track and the train 
 (p. 229) — The locomotive (p. 231) — The friction between 
 the wheels and rails and in the whole running gear (p. 2o3) 
 — Rising and falling grades of the road (p. 235) — Horse- 
 power of the locomotive (p. 235) — Speed of the train in 
 motion (p. 236) — Consumption of time and power (p. 236) 
 — Influence of the weather (p. 243) — Advantages of the 
 level road (p. 244) — Passenger and goods traffic (p. 247) — 
 Examples of grades (p. 249) — Tariff in disadvantageous 
 territory (p. 252) — Curves (p. 253) — Running of the wheels 
 on curves (p. 254) — Running expenses (p. 256)— Direction 
 of railway lines (p. 258) — Intermediate traffic ; cost of con- 
 struction (p. 260)— Inactivity of the state governments at 
 the beginning (p. 261). 
 
 The Eastern Question. 265 
 
 Germany and Palestine. 
 
 Inheritance in Eastern dynasties (p. 271) — Difficulties of 
 a division of the Turkish Empire (p. 272) — A Christian 
 principality of Palestine (p. 273) — Fewer wars in modern 
 times (p. 276).
 
 viii Contents. 
 
 The Country and People of the Kurds. 
 
 The results of the battle of Nizitin for Kurdistan (p. 278) 
 — The geographical position of Kurdistan (p. 280) — The 
 dwelling-places of the Kurds (p. 281) — The people of the 
 Kurds/p. 283). 
 
 The Military and Political Situation op the Ottoman 
 Empire. 
 
 The condition in Turkish Asia (p. 287) — Eesults of the 
 withdrawal of Rescind Pasha (p. 292) — The condition of 
 the Turkish army (p. 293) — Austria's attitude towards the 
 Ottoman Empire (p. 296). 
 
 Reschid, Izzet, and the Porte. 
 
 Contrast between Izzet and Reschid (p. 298) — Reasons 
 for the faU of Izzet Pasha (p. 300)— The future of 
 Ottoman rule in Europe, Asia, and Africa (p. 301). 
 
 The Mouth of the Danube. 
 
 Difficulties in the construction of a canal in the direction 
 of Trajan's Wall (p. 303) — Possibility of a railway in the 
 direction'of Trajan's Wall (p. 307).
 
 HOLLAND AND BELGIUM.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 " Holland and Belgium " is the first article which the Field-marshal 
 had published l under his name after that he had been appointed 
 second lieutenant on the general's staff. The Belgian Be volution, 
 the immediate sequence of the July Bevolution in Paris, seemed on 
 the point of setting all Europe on fire, and even before it had been 
 brought to a close the insurrection in the East also, in Warsaw, was 
 started. It is obvious that these events must have interested the 
 clever young officer in the liveliest manner. While he, eager for 
 action, was yearning for the war which a long time was thought 
 to be unavoidable, he was also searching for an explanation of 
 the great events. And he found this explanation, as he mentions 
 in a letter to his mother, dated the 24th of December, 1830, in 
 the history of the Netherlands which he specially examined with 
 a view to this fact. How he toiled in doing this, is gathered from 
 this same letter, where he says : " I have read over a thousand pages 
 in quarto and four thousand in octavo." 2 
 
 Afterwards, he had the work resulting from these studies printed 
 as a brochure, and thus experienced the disappointments which 
 every young author has to undergo. The next letter to his mother, 
 describes in a pleasing manner what these are : — 
 
 "Berlin, 9th January, 1831. 
 
 " All the sorrows of a young author who is spoiling for a publisher 
 have visited me. Thoroughly impressed by the value of our work, 
 we are astonished to hear the booksellers talk of unsuccessful 
 ventures, of the depressed condition of the book trade to which 
 we had just purposed to add a new impetus by our manuscript. 
 The ingratitude of the man whose fortune has probably been made 
 by our treatise provokes us, and we would withhold our light from 
 the world, did not an impetuous shoemaker, to whom we allotted a 
 lodging- place in the hall of our memory, urge with scientific fervency 
 the publication of so extraordinary a work, although the compensa- 
 
 1 Berlin, Posen and Bromberg, printed and published by Ernst Siegfried 
 Mittler, 1831. 
 
 2 A second work also, the map of the new boundaries between Holland 
 and Belgium, proves what unceasing interest ho took in these events. 
 
 B 2
 
 4 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 tion be only three ducats. Three ducats ! I am ashamed to write it 
 down. Three ducats for three hundred years of history, while I 
 receive in journals superficial scribbles paid at the rate of two 
 louis d'ors per sheet. Eight humbling is it, indeed. Meanwhile, 
 I doubt not for a moment but that five hundred copies will be 
 sold for review, and I hope that you all will contribute your 
 money towards it, so that a new bonus will follow. Anyhow, 
 the hope of seeing one's self in print in a few days and of being 
 had in all respectable bookshops for six groschen — that decides it, 
 especially when there is a prospect of being further made illustrious 
 by a cutting criticism. 
 
 " Yet it does not seem proper to speak of one's self longer than 
 twenty minutes (cf. C. & K., for Ave authors like to cite authorities), 
 and therefore I shall only say further that my immortal work 
 (when I say work, I really mean a brochure of Gustchen's form), 
 that it bears the title, ' Holland and Belgium in Mutual Relationship, 
 etc.,' and is adorned with our illustrious name. . . . 
 
 "Yours, Helmuth."
 
 HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 
 
 IN THEIR MUTUAL RELATIONS, FROM 
 
 THEIR SEPARATION, UNDER 
 
 PHILIP II., TILL THEIR 
 
 RE-UNION, UNDER 
 
 WILLIAM I. 
 
 When a people of its own free will despises the 
 blessings of peace, and renounces its own rights, while 
 at the same time rejecting its obligations, when sever- 
 ing the bonds of society it returns to the primeval 
 state of force, in a word when it launches itself upon a 
 sea of revolution — whose course cannot be directed 
 by any human intelligence, and for whose limitation 
 mundane events must be united with the genius of the 
 greatest men — then is it right for us to search for the 
 causes which give rise to such extraordinary mani- 
 festations. 
 
 Indeed only the unavoidable necessity of the pre- 
 servation of being and of unalienable human rights, 
 and not hope, be it ever so alluring, not dissatisfaction, 
 be it ever so well based, not example, be it ever so 
 near at hand, can move a people, one would suppose, 
 to expose itself to the incalculable casualties of anarchy, 
 of civil war, of foreign tyranny, and of ruin. For the 
 revolutions which in their time of duration have made 
 even the worst government a thing to be wished for 
 again have led quite as often to despotism as to freedom. 
 
 We seek in vain for the cause and the consequent 
 result only there where not conviction, but passion, 
 not deep-felt necessity, but interests are to a certain 
 extent the springs of action which set the mass in motion.
 
 6 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 The fields of Belgium drenched with blood for 
 centuries, offer us to-day the spectacle of a people that 
 takes up arms against its ruler and against its country- 
 men. The flames which mount the ruins of Antwerp, 
 are now illuminating great catastrophes, and Europe 
 looks for the decisions which are weighed in the 
 councils of its courts. 
 
 The more unexpectedly the scenes are presented 
 before our eyes, the less we see them conditioned by 
 necessity, and so much the sooner do we direct our view 
 to the period which preceded, and seek amid the 
 history of the world for the key to events which seem 
 apparently to be unrelated to the causes. 
 
 Space may be made here for a short sketch of the 
 epochs which both neighbouring countries share in 
 their internal interests, a retrospect of the events 
 which have forcibly separated the peoples in their 
 religious and political life, in their customs and in their 
 civil and commercial relations, and which have given 
 birth to that mutual hatred, irreconcilable even after 
 sixteen years of peaceful government, and unmistakably 
 participant in the present violent attacks. Without 
 entering into an extended discussion of the events, it 
 will be necessary to understand the principles under- 
 lying them, in order to explain the motives which gave 
 so contrary a direction to the character of two peoples 
 seemingly destined by their common origin, by their 
 position in the world and by their lot to form one 
 people. 
 
 The reign of Philip II. of Spain was the epoch in 
 which the southern and northern provinces of the 
 Netherlands were first opposed to each other, when 
 their interests began to be separated and to be arrayed 
 in decided opposition to each other. 
 
 This monarch united under his sceptre various 
 Netherland provinces which had not been joined since 
 Caesar's time, and were not again until the time of 
 Napoleon.
 
 Holland and Belgium. 7 
 
 He acquired the sovereignty of this rich country in 
 its most nourishing period, but in the eyes of such a 
 monarch as Philip this wealth, this spirit of indepen- 
 dence and arrogance produced by prosperity, and still 
 more the liberty, under whose protection alone the 
 former had sprung up in a mercantile state, were 
 necessarily a limiting barrier to his despotism. 
 
 The chief trait in the dark character-portrait of 
 King Philip of Spain was insatiable desire for power. 
 Possession of territory, of which the Spanish so proudly 
 said that the sun never set upon it, was not enough for 
 him ; he stretched his hand out also towards Portugal, 
 England, France and Germany. 
 
 But Philip's greed for power went further. Not 
 only over countries, but also over minds, over opinions 
 did he purpose to reign. Therefore Catholicism was 
 to him the surest pledge of unlimited power, the 
 Reformation its most threatening enemy. To an un- 
 yielding fatality he opposed a still more unyielding 
 will, and even if we find the motive by which he acted 
 detestable, we cannot refuse to admire the consistency 
 with which he acted according to this idea, and that 
 too during a life of seventy years and a reign of forty. 
 
 But a people thoughtful by nature and prosperous 
 must have soon felt the need of a better understanding 
 of religious affairs, and civil liberty gave rise to an 
 early desire for freedom of conscience. So great was the 
 desire for this that already during the reign of Charles 
 V. more than 40,000 men — heretics in the eyes of the 
 authorities, martyrs in the eyes of a vastly greater host 
 of secret sympathizers with the new doctrine — ended 
 their lives upon the scaffold. Because of his greatness 
 men suffered this monarch to do that which was no 
 longer pardoned in his successor; the nation forgot 
 their love for liberty in their love for the military 
 glory which reflected from their emperor, their 
 countryman, upon them themselves, and furthermore 
 his political ascendancy secured innumerable advantages
 
 8 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 to their business. With a smile did the emperor 
 charm the people at Brussels, upon whose property he 
 was laying his hands, and from the midst of whom he 
 was choosing bloody sacrifices. 
 
 Not so with Philip. The Dutchmen demanded 
 from the absolute sovereign of the proud Castilians 
 respect for their mercantile privileges, for the chaotic 
 state of their local rights and liberties, they demanded 
 freedom of thought — the very thing that the Catholic 
 king could least grant them. Despite all persecu- 
 tions, the light of the new faith had already spread so 
 far that King Philip believed that he must meet an 
 evil so fearful with a fearful remedy. This was the 
 Spanish Inquisition, the most despicable invention of 
 human tyranny, if not the most horrible and most bloody. 
 
 But only by the aid of an army could such an 
 institution be forced upon the people, that is to say, 
 the Netherlands suffered one evil through another evil. 
 Both were attacks upon their most sacred rights, and 
 forced the power of the ruler to the very acme of des- 
 potism. The people rose in opposition. 
 
 Philip had purposely annoyed and repulsed the 
 Dutch nobility. This time it was the noble who 
 kindled the flame of rebellion. The compromise, the 
 beggars' league, was first started by the nobleman, he 
 protected the public sermons, and iconoclastic tumults 
 themselves were his work. 
 
 So we behold the ruler of Spain, Naples, Sicily, 
 Sardinia, Milan, of a part of the Netherlands, and of 
 kingdoms in America, more extensive even than 
 Europe, in a contest with the peaceful inhabitants of a 
 contemptible corner of the earth scarcely 1000 square 
 miles in area. The son of Charles V. employed the 
 victorious armies of his father, the greatest generals 
 of his time, the treasuries of both Indias, the heroic 
 youth of Spain and Italy, and the good fortune of his 
 peoples for the smothering of this insurrection. He 
 lost them all, and more, for the assassination of the
 
 Holland and Belgium. 9 
 
 Prince of Orange rests upon his royal honour. Al- 
 though nature fixed the limits of his days afar, yet he 
 did not survive the issue of this struggle which em- 
 bittered his whole life for almost half a century, and 
 his successor inherited along with an unended war a 
 debt of 500 millions which had already been squan- 
 dered upon it. 
 
 But the point which we are to make especially 
 prominent as a result of this great tragedy is the 
 Union of Utrecht. 
 
 Ten years war devastated the Netherlands, which 
 at one time had been so prosperous, without resulting 
 in a decisive victory for either of the two parties, or 
 essentially changing the condition of affairs. The 
 history of all the transactions on both sides is like 
 that of a city, which is besieged and opportunely 
 relieved, or in case it falls, is retaken, because the army 
 of the enemy has not been slain. 
 
 Indeed the Prince of Orange made two campaigns 
 against the Spanish army. With one army of hastily 
 collected and undisciplined troops, which was haras- 
 sing the country round about, he challenged to battle 
 the most victorious general and the best soldiers of his 
 time. There was only need of a victory on open field, 
 and everything declared itself against Alva the founder 
 of the Blood Tribunal of the Twelve, and of the tenth- 
 penny tax. The hostile castles and strongholds then 
 voluntarily threw open their doors, and the war was 
 decided with one blow perhaps. There was so much to 
 win that the Prince of Orange could afford to lose one 
 part of that rabble shrieking after j)ay, which a few 
 days later, nevertheless, he had to give up, because there 
 was lack of gold, and because the whole country was 
 being devastated, while it had not rendered any ser- 
 vices for its monstrous costs. 
 
 But the Duke of Alva surveyed his position just as 
 thoroughly, and by avoiding the battle he earned all 
 the advantages of a most complete victory.
 
 ic Holland and Belgium. 
 
 The inhabitants defended their posts as vigorously 
 as this army which had been enlisted under the flags 
 of the Netherlands proved to be inactive on the 
 open field of battle. Naarden's chastisement, and 
 the unparalleled cruelties which were perpetrated 
 there under the eyes of Don Frederic of Toledo, had 
 left no hope to the dwellers in the cities, threatened 
 with a like fate, and forced them to become heroes. 
 Unprotected localities like Haarlem, Alkmaar and 
 Leyden, withstand all efforts of the victorious enemy 
 seven months ; fleets are built for their defence, and 
 the very sea created on which these should carry on 
 operations. 
 
 Such was the state of affairs under Alva, and such 
 they continued to be until the death of Requesens. 
 
 The death of this distinguished man happened so 
 suddenly that he did not have time to appoint his 
 successor in the oflice of chief stadtholder. Thereupon 
 the Dutch council of state took possession of the 
 government, and it was actually approved by the 
 king for a time. Of course, the most influential 
 members of this state council were for the Spanish, 
 but these were removed by force from the Orange 
 party, the states were convoked, and immediately a 
 circumstance happened which had the most decisive 
 influence. 
 
 One phenomenon peculiar to this war was the 
 military insurrections, which greatly crippled the 
 undertakings of the Spanish generals, being at the same 
 time more pernicious to the loyal provinces. They 
 were the natural results of several simultaneous under- 
 takings by Philip, who little by little became involved 
 in quarrels with half Europe, and thus, notwithstand- 
 ing all silver fleets, drained his treasury to such an 
 extent that the troops waging war in the Netherlands 
 received their pay most irregularly, often being forced 
 even to demand it for three years. A necessaiy out- 
 come of such a state of affairs was that the soldier was
 
 Holland and Belgium. i i 
 
 forced to live by extortions only, and from the property 
 of the citizen whom he should have protected. 
 
 Meanwhile, matters came to such a pass that the 
 average man began to murmur openly, to refuse to 
 fulfil his services, finally to drive out the officers as a 
 whole, and under the command of an " eletto" from his 
 own resources to wage a predatory war, at his own 
 cost, no matter whether against the subjects of the 
 king, of the republic, or of the German Empire. 
 
 Neither the personal appearance of the Duke of Alva, 
 nor the severity of the laAvs, was able to oppose the 
 mutiny. He commanded a few of the dissatisfied 
 corps to be surrounded by the loyal troops, and fifty 
 of the rebels to be hung on the spot. But there 
 was soon need of a second army in order to check the 
 dissatisfied army. Indeed the discipline in the Spanish 
 army, which had become the first in Europe because of 
 it, and which had the severest military regulations of 
 all, fell so low that among other things Haarlem, when 
 hardly yet conquered, was offered by the triumphant 
 rebels themselves to the Prince of Orange for forty 
 thousand gulden. The city of Antwerp was forced to 
 buy off its sacking with four hundred thousand gulden, 
 and the troops being contented with this, returned to 
 their duty for a time with redoubled zeal. 
 
 But after the death of Requesens the consummation 
 of the evil came. Several thousand mutinous soldiers 
 took Alost and from this centre spread pillage, fire 
 and murder over all Brabant and Flanders. 
 
 There was now issued by the council of state a 
 formal proscription against the Spanish army, and the 
 people were called upon to take up arms and expel the 
 soldiers as perjured traitors. 
 
 This manifesto, sent out in the name of the king, 
 was undoubtedly the work of the states and of the 
 Orange party. It organized the civil war which was 
 then waged with the greatest fury imaginable, and it 
 forced even the most peaceable citizen to take up arms
 
 12 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 for a cause whose last place of refuge up to this time 
 had been Holland and the sea. The whole nation now 
 for the first time rose against the Spanish army, and 
 the Union of Ghent was concluded (1576). 
 
 All the Netherland provinces, except Luxemburgh, 
 entered into this alliance, and the Netherlands then 
 seemed to be lost to the Spanish crown. 
 
 But although the provinces had been united in name 
 at Ghent, yet the factions which continued to exist in 
 them had by no means been reconciled. One is able 
 to distinguish three chief parties at this period. First, 
 the Spanish, to which belonged some members of the 
 noblest families and which was supported by the 
 formidable Spanish army ; then a second, which can 
 be called the Catholics, whose seat was chiefly in the 
 Walloonian and Flemish provinces, and which counted 
 as its members the numerous clergy and the more 
 numerous host of those held under the guardianship of 
 the clergy ; finally, the Orange party, the smallest, 
 but which had at its head the only great man that the 
 Netherlands possessed at this period. In the midst of 
 the chaotic complication of interests and events, 
 William of Orange continued to be fully conscious of 
 his purpose, and neither the military success . of the 
 Spaniards, nor their cunning policy, nor distrust of 
 his own countrymen, no alluring prospect and no mis- 
 hap ever removed him one single step from the path 
 which he had irrevocably chosen for himself. This 
 party, to a certain extent insured by the geographical 
 position of Holland and Zealand, did not then perhaps 
 know so well as its leader what it really wished, but 
 it certainly did know what it did not wish ; it com- 
 bated less for freedom than for liberties and privileges, 
 more for property itself than for the security of the same. 
 The Hollanders did not wish so much to be their own 
 masters as to protect themselves from the tyranny of 
 their Spanish masters, and thus, without a definite plan 
 they acted more consistently than all the other factions.
 
 Holland and Belgium. 13 
 
 In consequence of such disunion very little can be 
 said of unanimous resolutions. And the proscription 
 declared by the council of state was by no means 
 sufficient to terrify the most riotous military force. 
 The affair of the insurgents of Alost had now rather 
 become that of the Spanish nation, and all soldiers that 
 up to this time had remained true to their flag joined 
 themselves with them. They elected a leader, erected 
 a gallows for transgression of discipline, and then with 
 great reverence listened to a mass. Thereupon the 
 whole furious band marched against Mastricht, at that 
 time a place of twenty thousand inhabitants and a 
 strong fortress. It was stormed, plundered, and 
 almost literally razed to the ground. The foolhardi- 
 ness of the revolters went even further. Antwerp, the 
 richest and the largest city of the Netherlands, the most 
 important in European trade, a stronghold which soon 
 afterwards withstood a thirteen months' siege, was, 
 notwithstanding the defence of the horrified citizens, 
 notwithstanding the Walloonian and German garrison, 
 taken by storm in one afternoon, pillaged, burnt, 
 and given up to the most fiendish atrocities and de- 
 baucheries. 
 
 And still the allied provinces could not unite upon 
 measures to sweep from the country this gang of 
 about fifteen thousand men. They sought rather to 
 accomplish it by the recognition of Don John as the 
 chief stadtholder, and by the treaty of the " Perpetual 
 Edict," according to which it was specially stipulated 
 that all Spanish troops should vacate the soil of the 
 Netherlands. 
 
 And to please the state Don John did actually per- 
 form this military-political comedy, that is, the troops 
 were sent away to be recalled in a few months. 
 
 The governments of the Prince of Orange, Holland and 
 Zealand did not assent to the new treaty, and although 
 the "perpetual edict" after three months had out- 
 lived its existence, yet it had essentially annulled
 
 14 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 the Union of Grhent, the latter continuing, however, in 
 its mere form. This happened furthermore because of 
 the alliance of the Walloonian provinces — Artois, Henne- 
 gau and Douai — for the preservation of the Catholic 
 faith. All this finally brought the negotiations long 
 fostered by the prince to maturity, and the Union of 
 Utrecht was concluded and announced in January of 
 1579. Holland, Zealand, Guelderland, Utrecht, Fries- 
 land, Overyssel and Zutphen were joined in one in- 
 separable union, and mutually coalesced to ward off 
 any attack from without. The cities of Grhent, 
 Antwerp, and Bruges entered into the alliance, and 
 the Prince of Orange, indeed under great limitations, 
 was placed at the head of this new state. 
 
 Thus the Netherlands were divided into two parts, 
 one of which returned partly of its own accord, partly 
 by force, under the Spanish yoke, while the other 
 openly renounced its obedience to the king, which in 
 fact for the past thirteen years it had not rendered 
 him. Therefore it was no longer Spaniards who Avere 
 contending against the common cause of the Nether- 
 lands, but Netherlander of the "Walloonian provinces 
 or Flanders, who were making war upon their 
 countrymen in Holland or Zealand, and in truth they 
 soon acted with such bitterness that, for example, 
 they murdered all the Zealanders who happened to 
 fall into their hands while accompanying Prince 
 Morice to Flanders. 
 
 But besides the political attitude which all the pro- 
 vinces united at Utrecht had taken in opposition to 
 the rest, there was also the religious difference which 
 formed a chief cause of division among the people of 
 the Netherlands. This difference was bound, of 
 course, to have great influence at a period when 
 religion determined not only the future salvation of 
 the soul, but also the entire present destiny, when 
 opinions were judged far more severely than actions 
 by fire and sword, and belief was a matter both of 
 conscience and honour.
 
 Holland and Belgium. 15 
 
 In consequence of the multifarious modes of com- 
 munication by which the Netherlands were united to 
 other countries, by sea with England and Denmark, by 
 navigable streams with reformed Germany and Switzer- 
 land, they could hardly remain closed to the doctrines 
 of Luther and Calvin. Furthermore, in the sober 
 sound sense of the people, the reformation found a 
 reception as much more welcome as the immorality 
 and ignorance of the Catholic clergy of the Netherlands 
 and laziness of the monastic orders were hateful and 
 contrary to the taste of the enlightened active citizen. 
 
 The violent measures which were used against the 
 spreading of the heresy as soon as its surprising exten- 
 sion had been noticed amounted to nothing. The 
 heroic courage with which many confessors of the new 
 faith died for this teaching proved their godliness before 
 the eyes of the multitude, and Philip himself, who pre- 
 ferred not to rule at all rather than to rule over heretics, 
 found himself forced to change the public burning of 
 these heretics to a private execution, because a hundred 
 neAV converts sprang from the blood of one martyr of 
 the new faith. The inquisition was too late to nip the 
 bud of the evil against which its force had been 
 directed, and the impossibility of executing its sentences 
 of punishment upon half the nation, resulted in its soon 
 becoming as much despised as it had been feared, and 
 in its surviving only a short time its introduction. 
 
 However, it could not be but that the reformation 
 enrolled many members among its converts who 
 brought little honour to it. Excesses like the image- 
 breaking, which in a few days despoiled the magnifi- 
 cent cathedrals of Flanders and Brabant, and which 
 made insolent and criminal mockery of things regarded 
 heretofore with reverence and awe, such excesses and 
 errors of the reformed mass injured the new teaching- 
 more than all the fires of the Spanish inquisition. The 
 crime of the individuals was laid to the religion which 
 they professed nominally, and since the patience which 
 is so essential a part of the reformation by no means
 
 1 6 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 attended it in its first appearance, it is manifest that 
 that part of the people which had remained true to the 
 old faith became more closely united, and combined 
 against a doctrine from which it had experienced such 
 objectionable usage. 
 
 The greater part of the provinces of the Nether- 
 lands having relapsed under the sovereignty of the 
 Catholic King, the reformation party needed the protec- 
 tion which William of Orange had granted the perse- 
 cuted sect quite as much on grounds of conviction and 
 for the sake of the cause itself, as for political reasons. 
 His clear vision recognized in the reformation the 
 security for the continuance of the new state established 
 by him. The Spanish armies could tear from him 
 cities and conquer provinces, but no power on earth, 
 in defiance of better judgment, could again chain the 
 spirit in fetters which it had severed once for all. 
 
 In Zealand and Holland the reformed religion was 
 legally recognized, all churches were given up to it, 
 and every other public religious exercise forbidden, 
 without therefore persecuting anyone on account of his 
 opinion. Moreover a vast number of people of all 
 classes, having been expelled from Brabant and 
 Flanders, by the intolerance of the Spanish rule, fled to 
 the united provinces, whose national wealth they in- 
 creased by their property, their industry and skill, or 
 under whose flags they fought against their per- 
 secutors. 
 
 If under these circumstances politics and religion 
 were of equally great importance in bringing about a 
 separation in the interests of the north and south of the 
 Netherlands, business affairs in like manner produced a 
 still greater breach in the divided nation. 
 
 The history of Antwerp is in general that of the com- 
 merce of the Netherlands of this period. Perhaps there 
 is no city which can point to such a tragic destiny and 
 to so many horrible catastrophes, from the time of its 
 wonderfully rapid florescence until its sudden fall, as
 
 Holland and Belgium. 17 
 
 Antwerp, which has become so interesting because of ;i 
 new incident, one joined to those already mentioned. 
 
 Antwerp's prosperity sprang from the ruins of the 
 world-wide commerce of Bruges. Emperor Frederick 
 III. had determined to give this latter city, from the 
 very beginning famous for its revolts and rebellion, a 
 chastisement which would thoroughly cure it of its 
 mania for freedom. He was completely successful in 
 this, and while he kept its harbour, Sluys, closed for ten 
 years, the entire levantian and northern commerce had 
 passed over to Antwerp, where the Hanseatic league at 
 the same time opened its office. Antwerp now grew in 
 an unparalleled manner. It soon counted two hundred 
 thousand inhabitants, the luxury and the products of 
 all parts of the globe poured into its bosom, and what 
 Venice and Genoa had been, what Amsterdam and 
 London were to be, that was Antwerp in the fifteenth 
 century. 
 
 The greatest misfortune for the city was the reign of 
 Philip II., the intolerance of this same monarch, the 
 arbitrariness which endangered security and property 
 of the individual, were destined to inflict upon a com- 
 mercial city where everything depended upon public 
 confidence, wounds deeper even than the terrible but 
 transitory catastrophes which happened later. These 
 in the meantime were not wanting. 
 
 The city had begged the government for the Prince 
 of Orange as the only one who possessed enough 
 authority to keep the three parties of Catholics, 
 Lutherans and Calvinists in check, while all, with 
 equal ardour, hated and were ready to attack 
 each other. But when the Prince of the office of 
 Stadtholder was called to Brussels, the image-breaking 
 broke out in the city the same evening, and ended 
 in destroying and desecrating one of the most magni- 
 ficent cathedrals of Christendom. 
 
 The two visits of the mutinied Spanish soldiers 
 were hinted at above. The first time Don Requesens 
 
 vol. 1. c
 
 1 8 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 betook himself to Antwerp, but by no means in order 
 to support the defensive provisions of commander 
 Champigny. He rather let the rebels in, and then 
 offered the city the choice between plunder or payment 
 of a compound tax. The vexed citizens consented to 
 this latter demand, and the Stadtholder who had paid 
 his troops in such a convenient way, announced to them 
 in the name of the king a general amnesty ; a solemn 
 mass celebrated the festivity, and the soldiers having 
 richly rewarded the churches and monasteries with 
 gifts, marched to the siege of Leyden after a revolt of 
 forty-seven days. 
 
 When two years later the mutinous soldiers had 
 illustrated in their doings at Mastricht what they had 
 in mind to do with Antwerp, the terrified citizens 
 thought that nothing better could be done than to 
 increase their German garrison by about forty com- 
 panies of Walloonian troops. On the esplanade, 
 opposite the citadel, they built fortifications of sacks of 
 wool and corn, on which men and women were at 
 work. When the report had spread abroad that the 
 rebels of Alost had entered the citadel, the city opened 
 up fire against the same. 
 
 Here Sancho d'Avila was in command, and under 
 him five thousand Spaniards were gradually assembled. 
 The desire to have a part in the rich booty of Antwerp 
 had brought them together from all quarters. Such 
 was their eagerness that, despite the long inarch, 
 no one was willing to enjoy anything until the city, 
 was taken. And the same afternoon the furious troop 
 rushed from the citadel to the fortifications. The 
 Walloonians and Germans hardly waited to shoot 
 off their rifles, took to flight, and left the new 
 walls to the enemy. But the inhabitants of the city 
 which even then had one hundred thousand residents, 
 and which was so dear to them all, fought and offered 
 a desperate, though vain opposition. Half of the city, 
 went up in flames, and all cruelties and excesses which
 
 Holland and Belgium. 19 
 
 in that age were wont to attend the storming of a city 
 were enacted here in their worst form. 
 
 The booty was immeasurable. The exchange was 
 converted into a gambling-house, and in one evening 
 common soldiers gambled away ten thousand florins 
 in Landshnecht, even then a favourite game. Yet in 
 order to keep a part of it, others had their cuirasses and 
 stirrups made of gold. But this robbery was a death 
 blow to the business of Antwerp. It was a national 
 loss, and the effects were felt throughout Europe. A 
 large number of prominent families, with the ruins 01 
 their property, emigrated and fled to Holland, where 
 they did not have to fear such an encounter with the 
 troops of their king. 
 
 When Don John of Austria removed the Spanish 
 army from the Netherlands, Alva had to surrender the 
 citadel of Antwerp to the Duke of Arschot. Too 
 haughty to do this himself, he delivered the key by his 
 lieutenant, and the duke swore by the hand of Don 
 Escuvedo never to deliver the citadel to anyone 
 except King Philip and his heirs, whereupon Escu- 
 vedo replied : " God help you so to do ; if not, may the 
 devil take you, body and soul ! " All present said 
 "Amen" to this. From bitter experience the in- 
 habitants of Antwerp had learned what an ill turn 
 Alva had done them, when he ordered this citadel to 
 be built on the south side of the city, from which 
 source devastation had already twice broken in upon 
 them. Therefore they petitioned, and were allowed by 
 the city council to raze this hateful scourge to its very 
 foundation, a work which all classes, and even frail 
 young girls, took a part in, the completion of which the 
 citizens celebrated with grand banquets. But they were 
 hardly through with this when the Duke of Parma, 
 who thought that a citadel was very necessary for the 
 city, caused the same one to be re-erected for them. 
 
 The experiment which the Spanish had twice so 
 successfully tried against Antwerp, the French like- 
 
 c 2
 
 20 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 wise (1583) desired to accomplish for their own advan- 
 tage. The Duke of Anjou, whom the Netherlander* 
 had selected as a new sovereign for themselves, and 
 from whom they hoped better treatment than from 
 their Spanish masters, this duke found himself em- 
 barrassed by the conditions to which he had taken oath 
 at the beginning. Therefore, under plausible pretexts, 
 he assembled a few thousand Frenchmen at Burger- 
 hout, not far from the city, and under the pretence of 
 a review, marched with a numerous retinue to the 
 Kipdorf gate. One of the attendants of the duke 
 halted on the bridge, as if he had injured his leg. 
 " Jambe rompue" was repeated by many voices. Im- 
 mediately the French charged, killed the guard, took 
 possession of the gate and the walls, and penetrated 
 into the city. 
 
 Several days before this a slight rumour of the duke's 
 intention had been circulated in the city. " A gate l 
 may be easily conquered this way ! " cried out a voice 
 from the crowd, when the duke rode out of the city, 
 and it was noticed that the courtiers wore armour 
 under their jackets. Now the citizens rushed by one 
 by one. The streets were closed with chains, stones 
 were hurled down from the houses upon the heads of 
 those who had entered. The number of the armed 
 Antwerpers grew greater and greater, for they, schooled 
 by terrible experiences, prefer to die rather than 
 Avillingly to suffer pillage again, or in truth a St. 
 Bartholomew's eve. Soon the French were in the 
 most frightful distress. The cannon from the wall 
 thundered down upon them, terror and confusion 
 seized them, and even their own troops which 
 continued to inarch in through the gate they had 
 taken hindered them from retreating. 
 
 1 The German reads: "So liesse sich wohl ein Thor erobern." 
 Thor means both gate and fool, hence the play upon the expression 
 cannot be Englished.
 
 Holland and Belgium. 21 
 
 After losing two thousand men, the Duke of Anjou 
 was obliged to relinquish the attempt to extend his 
 own power, and the residents of Antwerp celebrated 
 their rescue by their own valour. 
 
 Alexander of Parma gave the city the last blow 
 during the siege, or rather during the blockade in the 
 year of 1584-85. 
 
 The attempt of the duke to besiege a place of eighty 
 thousand inhabitants with ten thousand men, separated 
 as they necessarily were by a stream twelve hundred 
 feet wide and without bridges, men moreover dissatis- 
 fied and no longer to be depended upon, and this too 
 at a time when Ghent, Bruges, Dendermond, Mecheln 
 and Brussels were not yet subdued, and the fleet of 
 Zealand was cruising in the Schelde without its being- 
 possible to produce one ship in opposition to it, — such 
 an attempt, even in combination with the enormous 
 activity and endurance of the Spaniards and their 
 general, could succeed only because of the weakness of 
 the defence. 
 
 The circumstances, however, of this remarkable siege 
 are too well known to receive here more than passing 
 notice. 
 
 After Antwerp again passed under Spanish rule, 
 the rest of the trade of the Netherlands fled over to 
 Holland, and Amsterdam became the centre of the 
 commerce of the world. 
 
 In addition to the increase in wealth which the 
 Hollanders received from the southern provinces, the 
 commerce of Holland increased at an unparalleled rate 
 in consequence of a decree of the cabinet of Madrid, 
 the object of which was to annihilate the very exist- 
 ence of this commerce. Philip II. had long ago for- 
 bidden his subjects to have intercourse with the 
 rebellious Netherlands, but this trade continued, under 
 the observance of certain forms and feigned names, to 
 be of immeasurable advantage to both parties. Finally, 
 Philip III. put those prohibitive laws into execution and
 
 22 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 thereby forced the enterprising commercial spirit of the 
 Hollanders to seek at the very fountain-head the pro- 
 ducts of the East Indies, which Holland had previously 
 gone to the Spanish markets to procure. Therefore 
 the Hollanders were able to deliver these to northern 
 Europe at a vastly greater profit. 
 
 In the year 1497, the Portuguese Vasco de Gama 
 had discovered the way to the East Indies around the 
 Cape of Good Hope, and in this way caused the ruin 
 of Genoa and Venice. Twenty years later another 
 Portuguese, Magalhaens, discovered the south-western 
 passage about the south point of America. The 
 Hollanders now wished to discover the supposed north- 
 eastern way for themselves and to use it, thus shorten- 
 ing the whole journey by a half. An unsuccessful 
 attempt of the English did not scare them away ; three 
 small expeditions were equipped for this purpose, and 
 the undaunted Heemskerk penetrated as far as eighty 
 degrees of north latitude. When these new Argonauts, 
 who had passed a frightful winter in that sea, hitherto 
 unseen by the eye of man, had indeed proved the pro- 
 bability of a passage around the north of Asia, they 
 at the same time were thoroughly convinced that this 
 passage was impracticable for commercial purposes. 
 
 The Hollanders now determined in spite of all 
 enemies to trade by the same course as the Portuguese, 
 who were then a part of Spain. 
 
 Nine merchants of Amsterdam fitted out four ships 
 for this purpose. This was the beginning of that 
 famous East India Company, which, a few years after 
 its formation, held command over fleets and armies, 
 subjugated kingdoms and held sway over boundless 
 territory. 
 
 Certainly such successes were only possible because 
 of the decided pre-eminence of the Hollanders on the 
 sea ; but even this is one of the most remarkable events 
 of that era, so rich in extraordinary things. 
 
 Need and despair had transformed fishermen and
 
 Holland and Belgium. 23 
 
 seamen into pirates, their boats in privateers, and these 
 privateers a few years later were metamorphosed in 
 turn into a navy which attacked the Spanish flag on 
 the high seas, destroyed their proud galleons and even 
 burned them in the Spanish ports, in which they were 
 seeking safety in vain. The name of the beggars' league 
 was uttered with terror, and the conqueror of the 
 Ottoman fleet in the harbour of Lepanto, from the banks 
 of the Schelde, witnessed the destruction of his ships by 
 the squadrons of Zealand. The Armada, an undertaking 
 the like of which had never been seen until Napoleon's 
 equipment in the harbour of Boulogne, perished by 
 no means merely by the fury of the elements, but 
 chiefly through the opposition of the Batavian-English 
 fleet. And even in the waters of the other hemisphere 
 the ancient celebrated flag of Spain had to yield to the 
 youthful mercantile sea-power. 
 
 If justice requires it to be said that an unprecedented 
 obstinate fatality pursued the undertakings of Spain 
 upon the sea, on the other hand one must grant that 
 no other navy, not excepting the English, has ever 
 been able to exhibit such a rapid and brilliant develop- 
 ment and such a multitude of great military achieve- 
 ments with so few resources as did Holland at that 
 period. 
 
 Holland, a daughter of the sea, was invincible so 
 long as that element could not be wrested from her. 
 It was her origin, the condition of her continuance, her 
 protection, her plague and her supporter. 
 
 Among other circumstances, the siege of Ostend 
 proves how truly this was the case. It held at bay the 
 weapons of the whole Spanish army, even under the 
 command of a Spinola beneath its walls, for three years 
 and three months. What an inestimable advantage for 
 the young and feeble state ! 
 
 Though the results of the siege of Ostend are less 
 important than those of Antwerp, yet the operation of 
 the siege on both sides offers a far grander and more
 
 24 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 interesting theme, and when one considers the progress 
 in methods of attack and destruction, its fame justly 
 joins that of Troy and Tyre. One important fact was 
 that the Spaniards, in spite of their gigantic efforts to 
 cut off communication by sea, did not succeed, so that 
 there reigned not only an abundance of provisions in 
 the stronghold, but also the entire garrison of the same 
 was able gradually to be discharged. - 
 
 Even for the first twenty months this siege cost the 
 Spaniards several millions of money and eighteen 
 thousand men. Two hundred and fifty thousand shots 
 were fired from twenty and fifty-pound cannon against 
 the city, which, in turn, lost eight thousand men and 
 replied with one hundred thousand shots. Finally, 
 Spinola, with the sacrifices which cost another nine- 
 teen months, secured the possession of a N stone heap, 
 whose defenders and occupants had saved themselves 
 in a new home across the sea, and he at the same 
 time lost Sluys, a place of at least just as much im- 
 portance as the one that had been obtained with such 
 painful offerings. 
 
 With the loss of the sovereignty of the sea the 
 united provinces of the Netherlands were also lost 
 to Spain, and after a war of more than forty years, 
 it now required the labour of three years in order 
 to procure, not peace, but only a truce of twelve years, 
 which, in the meantime, was interrupted to continue 
 the struggle for life or death despite the complete 
 prostration and impotency of Spain. 
 
 But now how different was the civil state of the 
 Spanish and the united Netherlands. The provinces 
 that had voluntarily or by force returned under the 
 Spanish rule presented a horrible picture of such misery 
 as arbitrary and bad laws, revolution and war can 
 spread over a country. Agriculture was completely 
 abandoned, there being lack of workmen on account of 
 the emigration, and no one was certain whether he 
 should reap that which he had sown. This resulted in
 
 Holland and Belgium. 25 
 
 a terrible scarcity of grain, and this caused new emigra- 
 tions. Business was depressed after so many heavy 
 blows. On the fall of Antwerp it veered almost 
 wholly toward the north, where it dared hope to find 
 protection, and the privateers of Holland which 
 swarmed about all the estuaries of the Netherlands 
 completely destroyed the little that was left. Of 
 course all factories and manufactures stopped, since 
 the demand for their products had wholly ceased, 
 unless, perhaps, one might reckon the Spanish soldiers 
 as customers. 
 
 Thus the boroughs and villages were empty, the 
 cities, ravaged with pestilences and deserted by the 
 Protestant inhabitants whom Spanish intolerance had 
 expelled, were like open graves, and packs of wolves 
 roved over the waste fields once so blooming. 
 
 A glance at the neAvly-established state of the united 
 provinces reveals a very different sight, indeed the very 
 opposite of this sad picture. Its population increased 
 for the same reason and in the same proportion as 
 that of the Spanish Netherlands melted away. The 
 emigrations which impoverished the latter enriched the 
 former, and the business which perished in Antwerp 
 flourished in Amsterdam under the protection of the 
 victorious fleet. Credit was strengthened by sensible 
 laws, and still more so because these were enacted. 
 In a word, the united provinces, in the midst of a 
 war in which it was a question of their existence, 
 enjoyed all the blessings of peace, all the prosperity 
 of commerce, and in the midst of the storms which 
 were raging about them they established their 
 sovereignty over another part of the world. 
 
 In this way the political, religious, and mercantile 
 interests of one part of the Netherlands were separated 
 from the other and became decidedly opposed to them. 
 The lamentable contrast of the civil condition in the 
 Spanish provinces with that of the favoured people 
 in the north must have aroused the jealousy of the
 
 26 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 former, and this jealousy passed only too soon into 
 hate which two centuries have not been able to wipe 
 out. 
 
 From this period the destinies of both parts really 
 travel two distinct paths. The history of the Spanish 
 Netherlands is miserable, their political life almost 
 extinguished, and they themselves are only a battle- 
 field in which other powers fight out their deadly 
 feuds. 
 
 The reason for this was both the political position 
 of the provinces and the great number of fortresses 
 which they had, to their own destruction, planted, 
 and which did not aid them, but Holland only. 
 These were the bulwarks on which the great and 
 numerous armies must first break their force before 
 they could reach Holland, which, itself without forts 
 since the siege of Leyden, Alkmaar, and Haarlem, 
 has not been trodden by the enemy's foot for centuries. 
 By the Barrier Treaty the right to garrison the most 
 of the forts in the provinces of the Netherlands was 
 formally decreed to the united states, and these were 
 very truly destined to become the arena of their 
 wars. Therefore, indeed, there is scarcely a spot on 
 the whole earth on which so much blood has been 
 shed for two consecutive centuries, and which has 
 been so devastated by Avar, pillage, fire and pestilence, 
 by physical and moral oppression, as this unhappy 
 country. 
 
 Too weak to defend itself against its powerful neigh- 
 bours, its foreign rulers have lacked power to protect 
 it. Futile therefore were also all attempts to renew its 
 trade, that chief source of its prosperity. With extra- 
 ordinary rapidity an East India Company flourished 
 immediately after its establishment at Ostend, but the 
 rivalry of England and of the states forced it to dissolve 
 again. And thus all other attempts have been of no 
 avail. 
 
 At that time statesmen considered these provinces,
 
 Holland and Belgium. 27 
 
 formerly so rich and prosperous, with a population 
 equal to that of kingdoms such as Denmark, Sweden 
 and Portugal, only as a make-weight which, if laid 
 upon this or that scale, would be inclined to preserve 
 the equilibrium of the states. 
 
 It is true that the Flemish had the intention of 
 shaking off the Spanish rule, which was now so power- 
 less, and of constituting themselves a free state, under 
 the protection of France and the states. 
 
 Negotiations were also begun between Louis XIV. 
 and the state-pensioner de Witt, who proposed to take 
 this opportunity to divide the rest of the Spanish 
 Netherlands between themselves. But they were 
 broken off and the project was discontinued principally 
 because each wished to have much and all proposed to 
 give little. 
 
 In the year 1891 the Spanish crown offered the 
 Netherland ]:>rovinces to the states, as theirs by right 
 and inheritance, because the Spanish did not think 
 that they could defend them against Louis XIV. 
 But William III., then Stadtholder, declined the 
 possession of these countries, chiefly because he fore- 
 saw in the religious differences an unconquerable 
 hindrance to assimilation. 
 
 So the Netherland provinces passed from the Spanish 
 government into that of Austria, without having even 
 bettered their destiny by that move. And thus we 
 behold Belgium in its depths of impotency, while we 
 shall see Holland mount the very summit of its power. 
 
 The influence exerted by the united Netherlands 
 upon the affairs of Europe since the twelve years' truce 
 is very pronounced. 
 
 After the expiration of this armistice during which, 
 however, the Avar in India was waging, war was again 
 kindled between Spain and the states. But at that 
 time the weakness of Spain was such that even a 
 Spinola was no longer able to arouse energy in the 
 course of proceedings against the revolted countries.
 
 28 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 The military equipments of the states were also 
 very slight, and in the year 1628 moreover the Prince 
 of Orange did not once enter the field. 
 
 However, it was in the year 1648 that Spain hrst 
 consented to acknowledge the states as sovereign 
 countries, in the peace of Minister (Westphalia) which 
 was a document written on mere paper, despite the 
 value which the states placed upon the event, not on 
 pergament, and only signed with Yo el rey (I the king). 
 
 This struggle had lasted altogether now eighty years. 
 Whole generations had been born and had died without 
 having any knowledge of peace (in their own country at 
 least), except by hearsay. And yet the desire for this 
 peace was so feeble, that the conclusion of the same on 
 Holland's part met with great opposition. 
 
 We have shown how during the war trade and 
 industry had been elevated to the highest pinnacle. 
 
 Moreover art and science also were flourishing. The 
 universities of Leyden, Franeker, Utrecht and Harder- 
 wyck were founded, and the masterpieces of the 
 Netherland School, Avhich still form so essential a part 
 of the wealth of the picture galleries of Europe, are off- 
 springs of that stormy period and the one succeeding. 
 
 To be sure, the state was in debt, but individuals 
 enjoyed immeasurable prosperity and luxury. For 
 example, in the case of the flower trade, a most 
 decided contrast to the mercantile solidity of the 
 Hollanders, they sold and bought such perishable 
 wares as the bulbs of tulips and hyacinths at five 
 and six thousand florins a pound. 
 
 If war had not become a necessity to the Hollanders, 
 it was however a custom ; they waged it, of course, 
 Avith their own money, but with foreign blood, on 
 foreign seas and in foreign lands. 
 
 But peace lasted only four years, when the Nether- 
 land navy set sail against England, Portugal and 
 Sweden. 
 
 England, at that very moment preparing itself for
 
 Holland and Belgium. 29 
 
 the part which it intended to play in the monarchy of 
 the seas, did not mistake the dangerous rival which it 
 had in the young state across the channel. England 
 was already a formidable maritime power, the united 
 provinces would become such in the contest which 
 was destined to preclude them from it. But in spite 
 of the superiority which the number and greater 
 size of their ships secured to the English, they were 
 unable by two military invasions to vanquish the 
 power of the provinces on the sea. Under com- 
 manders like Wassenaer, Ruyter and Tromp, this 
 power kept its place everywhere, Avas just as oft con- 
 queror as conquered, and it even dared at the close of 
 this war to pass up the Thames as far as Chatham, 
 where it partly captured and partly burned the royal 
 ships lying there. At this crisis in London they did 
 not know how to protect themselves from the visit of 
 the Netherlander unless by sinking their ships in the 
 Thames. 
 
 But while the navy of the states was playing such a 
 glorious part, their land force had fallen into such a 
 decline that the Bishop of Munster was emboldened to 
 invade them with an army, and while they were threaten- 
 ing the queen of the sea in her capital, they were forced 
 to call upon France for aid against the ecclesiastical lord. 
 This total ruin of the land force was partly wrought 
 on purpose, and the reason for it is to be found in the 
 jealousy which the magistrates had of the Prince of 
 Orange. 
 
 That is to say, this family had scarcely won for the 
 country its independence, before the country began to 
 fear lest it should lose this through the family. With 
 a kind of distrust which evinced little of the gratitude 
 owed by the states to William the Silent and his family, 
 the most of its members having sacrificed their 
 own lives in battle for the sake of these very states, 
 they carefully excluded the descendants of the family 
 from all posts and influence.
 
 30 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 The opposition to the house of Orange was repre- 
 sented by two distinguished men, namely, Oldenbarne- 
 veldt, the pensioner of the Council of Holland, and his 
 successor, de Witt. Both regarded it as very hazardous 
 to give the warlike descendant of William I. any power 
 in governmental affairs ; they found it advisable to keep 
 the supreme power in various degrees of modification 
 for the states-general (that is, the deputies) of the pro- 
 vinces, but chiefly for themselves as representatives of 
 the province which was by far the most powerful. The 
 influential body of merchants especially agreed with 
 them as regards this, for they, mindful of instances 
 like those of all the reigns from the time of Charles of 
 Burgundy to that of Anjou and Leicester, certainly had 
 no cause to wish again for the government of a single 
 man. A few violent measures of Prince Morice and 
 William II. had still further injured the cause, a pro- 
 ject of the latter respecting Amsterdam had miscarried, 
 and William III. during his minority lost all that dis- 
 tinguished him from a private citizen. 
 
 The attitude of opposition of the Orange house to 
 the people of the Netherlands was an extraordinary 
 one, and in order not to spoil everything there was 
 need of great moderation and circumspection, which 
 signally distinguished the acts of the princes of this 
 house. Their claims for a higher position were never 
 established by a convention or a resolution. They 
 rested merely on the great services rendered the state, 
 and were therefore only the more honoured. 
 
 Since the Union of Utrecht each of the united 
 provinces formed a perfectly independent sovereign 
 state in itself, whose regents were the deputies chosen 
 from the whole body of the nobility and the cities and 
 appointed states-general. For general affairs of all the 
 provinces, such as war and peace, taxation, treaties, 
 etc., there was a committee of the states, the members 
 of which were called the states-general, and these were 
 very much inclined, although unjustly, to regard them-
 
 Holland and Belgium. 31 
 
 selves as the supreme power. Besides this actually 
 highest power, there was wont to be moreover a seem- 
 ing one, that is, the office of the stadtholder although 
 there was no longer a foreign regent that he had to 
 represent. But the stadtholder outwardly represented 
 the state, and through the lustre of his ancestry and his 
 own person it was intended that he should inspire 
 esteem in foreign powers. Generally, beside the 
 regency over several provinces he united also in time of 
 war the offices of general and admiral, because it was 
 found that by the centralization of the powers it was 
 possible to act with more strength, and at that time his 
 influence indeed was very considerable. 
 
 Now, at the verv moment the high magistrates 
 excluded the Orange family from these offices and to 
 a certain extent had even abolished these offices, there 
 existed a strong and wide-spread feeling in their favour. 
 For them were the remembrance of distinguished 
 services and a vast following among the people. 
 
 Certainly, a prince fond of war must have been more 
 congenial to the nobility, although they felt that they 
 were very much in the background, than the corps of 
 high-mightinesses, and furthermore the common man, 
 accustomed to his earls and custodians from by-gone 
 and happier days, loved the brilliancy and pomp of a 
 liberal, princely lord, who distributed honours and 
 favours, while the states issued the writs only for taxes 
 and duties. The Orange party, for reasons conceivable, 
 had a following also in the army, so far as there was 
 such a thing. 
 
 Since ties of relationship bound the interests of the 
 house of Orange to the royal family of England, de 
 Witt threw his whole influence upon the interests ol* 
 France. For this reason the naval force had to be 
 elevated to an imposing position, but the land force to 
 be diminished as much as possible. In this policy 
 the mercantile frugality of the states seconded him. 
 The appointments of officers in the troops still remain-
 
 32 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 ing after a series of reductions, were possessed by the 
 cousins of the burgomaster, and their whole duty was 
 to spend their incomes and be anti-Orange. 
 
 But the allied states were of themselves about to 
 undergo an experience, with less pain to themselves, 
 which they could have acquired from the example of 
 others in history, namely, how dangerous is a division 
 of the controlling power in the state, especially at a 
 time when powerful neighbours are ready to enrich 
 themselves through the weakness of others. 
 
 Such a restless neighbour had the states par 
 excellence in Louis XIV. 
 
 This monarch believed that he had certain claims on 
 the Spanish Netherlands. To ease his conscience he 
 ordered his council and some of the clergy to investi- 
 gate these claims, and both found that they were well 
 established. Moreover Europe's criticism respecting 
 these was, that they could be better confirmed by 
 cannon than on legal grounds, and the king also deter- 
 mined to lend them the necessary strength by the help 
 of a considerable army. 
 
 De Witt purposely shut his eyes to that which cer- 
 tainly was easy to see, but which was destined to carry 
 with it the overthroAv of himself and his regime. He 
 stoutly opposed every advancement of the Prince of 
 Orange, he reduced the army still further, and he 
 regarded himself and the state, moreover, fully assured 
 of the friendship of France, when the storm did burst 
 forth which all men, conjectured must end the exist- 
 ence of the united Netherlands. 
 
 France and England, then the two greatest powers 
 in Europe, declared war with the states ; Sweden and 
 the Bishop of Munster, and the Crown Prince of 
 Cologne joined in this with a great force, and the 
 Netherlands, hard pressed, abandoned by their allies, 
 and overwhelmed with warfare, had no other hopes 
 than in their own strength, and in the possible aid 
 of remote Spain and Brandenburgh.
 
 Holland and Belgium. t>3 
 
 The states made the most humble remonstrances, but 
 in vain. Their humility was so great that England 
 was almost constrained to find an excuse for with- 
 drawal. The future conquests were meanwhile dis- 
 tributed beforehand. An army of one hundred and 
 fifty thousand men, and at that time men were not 
 accustomed to such armies, under generals like 
 Turenne and Conde, with the King of France at its 
 head, advanced along the sea (1672). Gelderland, 
 Utrecht and Overyssel were immediately lost, Fries- 
 land and Groningen were in the possession of the 
 enemy, and the floods alone hindered the French from 
 advancing into Holland. The fortresses fell one after 
 another, even the strongest, almost without resistance. 
 Ostend, for example, was surrendered to the king in 
 just as many days as it had years withstood Spinola. 
 Louis XIV. saw himself in the brilliant light of a great 
 conqueror, and selected the right moment to return to 
 Madame de Montespan. 
 
 During the time of this unparalleled success a formid- 
 able English fleet sailed up on the opposite side intend- 
 ing to land and conquer the last spot in Holland where 
 the independence of the states had fled for refuge. And 
 the states had nothing to oppose to all these threaten- 
 ing storms but twenty thousand bad, undisciplined 
 men, under commanders who had neither courage nor 
 knowledge of war. And besides there were quarrels, 
 as usual, in the interior, and divided opinions with 
 regard to the measures to be adopted. It actually 
 required all the power of Louis XIV. and a miracle to 
 prevent the annihilation of the state. A double ebb, 
 which lasted twelve hours, and a hurricane immedi- 
 ately following it, prevented the landing. This 
 incident was very rare in spring and autumn, but had 
 never happened, as on this occasion, in summer. 
 Finally those on land had to thank the presumption of 
 Louis XIV. for what otherwise they had expected to 
 thank his generosity. The excess of his demands 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 drove the despairing people back to their own strength, 
 and from this they Avere obliged now to expect their 
 own rescue. 
 
 De Witt and his party perished in the press of 
 these circumstances. This distinguished man, who, in 
 addition to a decided passion for power, possessed all 
 the qualities of a great statesman, together with his 
 brother, the meritorious Admiral de Witt, was 
 murdered by the mob in a shocking manner. 
 
 Previous to this the Prince of Orange had been 
 appointed by general acclamation as Stadtholder and 
 Captain-General, and these offices were to be hence- 
 forth hereditary. Although many conditions had been 
 stipulated on the part of France favourable to the 
 Prince in the proposals for peace, yet he declared, when 
 interrogated, that the proposals were in every respect 
 unacceptable, and that one would rather perish than 
 agree to them. 
 
 The army was made up anew, and organized, and if 
 William III. was not successful in his undertakings 
 with this new army, great honour is due to him for 
 having warded off a disgraceful peace by his firmness, 
 just as he it was also who later, as King of England, 
 again destroyed, at least partially, the threatening 
 increase of France's supremacy. 
 
 The relations continued to shape themselves, without 
 much action on the part of the states, more and more 
 favourably, especially because of the presence of the 
 imperial troops ; and thus the Netherlands emerged 
 from a conflict in which the greatest victory was the 
 preservation of their existence. 
 
 The Peace of Nimeguen (1679) restored the state of 
 the United Netherlands. 
 
 From this time on this state waged no more wars 
 with England. Both countries naturally united 
 against the threatening supremacy of France, and just 
 as William III.'s ancestor a hundred years before had 
 broken the ascendancy of Spain, so William III. of
 
 Holland and Belgium. 35 
 
 Orange seemed now destined to check the devastating 
 torrent of French tyranny. 
 
 Therefore the Netherlands soon saw themselves 
 involved in new Avars. The first lasted seven years, 
 and, according to the Peace of Ryswick, the states con- 
 tinued in possession of all that they had before. But 
 the war cost them six hundred million florins. 
 
 The second lasted eleven years. It was the cele- 
 brated AVar of the Spanish Succession. William III. 
 died without seeing the favourable issue which the 
 united armies of Marlborough and Eugene Avon by 
 fighting. This Avar achieved its purpose on the Avhole, 
 so far as the humiliation of Louis XIV. Avas con- 
 cerned, and it Avould have achieved much more had 
 not a quarrel over a Avoman at the English Court 
 overthroAvn Marlborough in spite of his battles, and 
 had they been as skilful in concluding peace as in 
 carrying on Avar. 
 
 According to the Peace of Utrecht, the Spanish 
 Netherlands (1715) passed into the possession of Austria, 
 and the United Provinces received, by the so-called 
 " Barrier Treaty," the right to garrison several for- 
 tresses in the noAv Austrian Netherlands. But this 
 was all that they gained from their almost excessive 
 struggles for the common cause. 
 
 Since the time of the origin of the state of the United 
 Netherlands by the Union of Utrecht until the 
 Peace of Utrecht one hundred and thirty-four years 
 had expired, and of these thirty were years of peace, 
 but one hundred and four years of Avar. These years 
 were, moreover, perturbed by continuous internal 
 quarrels, by Avars in East India, and by the services 
 given to other states. These had required an outlay 
 of forces which seemed to be Avholly out of proportion 
 to the size of the state. 
 
 In the year 1672 the united Anglo-French navy 
 Avhich set out against the states consisted of one 
 hundred and one large warships ; these were armed 
 
 d 2
 
 36 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 with more than six thousand guns, and manned by 
 thirty-five thousand men. The States opposed them 
 with ninety-one warships, together with sixty-five fire- 
 ships and pinnaces, and they won the battle. 
 
 These were the greatest navies which ever before or 
 since have been seen on the sea. Each of them sur- 
 passed in size the celebrated Armada of Philip II. 
 
 In the year 1673 the Netherlands equipped seventy- 
 five warships, forty-three smaller ships with forty-three 
 hundred cannon, and twenty thousand men ; and when 
 William III. reorganized the army, they put sixty-six 
 thousand men in the field. 
 
 This turbulent and active period in the history of the 
 Netherlands is at once that of their greatest splendour 
 and their florescence. The very debts of the govern- 
 ment, and these were the only vestiges traceable in the 
 country, of so many wars were profitable for individuals. 
 The abundance of currency was so great and the credit 
 of the government so little impaired that it could 
 , obtain at any moment in the country vast sums at a 
 small interest. Gold was so abundant that they did 
 not desire to pay up the state debts. Such wealth 
 and the gigantic achievements and vigorous efforts 
 of the states had procured for them a position and an 
 influence in the political world which little accorded 
 with the marked disregard with which other powers, 
 and especially France, took care to treat the " Merchant 
 State." And if they charged it to the states as an 
 insult that the latter claimed on one of their medals 
 " to have aided kings, protected and reconciled them, 
 to have maintained the freedom of the seas, and 
 to have restored the peace of Europe," then the only 
 occasion for it was, very truly, that so small a power 
 had dared to tell the truth. 
 
 But the political greatness of Holland was an exalted 
 position, one which could not last. The peace which 
 elevated the other states produced the overthrow of this 
 one.
 
 Holland and Belgium. 37 
 
 William III., who reigned in England under many 
 limitations, enjoyed in the Netherlands the most marked 
 respect, so that the French did not without reason call 
 him the King of the Netherlands and the Stadtholder 
 of England ; but with him ceased the male issue of the 
 Nassau-Orange house, and the parties used this circum- 
 stance to remove the rest of the members of the Orange 
 house from high positions and to re-establish a govern- 
 ment without a Stadtholder. The result of this was the 
 total ruin of the army. It is true that the War of the 
 Spanish Succession, that most successful of all Nether- 
 land campaigns, happened after the death of the Stadt- 
 holder, but it was conducted with the army and all the 
 arrangements which he had called into being. How bad 
 the condition of the military of the Netherlands became 
 is demonstrated by the ease with which the French in 
 the new war of the year 1747 took possession of their 
 barrier towns. In this year thirty-live thousand men 
 belonging to the troops of the state were French 
 prisoners, that is, nearly their whole army. 
 
 Business also declined, and the principal reason for 
 this was that other nations were now carrying on a 
 commerce with the East Indies, their shops and manu- 
 factories stopped, and the Hollanders thus had to 
 withstand enormous competition. It further happened 
 that while the states, in order to render France's 
 dangerous proximity less menacing, had bound them- 
 selves closely to England, England itself, a no less 
 dangerous nation on the sea, had increased its own 
 maritime power by the ruin of that of France to such 
 an extent that soon the navy of the Netherlands was no 
 longer a match for it. 
 
 Thus after a long period of peace the United Pro- 
 vinces had considerably fallen from their ascendency, 
 and they offer little that interests our observation, 
 excepting the internal conflict between the Orange and 
 anti-Orange parties. The origin of this opposition 
 coincides with that of the State, and its continuance
 
 38 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 during the whole duration of the same manifests itself 
 at times in open combat, at times in secret intrigue. 
 
 At the death of William III., who died without issue, 
 all influence of the house of Orange was again lost, but 
 the French invasion about the middle of the eighteenth 
 century brought William IV. again to the helm of 
 state by the vote of the people. The great likeness of 
 the destiny of this Stadtholder with that of his royal 
 predecessor, William III., has been generally noted. The 
 one, like the other, was born after the death of his father, 
 and with an unusually tender and weakly constitution. 
 During their minority they lost all rights which their 
 forefathers had possessed. Both married daughters of 
 English kings, and in consequence of unsuccessful wars 
 threatening the state with destruction, as well as of 
 popular uprisings which broke out both times in V eere, 
 both were elevated to the same dignity in the United 
 States, which position was henceforth declared to be 
 hereditary in the male and female line. 
 
 Still the opposition party was not destroyed. 
 Under William V. it lifted its head with new power, 
 especially in the last quarter of the last century, and 
 it really continued to be in possession of the greatest 
 part of the actual power in the state. Holland and its 
 powerful, wealthy, and arrogant Amsterdam were the 
 chief supports of this faction, which applied to itself 
 the name of the Patriots, so as to show by this that 
 their opponents, the Orange party, are not Patriots, 
 but the opposite. The most open acts of injustice and 
 persecution were permitted against this party ; the 
 hereditary Stadtholder was attacked in the most dis- 
 honourable manner, insulted, and overwhelmed with 
 calumnious writings. Indeed, it went so far as to take 
 from him the command over the troops in the Hague, 
 and this Prince could not defend himself from such 
 unlawful attacks and insults without arousing a 
 civil war. Incited by the aid of foreign powers, and 
 fearful lest the party favouring the Prince in the states
 
 Holland and Belgium. 39 
 
 assembly could yet win the upper hand, the Patriots 
 of Amsterdam in April of 1787 determined upon 
 measures of violence, they changed the council in the 
 said city, in Rotterdam and Utrecht, and ordered 
 their troops to march to the aid of their supporters in 
 those cities. 
 
 At this moment the Prince of Orange came out with 
 a final declaration, which encouraged his supporters to 
 appear publicly, and then it became very manifest 
 that the greater part of the nation was for the Stadt- 
 holder. 
 
 The Patriots, although whole battalions of them 
 went over, put their trust meanwhile in their armed 
 civil corps, and in the protection of France, since they 
 supposed that France would not have expended sixty 
 million pounds in vain, which, according to the calcula- 
 tion of Calonne, was the cost of the Netherland matter. 
 
 But a speedy end was brought to these intrigues by 
 the invasion of twenty-four thousand Prussians. The 
 Patriots had stopped the Consort of the Stadtholder, 
 the Princess Willielmina of Prussia, sister of Frederick 
 William II., on her journey to the Hague near Schoon- 
 hofen, and after delaying her thirty-six hours had sent 
 her back without many ceremonies. The king, her 
 brother, who had previouly abstained from all inter- 
 ference, demanded satisfaction for this conduct, and 
 when it did not follow after repeated summons, he 
 granted its originators a limit of four days in which 
 to explain themselves. When this set time had 
 elapsed without conclusive answer, the Duke of 
 Brunswick, September, 1787, advanced with three 
 columns to Nymegen, Amersfort, and Zutphen. Not 
 turning aside to visit a French camp of forty thousand 
 men, which was said to have been located near Givet, 
 the army was before the walls of Amsterdam in a 
 few days, which for three centuries past had not seen 
 an enemy. The opposition of the Patriots was just as 
 feeble as their arrogance had previously been great.
 
 4<d Holland and Belgium. 
 
 Amstelveen, which showed signs of resistance, was 
 stormed. An armed frigate anchored in the Lek was 
 called upon to surrender by a single bugler, and was 
 handed over to the Prussian Hussars, who in the whole 
 of their glorious career in war had never yet been able 
 to boast of the capture of warships. 
 
 Rotterdam, Dortrecht, Leyden, and the Hague were 
 occupied by Prussians, but the magistracy of Amster- 
 dam had not yet thought of yielding. After the Duke 
 of Brunswick occupied Oudekerk, and was prepared to 
 bombard the city, he tried to gain time at least by 
 means of deputation and negotiations. 
 
 After vain resistance, these men finally yielded to 
 necessity, and by agreement the Leyden gate was 
 occupied by the Prussians. The Amsterdamians 
 enjoyed the strange spectacle of seeing foreign troops 
 within their wall, for heretofore even Stadtholders on 
 entering the city had been obliged to leave their feeble 
 body-guard outside the gates. 
 
 So these disputes were settled with great moderation, 
 and the power of the hereditary Stadtholder established 
 on a basis so broad that it was hoped that his power in 
 the future would anticipate such disastrous agitations. 
 
 But at the very time when the flame of revolution 
 was kindled in Holland, there glowed a fire under the 
 ashes in the Austro-Belgium Provinces. The rebellion 
 which broke out a few years afterwards in this country 
 was in many respects so analogous to that which to- 
 day draws the attention of Europe, that a short descrip- 
 tion of the same from a practical point of view may 
 well find place here. 
 
 Twice in the interval of a half century France has 
 presented the great tragedy of a revolution, and both 
 times Belgium has repeated these events on a small 
 scale. 
 
 But it may be said that the Belgium copy was a 
 negative, a revolution which was conducted, or at least 
 designed, in a directly opposite manner.
 
 Holland and Belgium. 41 
 
 What at the close of the last century France 
 fought for, what it would destroy, was the very thing 
 which men took up arms in Belgium to establish. The 
 idea, the principle that toppled over the government 
 in France, here sat on the throne ; in a word, in 
 France the people rose in opposition to the nobility 
 and the priesthood which were then leagued with the 
 monarchy ; in Belgium it was the worldly and clerical 
 aristocracy which opposed the emperor and people, 
 although ostensibly only the former. 
 
 Can one who critically follows the events from the 
 year 1787 to 1792 be in doubt by whom and for 
 whose profit those agitations were started which devas- 
 tated the country, and by whom they really were 
 directed ? 
 
 The changes undertaken by Joseph II. in his states, 
 and these were soon called innovations, a term which 
 has become odious, aimed to do away with bond service 
 and compulsion of conscience by the introduction of a 
 universal toleration. He improved the laws, the courts 
 of justice, and all branches of the administration, pre- 
 sented his peoples the freedom of the press, abolished 
 capital punishment, regulated the pensionary system 
 and the police, encouraged agriculture and public 
 instruction. He also severed the alliance of the friars 
 with Rome, and suppressed those monasteries which 
 had no schools, did not care for the sick, and whose 
 monks did not preach ; thus, in time, the number of 
 monks and nuns in the Austrian state was reduced to 
 about forty thousand. The final achievement of the 
 French revolution after a long and bloody course, the 
 great equivalent it offered Europe for those sufferings 
 which it had heaped upon the Avorld, that very thing 
 this Austrian Emperor, to whom universal history still 
 owes great honourable amends, desired to establish by 
 the aid of his sovereign power. 
 
 And in a few years we behold the people in almost 
 every part of his extensive empire rejecting with
 
 42 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 armed hand those advantages which their ruler is hold- 
 ing out to them. 
 
 Joseph was forced to withdraw all that had been 
 already effected and perfected by him in his reign ; 
 shortly before his death he destroyed his whole work, 
 or rather he died because this had to be done. 
 
 It will be said that the time was too short, the 
 people were not ripe, were not at the stage of develop- 
 ment which is necessary for the transformation of a 
 thing so long persistent in itself, and that is true, 
 although but little development is required in order 
 that a peasant should understand that it is better to 
 be a landlord than a servant. And how was it possible, 
 then, to raise the people to this stage except by this 
 transformation? It will be further claimed that the 
 Emperor, by the improvement of the system of the ad- 
 ministration, concentrated the latter in his own hands ; 
 but was it not the people themselves that secured the 
 most inestimable advantages in this way ? It is obvious 
 that the opposition came from that class which had to 
 sacrifice a part of their privileges for the good of the 
 whole, and when we see the so-called people blindly allied 
 with this class against their benefactor, it so happened 
 because revolution is almost in every case a surprisal of 
 the popular will by a faction, and because that faction 
 in Belgium consisted principally of the clergy. For 
 this class in the Catholic Netherlands had known how 
 to preserve for itself such influence as perhaps no 
 country in Europe excepting Spain offered a counter- 
 part, and which would be regarded as impossible at 
 the end of the eighteenth century, were it not that we 
 again find it undiminished at the beginnino; of the nine- 
 teenth. 
 
 The first tumultuous seditions broke out at Louvain 
 in the newly-founded seminary, against the establish- 
 ment of which the Archbishop of Mechelen had raised 
 great objections. The young clergymen, regardless of 
 their profession, broke windows and seats, violently
 
 Holland and Belgium. 43 
 
 demanded better nourishment, among which was good 
 beer, while others wished to have a purer spiritual 
 nourishment taught. 
 
 Scenes of a serious aspect soon followed in Brussels, 
 when the states of Brabant, on account of the infraction 
 of the Joyeuse Entree, their charter, to which the 
 emperor had sworn at his oath of allegiance, had 
 refused to pay the usual revenues. In a few places, it 
 is true, the country folk had demanded that in the 
 future their taxes should be paid directly to the 
 emperor and no longer to the states, and, if one may 
 judge from this, the average man was by no means so 
 opposed to the new reforms as was claimed to be the 
 case in Brussels. The result was, that the people 
 were filled with a general indefinite mistrust both 
 of the government and of the measures, to which latter 
 those previously adopted were said to serve only as an 
 introduction. Moreover, in many places this mistrust 
 broke out in open resistance. 
 
 Nothing aided the originators and directors of these 
 scenes so much as the remoteness of the emperor, who 
 was at that time at the very extreme end of Europe ; 
 that is, in Chersonese. The Duke of Saxony-Teschen, 
 Governor of the Netherlands, believed that it was 
 necessary for him to yield to the general opposition, 
 and he postponed the emperor's new orders until he 
 should learn his decision more definitely. 
 
 When the emperor, on his return, received the first 
 information regarding the things that had happened, 
 his indignation and anxiety were not greater than his 
 astonishment. He commanded the states to send a 
 deputation to Vienna in order to explain the events 
 that had taken place. 
 
 After a long struggle, the states were obliged to 
 decide upon this embassy, but they wished it to be 
 regarded merely as an act of politeness. 
 
 " In view of what has happened," the emperor said 
 in addressing them, " mere coining of words is not
 
 44 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 sufficient ; there is need of deeds to convince one of 
 the good intentions of those who have sent you. I 
 daily furnish irrefutable proofs that the welfare of my 
 people is the only object of my actions. How little I 
 purposed to annul the constitution of your country 
 you are probably convinced, when I assure you that 
 you are to keep it at the very moment when you 
 have committed so great a crime, when you have 
 deserved my anger, and when I, notwithstanding, take 
 no regard of the means which my power offers me." 
 
 At the close of the audience the emperor summoned 
 the deputies to repair to him on such a day and in 
 such numbers as they chose. "I wish," said he, "to 
 inform myself, through you, and you will not refuse to 
 hear me. One has never found me deaf to reasonable 
 propositions ; what you say will be without personal 
 consequences to you, and so you may also regard that 
 which I shall say to you." 
 
 At times the emperor approved the concessions of 
 the General- Governor, but he remained unmoved in 
 regard to the changes which he considered necessary 
 for the country. 
 
 Indeed, if advancement is a necessary condition to 
 prevent mankind from receding, so the institutions 
 which exist for the present must not be reared for 
 eternity. Just as nature rejuvenates itself from its 
 own resources, so must human institutions renew 
 themselves with the races, but this regeneration must 
 issue from above, not from below. It must be the 
 government which conducts the revolution in a lawful 
 manner ; not the mob, that play-ball of parties, that 
 blind but cutting tool in the hand of passion. A 
 government which recognizes and anticipates the 
 needs of its people, whatever otherwise may be its 
 form, will always be the most liberal of all govern- 
 ments, and stands, nowadays, at the head of the vast 
 party of all reasonable people in all countries. 
 
 But because enlightenment serves only as a measure
 
 Holland and Belgium. 45 
 
 for the strength of the parties where the people are 
 very enlightened, so it happened that in Belgium the 
 party of the classes had the control. At their head 
 were two men who were at that time as celebrated as 
 to-day they are forgotten, namely, Van der Noot and 
 Van Eupen. The first, a man without talent and 
 without merit, fled from Brussels because the govern- 
 ment was dissatisfied with him. An accident brought 
 him in contact with Pitt, and the interest which people 
 took in the disturbances gained for him an audience 
 in the Hague and at Potsdam. He promised his 
 countrymen the support of foreign powers, which 
 never came about, and he became the idol of the 
 people through the blind favour of the crowd, without 
 having justified this trust by a single act. 
 
 The second leader, Van Eupen, was a clergyman, 
 who, more conscious of his aim, used the popularity 
 of Van der Noot to advance his own interests. After 
 playing out his own part, he was transported through 
 the French to Guyenne ; but his colleague died not far 
 from Brussels in the year 1826, without the name of 
 Van der Noot having again been mentioned, since his 
 ephemeral appearance, during the following thirty-five 
 years. The party composed of the classes now saw 
 very well that the revolution was in their favour. 
 From earliest times Brabant had been governed as a 
 limited monarchy, composed of the sovereign, the 
 people, and the classes. Therefore since the revolution 
 now declared that the emperor, as Duke of Brabant, 
 has forfeited his rights, the classes as middle-party, 
 believe that they had become sovereign ; thus the 
 limited monarchy is changed into an absolute aris- 
 tocracy. 
 
 But here they encountered the opposition of a 
 second party, which, much smaller in numbers, 
 counted as its members far more intelligent men. It 
 was the party of the Vonkists, so named from their 
 leader, Vonk, the lawyer.
 
 46 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 Since this party demanded the old constitutional 
 form of government with a new system of representa- 
 tion, in which the secular clergy, the smaller cities, 
 the flat country, in short all classes of the people, 
 should be duly represented, they announced them- 
 selves as deadly foes of the state party whose private 
 interests threatened them still more than did the 
 emperor. 
 
 Meanwhile, at the instigation of Vonk, an armed force 
 of two or three thousand men was collected, whom Van 
 der Marsch led in opposition to the Imperialists. Van 
 der Noot, in constant hope of foreign aid, had rejected 
 this procedure, and made it an object of ridicule. 
 Notwithstanding, Van der Marsch drove the Austrian 
 General Schroeder out of Turnhout with great loss, 
 into which city people hastily followed after him ; he 
 also captured the guns on this occasion. Bruges, 
 Ghent, and Brussels were gradually lost, and the rare 
 sight was afforded, says de Pradt, of seeing the 
 Austrian armies, which had as good a reputation as 
 any in Europe, and which had been disciplined by the 
 most scientific system of tactics, and in many places had 
 been exhibited as a model, beaten by the Turks and 
 monks on every side. The emperor found it hard to 
 believe all these reports, and he could do nothing more 
 than emphatically condemn the measures of his 
 generals, " who," as he expressed himself, " attacked 
 the dissatisfied as if they were Turks or Prussians." 
 
 Under the thunder of cannon and the ringing of 
 bells Van der Noot, whom they called the Belgian 
 Franklin, was conducted into Brussels. The procession 
 passed under arches of triumph into the Gudula church, 
 where the clergy scattered incense over this tool 
 of their plans, and from there it marched to the 
 theatre, where Van der Noot, in the box of the 
 general-governors, was crowned with laurel by the 
 actors. 
 
 But, however intoxicated such successes might make
 
 Holland and Belgium. 47 
 
 the man of the people, he could scarcely fail to see the 
 abyss which yawned at his feet. 
 
 The party of the states had always confidently 
 counted upon the aid of foreign powers, but when 
 every hope of such a nature finally vanished, this 
 aristocratic monkish faction continued with wonderful 
 persistence to deliver itself into the protection of 
 France, which was destroying its aristocracy and clergy. 
 
 But France was willing to recognize the indepen- 
 dence of the Netherlands only on condition that the 
 states should be remodelled. Of course, this had so 
 little to do with the plan of the plenipotentiaries that 
 the matter was allowed to remain undisturbed. 
 Despite all this, the press of circumstances led to new 
 negotiations with France, although everything opposed 
 the success of this step. The Belgians, who in the 
 sedition were disposed to favour institutions which the 
 constituent assembly was wrecking with consistent per- 
 severance, believed that their natural allies were to be 
 found in those who differed so greatly from them, and 
 even the clergy themselves were constant in their belief 
 that the French, who were then driving out their own 
 monks, would offer protection to those in Belgium. 
 Thus men are blinded by personal interest, and at this 
 very moment we are amazed by an instance almost like 
 it and accompanied by similar circumstances. 
 
 France, in agreement with the stipulations to which 
 it had sworn at that time, submitted to the states the 
 conditions upon which it was willing to grant them 
 recognition. The first article contained the demand 
 that they should elect a prince from the Austrian house, 
 and this was sufficient to move the deputies of the 
 people of Brabant to forbid an announcement of this 
 same demand, "sous peine de coups de baton." 
 
 But the fact that after the death of Emperor Joseph, 
 in February, 1791, his successor, Leopold II., offered 
 conciliatory propositions to the states which Avere 
 most favourable and agreeable, made it still worse.
 
 48 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 The adherents of Vonk as well as every impartial 
 person recognized the advantage that had been offered, 
 and believed that it was a favourable opportunity for 
 putting an end to so much evil. 
 
 Now, the more it became feared that these obviously 
 simple reasons would carry their point, and common 
 sense would get control, so much the greater was the 
 demand that Van der Noot and his supporters should 
 overthrow so formidable a rival, which began to be 
 far more dangerous than the armies of Austria. 
 
 In doing this they now had excellent support in the 
 clergy which absolutely ruled the wills of the people 
 and which laboured with them, especially in view of 
 this, the week preceding Easter. The Bishop of 
 Mecheln declared that all those " whose wicked views 
 smacked of the philosophy of the century " were 
 enemies of religion and of the country. He blessed, on 
 the other hand, in the name of religion, the stipulations 
 which belonged to his regime. 
 
 Van Eupen proposed to have the volunteers of 
 Brussels swear allegiance to the sovereign states. On 
 the 9th of March, 1791, they were assembled in the 
 market-place, and Van der Noot went there to take 
 the oath. But three companies declared that they 
 would swear allegiance only to the nation, and soon the 
 rest of the companies went over to their side. All 
 harangues, threats, stratagems, were in vain, and Van 
 der Noot might have thought himself well off to have 
 escaped under the protection of the Duke of Ursel. 
 His arts were lost as soon as he encountered men with 
 their own opinions, but this party was the smaller, and 
 Van der Noot now sought refuge in the mob which he 
 controlled. 
 
 The usual expedient was put into operation — a 
 popular riot. During the night the houses of forty- 
 one Vonkists were placarded, and on these placards it 
 was written in verse that the houses would be plundered, 
 burned, and their owners murdered.
 
 Holland and Belgium. 49 
 
 The next morning the incitable rabble marched to 
 the city hall, crying, " Long live Van der Noot ! " 
 where they were met by some members of the states 
 council ; and now, under the leadership of the 
 capuchins and dominicans, they hastened to do the 
 plundering, while their priests showed them the houses 
 which were turned over to them in the name of religion 
 and the fatherland. Abbe Feller sarcastically called 
 this an exercise of the sovereignty of the people. 
 
 Meanwhile, the volunteers were assembled in order 
 to put an end to these horrible scenes, but Van der 
 Noot forbade them, in the name of the nation, to 
 fire on their brothers, and when, notwithstanding this 
 order, one company did scatter the mob, it was dis- 
 banded. The society of the Vonkists was from this 
 time forced to disband. Since, however, these men 
 were still feared by their opponents, the latter pardoned 
 them for their having been willing to employ means 
 to murder the Bishop of Mecheln, the states, the 
 clergy, the volunteers, Van der Noot, and Van Eupen. 
 All this was credited by the populace, and it was 
 now only a question whether it was necessary to 
 observe law in opposing the Vonkists. 
 
 The Jesuit, Feller, who has not unjustly been called 
 an ecclesiastical Marat, believed " that this would be a 
 ridiculous and cruel sophism," and that during a 
 revolution no other law than le cri public could be 
 valid. Still, the dissolution of the Vonkist party at 
 Brussels did not end its existence ; their principles were 
 timidly announced by the officers at Namur. Mean- 
 while, the populace was kept in a good temper by 
 the processions and wonderful sights that had been 
 promised. 
 
 However, it will not be necessary to illustrate farther 
 the sad picture of party strife, in order that he who 
 has understood the recent events that have happened 
 should be led to recognize the marked similarity in 
 the origin and operations of both Belgian revolutions. 
 
 vol. 1. E
 
 50 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 The Belgian demagogues up to this date had not 
 deigned to answer the emperor's proposals for a re- 
 conciliation, and the clergy even spurned the inter- 
 vention of the Pope. Abbe Feller found arguments for 
 this action in the text of the sacred scriptures, accord- 
 ing to which he protested that the house of Austria 
 was in one of those epochs of decaying power, and the 
 scriptures say of it : " dorninus locutus est super earn." 
 
 The congress of the allied powers (Prussia, England, 
 and Holland) at Reichenbach, together with the prox- 
 imity of an Austrian army, finally put a stop to the 
 disorder. From this time on Van der Noot and Van 
 Eupen buried themselves in oblivion, and the patriotic 
 army disappeared. 
 
 But the Austrian rule, in spite of the greatest 
 leniency and the most impressive severity, suited to 
 the temporary demands, did not succeed in restoring 
 perfect quiet, and the Netherlands, especially Brabant, 
 were still in the most violent state of fermentation when 
 the French armies marched across the frontier. 
 
 The Belgian people, which we have just seen en- 
 gaged in a struggle against enlightenment and liberal 
 institutions, could hardly have had an extensive 
 intellectual kinship with their neighbours, the new 
 French republicans. 
 
 But just as the term United Provinces, both in 
 Belgium and Holland, had been in almost all periods of 
 their history true only externally, so now also the 
 provinces were wholly at variance with each other. 
 For from the time of their existence these countries for 
 whose conquest or preservation Spain, France, England, 
 Austria, Prussia, and Holland had stood almost the 
 whole time with sword in hand, used every moment to 
 quarrel among themselves when no foreign powers 
 were devastating their territory. At present Brabant 
 took sides with the nobles and the monks, Flanders 
 with the democrats, and Luxemburg was in favour of 
 the emperor.
 
 Holland and Belgium. 51 
 
 If this was the reason why the French drove out the 
 Austrian army so much more easily, yet this could 
 never have served as an invitation for them to annex 
 themselves more closely to France. Still this plan was 
 popular in the congress. 
 
 The deputies from several cities convened at Mons in 
 February, 1793. Here a sermon was preached to them 
 in the cathedral, and the speaker had hardly uttered 
 the words, " Alliance with France," when the Jacobins, 
 who surrounded the tribune, unanimously shouted, 
 " Alliance, alliance." To be sure, a far greater number 
 cried, " No alliance ! Our own constitution ! " But the 
 Jacobins had been so foresighted as to arm themselves, 
 and with their sabres and daggers they drove the evil- 
 minded ones out of the church, and the vote for 
 alliance Avas passed unanimously. 
 
 At Brussels also the deputies were now summoned 
 to " consider " the alliance, an invitation which those 
 concerned did not avail themselves of for good reasons, 
 so that here the incorporation with France was con- 
 cluded, and was proclaimed this same year by the 
 congress. 
 
 Belgium, in company with France, ran through the 
 whole scale of various forms of government, from the 
 zero of anarchy up to the degree of military despotism. 
 
 Torn by factions like its southern neighbours, 
 Holland also became an easy prey to France, for the 
 anti-Orange party was only subdued, not extermi- 
 nated. 
 
 France presented the Batavian Republic with a 
 constitution for which it paid one hundred million 
 florins, and which ceded the whole of Maestrich, 
 Venlo, Dutch Limburg and Dutch Flanders, and 
 lasted six years. Since, however, the Republic as a 
 whole, in spite of all changes, was not successful, the 
 regency of Louis Napoleon and finally incorporation 
 with the empire were tried without bringing the 
 Hollanders any cause to congratulate themselves upon 
 
 e 2
 
 52 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 better times. Finally came the year 1813, with its 
 historical events, so important in their results, and the 
 entry of General von Biilow restored to the Nether- 
 lands liberty which they used to call back the Prince 
 of Orange as their regent. In the year of 1815 the 
 Vienna Congress formed by the union of Holland and 
 Belgium the kingdom of the Netherlands. 
 
 The conditions under which the two parts of the new 
 state were combined were very different. 
 
 During the time of the French influence, Holland 
 had suffered inestimable losses. The Bank of Amster- 
 dam, once so rich, was now almost ruined, its credit 
 shaken, all sources of help on the state's part 
 dried up, and the burden of debt monstrous. The 
 Peace of Amiens was a misfortune to the country, and 
 the Tariff of Trianon threatened to give the death blow 
 to all that was left of mercantile life. The proud 
 merchant of Holland did only a smuggling business 
 with England. The invasion of the British and 
 terrible floods seemed to complete the ruin of the 
 unfortunate country, which, excluded from all the 
 profitable trade of France, was obliged, however, to 
 share in all its wars. Holland lost its colonies, its 
 commerce, and its fleet, or, in other words, the sources 
 of its prosperity and the means to make use of them. 
 
 And, indeed, Belgium also had to make great sacri- 
 fices under the rule of the French. The conscription, 
 the heavy taxes of the droits reunis, were burdensome 
 to the Belgians, and they were dissatisfied with the 
 French rulers as they had been at all times with their 
 own. But the union with France yielded great advan- 
 tages to the class engaged in trade, and the Belgians 
 also were not insensible of the military glory of that 
 country, in which they too were participants. 
 
 So the defeat of Napoleon and his sovereignty was 
 not unfavourable to them, but to Holland it was 
 a necessity. What in the former case seemed desirable 
 was in the latter a rescue from complete extermination ;
 
 Holland and Belgium. 53 
 
 and thus the union of these two parts was viewed with 
 very different feelings. 
 
 The Hollanders had elected from their midst a king 
 for themselves, to whom they were closely attached by 
 historical reminiscences and a common interest ; and 
 truly, if sovereignty is justly based upon legitimate in- 
 heritance or upon election, King William I. united both 
 claims in his person. Belgium received its king from 
 Europe, and from the first it regarded itself less as an 
 integrant part of the new state than as one attached 
 to the old state, and this very thing hurt its national 
 feeling the more since it was greater in area and popu- 
 lation. 
 
 Holland also was not without a party which wished 
 to see the son of the last hereditary Stadtholder come 
 into the possession of his father's place and under the 
 same conditions. Only four hundred and seventy-five of 
 the six hundred notables who were convoked for the 
 adoption of the new constitution appeared, and many of 
 these cast their vote only conditionally. Since, however, 
 the conditions were not specified, the new regulation 
 was passed by four hundred and forty-nine against 
 twenty-six votes. 
 
 It is true that the title of king, as a title, could 
 hardly be the object of strong objection, but what was 
 most important from its very nature was this, namely, 
 that each one who loved his fatherland and its history 
 must feel how necessary it was to consolidate that 
 highest power in such a way that it could ensure the 
 country against the storms of party fury, storms that 
 had so often and so long laid it to waste. But to those 
 who feared danger from a too great extension of the 
 supreme power, the new regent had already given 
 an example of his sentiments when he it was that 
 urged the adoption of a constitution by which all the 
 rights of the citizens should be assured, and which he 
 made the express condition of his acceptance of the 
 sovereignty offered him.
 
 54 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 When, now, Belgium was incorporated into the 
 kingdom of the Netherlands, they extended the consti- 
 tution, which was originally for Holland, with required 
 modification to both countries. Sixteen hundred and 
 three notables were convoked in order to vote upon the 
 adoption of the fundamental law. Two hundred and 
 eighty of these men, who had not been elected without 
 governmental influence, stayed away, and seven hundred 
 and ninety-six opposed the constitution ; and of this 
 itself the Foreign Quarterly Review says : "It is a 
 liberal platform, and its mistakes, if they can be shown, 
 are less what it defines than what it does not define." 
 When one considers that the Belgians certainly had 
 not been spoiled by constitutional treatment under the 
 rule of the empire, these proceedings already give a 
 proximate measure of the state of mind with which 
 Belgium contemplated its manage de convenance with 
 Holland. 
 
 When, in consequence of this, the government crossed 
 one hundred and twenty-six of the negative votes so 
 cast on account of the religion of the head of the state, 
 and then counted the two hundred and eighty non- 
 voters as silently affirmative in order thus to secure a 
 majority of eleven, it resorted to this strange kind of 
 arithmetic only for the purpose of avoiding the public 
 scandal incurred by a people that stubbornly rejected 
 the liberty so generously offered them by the govern- 
 ment itself. 
 
 The Belgians were greatly offended because they, 
 who constituted two-thirds of the kingdom as regards 
 area and population, should be represented by the 
 same number of deputies (fifty-five) as Holland. Sub- 
 sequently several bills were actually passed with a weak 
 majority of two votes, in which one is pleased to see 
 two Belgians in public service who, as the people at 
 Brussels put it, were untrue to the interests of the 
 fatherland. The Hollanders replied to this that the 
 whole constitution was originally framed so that no
 
 Holland and Belgium. 55 
 
 part should rule the other and be able to prescribe its 
 laws, and thus the interest of the one should not be 
 advanced at the cost of the other. Although Holland 
 at the very beginning had voluntarily renounced a 
 preponderance over Belgium, yet it would not have 
 been wise for Holland to have surrendered to its new 
 brothers that superior influence over it by allowing 
 sixty-six Belgian votes against forty-four Hollandish. 
 
 We stated before that the national debt of Holland 
 was enormous. It amounted to twelve or thirteen 
 million florins. It is true Napoleon diminished 
 (tiercee) a third of it by a stroke of the pen, but by 
 this measure a multitude of individuals, of orphans, 
 of the poor and minors lost all they had, and the 
 king partly, too, in order to get credit for the new 
 loans which were absolutely necessary, called two-thirds 
 of this clette morte back to life. Now the debt of 
 Belgium was very small, and when the Belgians saw 
 that they must help to bear equally the Hollandish 
 debt, they thought the unfairness of it the greater, 
 when they declared that no equivalent for such 
 demands could be found. The Hollanders, however, 
 reckoned as such the indemnification of Sweden 
 through the indirect surrender of several colonies and 
 the abandonment of very considerable claims on several 
 powers. They counted in this also Belgium's par- 
 ticipation in Holland's colonial trade and the large 
 sums which were applied for relieving the extremely 
 depressed state of Belgian manufactures. The whole 
 industrial and commercial business of this province 
 was certainly elevated in various ways from the time 
 of its union with Holland. Antwerp had attracted to 
 itself so much of the colonial trade, that amongst other 
 things the importation of coffee was almost equal to 
 that of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Hamburg together ; 
 it imported almost twice as much cotton and exported 
 the same amount of hides as Hamburg ; and it Avas not 
 without envy that Amsterdam saw the elder com-
 
 56 Holland and Belgium. 
 
 mercial sister of the south, which had already once 
 outlived its brilliant flower of youth, start up to carry 
 off the palm of victory a second time. However, the 
 Belgians themselves anticipated these fears, for they 
 victoriously pursued business from their factories and 
 trade from their cities. The state of their industry, 
 which had been skilfully restored to a certain extent, 
 was again terribly shaken, and the Belgian was right to 
 expect great and bounteous results from the political 
 renaissance, the coining of which had called forth such 
 unspeakable misfortune upon his country, and more- 
 over those who had forcibly led on that crisis were 
 responsible for the compensation of their countrymen 
 for such inestimable sacrifices. 
 
 Nor is it strange if Holland and Belgium believe 
 they are equally justified in making demands on each 
 other. If the dissolution of partnership of two com- 
 mercial houses produces great complications, how 
 infinitely much greater must these be when two great 
 commercial states wish to separate their financial 
 alliance from each other. 
 
 There was one other circumstance which contributed 
 not a little in preventing a closer union of the two 
 provinces, namely, that the lengthy separation of the 
 individual parts, the continued influence of outside 
 powers, and the lack of a mutual bond of national 
 interests, had prevented the original native language 
 from becoming the language of the whole people just as 
 much as it had prevented the language of any of the 
 neighbouring peoples from being more than partially 
 used ; and all interference on the part of the govern- 
 ment in this respect, without the intentional opposition 
 of certain provinces, was the more useless since such a 
 union could only be the result of time. 
 
 Such were the conditions under which Belgium and 
 Holland came together as one common state, and such 
 were the seeds of dissension, which after this union 
 caused an opposition to spring up against the govern-
 
 Holland and Belgium. 57 
 
 ment, on the crest of which again figured an arch- 
 bishop, the Archbishop of Ghent. For of all the 
 obstacles opposed to the amalgamation of the two 
 parts, there was indeed none so insurmountable as the 
 difference of faith, an inexhaustible source of dissen- 
 sion, when one considers the mind and dependence of 
 the layman and the lust for power and intolerance of 
 the clergy in Belgium. 
 
 Forcible events, the result of those conditions, have 
 at the present moment split the kingdom of the 
 Netherlands again into two hostile parts, have de- 
 stroyed the prosperity of these countries, just begin- 
 ning to bud, and have again exposed them to all those 
 devastations which have so often wasted them in the 
 past. The torch of war which destroyed Antwerp 
 again to-day threatens to set Europe on fire, and is 
 restrained only by the sublime moderation of the 
 monarchs, a moderation which appears the more 
 brilliant in its glory, when it is opposed to personal 
 feeling and family interests, when the sovereign con- 
 trolling great armies, ready to strike, sure of his people's 
 state of mind, nevertheless prefers the palm of peace 
 to the laurels of victory. 
 
 Here no judgment ought to be passed upon an event 
 which is so near to us in time, respecting which we 
 cannot yet reflect upon the thoughtful appreciation of 
 intelligent men of both parties, and in which, although 
 there may be no trace of partiality, yet inherited 
 principles may perhaps unconsciously be intermingled ; 
 upon such an event, we repeat, no judgment need be 
 passed here. In case of historical events, the issue is 
 a voice of criticism, and it is reserved for the future, 
 perhaps the very near future, to reveal the result of the 
 Belgian Revolution.
 
 POLAND.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 This essay, 1 like that on Holland and Belgium, also owes its origin 
 to the study of contemporary matters. 
 
 The field-marshal had special reasons for taking active part in the 
 events that had agitated Russia in Poland since the latter part of the 
 autumn of 1830. When a young officer he was on intimate terms 
 with a noble Polish family, continuing the intimaey for many years, 
 and again later, in 1829 and 1830, he also had the opportunity to 
 travel, as topographer, through the exclusively Polish districts of the 
 province of Posen in all directions and for months at a time. The 
 strange life and customs of the Polish people, the tragic history of 
 this talented nation, for which it has itself to blame, must have made 
 an indelible impression upon this son of the German coast of the 
 Baltic Sea, upon him who was the friend of whatever had come into 
 existence through historical development, in the same manner as he, 
 being a close observer of the peculiarities of the landscape, was 
 certainly surprised and impressed by the melancholy monotony of the 
 Sarmatian plains with their dark forests of pine. Besides this, the heroic 
 struggle of the Poles against the Russians elicited his military inte- 
 rest, and Prussia itself had to send out four army corps under command 
 of Gneisenan for the protection of its eastern boundary. These were 
 reasons enough for absorbing his personal attention in the study of 
 the literature treating of the country and the people — this literature 
 has been superseded nowadays, of course. The views expressed by 
 him in an article like this were the ones then generally promulgated 
 and uttered by numerous personages who had acquired a very 
 thorough acquaintance with Poland and its inhabitants, depending 
 wholly on their own observation, previous to the year 1806, when 
 a large part of Great Poland, together with Warsaw, was in the hands 
 of Prussia for a decade. 
 
 One can summarize the whole result of his copious remarks as 
 follows : that he purposed to show how all classes, all races, all 
 religious bodies are ruined and bad fruits are borne under 
 an unfortunate constitution, under a bad government, or under 
 a government whose administration is hindered by a bad con- 
 
 1 It was published by G. Fincke, in Berlin, 1832. In the year 1884 it 
 was reprinted with omissions in the magazine " Vom Fels zum Mcer."
 
 62 Poland. 
 
 stitution ; but, on the other hand, how a good government and 
 healthy conditions of state and society work for the ennoblement of 
 all these constitutent parts. Moreover, the occasionally severe 
 criticisms in this article are to be explained by the point of view 
 taken by the author, who wished to emphasize the differences 
 between the relations existing in Poland and those at home. 
 
 Nor must it pass unsaid that the field-marshal has been moved 
 to criticize this, his own work, forty years afterwards, on account 
 of this same point of view. A prominent scholar of Polish history, 
 Professor Caro, in Breslau, inquired of him in the year 1873 
 whether the book, " Representation of the internal relations of Poland, 
 etc.," which he had discovered under the inexhaustible literary 
 chaff heaped up upon the Polish question, was written by the field- 
 marshal himself. The latter charily acknowledged his authorship, 
 and added, " that he counted the article also among the inexhaus- 
 tible chaff" ; it was mostly an excerpt from better works, and he 
 should like to see it committed to oblivion. 
 
 If, in spite of this, the article is published again, it is because of 
 the good reasons stated in the preface to this volume. 
 
 Moreover, the field-marshal himself in his earlier years was 
 pleased Avith his work. In proof of this there is a letter of the 
 13th of January, 1832, written to his mother, which states that he 
 is very much delighted on account of the favourable criticism passed 
 by the critic upon his article : " He would not believe that this 
 H. v. M. was a modest second lieutenant ; he thought it was a 
 man who had already passed fifty years in looking about the world."
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 INTERNAL STATE OF AFFAIRS 
 
 AND OK THE 
 
 SOCIAL CONDITION OF POLAND. 
 
 In no country has the character of the nobility pro- 
 ceeded so directly from the state, and nowhere else 
 has the destiny of the state depended so much upon 
 the character, the opinions and morals of the nobility 
 as in Poland, because nowhere else have the nobility 
 and state been identical. 
 
 At a period little accessible to history, when the 
 Slavonic tribes flooded the plains of Eastern Europe 
 and spread from the Black Sea and the Adriatic to 
 the Baltic and the Arctic Ocean, hordes of Tartars 
 poured in rapid succession from the regions aban- 
 doned by the Sarmates and forced this nomadic tribe 
 to become a warlike people. Here, as everywhere, 
 the men that had the means to procure a horse 
 and weapons, and had the strength to use them, 
 undertook to protect their newly-acquired possessions. 
 
 These possessions, the obligations imposed by them, 
 and the personal authority which both imparted, 
 became hereditary, for inheritance is as old as posses- 
 sion ; both are closely related and are the first products 
 of social comnmnion. A class was thus formed which
 
 64 Poland. 
 
 one may call nobility or protectors, for in their deriva- 
 tion both words are identical. The protected became 
 dependent on the protector, just as everywhere else ; 
 the latter grew to be the more powerful, he became 
 privileged and influential, and entered into a republican 
 relationship with his equals. Since, moreover, the 
 military origin and the warlike purpose of this nobility 
 necessarily demanded unity of command and of govern- 
 ment, there originated that part of the monarchical 
 principle which the constitution adopted later. 
 
 The nobles were in exclusive possession of all 
 political rights ; they alone formed the state. Poland 
 was a republic composed of about three hundred 
 thousand small sovereignties, each of which was 
 immediately connected with the state, was subject to 
 only the whole, and recognized no kind of liege lord 
 relation or feudal dependence. No Polish nobleman 
 was under the sovereignty of another. Even the 
 servant, provided he was a nobleman, had the same 
 political rights as his master, and the most insignificant 
 among them entered the diet in the full enjoyment of 
 that share of sovereignty which was equal for all with- 
 out distinction. In this respect the Polish constitution 
 differs essentially from the feudal states of the west as 
 well as from the despotism of the east, and it is with 
 amazement that we behold the earliest European 
 constitution, that of the Celts, Franks, and Goths, 
 continuing until our own time. 
 
 Those Slavonic tribes which, much later, of course, 
 were known under the general name of Russians, 
 received their first instruction, their religion, customs, 
 and manners, their letters and a part of their language 
 from the Greeks. The Poles, on the other hand, came 
 in closer connection with the west of Europe, and at an 
 early date both kindred peoples had taken a very 
 divergent course, both in culture and development. 
 
 The idea underlying the mutual relations of the 
 Polish nobility was that there should be perfect
 
 Poland. 65 
 
 equality for all and the greatest possible independence 
 for each individual. 
 
 Starting from the principle that no free man can be 
 taxed or governed contrary to his own declared will, 
 all regulations of this nature, that is, all laws were 
 required to proceed from the unanimous consent of all, 
 but the objection of a few or of a single one was 
 enough to prevent them. 
 
 One must, then, assume that those nations which 
 submit to the decisions of the majority (and this is, of 
 course, the case to-day, without which we cannot think 
 of a state), that those, at least once in their history, 
 unanimously determined to recognize * the majority as 
 an authority, and that the abrogation of the necessary 
 agreement of all must be the last act of this unanimity 
 in order to seem to be justly established. 
 
 The Polish nobleman recognized his obligation 
 towards the whole country ; he submitted to the law, 
 but the law had to be the will of all the nation. If he 
 had yielded to the sovereignty of the plurality, he 
 would have regarded himself as crushed by tyranny, and 
 the principle of perfect equality was carried so far that 
 the will of one outweighed the will of all, so that the 
 " Yes " of an assembly of one hundred thousand noble- 
 men in the election field was annulled by the " No " of 
 a single one of their number, and the hand of one 
 individual could seize upon the motive power of the 
 machine of the state and bring it to a standstill. 
 
 We emphasize this right of the absolute veto (the 
 liberum veto) primarily because, justifiable as it was in 
 principle, dangerous in practice, and so disastrous in its 
 abuse, it has at all times, nevertheless, seemed to the 
 Pole to be the most sacred pledge of his independence. 
 
 But the more inclination and custom scattered the 
 Polish nobility over its remote landed possessions, 
 where each noble ruled independently in his own circle, 
 
 'J.J. Rousseau. 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 Poland. 
 
 the more necessary was it to concentrate the common 
 interests of the state in the person of a chief. But that 
 same vigorous sense of independence allowed them to 
 regard this supreme head, Avhich in the last centuries 
 had the title of king, and that, too, very figuratively, 
 as the highest dignity, indeed, but by no means the 
 highest power. Besides the splendour of the crown, 
 the king had the right only to appoint officers, to dis- 
 tribute the possessions of the state, and to administer 
 justice. 
 
 The occupation of the throne was dependent upon 
 the election of the assembled nobles. If a few re- 
 nowned families understood how to make the crown 
 hereditary for more or less time in their family, the 
 nation never delayed, on the extinction of these families, 
 to make its claims good by election again. 
 
 Besides the elective king there was the perpetual 
 senate, formed of bishops, woiwodes or palatines, 
 and castellans, who, of course, were nominated by the 
 king, but who (since Casimir the Great) could not be 
 removed, and, therefore, have naturally preserved great 
 freedom of power and independence. 
 
 The woiwodes (from woy = war, and ivodz = leader) 
 or palatines, were governors of a province or palati- 
 nate, and chief of the nobles of said province, whom 
 they led at the assemblies, on the election-field, and in 
 time of war. They had the right to fix the price of 
 products, to regulate measures and weights, and they 
 had their own courts. 
 
 Below the palatines Avere ranked the castellans, ori- 
 ginally commanders of the royal cities and strongholds, 
 non-hereditary burgraves. In their district they had 
 the prerogative of the palatines, and represented them 
 in their absence. 
 
 Originally the office of the castellans was transferred 
 to the starosts. The starosts practised jurisdiction in 
 the cities, and were invested with considerable grants 
 of land as a reward for long services to the state
 
 Poland. 67 
 
 (hence the name). They were required to administer 
 justice. But only one of the starosts, the one of 
 Samogetia, had a seat in the senate, and this was an 
 exceptional case. 
 
 This senate consisted of two archbishops, fifteen 
 bishops, thirty-three palatines, eighty-five castellans ; 
 in total, one hundred and thirty-six senators. 
 
 The chief of the senate was the incumbent arch- 
 bishop of Gnesen, as primate of the kingdom, the first 
 in rank after the king, and even he himself was king 
 during an interregnum, on which account he was also 
 called Interrex. He was legatus natus of the papal see, 
 and received princely honours, had like the king his 
 own marshal, his own chancellor and numerous 
 mounted lifeguards. 1 
 
 The king stood to receive the primate, and the latter 
 had the right to remonstrate with him as to his govern- 
 ment, and in case the king persisted in his course, he 
 could renew these remonstrances in the convened 
 senate, or in the imperial diet. By a bull of Clement 
 VIII., the bishops were empowered, in spite of the 
 maxim, "The Church abhors bloodshed," to vote for 
 war, to sign death warrants, and to take part in all 
 deliberations. 
 
 The senate provisionally passed sentence until the 
 convention of the next imperial diet, shared the 
 supreme power with the king, and never ceased to 
 limit the rights of the crown, until the imperial diets 
 deprived it of its own privileges. 2 
 
 The whole tendency of the constitution was to make 
 the important governmental dignities and offices no less 
 elective than the throne was, and the oft-repeated 
 attempts of powerful families to keep them hereditary 
 were just as frequently defeated by the jealousy of 
 
 1 Avec un timbalier et des trompettes qui jouent quand il est a 
 table et qui sonuent la diane et la retraite. Histoire de J. Sobieski, 
 par l'Abbe Coyer. Amsterdam. 
 
 2 Solignac. 
 
 F 2
 
 68 Poland. 
 
 the entire body. This non-inheritableness of the pala- 
 tinates, which may perhaps be compared with the more 
 ancient ducal dignity of the Teutonic peoples, and of the 
 offices of castellan and starost, made it impossible for 
 an electorate, a peerage, or a higher rank of nobility, 
 to be formed next to the kingship, and thus enable the 
 kingship to fasten its root in the people. 1 
 
 It is true the king was the only distributer of the 
 supposed many and important grants, but, inasmuch as 
 he did not dare to remove again the men he had once 
 chosen, the royal influence was actually felt less by those 
 Avdio were in possession of great dignities than by 
 those who did not have them. Therefore the king was 
 surrounded more by flattering courtiers than by 
 dependent officials of the government ; the former at 
 any rate were linked to the interests of the crown by 
 their expectations ; the latter generally by gratitude. 
 The important posts were gifts dependent upon the 
 sovereign's will, to him who sought them, but property 
 of the republic, in the eyes of him who had received 
 them ; and the bestowal of a post generally produced a 
 hundred grumblers and one ingrate. 
 
 The ministers of the king were ten in number, and 
 were ranked as follows : 
 
 The general of the crown for Poland, the same for 
 Lithuania, the high chancellor for Poland, the same for 
 Lithuania, the two vice-chancellors, the lord high 
 treasurer, the marshal of the royal household for 
 Poland, and all the same for Lithuania. These 
 ministers had a seat in the senate, but without consult- 
 ing powers. 
 
 The general of the crown was the third personage 
 in the state, his power was almost unlimited, and was 
 more extensive than that of the constables that have 
 often been so formidable to the crown of France. In 
 
 1 Rulhicre, Histoire de l'anarchie de la Pologne. Paris, 1807, 
 vol. i.
 
 Poland. 69 
 
 time of war the crown-general was wholly independent 
 of the king, and was lord over the life and death of his 
 subordinates. 
 
 However difficult it may seem under such circum- 
 stances, nay, however impossible, for a king ever to 
 succeed in making an independent party for himself in 
 the state, which might endanger the rights of indi- 
 viduals, yet the nation had believed it necessary to 
 make itself safe against any such possible preponder- 
 ance of power, and employed a method unknown in the 
 history of any other people. This remedy was the 
 " Confederation." 
 
 There is no mistaking that the oldest of all rights, the 
 right of the stronger, that of might, continuously 
 exercised its influence through the whole history of 
 Poland, indeed it may be said it was legally established 
 there in the sight of the people. We recognize its 
 existence even in the execution of the sentences of the 
 king, and these were executed by the armed noble 
 upon the one condemned, who on his part seemed per- 
 fectly justified if he used force, influence and alliances, 
 and if he summoned his retainers and lifeguards for 
 the prevention of such execution. In fact, it had gone 
 so far that if such a judicial campaign was repulsed 
 three times, the case was allowed to pass for the time, 
 and until the intervention of the republic. 
 
 We recognize this force no less at the assemblies of 
 the nobility, in behalf of general councils or elections. 
 
 If on these occasions individuals or parties stubbornly 
 dare to oppose their personal interests to the will of 
 the nation, if persuasion, patience, and threats have no 
 power, then it was by no means an uncommon occurrence, 
 in case of the fatal nie pozwolan( I do not consent), to 
 see a thousand sabres bared, and the opposition quickly 
 ended by the overthrow of the daring opponents. 
 This was the only method of procedure for the restora- 
 tion of the absolutely necessary unanimity, but it was 
 for the most part a salutary limitation upon the abuse
 
 7° 
 
 Poland. 
 
 of the dangerous liberum veto, whose disastrous results 
 were first brought to light during the last three 
 hundred years, when these assemblies were represented 
 by deputies, who refrained from such acts of violence. 
 Thus the right of the stronger party is not so much an 
 abuse as a necessary element of this peculiar constitu- 
 tion. 
 
 But the legal exercise of violence is seen in its 
 highest potentiality in the confederation. 
 
 Unlike the established principle of other people, that 
 regarded revolution as the greatest evil in the state, 
 with this nation revolution was organized according to 
 law. If hi the republic any matter of interest was 
 supported by a sufficiently large number, and it could 
 not be carried because of the existing government, or 
 because of the veto of single persons, those interested 
 in it assembled in a confederation, solemnly joined 
 themselves by an oath, elected a marshal, seized their 
 arms and won their cause by fighting. The might of 
 the confederation was their right, and, whatever was 
 the issue of the undertaking, none of the participants 
 could ever be punished or regarded as a rebel. At 
 these confederations the resolutions of the majority 
 were decisive, just as the confederation generally, was 
 nothing else than a forcible carrying out of the will of 
 the majority of the nation. The liberum veto was 
 suspended during this dictature, which very often had 
 no other object than the preservation of the liberum 
 veto. 
 
 But in order that so violent a remedy for tyranny 
 should not itself become tyranny, the length of the 
 confederation was arranged previously, and at its 
 expiration all its decisions became null ; after it as 
 before, only that which had been unanimously passed, 
 continued to be legal, and each confederation ended 
 with the convocation of an imperial diet. 
 
 Although the king and senate together exercised 
 supreme power in the state, the real sovereignty
 
 Poland. 7 1 
 
 resided in the collective body of the nobility, which 
 could make its will legally valid in opposition to both 
 at the imperial diet, provided it was united in itself, 
 or by means of a confederation (rokosz). In case the 
 throne was vacant it recovered its transferred rights, 
 examined the use of this power under the previous 
 regent, and consigned it to a new ruler. 
 
 The assemblies in the palatinates or state diets pre- 
 ceded the imperial diet by six weeks, where those 
 subjects were agitated and prepared which were to be 
 decided at the general assembly of the nation. The 
 most violent and most sanguinary scenes could hardly 
 be avoided here where the judges of the two tribunals, 
 and furthermore the provincial deputies, were nomi- 
 nated, and where each nobleman of the province 
 appeared in person, armed and mounted. 
 
 The king was bound to convoke the imperial diet 
 every two years. If he omitted it, the nation had the 
 right to convene. The diet elected a marshal, who 
 had great influence upon affairs. All deliberations 
 took place publicly, or with open doors, and in this 
 diet resided the highest legislative power, based on the 
 condition of unanimity of votes. 
 
 The affairs of individuals, on the other hand, were 
 settled by a majority vote, and by summary pro- 
 ceedings. Advocates and defenders were unknown. 
 The interested parties presented their own case, and 
 the decisions were made without delay or expense. It 
 is characteristic that the same men deliberated in the 
 senate, made the laws in the imperial diet, pronounced 
 sentence in the tribunal, and wielded the sword on the 
 battlefield. For the noble who possessed all honours 
 and all privileges in the state, believed also that the 
 whole protection of the same devolved upon him. 
 
 Poland is the only European state that even as late 
 as the sixteenth century had no other military force 
 than the armed and mounted nobility. The infantry 
 was not worthy of consideration. The only distinction
 
 j2 Poland. 
 
 was between hussars and mailed horsemen. The 
 former were the more numerous, and young noblemen 
 had to serve in this corps, in order to qualify them- 
 selves for governmental honours. Then, hussars and 
 their armour were very different from what is at 
 present understood by that name. They wore a 
 helmet and cuirass, with a tiger skin thrown over it, 
 carried lances fifteen feet long, adorned with a pennant, 
 two pistols, and two sabres, one of which was fastened 
 to the saddle. The hussars first exchanged the lance 
 for the musket after Sobieski's time. 
 
 The cavalry was composed of the flower of the 
 nobility, it was splendidly mounted, and numbered forty 
 thousand men. 
 
 The mailed horsemen were somewhat inferior. They 
 wore a shirt of mail made of scales or rings, and 
 generally formed the life guards of the high officials, 
 the bishops and archbishops. 
 
 All these soldiers called themselves towarczycz, that 
 is, brothers, and they were so addressed by their kings 
 themselves. 
 
 In times of emergency Poland exhibited an extra- 
 ordinary spectacle ; noblemen, numbering between 
 150,000 and 200,000, were mounted and formed 
 an immense but disorganized army. Such meetings 
 were called pospolite ruszenie. 
 
 A splendid characteristic of this military nobility 
 was the simplicity of its life. Each noble passed the 
 greater part of the year on his estates ; there he spent 
 his income, practised an extensive hospitality which 
 seems to be of Asiatic origin, and kept himself remote 
 from, and independent of the court. The wealth which 
 the nobleman obtained from his subjects returned also 
 to them. A few settles, tables, and carpets, formed 
 the furniture of the richest palatines. The women were 
 unacquainted with luxury, and held aloof from inter- 
 ference in political matters, which was afterwards by 
 no means the case. Good armour and excellent houses
 
 Poland. 73 
 
 were the sole splendours of the men. Their dress had 
 an Asiatic appearance. They wore long mantles 
 trimmed with fur, with slashed sleeves and wide belt, 
 fur caps, curved sabres and half boots. Like the 
 Tartars they shaved off all their hair excepting a tuft 
 which was left standing on the crown of the head. 1 
 
 The ancient Poles practised great tolerance. They 
 took no part in all the religious feuds which devastated 
 Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 2 
 Calvinists, Lutherans, Greeks, Schismatics and 
 Mohammedans long lived peacefully in the midst of 
 them, and for a long time, and not without reason, 
 Poland was called the " Promised Land" of the Jews. 
 
 Yes, the Poles made their kings sware to tolerate all 
 sects in the pacta conventa. When Henry of Valois 
 sought to avoid this oath, the crown-general declared 
 to him frankly, " Si non iurabis, non regnabis." 
 
 However, the Poles were exceedingly strict in the 
 observance of the external ceremonies of the Church. 
 From the very beginning, Christianity seemed to them 
 too gentle. They inflicted upon themselves severer 
 privations, they added to the fasts of Fridays and 
 Saturdays those of Wednesdays and Septuagesima. 
 The popes themselves abolished some of the severe 
 penances which the Poles practised. 
 
 In their intercourse with one another, the nobility 
 manifested great cordiality and frankness, far removed 
 from subordination to the more powerful or the richer. 
 
 Their needs were so few that poverty was not yet 
 
 1 Cromer (p. 73) declares that this fashion was imposed by Pope 
 Clement II., when he released the monk Casimir from his vow in 
 order to place him on the Polish throne 1041, and from that time 
 until this it has been conscientiously followed. 
 
 2 La Pologne n'a vu dans son sein ni conspiration des poudres ni 
 St. Barthelcmi ni senat £gorge ni rois assassines ou sur un ecbafaud 
 ni des freres armes contre des freres ; c'ctait lo pays ou Ton a bride 
 le moins de monde pour s'etre trompe dans le dogme. La Pologne 
 cependant etait barbare — ce qui prouve qu'une demi-science est plus 
 orageuse que la grossiere ignorance. (L'Abbe - Coyer, Livre I.)
 
 74 Poland. 
 
 classed with dependence. All intercourse bore the 
 stamp of the original equality of all noble men. The 
 term of address was "Brother" (brat), and it is still 
 employed. There were no titles 1 nor outward dis- 
 tinctions. The Czartoryiski, the Sangusko and 
 Wisniowiecki were the only houses recognized as 
 princely, which at the union of Lithuania with Poland 
 came over to this republic, contrary to the spirit of the 
 constitution. Orders and decorations of such a nature 
 were arbitrary grants of the monarchs, which were 
 introduced first under Augustus II. and Poniatowski 
 and were never valued. 2 The position in the state 
 alone showed the rank of the nobleman. 
 
 In consequence of these many excellent qualities of 
 its citizens, the republic maintained, not only its ex- 
 istence in the very midst of states which were rapidly 
 developing and were constantly being subjected to the 
 will of their sovereigns, hence constantly, acting with 
 greater unity ; but by this primitive simplicity in its 
 arrangements, by the unbounded respect for the rights 
 of the individual and for the advancement of the whole, 
 made necessarily difficult by this regard for the 
 individual, it also reached a high degree of power, 
 influence and distinction, and it may be claimed that 
 in the fifteenth century Poland was one of the most 
 civilized states in Europe. But, naturally, with a con- 
 stitution so deficient and imperfect, as was this of the 
 republic, the virtues of the citizens had to make up the 
 great supplementary half and to supply good customs 
 for a lack of good laws. Along with the advantages of 
 higher civilization crept in also luxury, corruption and 
 
 1 Les titres de marquis et de comte s'y sont introduits avec les 
 cuisiniers francais. II n'y en a que pour des valets et de flatteurs. 
 (L'Abbe Coyer, Histoire de J. Sobieski.) 
 
 2 Augustus II., founded the order of the white eagle in the year 
 1705, during the war with Sweden. The order of St. Stanislaus, 
 1765, and of the Military Honour-roll, 1791, date from Stanislaus 
 Augustus Poniatowski.
 
 Poland. 75 
 
 all the vices which seem to be inseparable from it, and 
 the moment the adminstration of the government 
 ceased to be based on the proper qualification of the 
 individual, it necessarily followed that the incom- 
 petency of the laws and the difficulty of their execution, 
 allowed monstrous abuses also to creep into all branches 
 of the administration. The ancient laws continued, 
 but the customs were changed, and as no law can be 
 maintained in opposition to customs, these continued 
 to exist only as forms to which a new interpretation 
 was given, a misfortune for which the constitution had 
 no remedy, because it abolished the constitution itself. 
 
 Contrary to the fundamental principle of the con- 
 stitution, "The perfect equality of the rights of all 
 the citizens of the state," there gradually grew up an 
 immense difference in wealth, and thereby a real 
 inequality among the possessors of the same. 
 
 The king's favour had often heaped upon one head 
 important government positions and rich starosties, had 
 often rewarded son and grandson with them, and thus 
 single families had kept these properties for a long 
 time, although not as inheritances. More or less careful 
 economy, marriages, hereditary successions, in short, 
 luck and cleverness had amassed in some families al- 
 together disproportionate wealth, while others less 
 fortunate sank to the lowest poverty through their own 
 extravagances, or even their own virtues. Accordingly, 
 wealth was no longer a mere reward to which the king- 
 elevated the most deserving, it was independent pro- 
 perty which became hereditary. 
 
 There were Polish noble families which possessed 
 estates far surpassing many a sovereignty in area at 
 that time. Thus, centuries before, contrary to the 
 spirit of the constitution, the Radziwills had established 
 an entail in their family, so that the head of this house 
 became the most powerful private individual perhaps 
 in Europe. He had a retinue of some hundred nobles, 
 possessed several fortresses and maintained six thousand
 
 76 Poland. 
 
 body-guard. The Oginski, the Czartorinski, the Tarlo, 
 the Zamoyski, Lubomirski, Pototski and others were 
 hardly less powerful and wealthy. When one reflects 
 that the recognition of law must be accomplished by 
 armed force, one understands that it was not an easy 
 task to obtain justice from such citizens in the state. 
 
 The complication itself, attendant upon these 
 immense fortunes in almost all parts of the country, 
 tended to increase the influence of the wealthy families. 
 The greater part of the landed estates were mortgaged 
 for comparatively small sums. With the increasing 
 value of the property and the constantly decreasing 
 value of capital resulting from the interest on the 
 money, the redemption of the mortgaged property 
 would have been the greatest misfortune for the holder, 
 and the payment of the sum would have caused his 
 ruin. In this way a great number of smaller land- 
 owners depended wholly on the nobles, and secured 
 their own prosperity only by an unconditional alliance 
 with the interests of the latter. But while a small 
 part of the nobility amassed immense wealth, a far 
 greater number lost all their possessions. These im- 
 poverished noblemen were now hospitably received by 
 the chiefs of the powerful families. They made for the 
 latter a princely household and, indeed, one thoroughly 
 military, they received arms, horses, shelter and support 
 from their liege lord, and in return they gave their 
 vote at the diet and their support in many and almost 
 uninterrupted quarrels. 
 
 This boundless hospitality was wholly commensu- 
 rate with the immense wealth of the possessors. More- 
 over, the large number of poor, dependent szlachcziz 1 
 was of vast importance to the great lords, and fre- 
 quently not only their influence, but also their welfare 
 and their personal safety depended on the number and 
 the bravery of those whom they commanded. They 
 
 1 Noblemen.
 
 Poland. 77 
 
 were always needing this small army of valorous men 
 who had nothing but their lives to lose. Sometimes 
 it was to recapture a rebellious castle or a city, some- 
 times to evade the execution of a sentence ; to-day a 
 lengthy suit had to be settled by the shorter course, 
 by force ; to-morrow a restless neighbour had to be 
 threatened. But more especially was it at the imperial 
 diet, where the interests of the individual as well as 
 those of the community were dealt with on the basis 
 of wealth, power, and influence. There the retinue of 
 noblemen derived a double importance through their 
 vote and their sword, for this latter was almost always 
 called upon at the last moment ; and it was looked 
 upon as a significant sign of the progress of civilization, 
 that only ten nobles were killed at the assembly of the 
 nobles in the year 1764. 1 
 
 Accordingly, in Poland a higher or lower nobility 
 was never known, and one sees to-day, for the first 
 time, Polish families assuming ducal titles which their 
 fathers would have scorned and which are inconsistent 
 with their whole national history. Power, distinction, 
 and wealth established no political privileges or higher 
 position, and the poorest nobleman relinquished none 
 of his claims because of poverty. It reveals, rather, 
 how stubbornly the poor nobleman had to hold on to a 
 constitution which valued him according to his birth 
 alone. The liberum veto gave weight to the least of 
 them, and the imperial diet gave him the opportunity 
 to make this good. Indeed, one instance is not want- 
 ing when such an insignificant, poor, and, what is more, 
 hunch-backed szlachcziz, to his own astonishment, saw 
 himself elevated to the throne, because the powerful 
 parties Avere unable to agree upon their candidates. 
 
 Therefore, however great might be the dependence 
 of the poor noble upon his host or master, their positions 
 coincide at this point, namely, in the least of his clients 
 
 1 Rulhicre, Histoire de l'anarchie de la Pologne.
 
 78 Poland. 
 
 the latter had to honour his equal whose personal op- 
 position could be used against him and his entire 
 party ; and in each individual of the people he had to 
 respect the sovereignty of this very same people. 
 
 That wide gulf between the classes, that severity in 
 the intercourse between superiors and subordinates had 
 thus never been developed in Poland as in other 
 countries. Even to-day, one recognizes in the humble, 
 flattering politeness of the poor Dobleman, who has 
 been degraded perhaps to a servant, the suppressed 
 feeling of his equality of birth, and in the dignified 
 benignity of the great, a kind of patriarchal protection 
 and recognition of even the most inferior. But this 
 democracy of the nobility in Poland caused the 
 monarchy to degenerate into aristocracy and the 
 aristocracy into an oligarchy. 1 
 
 One of the primary causes of the fall of the repubtic 
 was, furthermore, the continual decrease of the royal 
 power in the state. 
 
 In all the countries of Europe royal authority has 
 progressed more or less rapidly, but always continu- 
 ously ; in fact, in some it has reached such a point that 
 it has destroyed all other authority about it and has 
 not balanced with the rights of the people, until the most 
 violent reactions have occurred. The Polish regents, 
 on the contrary, could never gain enough influence 
 to preserve peace at home, much less to exercise 
 influence abroad. It could hardly be otherwise with 
 the election of monarchs. Concessions made for the 
 benefit of the electors and not infrequently to the 
 disadvantage of the community, but always at the loss 
 of the one elected, were only too often the steps to the 
 throne or the means to keep one's self upon it. Eor 
 this throne, the only office in the state which could be 
 filled by a foreigner, was from the very first the allur- 
 ing prize for service, ambition, favour, and intrigues. 
 
 1 Ferrand, Histoire du dcmembrement de la Pologne.
 
 Poland. 79 
 
 The influence which the Roman Curia under 
 Boleslaw II., 1058, gained over the kingdom was 
 already disastrous. Still more disastrously ended the 
 fruitless conflict between Casimir the Great, in 1366, 
 and the senate, which represented the pretensions of 
 the nobility against the crown, in order that it in turn 
 might be supported by the nobles. The nobility 
 became more independent as the senate became more 
 powerful. Both, however, could happen only at the 
 expense, on the one side, of the kingdom, on the other, 
 of the peasantry. Yet I shall speak of this afterwards. 
 
 The Jagellons had deserved well from the republic 
 for uniting to it so valuable a province as Lithuania. 
 This house also produced several distinguished men, 
 and the throne was kept in the family, by election of 
 course, for centuries. 
 
 At the death of the last Jagellon, however, in the 
 year 1573, at the very time when Hungary and 
 Bohemia allowed their elective franchise to be wrested 
 from them by their kings, when Sweden renounced the 
 same right in favour of its kings, Poland renewed the 
 elective franchise in its fullest scope. At the very time 
 when European monarchs were depriving the great 
 feudal lords of the administration of justice, the Polish 
 kings were deprived of this right by the nobles. And 
 at the very time when the people in Denmark legally 
 transferred unlimited power to their king, the nobles 
 in Poland destroyed almost the last traces of royal 
 sovereignty. 
 
 Henceforth no claimant to the throne had the favour 
 of the multitude to such a degree that considerable 
 opposition did not take place. The more violent the 
 means used to destroy this or the more gigantic the 
 sacrifices to gain it, so much the weaker and insecure 
 the position of the monarch was sure to become. 
 For the nobility began to regard it as a prerogative of 
 their rank to make laws which they did not obey, and 
 to appoint kings whom they did not serve.
 
 80 Poland. 
 
 The personal settlement of the law-suits was of itself 
 impossible for the kings, because of the vastness of the 
 country. 1 During the long Avars of Stephan Batory, 
 this right, or this duty, was lost altogether. The 
 nobles made themselves arbiters of their own contests. 
 Tribunals were formed to administer the laws, which 
 lasted fifteen months, and since the members were not 
 appointed by the king, but were elected by the nobility 
 of the province itself, these courts were only too often 
 made instruments for political purposes. As the 
 position of judge imparted to the most insignificant 
 vast influence over the affairs of the most powerful in 
 the province, one conceives how these elections and the 
 very privilege conferred by them must have become a 
 wide field for intrigue and violence. 
 
 In the year 1578, the right to confer nobility was 
 also taken from the kings and given to the diet. 
 
 The kings had no part at all in the legislation ; in 
 fact, the laws were made when there was no king in 
 the land, namely, at the interregnum. As soon as the 
 throne was vacant at the death of the monarch, and 
 before the diet proceeded to a new election, the nobles 
 of the province assembled, in order to examine the 
 enactments of the king and the senate during the last 
 regency. The arrangements that had been made 
 during this time could be abolished, and new ones 
 proposed, which were legal as soon as the diet passed 
 them unanimously. This unanimity however was never 
 easy to secure, and often only so when it abolished 
 an enactment which might become specially dangerous 
 to the individual rights or lessened the authority of 
 the crown. For from the very first the Poles have 
 been much more jealous of a power which sprang up in 
 the midst of them than of a foreign one ; and so it 
 happened that the Polish noble still claimed his own 
 personal independence, after that the freedom of the 
 
 1 " lis n'ont fait qu'un juge de moi," said Henry of Valois.
 
 Poland. 8i 
 
 state had already been lost. Therefore, although a 
 king might labour for the extension of his power, his 
 successor always had to begin the work anew. 
 
 The king saw himself excluded from the administra- 
 tion, and the most urgent circumstances were not suffi- 
 cient to justify his own independent action without the 
 advice of the senate. This senate l deprived the king 
 of the right to declare war and conclude peace. An 
 offensive war was contrary to the constitution, and was 
 actually almost an impossibility, according to the 
 organization of the state. By law the nobles were not 
 allowed to be under arms longer than three weeks, nor 
 to bear them further than three hours over the bound- 
 ary. In case of a hostile invasion there was war, of 
 course, but it was waged by the woiwodships most 
 concerned in it on their own account, and often without 
 aid from the crown. Afterwards Poland was forced to 
 maintain a standing army like all its neighbours, and 
 this was not under the immediate command of the 
 king. He nominated a crown-general for Poland, and 
 one for Lithuania, but he could not remove them. 
 Nor were they by any means obliged to fix a definite 
 part of the state's revenues for the support of this 
 army ; the subsidies were granted from one diet to 
 another, and were most irregularly paid. Therefore 
 the troops continued to be on the lowest grade of 
 mediocrity, and they were less inclined to give support 
 to the kings, since many a noble at times had more life- 
 guards than the crown had soldiers. 
 
 If we add to this the measure passed after the year 
 1572, by which the elections were no longer to be held 
 by the deputies of the palatines, but by a personal 
 meeting of all the noblemen, thus becoming dependent 
 on bribery and violence ; by which all taxes were 
 abolished for a definite duty on property-owners, and 
 the king was not allowed to retain any starost's 
 
 1 Compare Ferrand, Histoire du dcmembrement de la Pologne. 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 Poland. 
 
 offices for himself, but had to confer them all for life 
 and irrevocably, it becomes manifest that a king- 
 excluded from legislation, without domains, without 
 private property, and without fixed revenues, sur- 
 rounded by permanent government officers and re- 
 movable judges, in short, without any real power, 
 could not exercise any influence in his own state except 
 by means of bribery, intrigue, and party-spirit. 
 
 The senate l also was deprived of its sovereignty, and 
 the deputies of the nobility took to themselves the 
 supreme control. The ascendency of the nobility kept 
 increasing gradually. The nobles alone occupied all 
 the government offices, the high religious benefices were 
 reserved for them, they filled exclusively the judicial 
 positions, and were perfectly free from all taxes, 
 duties, revenues, etc. The nobleman seized upon the 
 jurisdiction over the peasantry, and wrested from the 
 crown the statute : Neminem captivabimas" according 
 to which no nobleman could be arrested without being 
 first convicted ; a law assuring him perfect freedom 
 from punishment. It is not surprising that murder 
 was at first not very severely punished in a country 
 like Poland. Every nobleman wore the sabre, and 
 knew too that he wore it to protect himself. Murder 
 was paid for by a fine, life-money (the Mandebode 
 of the Scandinavians). For a nobleman the fine was 
 sixty marks (about nine hundred Rhenish florins) ; 
 for one not long ennobled, thirty marks ; for a magis- 
 trate or soldier, fifteen marks ; for a peasant, ten 
 marks, six of which went to the widow and children, 
 four to the master. (Const. 1547, Vol. i. fol. 7.) This 
 valuation was only according to birth. The murder of 
 
 1 What Blackstone says of the long parliament is perfectly true 
 here : When the houses assumed the power of legislation, in ex- 
 clusion of the royal authority, they soon after assumed likewise the 
 reins of administration, and in consequence of the united power, 
 overturned both church and state, and established a worse oppression 
 than any they pretended to remedy.
 
 Poland. 83 
 
 a priest, although he were a bishop, according to these 
 conditions could be atoned for by only ten marks. 
 But when one considers that this law and these taxes 
 for human life were continued until the year 1768, one 
 conceives that a Polish nobleman with a fortune like 
 that of the Radziwills or Oginskys could enjoy seeming 
 impunity for murders. It is true that Matthias Corvin 
 had declared capital punishment to be the penalty for 
 murder, but Casirrrir the Great had it again abolished. 
 In Lithuania also capital punishment was decreed, but 
 the murder had to be proved by six witnesses, two of 
 whom were nobles. 1 
 
 They utterly bound the hands of the regent at last 
 when they made him swear to the pacta conventa to 
 which a new limiting article was added at every in- 
 terregnum. 
 
 Another chief evil which injured the republic was the 
 misuse of the liberum veto, a thing always dangerous in 
 itself, which had become a law since the year 1652 and 
 was called by the Poles unicum et sjjecialissimiim ins 
 cardinale, a law presupposing that every individual 
 knew what was right and desired to do it. 
 
 In early times there were few occasions when it was 
 necessary for the corporation of nobles who joined the 
 nation to assemble. 
 
 But the more the republic increased in size and im- 
 portance, the more it came in contact with the outside 
 world the more frequently such necessary decisions 
 upon general matters of interest had to be made. And 
 when at last Poland yielded to the necessity of main- 
 taining a standing army, though unwilling permanently 
 to set aside the sums required to keep this powerful 
 instrument of unlimited power always dependent upon 
 
 1 Jekel, Part II [. : and besides this punishment for murder, there 
 was among others a law : Whoever reproaches anyone for not being 
 noble (that is, for having pretended nobility) without being able 
 to prove it, shall be flogged in Lithuania, and lose his head in Poland. 
 (Const. 1633, Fol. 80G.) 
 
 G 2
 
 84 Poland. 
 
 it, then a more frequent convocation of the nobility 
 became urgently necessary. 
 
 In the year 1467, for the first time, this obliged the 
 imperial diet to be represented by provincial deputies, 
 Landbote (a custom which had been general in the rest 
 of Europe for more than two hundred years), but the 
 nobles reserved the right to be personally consulted 
 upon important affairs. The unanimity of all was also 
 made a fundamental principle in the transactions of this 
 assembly of representatives. 
 
 The provincial deputies, as already stated, were 
 elected at the petty diets (Landtage) which the king 
 convoked by a printed circular-message at definite 
 places in each district six weeks before each imperial 
 diet. And on the appointed day the nobles of the 
 whole district met there, elected a marshal of the petty 
 diet and gave a hearing to the royal deputies upon the 
 transactions of the imperial diet. After the nobles had 
 departed they proceeded to the election of the provincial 
 deputies, whose instructions had to be determined by 
 unanimous vote. Therefore, of course, many of these 
 petty diets were broken up, and the number of the 
 provincial deputies at the imperial diet was never com- 
 plete, which, however, was not thought to be necessary. 
 Remarkable is that law by which the deputy who 
 broke up the petty diet by his veto was to be punished 
 with a half year's imprisonment in the tower and a fine 
 of three thousand marks ; yet this was not enacted till 
 the year 1764. 
 
 The provincial deputies were exempt from arrest 
 four weeks previous to and after the imperial diet, and 
 whoever seized one of them was punished for high 
 treason. 1 At first only resident and landed nobles could 
 be elected for provincial deputies, but later it was 
 enough to be related to such a noble. 
 
 1 All intercession of the court was not able to save the life of a 
 Saxon prince who, under Augustus II., had taken vengeance on a 
 provincial deputy for an insult inflicted on him by the latter.
 
 Poland. 85 
 
 The place where the petty diet met could not be 
 occupied by the military. No one dared carry fire- 
 arms into the assembly, and it was also customary not 
 to sharpen the sabres. 
 
 In ancient times the imperial diets were held in 
 Lublin, Parczow, Piotrkowa and Lomza ; after the year 
 1569 Warsaw was settled upon as the place for them, 
 yet, in order to satisfy the Lithuanians, every third 
 imperial diet convened at Grodno. At the time of an 
 interregnum exceptions were made in the case of the 
 convocation — election and coronation — diets which were 
 always held in Warsaw. 
 
 The regular time was two days after Michaelmas, 
 every two years, but in urgent cases the king could 
 summon the imperial diet earlier and at other places. 
 Its duration in that case was only fourteen days instead 
 of six weeks. In no case could this time be shortened 
 or lengthened, nor was it permitted to deliberate at 
 night time. 
 
 On the first day the marshal of the imperial diet was 
 elected, and the titles of the provincial deputies were 
 examined. Then, under the direction of the marshal, 
 followed the reception of the king by the provincial 
 deputies at which the pacta conventa was read aloud. 
 Then the propositions by the throne were presented. 
 The senators voted upon the measures of the imperial 
 diet in the presence of the provincial deputies, in order 
 to show them what was beneficial for the state. The 
 administration of the ministers was next investigated, 
 and hereupon the provincial deputies retired from the 
 senate, in order to draw up the laws of the diet, the 
 chief object of which was to be public safety. 
 
 The last five days were called the great days. Both 
 chambers united again, the marshal of the imperial 
 diet read the laws of the diet to which all the provincial 
 deputies had agreed before the assembled imperial diet, 
 and it was still possible for anyone to exercise his veto. 
 Only that was legal which was now adopted before all.
 
 86 Poland. 
 
 It is true that these representatives honoured their 
 inviolability as regards, themselves, and did not now, as 
 in former times, secure the required unanimity by the 
 massacre of their opponents. But that evil had thus 
 become so much the worse. 
 
 The deputies, after election, could never regard 
 themselves as men who dared to attend to the interests 
 of the country, to act according to their own conscience 
 and understanding. They never dared place the good 
 of the country above the advantage of their province. 
 They received from the province full and definite 
 instruction as to what they should demand and concede, 
 and upon their return, in the petty diets legally estab- 
 lished in the year 1589, they were placed in a most 
 responsible position towards their constituents. It is 
 natural that an assembly of four hundred men, each of 
 whom was a member of a complete corporation, could 
 be far less yielding than if each represented only his 
 own personal rights. If stubborn opposition at the im- 
 perial diet formerly exposed the bold man to the danger 
 of being killed, compliance now meant the same, for 
 yielding would cost the deputy his life at the hands of 
 those whose authority he had transgressed. The same 
 necessity which once enforced compliance and was the 
 only check upon anarchy became at present a reason 
 for not yielding under any pressure. 
 
 In vain the kings opposed this disorder with patience, 
 persuasion, persistency, and bravery. When King 
 Wladislaus was unwilling under any circumstances to 
 dissolve an imperial diet before it drew up a resolution, 
 though it, on the other hand, was not allowed to con- 
 tinue the deliberations at night, they concluded to spend 
 the night together, and the world witnessed the 
 spectacle of a sleeping diet under the presidency of a 
 sleeping senate, and of a king asleep on his throne. 
 
 There was yet one step to take in order to make this 
 agreement impossible and to organize the anarchy 
 formally. It was taken when a few palatines charged
 
 Poland. 87 
 
 their plenipotentiaries to oppose all consultations 
 until their own proposals had been heard and adopted. 
 When it happened that several deputies came with 
 the same instructions, the imperial diet was broken 
 up before it was opened. 1 
 
 Other deputies refused to give their consent to any 
 propositions, unless those offered by their woiwodeships 
 were also accepted, and thus the veto of one deputy in 
 a single transaction could bring about the dissolution 
 of the whole imperial diet, that is, he suspended all 
 exercise of sovereignty for two years. The veto of one 
 deputy was the magic word which, though hardly 
 uttered, caused the republic to sink back in a deathlike 
 sleep. No law could be enacted, no resolution adopted, 
 the army remained unpaid, the enemy devastated some 
 provinces without the others coming to their aid, justice 
 was delayed, money matters were in confusion, in short, 
 Poland was stricken from the list of states for the next 
 two years. 
 
 And the rupture of an imperial diet was regarded as 
 a public calamity as often as it was repeated. The 
 name of the deputy who caused it, as well as that of 
 his family, was handed down to posterity as a curse. 
 In order to insure themselves against the general 
 indignation, such deputies were accustomed to submit 
 their protests in writing, and then, under burden of 
 general detestation and overwhelmed by the curse of 
 the nation, they roved about for years at a time, un- 
 settled and unknown. Yet they proceeded still further 
 in the art of making fruitless the endeavours of all up- 
 right patriots. In the year 1652, the voluntary absence 
 of a member was declared to be sufficient cause for the 
 dissolution of the imperial diet. 
 
 Added to all this harm were finally the religious 
 
 1 In the years 1G95, 1698, 1701, 1720, 1729, 1730, 1732, 1750, 
 1754, 1760, 1761, and 1762, the imperial diets were broken up 
 before the election of the marshal ; that is, in sixty-seven years, 
 twelve diets.
 
 88 Poland. 
 
 differences, which were necessarily dangerous in a 
 country so full of fermentation. For a long time 
 Poland surpassed all the rest of Europe in toleration. 
 Also after the great division in the Church, in the 
 sixteenth century, everything continued to be quiet in 
 Poland. Inter nos dissidemus, said both Catholics and 
 Protestants, and both parties were dissenters. It was 
 not until after Jesuits and foreign emissaries had 
 kindled the flame of religious discord, that this name 
 designated the Protestants alone. Poland, which was 
 so accustomed to violent insurrections since the opposi- 
 tion of the minority was so important, and which 
 always furnished new causes for dispute and division in 
 the many and necessary conventions of the nobility, 
 this same Poland was obliged to suffer terrible convul- 
 sions because of the new rupture among its own 
 nobility. Now for the first time the imperial diets 
 became useless. In the thirty-six years between 1536 
 and 1572, seven diets were dissolved, and under King 
 Augustus III. the nation convened in vain for thirty 
 years. 
 
 The dissenters became a dangerous wound to the 
 state ; although their number was comparatively very 
 small, yet subsequently they furnished a pernicious 
 excuse and basis for foreign interference. 
 
 In reviewing the causes which led to the downfall of 
 the republic, we must not pass over the condition of 
 the peasant, who vanishes from the history of Poland at 
 an early date. 
 
 When the Polish nobleman or his historians declare 
 that the peasant was from earliest times subject to his 
 landlord by right of legacy and possession, or was 
 wholly a serf, it is false, and may be proved to be so. 
 This relation of eleven million men to not even a half 
 million lords is an abuse of two hundred years, but 
 was preceded by one thousand years of wretchedness. 1 
 
 1 v. Griivenitz, Der Baiter in Polen. The following extracts
 
 Poland. 89 
 
 Originally the noble had no jurisdiction at all over 
 the peasant ; this power was exercised by the royal 
 castellans and was granted to certain individual noble- 
 men only, exceptionally, for some distinguished 
 services. 1 
 
 The inheritance of a peasant, though dying without 
 issue, passed to his relations without a grant of leave 
 from the authorities. 2 If a peasant left the farm 
 illegally, it could not be given over to another until the 
 fugitive had been summoned three or four times to 
 return, and in consideration of a land-tax of two 
 groschen pro Lahn the peasant was free from all further 
 public taxes, supplies, relays, etc. 3 
 
 These enactments of Casimir the Great, the Henry 
 IV. of Poland, won for him the noble nickname of the 
 "Peasant King." 
 
 Those peasants were free who were land-owners, 
 according to German law, they did not serve in socage, 
 but paid rent. The imperial diet at Thorn, however, 
 in the year 1520, regulated the services for the Polish 
 peasant on this plan, that from each Laneo he should 
 pay weekly one day's work with horses. The Laneo 
 or Lahn is by correct reckoning equal to at least a hide 
 of land of thirty Magdeburg acres which, according to 
 the old Polish trefallow system, yields on an average 
 ten Berlin bushels of winter seed. This established 
 the obligation of fifty-two days' work with horses per 
 year, still leaving the peasant, according to approxi- 
 mately correct calculation and expert valuation, the 
 half of the produce of his estate. The tithes were con- 
 vertible into an equivalent payment of seed or money. 
 
 from records are also taken from this excellent little article, which we 
 cite on account of the importance of the suhject, without claiming, 
 however, that we have derived them from these sources themselves. 
 
 1 Donation records of the monastery of Tyratz, 128G, and other 
 places. Boleslaw grants the Kusczyn jurisdiction 1252. 
 
 2 Statute, Casimir the Great, 1347. 
 
 3 Statute of Wladislaus Jagello, 1420 and 1433.
 
 90 Poland. 
 
 As regards the personal condition of the peasant, it 
 may be said that according to German law, only the 
 landed ones were free, and such as had hitherto culti- 
 vated and occupied waste lands. 1 It was owing to the 
 great land-owners' need of labour, that the rest of the 
 peasants were bound to the soil and could not leave the 
 estate without the lord's permission. But the peasant 
 never belonged to his landlord, he could not be sold. 
 The property could pass into other hands, but the 
 peasant did not have to leave his farm. That there 
 never was a true servitude is principally based upon 
 his ability to possess land and soil. 
 
 But even the bondage to the soil was lightened by 
 the Polish laws. 2 Two families could move annually 
 and without hindrance from each village, the father of 
 several sons could allot one to service abroad, and arts 
 and sciences were declared free. 3 There were indeed 
 conditions where all subjects were free to move, 
 namely, when secular or ecclesiastical punishments of 
 the power in authority fell upon the community also, 
 or when a female subject was violated. 
 
 The provincial police law of John Albert, in the 
 year 1496, speaks plainly regarding the condition of 
 the peasant. " He trespasses his bounds," it states, 
 " he indulges in extra vacant clothes and lives hi orb, 
 and he causes himself to be arrested for debt by the 
 town people." It defines in this reference how in the 
 future the citizen is not to evade the tribunal of the 
 peasants, but to bring his actions there. Therefore the 
 peasant was prosperous, he could involve his own 
 possessions in debt, and had a systematized administra- 
 tion of justice. 
 
 If we summarize how the law and justice of that 
 date fixed the condition of the peasant, we find that he 
 had possession of house, farm and field, that his 
 
 1 Statute of Jagello, 1420. 
 
 2 Strzetusky prawo polityczne narodu polskiego. 
 
 3 Statute of Alexander, 1501.
 
 Poland. 91 
 
 bondage to the soil was humanely limited, that he Avas 
 liable to fairly apportioned services, moderate state and 
 church taxation. 
 
 But this happy condition of the peasant ended when 
 the nobility, at the cost of the crown and the 
 peasantry, began to extend its ever growing and 
 powerful influence upon the extinction of the Jagellons. 
 It is remarkable that the Polish peasant enjoyed such 
 liberties 1 at a time when bondage extended over all the 
 rest of Europe, and that his servitude began when it 
 ceased in other countries. For in the twelfth and 
 thirteenth centuries, bondage had disappeared in 
 Germany (except in the provinces of Mecklenburg, 
 Pommerania, Lausetia, etc., formerly Sclavonic). In 
 France Louis X. abolished it in 1315 ; in England 
 Elizabeth was still giving serfs their freedom ; in 
 Bohemia and Moravia serfdom existed in the year 
 1781, till the time of Joseph II. ; in Poland it first 
 began with the sixteenth century. The kings were 
 made to promise that they would no longer grant any 
 peasants letters of protection against their masters. 2 
 For the future all masters had the right to punish dis- 
 obedient subjects according to their own best judg- 
 ment. 3 Also the axiom, " Air gives possession," was 
 extended to all foreigners who resided one year in a 
 village. 4 And thus, without abolishing any of the laws 
 which were in favour of the peasant, it was enacted as 
 a fundamental law of the constitution, "That hence- 
 forth the peasant should not have any legal hear- 
 
 1 I 1 . J. Jekel is inclined to assume that there was a state of 
 bondage in Poland before the eleventh century, yet he himself con- 
 fesses that history gives us no satisfactory answer to the questions, 
 " What were really the peasants ? To what were they bound ? 
 Under what laws did they live ? " Polens Staatsveruwhning, 3 part, 
 page 87. It is enough, then, that history, as far as it reaches, shows 
 us no slaves, but only r/lebce adscripti. 
 
 2 1505, Alexander ; 1543, Sigismund I. ; 1588, Sigismund III. 
 
 3 Fourth Article of the Religious Union of 1515. 
 
 4 Statute of 1633.
 
 92 Poland. 
 
 ing against his lord in any secular court on earth, be 
 his complaint concerning property, honour or life." 
 
 The peasant was thus exposed to an arbitrariness 
 which had no more limitation than that which excess 
 of evil imposes on evil. Every nobleman was an 
 absolute despot on his own estate ; the peasant had no 
 support on earth to hope for except the grace of his lord 
 or his own despair. Thence arose the terrible revolt 
 of the peasantry which now made the nobility tremble 
 with fear. This too was the cause of the great de- 
 terioration of landed property, and the drying up of 
 those very fountains from which the nation had drawn 
 its prosperity and its strength. 
 
 How extreme became the misery of the Polish 
 peasantry, one learns from such decisions as those of 
 the statutes of the imperial diet of 1768, articles 18 
 and 19, according to which "the full power and pro- 
 prietorship of the nobles over land and people are to 
 be maintained in their entirety, but right over the life 
 and death of the peasants is no longer to rest in the 
 hands of the lords." In the year 1791 it had to be 
 enacted for the first time that " if from this time on 
 landlords agree with their serfs upon a legal matter in 
 proper form, this action shall establish a contract and 
 shall be valid." 
 
 If we inquire of Polish contemporary historians 1 
 concerning the condition of the peasants, we hear 
 " that the jDeasant lived without rights and judge, 
 without law and king, that he was forced to labour 
 Sundays and holy days, since in many places every 
 hide of land was taxed with five workdays with 
 horses." 2 This disproportion of service sometimes 
 made it almost impossible to find a rule for adjust- 
 ment. The peasant 3 was regarded as a non-entity, 
 
 1 It is necessary to cite these in order not to be charged with 
 exaggeration. 
 
 2 Warszewicki. 
 
 3 Nicolaus Zalaczewski.
 
 Poland. 93 
 
 he could not appear in court without the consent of 
 his lord, therefore he had no judge to oppose his 
 lord. Once there were ordinances enacted for his 
 welfare, but they had long been forgotten. No- 
 where did the peasant find law against oppression. 
 Long was the landlord lord over life and death. 1 
 Poland is the only country where the common people 
 are stripped of all rights of human beings. 2 
 
 Notwithstanding this, a middle-class had never been 
 formed in Poland to bridge over the terrible gulf 
 yawning between lord and serf, between nobleman 
 and peasant. Industry and commerce 3 were unable 
 to nourish there where the government was not able to 
 give it encouragement nor protection, where arbitrary 
 and violent attacks endangered the safety of property 
 and credit, which latter, before all things, is necessary to 
 trade. 
 
 This is the only explanation why a country could 
 continue to be poor which had thirteen thousand 
 square miles of territory and eleven and a half millions 
 of inhabitants, which was watered by great navigable 
 rivers leading both to the Black and Baltic Seas, which 
 possessed abundance of corn, wheat, wax, honey, hops, 
 fish, furs, numerous herds of the finest cattle, the most 
 excellent horses, an inexhaustible supply of salt, and 
 immense supplies of timber for ships and houses. 
 
 From all this wealth domestic industry did not know 
 how to produce anything but coarse linen, sail-cloth, 
 rope, potash, and ship timber ; all other productions 
 were wrought outside of the country. 
 
 Only a seventh part of the land was cultivated, 
 and if, in spite of this, Poland exported considerable 
 corn, and cattle for slaughter, this was only possible 
 because the great part of the nation, the oppressed 
 
 1 Vincent Rozituski. 
 
 2 King Stanislaus Leszczynski, Observations sur le gouv. de 
 Pologne, liv. c. p. 9. 
 
 3 J. Jekel, Polens Handelsgeschichte. Wien, 1809.
 
 94 Poland. 
 
 peasantry, had to deprive itself of such products, had 
 to live poorly upon bread, just as to-day upon potatoes, 
 having meat to eat barely three times in the year, and 
 because this manner of life reduced the number of 
 men. 
 
 All other exportations were unimportant, and not at 
 all proportional to the expensive luxuries which, not- 
 withstanding all the laws against luxury, were more 
 and more demanded and imported. 
 
 The lead mines at Olkusz were all in rains, and even 
 the inexhaustible supplies of rock-salt at Wieliczka and 
 JBochnia and the salt-springs of Red Russia were 
 neglected to such an extent that not only this rich pro- 
 duct was not exported, but the whole province of 
 Prussia had to be supplied with foreign sea-salt, at an 
 enormous loss to the crown. 
 
 The balance of trade consequently gave a profit to all 
 the nations that had business relations with Poland, 
 and at a great loss to the latter country. 
 
 In the year 1777 1 imports amounted to 47,488,876 
 Polish florins ; exports amounted to 29,839,238 Polish 
 florins. Therefore in this year the imports exceeded 
 the exports by 17,649,629 florins. Of these Prussia 
 gained over five millions, Austria almost eleven, Russia 
 and Turkey one and a half. 
 
 In the year 1776 the imports were 48,640,679 florins, 
 the exports were 22,096,360 florins. The difference 
 amounted to 26,544,380 florins for this one vear. The 
 money which was still in circulation was derived 
 principally from the sale of the crown. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the internal resources, the 
 treasury of many a European city surpassed that of the 
 republic, and, indeed, two or three Amsterdam or 
 London merchants derived a greater income from trade 
 than the domains of the king produced. In the midst 
 
 1 J. Jekel, Polens Handelsgeschichte, Part II., p. 87. The more 
 exact expenses.
 
 Poland. 95 
 
 of its wealth, the wealth which nature had generously 
 bestowed upon it, Poland was poor. The abundance of 
 its produce was of no aid to it, it had no highways by 
 which to carry it away, no ships to transport it, nor 
 factories to work it up, nor trade to make use of it. 
 
 The whole commercial history of Poland is almost 
 entirely comprised in the history of the city of Danzig. 
 
 When in the thirteenth century the most important 
 cities of Germany came together, in order to protect 
 themselves mutually against despotism and the attacks 
 which they were unable to oppose single-handed, in 
 order to open avenues for themselves which a hundred 
 castles of robber-knights and countless toll-gates 
 barricaded, and in order to uphold laws among them- 
 selves which princes were not able to grant them, when, 
 in a word, the Hanseatic League was formed which 
 ruled the commerce upon two great seas with un- 
 limited power for whole centuries, Danzig was soon 
 compelled to recognize the immeasurable advantages 
 which would accrue to it from a union with this league. 
 
 The inhabitants of Danzig were of German origin, 
 they were governed by German laws (the saxonlage) 
 and by their own constitution. For a long time they 
 were subject to the Order of Teutonic Knights, and 
 when they afterwards acknowledged the supremacy 
 of the republic they kept themselves, nevertheless, as 
 remote and independent as possible. The citizens of 
 Danzig fortified the city at their own costs and upon 
 their own responsibility, also by their own forces 
 they defended their independence not only against 
 foreigners, but also against Poland. 1 They refused the 
 Russians entrance into their walls when Poland no 
 longer dared to resist this foe. 
 
 After the republic had lost the Black Sea, Danzig 
 was the last and soon the only port by which Poland 
 
 1 In the year 1576, against Stephan Batory, in 1733, against 
 Augustus II., etc.
 
 96 Poland. 
 
 had intercourse with the outer world, and it attained 
 to a very high degree of prosperity and importance. 
 
 When the royal cities in Poland received the Magde- 
 burg Law, a number of industrious foreigners immi- 
 grated into Poland and would have speedily introduced 
 industries and commerce. Moreover, Thorn, Culm, 
 Elbing, Konigsberg, Braunsberg, and Krakow joined 
 the Hanseatic League. Since, however, these cities 
 did not know how to preserve their independence, they 
 yielded to the power of the nobility, which was con- 
 tinually being increased, and the descendants of those 
 foreign immigrants led a very miserable, poverty- 
 stricken existence. 
 
 All the other cities were desolate and without walls, 
 for they contained nothing but want. Their inhabit- 
 ants were farmers, and one would hardly have ventured 
 to seek the commonest of all mechanics among them. 
 
 For whatever was not noble lived in the cities as 
 objects to be despised, or dwelt oppressed in the villages, 
 and there was really no citizen class in Poland. 
 
 All the rest of the business of Poland was completely 
 ruined. The merchant could not gain anything from 
 the peasant who himself had literally nothing. Like- 
 wise there was little to be gained from the nobleman. 
 The rich and influential, that is, those who could have 
 traded most with the merchants, received their wine 
 and luxuries duty-free in return for the wood, grain, 
 etc., which they sent to Danzig. How could merchants 
 sell or buy profitably in a country where the most 
 affluent class of citizens imported or exported the 
 very same articles duty-free on which the merchants in 
 either case were compelled to pay duties at public and 
 private custom houses ? Finally, the wretched con- 
 dition of the laws, especially the difficulty in executing 
 them, made it almost impossible to give anyone credit. 
 It was also impossible to get a noble as a partner, for 
 trade was followed by the loss of nobility. At first 
 Poland enjoyed the advantages of a commission trade by
 
 Poland. 97 
 
 buying up at Breslau, Leipzig, and Danzig, wares in- 
 dispensable to the Russians and transporting them by- 
 land. But after Peter the Great opened up to his 
 nation the Baltic and Black Seas this branch of trade 
 also disappeared. 
 
 The Jews should be thanked for the little business 
 that was still left in Poland. 
 
 It cannot be denied that this people, so frugal and 
 anxious for its maintenance, formed the only well-to-do 
 class in the country. All the business activity which 
 carelessness or pride made the nobleman despise, and 
 which the stupidity, the ignorance, and the oppressed 
 state of the peasant made inaccessible to him fell to the 
 lot of the Jews, who, if they became later a national 
 misfortune, were simultaneously a national necessity ; 
 first, as the result of the bad measures of the govern- 
 ment, for it was everywhere an easier thing to burn the 
 Jews than to make good citizens of them; second, 
 because they hated the Jews and envied them of their 
 riches, without imitating the industry by which the 
 Jews had acquired the same. 
 
 We must x glance at this remarkable people, little 
 understood and yet so important, which, banished from 
 its home, has continued to grow and has gradually 
 made its way into other countries until it has 
 encircled the globe, just as ivy-vines do the trunk of a 
 tree on which and upon which they continue to live 
 even when their roots are torn from the soil they first 
 sprang from. Trodden down at all ages by despotism 
 and violence, we find this nation ever springing up 
 again by means of craft and perseverance. Persecuted 
 and extirpated by fire and sword, we behold it return- 
 ing once again or being replaced by others. Robbed 
 and despoiled repeatedly, it is ever possessed of all 
 wealth. 
 
 1 Tableau de Pologne ancienne et moderne par Malte Burn, 
 refondu par Leonard Chodzko. Paris, 1830. 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 Poland. 
 
 With a wonderful fusion of external weakness and 
 hidden strength, humble and prostrate before the more 
 powerful, imperious and cruel towards dependents, this 
 people, oppressed and abused as a whole, exercises 
 through certain members a kind of individual tyranny 
 over its oppressors. For just as man in his degrada- 
 tion still preserves a memory of innate nobleness and a 
 sense of his oppression, so the Jew also resists violence 
 and enmity with hatred and contempt, feelings which 
 must be rooted much the deeper in him the more 
 cautiously he has been forced to conceal these feelings 
 in himself. 
 
 Notwithstanding their dispersion, the Jews are 
 closely bound together. By an unknown supremacy 
 they are consistently guided to common aims. After 
 residing a thousand years in one country they behold 
 themselves as strangers there, they regard the soil on 
 which they are born not as their own home : the people 
 with whom they have grown up, as their constant 
 foe. Since they refuse all attempts of governments to 
 nationalize them, the Jews form a state in the state, and 
 in Poland to this very day they are a deep and unhealed 
 Avound in the country. 
 
 The political standing of the Jews, as well as their 
 own laws, excludes them from possessing land, from 
 political service, from offices, dignities, in short from all 
 public enterprise. With them the national welfare 
 could never be the goal of talent, knowledge, or industry. 
 For them love of country, ambition, enterprise, in short, 
 all the mighty forces which elevate the career of man 
 had no room to be developed in. Repulsed on all sides 
 with contempt, the Jew was thrown upon his own 
 resources, and self was and had to be his only object of 
 consideration. 
 
 The highest point to which the Jew could attain in 
 his own land was that of becoming a rich man. But 
 wealth itself procured for him no greater civil respect, 
 it did not protect him against the insult of open hate
 
 Poland. 99 
 
 and detestation, and the Jew had to conceal his wealth 
 or enjoy it at his own danger. 
 
 Even gold was no longer a source of happiness to the 
 Jew, and so it became merely an end in itself. Wealth 
 was the only aim for all the efforts of each individual, 
 and all avenues leading to this goal, this only goal, were 
 legitimate in his opinion, and at the same time were a 
 means of vengeance on his oppressors. Brooking every 
 mortification, enduring every insult, ever abstinent, 
 frugal, and penurious, availing themselves of every 
 advantage, not disdaining fraud, usury, and perjury, 
 was it indeed a wonder that all the wealth flowed into 
 the hands of these immigrants, and that the oppressors 
 gradually became dependent upon the despised 
 strangers ? 
 
 The first Jewish settlers were exiles from Germany 
 and Bohemia. 1 They fled to Poland about the year 
 1096, where at that time reigned much greater toler- 
 ance than in all the rest of Europe. 
 
 This emigration of the Jews was a result of the 
 cruelty and covetousness of the first crusaders. They 
 maintained that the Jews were the natural, native 
 enemies of Christ. In Mayence alone fourteen hundred 
 Jews were burned. In Bavaria twelve thousand were 
 sacrificed. Women killed their children, and men 
 killed themselves, in order to escape baptism and the 
 baptisers. All the Jews emigrated from Bohemia. 
 They were forced to leave all their property behind, for 
 " since they had brought no riches from Judea with them 
 they must depart from Bohemia poor as they had 
 entered it." 
 
 The love of Casimir the Great for the beautiful 
 Esther, a Jewess from Opoczno, procured for the 
 Israelites a few civil privileges and liberties, such as a 
 king in Poland could confer, and which should be 
 
 1 Compare Leonard Chodzko's edition of the Tableau tie Poloyne par 
 Molte Brun. 
 
 H 2
 
 ioo Poland. 
 
 advantageous to the country ; but as early as the reign 
 of Louis of Hungary, 1371, they were totally banished 
 from the country. Yet, in the year 1386, we find them 
 again scattered all over Poland. The Christians at that 
 time were forbidden, on pain of excommunication, to 
 have any intercourse with Jews, or to buy from them. 
 In all cities where they settled, they were compelled to 
 live together in particular suburbs. Usury was for- 
 bidden, and John Albert suddenly destroyed all the 
 registers of mortgages by means of which they were 
 about to acquire the greater part of the estates of the 
 nobility, these having been mortgaged for the payment 
 of the armaments for war. Yet the loan was said to 
 have been repaid with legal interest. 
 
 The Privilegium of Boleslaw the Pious, 1505 1 is very 
 characteristic. It shows that the kings were forced to 
 protect the Jews from the general hatred and oppression of 
 the Christians. Among other things it states : " Corpses 
 of Jews can be carried away without duty. For desecra- 
 tion of a synagogue the Christian shall pay the woiwode 
 a fine of two stones of pepper. No one shall put up at a 
 Jewish house. It is false that Jews use human blood. 
 If a Jew is charged with having kidnapped a Christian 
 child, he must be convicted by three Christian, and 
 three Jewish witnesses. If he is not convicted the 
 accuser shall suffer the penalty which the Jew would 
 have had to suffer. If a Jew is maltreated at night 
 time, and cries for help, Christians are bound under 
 penalty to render him assistance," etc. 
 
 Many a decree of the diet, many a law, Avhich would 
 have ruined their business completely, many a storm 
 stirred up by fanatical priests against them, the Jews 
 knew how to conjure away by the power of their gold 
 (Miczynski says by their " magic"). This guaranteed 
 them high patrons at all times. A few writers declared, 
 on the contrary, " God blesses those who persecute the 
 
 1 Compare Jekel, Polens Staatsveranderung, 2 part.
 
 Poland. ioi 
 
 Jews," and they mentioned several Polish families as 
 proofs. 1 
 
 In consequence of the inferior external condition of 
 the Jews, they assumed in their writings a daring 
 ascendency over the Christians. Just as the Russian 
 Jews had once attempted to convert Wladimir the 
 Great to Judaism, so the Polish Jews published an 
 immense number of articles in which they ridiculed 
 the ritual of the Catholic Church, and invited the Poles 
 to submit to the law of Moses, believing that this 
 country would become a second Idumsea. Emboldened 
 by the extension of their alliances, and by the greatness 
 of their wealth, they are said to have been always in 
 league with the Turks in order to obtain their assistance 
 in subduing the Poles. 2 
 
 According to the statement of the Jews themselves, 
 there were, in the year 1540, only 500 Christian against 
 3200 Jewish merchants, and 9600 Jewish goldsmiths, 
 and other manufacturers in the country. The wealthy 
 JeAvs had begun to dress like the Polish nobles, they 
 even surpassed them in magnificence. Characteristic 
 in this connection is a decree of King Sigismund, L, 
 which forbade them to wear golden chains, armorial 
 rings and sabres set with precious stones. The Jews 
 held their own imperial diets ; each province sent its 
 deputies to Warsaw, where they formed by themselves 
 a great council and nominated a marshal who was con- 
 firmed by the government. In short, next to the no- 
 bility, the Israelites were the most affluent and power- 
 ful body in the country. 
 
 1 Ziechowski states in his Oglos Processu : " since the Jew 
 Alexander did not confess infanticide on the rack, his judges 
 should not have been satisfied with burning him alone, they should 
 have burned his shadow also, for it was very possible that the devil, 
 out of love for the Jew, had substituted a phantom on the rack and 
 that the shadow was the real Jew." Even in the year 1783 the 
 Bernardine Monk, Tyszkowski, charged Jewesses with witchcraft. 
 Jekel, Polens Staatweranderung, 1 pt., p. 44, and 3 pt., p. 14. 
 
 2 This was mentioned in the synods of 1420 and 1672.
 
 102 Poland. 
 
 Especially disquieting was the incredible increase of 
 these strangers, for it is asserted that it was almost three 
 times as rapid as that of the native inhabitants. Inas- 
 much as the Jews, favoured by their wholesome way of 
 living — and this is required of them by their law — knew 
 how to shirk all public burdens and duties, Sigismund 
 Augustus determined, despite their remonstrances, to 
 levy a poll-tax on them, according to which each in- 
 dividual had to pay one florin, at that time worth one- 
 and-a-half dollars. At the same time he intended in this 
 way to ascertain their real number; It was estimated 
 then that there were, at least, 200,000 souls, but by this 
 tax only 1600 florins were collected. 1 
 
 The Jews gained still more power under John 
 Sobieski, to whom they had formerly prophesied that he 
 would ascend the throne. This monarch favoured the 
 JeAvs so much that, in the year 1682, the senate 
 formally entreated him to consider the welfare of the 
 state, and not to let all the favours of the crown pass 
 through the hands of the Jews. 
 
 The laws prohibiting the Jews from trading with the 
 peasants, from keeping inns and retailing brandy — and 
 this prohibition was renewed almost under every new 
 government, and even its transgression was punishable 
 with death — show that the Jews had not ceased to use 
 this branch of business, so profitable to them and so 
 ruinous to the peasantry. The Jews never at any time 
 regarded an oath to a Christian as binding. In case of 
 a quarrel between one of their number and a Christian, 
 they always made it an affair of their nation. If it was 
 a matter for furthering some mutual interests, a general 
 
 1 "Dites-rnoi/' said King Sigismund to the Bishop of Cracow, "vous 
 qui ne croyez pas aux sorciers, ou que le diable puisse se meler de 
 nos affaires, dites-moi comment il se fait que 200,000 Juifs ont pu se 
 cacher sous terre pour ne paraitre que 16,598 aujourd'hui qu'il 
 s'agit de payer la capitation." " Votre Majeste sait," answered the 
 Bishop, " que les Juifs n'ont pas besoin du diable pour etres 
 sorciers."
 
 Poland. 103 
 
 fast-day was decreed, and then each person, under the 
 penalty of one of the three Jewish curses, 1 had to remit 
 the cost of a day's sustenance for himself and family. 
 In this way single cities and provinces have often sup- 
 ported others far distant with large sums of money. 
 
 Until the present time each city has its own judge, 
 each province its Rabbi, and all are subject to an un- 
 known head residing in Asia, who is bound by the law 
 to wander continuously from place to place, and they 
 call him the " prince of slavery." By thus preserving 
 their own government, religion, customs, and language, 
 by obeying their own laws, they know how to avoid 
 those of the country they dwell in or to prevent their 
 execution. Having thus become closely leagued to- 
 gether, they reject all attempts that have been made to 
 amalgamate them with the nation, both because of their 
 religious faith and because of their self-interest. 
 
 We have now considered the opposing elements 
 which combine to form the state. There was a power- 
 less king ; a powerful democratic nobility, which itself 
 was divided because of its interests and religious 
 opinions ; a middle class flourishing in the state without 
 belonging to the state ; and the peasantry, forming the 
 mass of the nation, without political or human rights, 
 and sunk to the lowest depths of misery. 
 
 But what a picture of chaos does the inner part of 
 this country also present ! In former times Poland had 
 attained a certain height of culture, but after that the 
 nobility had robbed the government of all power, in 
 order to preserve its own independence, after that the 
 people themselves had taken away the powers of juris- 
 diction by legal procedure, it came to a dead standstill. 
 While for centuries all its neighbouring states continued 
 to progress, Poland remained just as many centuries 
 behind. 
 
 It had actually come to such a pass that there was 
 
 1 Niddony, Gherern, and Sehamatha.
 
 104 Poland. 
 
 a cessation of legal exercise of all sovereignty. The 
 mint had been closed since the year 1685, and inas- 
 much as Polish coin had a greater value than that of 
 the neighbouring states, it had disappeared from circu- 
 lation or was counterfeited. In this way the entire 
 Polish currency is said to have been twice recoined out- 
 side the country. Foreign coinage, on the other hand, 
 had an arbitrary value. This confusion finally became 
 so great that king Augustus II. ordered Saxon money 
 to be coined in Warsaw, on his own responsibility, 
 without even being empowered by nation or senate to 
 do so, for during his long reign no imperial diet met 
 that could have given him authority. 
 
 Thus absolute necessity compelled not only the 
 kings, but also all eminent government officers, to 
 appropriate to themselves a power not theirs by right 
 and far overreaching that which an unlimited 
 sovereignty would have bestowed. Forced to violate 
 his powers, in order to satisfy the most pressing- 
 demands, each ruled absolutely and without restraint 
 in his department, each necessarily exercised a power 
 over the multitude, which could have brought him to 
 justice on account of one abuse, and each successor had 
 to seize anew upon this same abuse of power. 
 
 The republic sent no ambassadors to foreign courts ; 
 the country was without defences, without a navy, it 
 was destitute of highways and of military equipments, 
 was without a treasury and even without a fixed 
 government revenue. The army was small, neglected, 
 undisciplined and was often unpaid, so that the troops 
 were forced to form a confederation, and to encamp 
 before the meetings of the imperial diet, in order to add 
 to their legal claims so illegal a weight. 
 
 Outwardly, therefore, the whole strength of the state 
 consisted in the confederation. But the kings, regard- 
 ing with anxiety a power surpassing their own, always 
 sought to counteract these alliances, and to prevent 
 them, or, if they, in turn, formed the confederation, the
 
 Poland. 105 
 
 nation was hindered by mistrust from joining it. 
 Moreover the Polish nobility, once so valiant, was 
 weakened and degenerated by luxury and wantonness, 
 and this was partly promoted by the government itself. 
 Nearly all great estates were overwhelmed with debts, 
 and lawsuits. The greater number of nobles had 
 neither weapons nor horses, and still formed only a 
 tumultuous assembly without order, discipline, and 
 guidance. 
 
 On the other hand, they did not dare to arm the 
 mass of the people for the defence of the fatherland. 
 To the peasant who had nothing more to lose, in the 
 strictest sense of the word, landlord and foe were one 
 and the same thing. Every promise, every outlook to- 
 wards improvement, even for a change in oppression, 
 was destined to make the peasant a formidable enemy 
 of his lord, if the enemy granted him the opportunity. 
 The mere possibility of an insurrection of the peasantry 
 accompanied by such cruelties as only the most vivid 
 imagination can picture, and such as more than once 
 devastated great provinces of the country, kept the 
 noble and his household troops away from the defence 
 of the republic, for who would have dared to have left 
 his house and barn, wife and child, to the mercy of the 
 unbridled fury of the slaves ? 
 
 And thus Poland was internally held together only 
 by usurped violence, externally by its very weakness. 1 
 For to attack Poland with an army was to wish to con- 
 quer it, and that had long been prevented by the 
 mutual jealousy of the neighbouring powers. 
 
 The royal elections and the religious disputes were 
 the joints through which foreign influence first 
 penetrated into the republic. 
 
 In 1697 an army of 10,000 Saxons procured for its 
 electoral prince, Augustus II., the crown of this 
 country, against the will of the greater part of the 
 
 1 Polonia confusiono reGfitur.
 
 106 Poland. 
 
 Polish nation. For this very reason, however, Augustus 
 always needed this army, in order to defend his crown 
 against the nation. 
 
 While Poland, as we have seen it, was too weak to 
 protect itself, however, it preferred to remain unarmed 
 in the midst of neighbours equipped for war rather than 
 to tolerate the army of the king in the country. 
 Solicitous for the rights of individuals and jealous of 
 the royal power, the imperial diets emphatically urged 
 the removal of the Saxon troops, preferring to endanger 
 the freedom of the state rather than the prerogatives of 
 their body. 
 
 The king ivas unsuccessful in the wars which he now 
 waged in order to be allowed to retain an army, for 
 this alone assured him a place of influence in the 
 republic. It was Swedish arms and again not the will 
 of the nation that crowned Stanislaus Leszczynski, in 
 the year 1704. 
 
 After the misfortunes of Charles XII., Augustus 
 appeared again in Poland with an army, in order to 
 regain the throne. But when, now, this monarch desired 
 to accomplish what had been from the first moment his 
 actual object, namely, the establishment of royal power 
 in the state, the confederation opposed him so emphati- 
 cally, that Augustus was forced to seek Russian inter- 
 vention and Russian protection in order to support his 
 position, thus setting his successors the destructive 
 example which caused the ruin of the state. 
 
 Augustus III. ascended the throne of his father, not 
 by means of the arms of a Saxon army, but under the 
 influence and protection of Russia ; and, in order to 
 maintain himself on his throne, he became most depen- 
 dent on this state. But the means of his ascension 
 were at the same time the instrument of his downfall. 
 
 The armaments of Augustus II., for the purpose of 
 gaining his throne twice by force, his wars, and still 
 more his luxury and the bribes, by which he began to 
 subjugate the nobility of the nation, when he was
 
 Poland. 107 
 
 unable to do it with arms, finally, the limitless extrava- 
 gances of Augustus III. exhausted all the resources of 
 Poland and Saxony. These rich territorial inheritances 
 were also finally lost in the Seven Years' War, and thus 
 Augustus, once a powerful electoral prince, became the 
 weakest of all kings. 
 
 The demise of Augustus III. was the crisis which the 
 parties at home and abroad had awaited in order to 
 put in motion all their strength and all their plans for 
 their own purposes. Politics, patriotism, treason, 
 ambition and venality, intrigue and force struggled 
 with one another and aroused a fearful tumult in the 
 republic. 
 
 During this confused struggle, let us observe these 
 parties more closely which sought to employ the new 
 royal election for the improvement of the social con- 
 dition of their country. 
 
 Many Poles, it is true, regarded this as a master- 
 piece of statesmanship. They gazed with pride on 
 individual rights, unmindful that nine-tenths of the 
 nation were sunk into the lowest degree of servitude 
 and that even the independence of the nobility was 
 far from being freedom. The weakness of the state, 
 proceeding from this very thing, could not be a 
 guarantee for the stability of the constitution, because 
 it gave no guarantee for the existence of the state. 
 These men, always solicitous on account of the misuse 
 of power, never saw the danger of the misuse of liberty, 
 and they had to be schooled in a long period of mis- 
 fortune, in order to be convinced that an alteration of 
 the constitution had become inevitable. 
 
 And, meanwhile, men were not wanting who recog- 
 nized grave mistakes in this constitution. 
 
 "All our deliberations," said the primate in his 
 address before the convocation diet, " result in nothing. 
 The imperial diets are without result, and few of us 
 dare boast of having known a diet where freedom of 
 consultation was respected. We regard ourselves a
 
 108 Poland. 
 
 nation, but we are under the yoke of servitude, under 
 the terror of swords. We all feel the misfortune of 
 our dependence, but we lack the wisdom to counsel 
 for ourselves, and the strength to improve our lot, 
 nevertheless we rush blindly to our own destruction. 
 
 " All our sufferings are the results of our own tran- 
 sactions. We languish in the fetters of our own fear, 
 we who have nothing upon which to fix our hopes, 
 neither the counsel of wisdom nor the support of 
 strength. We have no fortifications, for they are all 
 in ruins, no garrisons, for they are weak and without 
 ammunition, neither fixed boundaries nor an army to 
 defend them. Let us confess that this kingdom is like 
 an open house, a dwelling devastated by storms, a 
 building without an owner which would be pre- 
 cipitated upon its shaken foundations, did not Provi- 
 dence still hold it up ! 
 
 "Let us glance at abuses which surpass all belief. 
 The laws, degenerated and dishonoured, are un- 
 enforced ; the tribunals which ought to judge crime 
 are suspended ; perjury is tolerated at the expense of 
 the salvation of soul and of country ! Liberty is 
 enthralled by violence and absolutism ; the royal 
 treasure is squandered by the introduction of foreign 
 and debased monies ; the cities of the country — the 
 most beautiful ornaments of a kingdom — are depop- 
 ulated, and the advantages of commerce are robbed by 
 the Jews. In the cities we must seek for the city, so 
 deserted are the markets, the streets, and the fields. 
 
 "A period of fifty years has wrought this trans- 
 formation. And why? Because we live contrary to 
 the spirit of Christianity and of brotherly love, with- 
 out concord, without confidence, and without probity. 
 Let us consider how we burden our conscience by such 
 action ; how hard it is to restore that which we 
 destroy ; how great will be the punishment of the 
 Judge which we bring upon our heads. Let us con- 
 sider our debt of responsibility to God and to the
 
 Poland. 109 
 
 country, when we subject our provinces on the borders 
 to the danger of being conquered. 
 
 " At the present time, when our freedom surrenders 
 itself to the wildest licentiousness, unchecked and un- 
 limited, there is nothing so necessary for it as fetters, 
 in order to keep it from excesses which lead it to 
 destruction, to servitude. Liberty like ours is merely 
 licentiousness. Its pernicious influence extends to 
 even this assembly, and makes it necessary that we 
 should subject it to rule, to law. This diet is the place 
 where the madness of freedom must be chained, which 
 leads to our destruction, which injures us and oppresses 
 us, which overturns our laws, hinders justice and des- 
 troys public trust." l 
 
 Although such words were merely an echo to the 
 multitude, or were not esteemed by those who were 
 interested in the continuation of the anarchy, yet there 
 were many intelligent men who were cognizant of 
 their truth. There was, on the whole, no time when 
 Poland lacked men who were ready to sacrifice them- 
 selves for the country ; and although the decayed, 
 thousand-year-old building of the republic threatened 
 to bury under its ruins the man who jolted it, yet this 
 did not terrify the bravest from destroying the old 
 foundations with a hand of strength, and replacing 
 them by new ones. 
 
 But even these attempts to introduce a better state 
 of affairs must be termed the final causes of the final 
 downfall of this republic. 
 
 Among the parties purposing to effect a change in 
 the government, we mention first the court itself. 
 
 In the general confusion, in the distress of the 
 country, and in the degeneration of the nobility, 
 proceeding from its own body, the court hoped to 
 establish a greater independence on its own part. The 
 important offices were given away to the most sub- 
 
 1 Ferrand, Histoire du demembreruent de la Pologne.
 
 1 10 Poland. 
 
 missive and most agreeable ; the nobleman had de- 
 generated into a courtier, and the solidity of the nation 
 was purposely undermined. The excess of evil was 
 said to be the dawn of a happier condition. The 
 majority of the nobility had become extremely poor 
 because of the excessive luxury which it had copied 
 from the court ; and while, perhaps, one hundred 
 palatines, bishops, and starosts united French fashions, 
 in their households and their dress, with the opulence 
 of the Orient, a far larger number of noblemen hired 
 themselves out as servants. 1 Many of them wished to 
 enter into business in order to escape from this servile 
 state, and they would in this way have rendered most 
 substantial service to their country. The diet of 1677 
 was unwise enough to declare that business deprives a 
 nobleman of all his privileges, it being unfit for him. 
 And yet this Polish nobility which had formerly been 
 sought by foreign princes was now regardlessly flung 
 away. A Jew who left the faith of his fathers became 
 by baptism a Polish nobleman ; and, as the newer 
 nobility is almost everywhere the most arrogant, it is 
 understood that these converts made a much greater 
 noise in the diets than the blue blood of the Jagellons. 
 
 The abject humility, the servility of the expressions 
 which we recognize even to-day in the usual greeting : 
 " Upadam do nog / "=(I cast myself at your feet) is 
 derived from this dependence of the debased noble ; 
 and this among the inferior classes is accompanied at 
 the same time by such an act, or at least by an 
 obeisance, the hand touching the ground. 
 
 Of course such a humiliated noble must be easier to 
 subdue than the free-minded, independent old land- 
 lords. 
 
 But in the whole state no one was less able to 
 
 1 Le gentilhomme sous la livree fait-il une faute, le cantchou le 
 corrige. Mais on lui met un tapis sous les genoux par respect pour 
 sa genealogie. Histoire de J, Sobieski par l'Abbe Coyer.
 
 Poland. i i i 
 
 establish a predominant power than its representative 
 of supreme authority, the king. The liberum veto was 
 the boundary beyond which no efforts of this party 
 extended. 
 
 The Pototski (Potocki), one of the most important 
 families of the land, formed another stronger faction. 
 At its head were two Pototski brothers, one a primate 
 of the kingdom, the other crown-general. The trans- 
 actions of these men were managed with all the care 
 that is duly involved in an undertaking which places 
 the existence of the state in jeopardy. The regenera- 
 tion of Poland was said to proceed from Poland itself, 
 and through its own strength. Its great aim was the 
 abolishing of the liberum veto, which had become 
 altogether untenable, but which was so clear to the 
 majority. But in consequence of the degeneration of a 
 great part of the nobility, the Pototski perceived in 
 that same greatest evil the only limit to a despotism 
 which was becoming liberal. Before they dared to 
 destroy this, they thought that they must deprive the 
 crown of the dangerous instrument by which it sub- 
 ordinated a nobility, dependent on the favour of the 
 court, namely, the power to distribute honours and 
 offices. For this purpose they wished to establish a 
 commission which should bestow the investitures of 
 court favours as rewards for merit. 
 
 But these reforms affected the interests of the crown 
 and the poor nobility to such an extent that they 
 would have encountered the most violent opposition. 
 
 The Czartorinski (Czartoryiski) and their party 
 stepped forth more boldly and with more irresistible 
 energy. 
 
 The disastrous efforts of the Pototski at the diet of 
 1742, had shown that ^the Polish constitution had 
 nearly reached a remarkable stage, a stage where 
 stability proceeded from anarchy itself, where it was 
 impossible for the constitution to develop organic 
 improvements, and that Poland glided along on the
 
 ii2 Poland. 
 
 rapid stream of universal history, like a boatman who 
 has voluntarily thrown away his helm. The very evil 
 of the constitution made it unassailable. There was no 
 power in the state able to rise up against it, for, 
 though all had the means to prevent action, yet 
 none had the power to act. As long as there was 
 a state, the constitution was inviolable ; to wish to 
 change it, was to overthrow the state. The very 
 mistakes that made a reform necessary prevented a 
 reform. All authority in the state was levelled in such 
 a way that no power could be elevated, and the com- 
 plete equilibrium of all parts hindered all movement. 
 These are important reasons which should not be passed 
 unnoticed, when we roundly abuse those who sought 
 the centre of the necessary revolution outside of the 
 very country in which it had become impossible to find 
 it. 
 
 The family of the Czartorinski, already elevated 
 above republican equality by its illustrious descent 
 from the Dukes of Lithuania, for centuries ennobled 
 with the first honours of the country, and moreover 
 recently possessed of great wealth by marriage, this 
 family beheld the two brothers, Michael and Augustus, 
 at its head — the former Palatine of Polish Russia, the 
 latter Lord High Chancellor of Lithuania. 
 
 If, on the one hand, it was the intention of the 
 Pototski to establish the political power of important 
 families at the cost of the throne and by means of its 
 few remaining privileges ; the party, on the other hand, 
 at whose head Avere the Czartorinski, wished the very 
 opposite thing, namely, to establish this political power 
 by giving greater authority to the kings, by the limita- 
 tion of the power of affluent families, and by the 
 assertion of the rights of the majority. They wished 
 this the more, perhaps, since they, the scions of the 
 Jagellons, felt that they had the strength to mount 
 this very throne, and because in them patriotism 
 and family-spirit were united. Meantime the Czar-
 
 Poland. 113 
 
 torinski recognized the impossibility of effecting the 
 reform of the nation through the nation only, and their 
 eyes were directed abroad in order to borrow the 
 strength which they needed . 
 
 Poland had always believed that it beheld in France 
 a naturally ally, and certainly a sound policy would 
 have supported with vigour such a reform as the 
 Czartorinski intended. Only thus could Poland become 
 a state that had the power to act abroad, and France, 
 while it preserved its friendship by a substantial act of 
 beneficence, would have secured to itself an ally in the 
 East just as powerful as it was faithful. Although 
 history enumerates a multitude of factions which 
 French intrigue knew how to stir up and support in 
 Poland, yet we behold these at the critical moment 
 just as frequently abandoned and surrendered, in- 
 consistencies which are to be explained only by the 
 frequent change of mistress -sovereignty at the court of 
 Versailles. In earlier as in later times, France often 
 used Poland for its own ends without ever doing any- 
 thing for the benefit of the nation. No country like 
 France has had the destiny of Poland in its hands, and 
 none ever deceived it so greatly. 
 
 There was, besides, at that time, that alliance between 
 France and Austria — the strange creation of Prince 
 Kaunitz — so that Poland had no reason to expect much 
 aid from the French. 
 
 Austria and Prussia had just come from that bloody 
 war, after which Prussia entered so gloriously the 
 circle of European powers, by means of the lustre of 
 its arms, and the greatness of its kings. Prussia had 
 fought against Europe, and Austria against Prussia. 
 It is customary to measure the strength of states by 
 their victories and prosperous campaigns, but certainly 
 no country furnishes a higher opinion of its power, of 
 the inexhaustibility of its resources than does Austria 
 by its defeats. After a series of misfortunes we behold 
 it still unconquered. 
 
 vol. 1. 1
 
 ii4 Poland. 
 
 Peace was concluded, but both powers had not yet 
 laid aside their arms. Armies of 200,000 men stood 
 ready on each side to renew the battle, if necessary, 
 and each jealously watched the movements of the 
 other. 1 Yet both states needed and desired peace, and 
 continued armed only in order to maintain peace. 
 
 Certainly Poland could not expect support from 
 either of these powers. The help of one would be 
 war with the other, the ancient sceptre of the old 
 empire was as threatening as the sword of the young 
 kingdom. Meanwhile both Austria and Prussia had to 
 agree that they would prefer to see the old anarchy of 
 the republic, rather than to offer their aid to form a 
 powerful monarchy out of this best of all neighbours 
 which would be dangerous to all adjacent states. 
 
 The Turks also seemed to be forced to take active 
 interest in the fate of Poland, and, indeed, in later 
 times the wars that continued to occur more frequently 
 and to end more disastrously, and with which Russia 
 infested that kingdom, might have led it to support an 
 opponent of that arch enemy. 
 
 But the belief of the Divan in fatalism made it 
 divide all Christian powers into enemies that had 
 fought it and such as had left it in peace. Since the 
 Sublime Porte had no ambassadors at any court, it 
 regarded affairs only in the light that ambassadors of 
 foreign powers took care that it ought to regard them. 
 Absolute ignorance of all political matters was united, 
 in the Divan, with religious doctrines, and the most 
 sublime contempt of all opponents with the greatest 
 personal inability. Since the Turks no longer " en- 
 camp in Europe," but reside there, since they have 
 ceased to subjugate their neighbours, they have also 
 lost the power to defend themselves against those 
 neighbours. All the institutions by which they once 
 became so formidable have been essentially changed, 
 
 1 Compare Dohm's Denfcwurdigkeiten seiner Zeit, etc.
 
 Poland. 115 
 
 and feebleness has transformed the Turks from a war- 
 like people into a peace-loving state. The Janizaries 
 were no longer an elite, made up of kidnapped Chris- 
 tian boys, who, without wife and child and home, 
 followed the gleam of the crescent, and lived solely for 
 fame and booty. This corps was now formed chiefly 
 of effeminate Turks, native burghers who appropriated 
 to themselves the great prerogatives of the Janizaries, 
 without having even once had their weapons in their 
 hands. It is true the Spahis had not yet wholly fallen 
 from the height of their ancient renown, but their 
 enemies had meanwhile progressed, and they now 
 encountered two barriers which even their fanatical, 
 almost insane bravery could not vanquish — these were 
 the Spanish " chevaux de Frise" (spiked fences) * and 
 the artillery. The remainder of these armies, numbering 
 hundreds of thousands, which the Porte thought it had 
 to arm for each campaign, was a mob which deserted 
 before it had hardly been levied, in order to be levied 
 again. After the loss of a battle, eighty thousand of 
 these men could be seen fleeing towards Constantinople, 
 where the Sultan had to give them provisions and ships 
 to convey them to Asia Minor, merely in order to re- 
 move a riotous rabble from the capital city. 
 
 To call for the aid of such an army was, in the words 
 of the Bishop of Caminiec, " to set fire to the house in 
 order to drive out the vermin." 
 
 Now since Poland had nothing to hope from its 
 friends in Europe, the Czartorinski boldly determined 
 to make use of their enemies for their own purposes, 
 not doubting but that they could again, at the proper 
 time, destroy the power which they would create for 
 themselves, and shatter the dangerous tool when it had 
 
 1 Spanish spiked fences, chevaux de Fri'se, are beams provided with 
 six rows of pointed pales, forming a parapet nearly four or five 
 feet high, which the Russian infantry carried with them everywhere 
 in the Turkish campaigns, and on which the furious attack of the 
 cavalry was bound to be dashed to pieces. 
 
 i 2
 
 1 1 6 Poland. 
 
 served their purpose. With a profound contempt for 
 semi-barbarous Russia, they wished to avail themselves 
 of its material strength for the regeneration of Poland, 
 in order to use this new strong Poland to rebut the 
 presumptions of Russia, which already rested heavily 
 on the republic. But this task was begun during 
 the feeble reign of Peter III., and when it was finished, 
 Catharine's mighty arm already swayed the sceptre of 
 Peter the Great, and the spirits of destruction that 
 had been so boldly summoned were not to be banished 
 by any form of incantation. 
 
 Russia's development has been thoroughly Asiatic. 
 Although the sun of Christianity a thousand years 
 after its rising had cast its rays of light upon these 
 deserts, yet it has not made gentle manners or 
 customs, sciences and commerce to flourish. At an early 
 period the independence of the people passed into 
 servitude, 1 that of the nobility into the unlimited power 
 of the princes, and that of the princes into the greater 
 governments which were in Kiew, Nowgorod, Moscow, 
 and finally in St. Petersburg. The will of the indivi- 
 dual disappeared more and more in the will of the state, 
 or rather of the chief executive officer, who in his 
 person combined the highest secular and ecclesiastical 
 power, as in no other European state. Hence the 
 unity and power in the transactions of the state, hence 
 the rapid development of the same, for despotism is 
 the best form of government for barbarians. There- 
 fore Polish history is also the history of great men, 
 
 1 In the code of Jaroslaw, 1050_, it states : " A man sold in the 
 presence of witnesses becomes a bond-servant or a slave — if he is not 
 able to pay his creditor, — if he hires himself unconditionally as a 
 servant, — if he marries a female slave, etc." 
 
 " A horse-thief shall be delivered to the prince, and shall lose all 
 his civil rights, freedom, and property." 
 
 " No life-money shall be paid for a slave, but whoever kills him 
 without cause must pay to his lord the value of the slain man." 
 
 Karamsin, Oeschichte des russischen Reiches, 2 vol., 3 article — 
 Kriminal-Gesetze .
 
 Poland. 117 
 
 Russian that of a great state. In the former we 
 witness the virtues of individuals struggling with the 
 faults of the whole multitude, in the latter the talent 
 of a line of hereditary princes shattered on the badness 
 of those who were summoned to support them. 
 
 The progress of Russia was shaken by a series 
 of disturbances, for revolutions are more frequent 
 when there is less freedom. The hatred of a despotic 
 sceptre is joined with its destruction. And, therefore, 
 it is only a step from dissatisfaction to revolution, for 
 it is less dangerous to overthrow the government than 
 to complain of it. 
 
 For centuries Russia was perfectly isolated and 
 separated from the world. The mighty streams burst- 
 ing forth from its endless forests led to a sea with no 
 outlet or to regions of eternal ice. Unbounded 
 wildernesses separated it from the rest of the inhabit- 
 ants of the globe, and although the territory of the new 
 Russian state might be immeasurable, yet Russia was 
 by necessity bound to make an even greater extension 
 of the same, if it was ever to leave that state of 
 isolation. 
 
 But in the south insurmountable mountains and 
 endless steppes hostilely opposed it, in the east a people 
 numbering nine hundred million souls, and civilized 
 centuries ago, in the north an unconquerable natural 
 obstacle. 
 
 At last Peter the Great with an iron hand shook his 
 people out of the sleep of barbarism, but was not able 
 to elevate them to a high grade of civilization, which 
 must be the work of time, and is not to be reached by 
 any momentary efforts however gigantic. But when 
 he opened to Russia the Baltic Sea he built the first 
 channel for the political life of his country, and when 
 he turned from the riches of the East to the arts of the 
 West, he gave Russia the first impulse which made 
 Russia a European state. 
 
 From that time Poland was destined to become the
 
 n8 Poland. 
 
 mark always in view of the rulers of Russia, and this 
 republic, one of the oldest of European states, beheld 
 with terror its position between two of the youngest 
 monarchies of this part of the world, whose aggressive 
 development was completely blockaded by its geo- 
 graphical location. 
 
 Since the last century Poland had become accustomed 
 to seeing Russian armies within its boundaries, some- 
 times to protect the so-called oppressed dissenters, 
 sometimes to take care of the rights of the nobility, 
 once to preserve the freedom of the nation, that is, 
 the anarchy so necessary to the neighbour, another 
 time to keep the liberum veto in force, for after 
 public opinion had condemned it Russian arms con- 
 tinued to restore it. Sometimes it was to protect the 
 house of Saxony on the throne, sometimes to expel it 
 from the same. 
 
 During the Seven Years' War Poland had to grant 
 passage and winter quarters to one hundred thousand 
 Russians, and — as a passive witness of their excesses 
 and oppressions — to feed and clothe them. Even after 
 the final declaration of peace, twelve thousand Russians 
 remained in the country under the empty pretext of 
 guarding a magazine in Graudenz because it could 
 not be disposed of profitably. The few fortifications 
 possessed by Poland besides Danzig, which protected 
 itself, were in the hands of Russians, who, with even 
 a much smaller army, would have been able to rule 
 in a country where the authorities had no common 
 basis of action ; for the confederation itself became 
 in the hands of the Russians a most terrible means 
 of subjection. 
 
 The Russian arms, which had already half subdued 
 Poland, now became the instrument by which the 
 Czartorinski wished to liberate their fatherland. 
 
 This family had so long enjoyed all the favours of 
 the court that the disfavour of the same could no 
 longer be harmful to it ; it was wholly independent
 
 Poland. 119 
 
 of this court and had become its formidable enemy. 
 A name, associated with memories of great historical 
 events and extended through family alliances, assured 
 the Czartorinski an important influence over the 
 most powerful houses of the country. Boundless 
 wealth, a hospitality corresponding to this wealth and 
 the spirit of those times kept a very great number 
 of poorer noblemen dependent upon them. Finally, 
 the extensive privileges of the high offices which 
 they filled caused their favour to be sought by all 
 those who desired to advance through official positions. 
 Yet all this power and all this popularity were not 
 sufficient, when the time came, to deprive the demo- 
 cracy of nobles of those rights which gave it the sole 
 weight in the state. 
 
 In order to promote their own affairs, the Czar- 
 torinski had caused their nephew, Poniatowski, to be 
 sent to St. Petersburg as an ambassador of the 
 republic. But this young man had his own ambitious 
 plans in view. 
 
 An incident that borders on the miraculous had 
 already prophesied a crown to him while yet in his 
 cradle, and this prophecy itself contributed not a 
 little to bring about its own fulfilment. His parents, 
 having become accustomed to extraordinary things 
 in consequence of their own unique history, regarded 
 nothing as impossible, gave their child the significant 
 names Stanislaus Augustus, directed the education of 
 the boy wholly with a view to this extraordinary end, 
 and did not hesitate to initiate the youth at an early 
 age into the secret of their daring hopes. 1 
 
 During his residence in St. Petersburg the personal 
 attractions of this youth had the good fortune to win 
 for him the favour of the young grand duchess of 
 Russia, afterwards Catharine II. This affection became 
 a passion, when, at the request of the grand duke, 
 
 1 Rulhiere, Hist, de l'anarclrie de Pologne, Tome I.
 
 120 Poland. 
 
 Poniatowski was recalled from St. Petersburg, and 
 Catharine promised to fulfil the prophecy regarding him. 
 
 Indeed, when she seized the sceptre of her ill-fated 
 husband and when the throne of Poland was vacant, 
 she prepared to fulfil her promise either out of a 
 romantic attachment to her lover, or out of a vain 
 desire to give away a throne. Did she really think 
 of a marriage and of an alliance of both Slavonic 
 countries or was she ambitious to gain a powerful 
 influence over the political affairs of Europe ? 
 
 Meanwhile her own position in a country like Russia, 
 on a throne so frequently disturbed, which she had 
 just ascended by means of a new revolution, was by 
 no means so firm, that she could have dared to take any 
 important steps towards a nation which was still 
 accounted powerful, without having assured herself 
 of a strong party in this nation. 
 
 Here now the princes Czartorinski advanced to meet 
 her ; they seemed willing to lay the nation in bonds, 
 in order to make it tractable for the purposes of the 
 empress. 
 
 Unmindful of the two laws which pronounce him 
 outlawed who, in an interregnum, calls foreign troops 
 into the country, and which annul all enactments made 
 for this purpose, the Czartorinski demanded the 
 entrance of a Russian army. Consent was given to 
 this, for both parties were working energetically, each 
 determined to work for itself and to use the other only 
 as a tool for its own purposes. 
 
 The important influence of the princes Czartorinski 
 had already manifested itself in the diet of 1762, when 
 it was found necessary to take measures against Cour- 
 land by means of Russian troops. Most violent scenes 
 were the result, and this diet, like all its predecessors, 
 was dissolved ; indeed, all the princes, who were design- 
 ing to place supreme power in the hands of the 
 monarch did not hesitate to bring to notice the distri- 
 bution of the offices by a national commission, and to
 
 Poland. i 2 1 
 
 protest against the present appointment of the same. 
 They thus intended to gain a larger following among 
 the poorer nobility and at the same time to drive their 
 most powerful foes, namely, the young princes Radzi- 
 will, from their offices. After the death of Augustus 
 III., at the convocation-diet which was expressly in- 
 tended to consider necessary reforms in the adminis- 
 tration of the government, these very Czartorinski 
 agreed to that proposition. Although they intended 
 shortly to make the greatest of all reforms, yet they 
 feared only the more to do this and to arouse suspicion 
 among the nobles until they were in their power. 
 Experience had taught them that they would accom- 
 plish none of their plans so long as the nation was 
 free. 
 
 Finally, the decisive crisis for Poland, the new royal 
 election, drew near, decisive, not so much on account 
 of the election of one or another individual to the 
 throne, but on account of the conditions under which he 
 was to ascend this throne. 
 
 In order to have at hand the funds necessary for 
 this imperial diet, Catharine had stopped all payments 
 in the empire, even the pay of the military. 1 The 
 Russian money, by which Polish deputies were to be 
 bought, was brought into Warsaw under a strong 
 military escort ; 12,000 Russians encamped in front 
 of the gates of the city, or were brought by forced 
 marches to it. A Russian army of 60,000 men was 
 stationed on the frontiers of the republic. The princes 
 of Czartorinski brought 2000 of their household troops, 
 and through the influence exercised by them at the 
 elections of deputies, they were sure of finding a great 
 number of friends or supporters among the members of 
 
 1 Les soldats n'en murmuraient point, esperant bieivs'en dedomraager 
 par le pillage des provinces polonnaises, habitues depuis longtemps a 
 regarder le choix d'un roi de Pologne corame un droit que leurs 
 souverains excercaient avec quelques efforts. Rhuliere, Tome II. 
 livre 2.
 
 122 Poland. 
 
 the diet, the more so since they had distributed money 
 with the greatest profusion. 
 
 But if the Russian party was equipped on its side, 
 the republican, which, for the moment, had coalesced 
 with the Saxon against so formidable an enemy, had 
 taken no less precautions, and the more imminent the 
 danger the more determined were they to brave it. A 
 sum of fifty thousand ducats which had been paid them 
 by Saxony revived the courage of the multitude for a 
 cause in which money had now for a long time exerted 
 its weighty influence. 
 
 Branicki and Mokranowski were the two men upon 
 whom the republicans had their eyes directed. The 
 former was honoured for a long life, full of glory, the 
 latter was the hope of all, because of his unshaken 
 honesty and courage which seemed to assure him an 
 illustrious future. 
 
 The army of the republic could not be assembled. 
 However, its number did not exceed four thousand 
 undisciplined soldiers. 
 
 The aged crown-general, therefore, marched with his 
 entire body-guard to Warsaw, leaving his own property 
 unprotected against the pillage of the Russians. The 
 nucleus of his small army consisted of Hungarians, 
 Janizaries and Tartars. Radziwill joined him with his 
 troops, proudly conscious that no one would dare to 
 assail the freedom of the republic until he himself had 
 perished. The Oginski, Massalski, Malachowski, Lubo- 
 mirski, and many other celebrated names were men- 
 tioned among their followers. 
 
 Despite the weakness of this party when compared 
 with their opponents, its leaders did not despair, even 
 in face of the Russians, of preventing a free diet, or, if 
 that should be impossible, of annulling the diet under 
 Russian protection. Mokranowski undertook the 
 dangerous task of breaking it up by his veto. 
 
 About this time the ambassador of Prussia entered 
 also under the protection of a squadron of hussars.
 
 Poland. 123 
 
 Warsaw at that time presented perhaps the most 
 brilliant and most wonderful sight of any city in 
 Europe. Besides a multitude of natives and strangers, 
 whom secret commissions or personal interests had 
 brought hither, the city walls enclosed all the great, 
 influential and noble men that Poland had to exhibit. 
 The enormous sums which bribery had amassed here, 
 and which being easily earned were as easily squandered, 
 enlivened trade in an unprecedented manner. The 
 brilliant shops shone with the luxury of both hemi- 
 spheres, the costly clothes of Armenia, the dear 
 baubles of Parisian fashion, the pearls of India, the 
 native horses — all these found their purchasers, how- 
 ever expensive. Heavily laden ships sailed up the 
 stream, and, in the busy streets, Christians, JeAYS, and 
 Mussulmans thronged promiscuously. The turban of 
 the Janizary appeared side by side with the fur cap of 
 the Pole, and the dolman of the Hungarian. The bow 
 and arrows of the Tartar were seen beside the carbine 
 of the Prussian and the bayonet of the Russian, and 
 the languages of two divisions of the globe were 
 resounding in the air. From the crowded festivals and 
 spectacles, from the active bustle and the beauty of the 
 women, from the gayness of their dress, one could have 
 fancied that all these were assembled for a great national 
 celebration. But the residences of the nobles were 
 surrounded by their household guards. Poniatowski 
 had ordered his palace to be machicolated, and cannon 
 were mounted in the Court of the Russian Embassy. 
 All were armed, and although they all circulated 
 peacefully among themselves, yet everyone trembled 
 lest an accident, a quarrel, might become the spark to 
 start a most terrible explosion in a place where personal 
 passions and intense interests were strained to the 
 highest pitch, and where it was almost impossible to 
 avoid the most violent outbreaks. 
 
 Thus the seventh of May, 1764, arrived, the date 
 appointed for the opening of the imperial diet.
 
 124 Poland. 
 
 All the guards were doubled, strong detachments of 
 cavalry marched through the streets, five hundred 
 grenadiers guarded the palace of the Russian ambassa- 
 dor, Von Kayserlingk, and the Russian army was 
 drawn up in line of battle before the city, ready to 
 enter it at the first command. The supporters of the 
 Czartorinski, distinguished by a cockade of the colours 
 of this house, marched with strong escorts to the 
 house of assembly. This was surrounded and filled 
 with Russian soldiers, who were to be seen even in the 
 seats of the deputies. When the marshal of the diet, 
 Malachowski, entered with Mokranowski, the attention 
 of those present in the assembly was worked up to the 
 highest pitch of expectancy. When the latter had 
 taken his seat as deputy, he addressed those present in 
 the following words: — "Since liberty has vanished 
 from among us, since Russian troops have made their 
 way even into the assembly of the republic, and since 
 the representatives of the country wear the livery of a 
 family, in the name of twenty-two senators and of 
 forty-five deputies, as well as in my own, I declare the 
 diet annulled and dissolved." 
 
 A fearful uproar arose at these words. They cried 
 to the marshal of the diet, standing in the centre of the 
 hall Avith his staff lowered, to raise it as a sign that the 
 diet was reopened. But this veteran of eighty years 
 replied : " You cannot take counsel in the presence of 
 the Russians. You may cut off this hand, but it shall 
 never raise the staff so long as we are enslaved. A 
 free nation entrusted it to me, and only a free nation 
 can take it from me. I demand permission to leave 
 the hall." 
 
 A general tumult had begun, all swords were drawn 
 and the bold men were surrounded. The Russians 
 rushed down upon them from the galleries, but the 
 Czartorinski themselves gathered round them and 
 shielded them with their own bodies, horrified at the 
 disgrace with which the murder of two citizens, so
 
 Poland. 125 
 
 universally respected, would have overwhelmed their 
 enterprise. The two actually escaped from the wrath 
 of the crowd, and Malachowski bore away the marshal's 
 staff before the eyes of the Russians, the deputies and 
 the people. 
 
 The following morning the republicans left the city. 
 They had been requested not to pass through the camp 
 of the Russians. "I do not inquire where the 
 Russians are," answered Branicki, " but I shall take 
 the usual road." Silent, and in battle array, the 
 republican army passed by the Russians — no greeting, 
 no challenge nor shout was heard, and, with tears in 
 his eyes, Poniatowski saw many a valiant friend of the 
 fatherland withdraw from his cause. 
 
 The Czartorinski had foreseen all these events, and 
 had fully prepared for them. Neither the fury of the 
 people nor the abhorrence of the honest patriots, 
 neither the appearance of treachery nor the danger of 
 subjection must be allowed to disturb them, if they 
 wished to attain their highest object — the reconstruction 
 of Poland. It was time that the diet should be legally 
 dissolved by the protest of Mokranowski, but from the 
 very beginning it was illegal because of the presence of 
 a Russian army, and because the Russians had pre- 
 vented the election of the Russian nobles, as deputies, 
 at Graudenz. In this case might had to take the place 
 of right, and the princes Czartorinski did not let the 
 power lie unused which they had usurped after such 
 great sacrifices. 
 
 The few remaining deputies, who were not wholly 
 dependent upon the Czartorinski, were outvoted or 
 deceived. The princes occupied the people with 
 important discussions or sacrificed the demands of the 
 dissenters to their fanaticism, so that the latter saw 
 themselves placed on an equality with the protected 
 Jews, so far as their rights were concerned. It was 
 not till the greater part of the time fixed for the diet 
 had expired, that they brought forward the most
 
 126 Poland. 
 
 important matters, concealed in ambiguous phrases, and 
 discussed with such haste, that the majority hardly 
 knew what was the question under discussion. The 
 foreign ambassadors had opposed the abolition of the 
 liber um veto, but the princes, although they had to 
 yield to this point, knew how to evade this law almost 
 entirely by means of new measures. 
 
 The high officials in the departments of justice, 
 finance, war, and police, had heretofore been so many 
 sovereigns. These men, the natural opponents of the 
 proposed reforms, were deposed in a body, and 
 Michael Czartorinski, as Chancellor of Lithuania, 
 voluntarily laid aside his office. To each of these 
 departments were appointed colleges having sixteen 
 members. In these the members had to be appointed 
 by the diet, and only while the diet was not in session 
 did the king have the right to make such appointments. 
 But as it was very evident that no diet could end its 
 session so long as the liberum veto existed, this formid- 
 able liberum veto served to prolong the power of the 
 king. 
 
 It was also resolved that all proposals and business 
 affairs which referred directly to the welfare of the 
 republic, should be decided at the very commencement 
 of the diet, and, what is more, by legal form, that is, 
 by a majority vote. This expression was vague enough 
 to allow all possible kinds of matters to come under its 
 head, and it was little less than the practical abolish- 
 ment of the liberum veto, if Poland could become 
 strong enough to hold its own against foreign powers. 
 
 Moreover a number of resolutions restored order in 
 all the departments of the administration. The war 
 department was empowered to care for the extension, 
 instruction, discipline and maintenance of the army, 
 which itself was to be increased. In the judicial 
 department a court of justice was to be once more 
 granted to the peasants. The power of the nobles was 
 broken, the offices which were almost independent of
 
 Poland. 127 
 
 the king were abolished, the arbitrary power of the 
 nobles over their subjects was restricted, the privileges 
 of the great cities, of the provinces, and of the religious 
 sects were abrogated, and all were placed under the 
 direct control of the government. 
 
 On the seventh of September, 1764, Stanislaus 
 Augustus Poniatowski ascended the throne which his 
 uncles had strengthened and provided with such 
 important privileges. The four regiments of guards 
 were placed under his immediate command, the postal 
 service and the mint were entrusted to his control, and 
 he was allowed to choose for himself four of the most 
 valuable domains which belonged to the nobles. 
 
 Thus the Chancellor of Lithuania succeeded in trans- 
 forming the whole anarchical administration into an 
 actual monarchy. Under the guise of improving a 
 few branches of the administration, the entire structure 
 of the government had been actually reconstructed. 
 But in order to preserve before foreign powers the 
 appearance of the old constitution and even of the old 
 abuses, and, at the same time, in order to force the 
 nobility to submit to the new order of things, and to be 
 armed against foreign foes, the diet was changed at the 
 end of the session into a confederation, at the head of 
 which was placed a Czartorinski. 
 
 Never before had an undertaking involving greater 
 difficulties been more boldly planned, more skilfully 
 executed, and, apparently, more happily accomplished 
 than this governmental reform of the Czartorinski. 
 
 The presence of foreign enemies had forced those 
 at home to remain quiet. The ravages and acts of 
 violence wrought by the Russians had been a powerful 
 weapon in the hands of the princes. Their arms 
 restrained the nobility, and the confederate nobles 
 were enabled to protect the new constitution with the 
 means which created it. 
 
 But not only the Russian arms, but also the passions 
 of their empress had been of service to the princes.
 
 128 Poland. 
 
 Since their pride had caused the sacrifice of a crown, 
 since they had renounced the splendour of an unstable 
 throne, they were certain that they would be able to 
 retain the exercise of all their rights in the newly- 
 formed monarchy. Those who had helped Poland 
 did not observe that it had received a new constitution, 
 that the basis of a powerful monarchy had been laid, 
 until this incredible event had become an actual fact. 
 
 The new sceptre of Poland wanted nothing now but 
 a strong hand to wield it, but Stanislaus Augustus was 
 not equal to this difficult task. He was terrified at the 
 thought of a war with Russia, and a revolution among 
 the dissatisfied nobles. When he separated his interests 
 from those of his uncles, he gave up their creation and 
 Poland, and when he placed all his hopes on the 
 generosity of the Empress of Russia, he became the 
 victim of her policy. 
 
 The downfall of the republic, and the final divi- 
 sion of its territory, were the natural consequences of 
 the entire internal condition of this state, whose 
 continuance had become impossible. We are only 
 astonished that it could have existed so long. It 
 is true that the constitution of the third of May, 1791, 
 made one more attempt to preserve the existence of the 
 country by a regeneration of its institutions. A 
 reasonable increase of the power of the king, and the 
 hereditary right of the same, the abolition of the 
 liberum veto, the emancipation of the middle class, and 
 some few advantages made for the welfare of the 
 peasants, 1 were the chief purposes of a wiser constitution 
 which Poland ought to have made to flourish after a 
 
 1 As regards the insufficiency of this constitution, the difference 
 between what it was intended to do, and what it actually did 
 accomplish, we may say with Mably : — " On ne peut attaquer 
 directement les abus les plus considerables sans effaroucher les 
 citoyens qui trouveront un avantage a, les conserver. Cette multi- 
 tude innombrable se liguera, elle conjurera contre la pa trie, et ses 
 efforts reunis ernpecheront sans doute qu'on ne put fixer les principes
 
 Poland. 129 
 
 long schooling in tribulation. But this attempt was 
 made a hundred years too late, and it had no effect on 
 the internal life of the state. 
 
 The dismemberment of the republic was fated at last 
 to cause its destruction, and with sadness Poland beheld 
 her own sons in the ranks of her enemies. 
 
 There was another reason why social reforms could 
 not take root in Poland, and even combined in ruining 
 the republic, that is, because those classes of society for 
 whose benefit the reforms were intended had them- 
 selves not yet been brought into existence ; at least, 
 they were on so low a stratum of culture and power 
 that the new order of things could not have hoped to 
 find in them a support and a defender. 
 
 Finally, one must not fail to observe that Poland by 
 its very geographical position was altogether in the 
 way of two neighbouring states, both of which had in 
 the last hundred years made rapid and unparalleled 
 progress, and in their speedy development were bound 
 to ruin themselves or to annihilate all barriers opposing 
 them. The formation of the land itself brought the 
 Polish nation into collision with Prussia, and this became 
 obvious the very moment these peoples emerged from 
 their barbarous isolation. 
 
 After that Russia had taken the Black Sea from the 
 Polish republic, all the latter's rivers and ways of com- 
 munication led through Prussia. Prussia cut it off from 
 the sea and from the world beyond. The Vistula was 
 the last great artery of life left to Poland, and Prussia 
 was in possession of the mouth of this river. Indeed, 
 one cannot well understand how Poland is to remain 
 independent without Prussia. One is unwilling to 
 claim that this may be secured by the possession of 
 Danzig or by free navigation on the Vistula, Woe to 
 
 du gouvernement. Combien de k'gislateurs n'ont pii reparer la faute 
 qu'ils avaient faite de montre rou de laisser entrevoir toute l'etendue 
 des projects qu'ils mcditaient." 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 Poland. 
 
 the people whose existence is to depend on a title-deed 
 for which it does not hold the guarantee by its own 
 strength ! Sooner or later Prussia must have become 
 Polish, or Prussian Poland, or the republic must have 
 ceased to exist. In this connection it is interesting to 
 reflect what might have been the probable fate of this 
 state if it had called to its throne the house of Branden- 
 burg instead of Saxony. 
 
 The threefold partition of Poland did not end the 
 long series of convulsions, and this unfortunate land 
 continued to be the scene of revolutions after it had 
 been dropped from the roll of nations. 
 
 Many Poles emigrated after the catastrophe at the 
 end of the year 1795 which decided the fate of the 
 country, and those capable of bearing arms were 
 gradually enlisted under the flag of France. It is well 
 known how valiantly these men helped to make all 
 those glorious campaigns which elevated France to her 
 supremacy, a supremacy soon to rest heavily on all 
 Europe. 
 
 And now all the Poles, who regarded their new 
 rulers as oppressors and the restoration of their country 
 as their salvation, centered their hopes in France, 
 their oldest ally, their natural friend for whom they 
 had just fought more successfully than for them- 
 selves. Napoleon, the arbitrator of the destinies of the 
 world, who had founded so many new empires on the 
 ruins of those he had destroyed, why should he not 
 reunite the fragments of one of the oldest powers, one 
 that had been his most faithful ally ? 
 
 And when the peace of Tilsit gave him the power to 
 make a present of one half of Prussia and to crush the 
 other, he actually did form an independent state out of 
 that part of Poland Avhich had belonged to Prussia and 
 called it the Duchy of Warsaw. 
 
 This new Polish duchy received a French constitu- 
 tion and a German regent, the King of Saxony. The 
 diets were newly organized and divided into two
 
 Poland. 13 r 
 
 chambers, the French code was introduced and bond 
 service abolished. 
 
 Let us consider for a moment what happened at this 
 time and what aroused the enthusiasm of the multitude. 
 An area of eighteen hundred square miles, with a 
 population of four million Poles, had been constituted 
 an independent duchy, and the new state was only too 
 soon to feel the whole weight of its political existence. 
 The proximity of Russia and Austria made it necessary 
 to maintain an army which was disproportionate to the 
 population of the country. It is true that an esteemed 
 and paternal ruler had been assigned to Poland, but 
 Saxony was not of itself sufficiently important to save 
 the country from the oppression of Napoleon. The 
 military levies for the French armies by means of the 
 forcible system of conscription, robbed the land of its 
 strength. The civil list, which had been planned on a 
 grand scale, and the endowments of the French 
 marshals exhausted its revenues. But the " Berlin 
 Decrees " did more than anything else to destroy the 
 sources of wealth from which such great advantages 
 could have been gained. All commerce ceased, and 
 Poland suffered great want in the midst of its many 
 products. And now to these great sacrifices was 
 added the conviction, which forced itself upon all 
 thinking people, that the duchy was fated to be the 
 scene of the first war between France and Austria or 
 Russia, and that it would then be deserted by France, 
 even by its own troops. For the army which was 
 maintained by the country with extreme difficulty was 
 not even at hand for the protection of the country, but 
 was distributed in the Prussian fortresses or was fight- 
 ing in Spain. 1 
 
 Although it was truly an oppressive burden for all 
 governmental arrangements and obligations to be 
 
 1 Compare u Mcmoires sur la Pologne et les Polonais," by Mich. 
 Oginski. 
 
 K 2
 
 132 Poland. 
 
 apportioned wholly disproportionate to the size of the 
 duchy, yet many believed that in this they had a 
 surer pledge that Napoleon had only formed the frame- 
 work of a new state in which subsequently all Poland 
 should be reunited. The greatness of the sacrifices 
 which this nation made for France seemed to authorize 
 expectations not less great. Napoleon himself had 
 plainly expressed his intention of restoring Poland, 
 at Berlin, Posen, and Warsaw, he had received the 
 Galician deputies, and he himself had sent emissaries 
 to Lithuania. 
 
 On the other hand, a few Poles began to think that 
 they had little to expect from the generosity of the 
 emperor. The readiness with which, at the Treaty of 
 Tilsit, Bialystok had been ceded to Russia, led them to 
 think that Napoleon would have sacrificed the rest of 
 Prussian Poland if it had been in his interest to do so. 
 He demanded money, arms, men, and horses, and he 
 exchanged for them hopes for the future and indefinite 
 promises. It seemed to them as if Napoleon had a 
 high opinion of the Poles as soldiers, but a poor 
 opinion of them as citizens. 
 
 Koscziusko might have had the same opinion, for a 
 word from him to his fellow countrymen would have 
 been worth an army to the emperor. But the most 
 faithful friend of his fatherland remained silent, and 
 the most splendid promises of Napoleon could not 
 induce him to take part in the new creation of that 
 Polish duchy. 
 
 If the more cultured class, the one influenced by 
 the sentiment of nationalism, love of country, and 
 hope for its welfare, if this class already felt itself 
 deceived, the citizens and peasants felt only an increase 
 of their misery. There is no need of proof to show 
 that the high taxes, the " Berlin Decrees," and the 
 instability of the country's political existence were 
 disastrous to trade. It resulted in the partial ruin of
 
 Poland. i 33 
 
 the newly-built shops and factories on which Prussia 
 had expended millions. 1 
 
 The peasant had been proclaimed free. The prin- 
 ciple for which France had fought so long and so 
 successfully, did not allow its ruler to perpetuate the 
 slavery of a nation. He therefore announced with 
 great ostentation the total abolition of all bondage. 
 " The services and burdens of the peasant could only 
 depend on a contract. House, farm, land, cattle and 
 implements belong to the lord, but the peasant is 
 absolutely free." 
 
 The result of this law was that the peasant could be 
 annually deprived of his place, and it had to be 
 surrendered without any kind of compensation. 2 Of 
 course, he had the right to emigrate, and, outside of 
 his own country the labour of his hands would have 
 provided him with a comfortable existence in the 
 lowest grade of society. But habit, poverty, ignorance, 
 and his native tongue bound the unfortunate man 
 quite as much to his own home ; and the only use he 
 could make of his freedom was that he could leave a 
 place where things went wrong with him, in order to 
 betake himself to another where he was not destined 
 to be better off. Compared with such freedom, bond- 
 age was a boon. The wretchedness of the peasantry 
 now first reached its highest point, and the saying of 
 the peasant, "nothing is mine but what I drink up," 
 was both a proverb and a terrible truth, for life assured 
 
 1 It is estimated that in the year 1800 there were 1,200,000 sheep 
 in South Prussia, that is, in a country where everything had to lie 
 imported at first. The district of Warsaw produced this same year 
 •4000 stones of wool, that of Kalisch 12,000, the department of 
 Posen 42,000 ; and yet the number of the newly-founded cloth 
 factories was so great that this supply of wool was not sufficient for 
 them. In the year 1802 they finished 145,000 pieces of cloth. 
 
 2 V. Gravenitz, " Der Bauer in Poland." "It was the freedom of 
 the bird on the roof, which flies away if anyone throws stones at 
 him."
 
 i 34 Poland. 
 
 him no other joys than the delusions of intoxication, 
 and no hope save that in another world which the 
 priests had promised him. 
 
 When in the war of 1812, which Napoleon called the 
 second Polish war, the general confederation at 
 Warsaw proclaimed the reconstruction of Poland, 
 much was wanting to make the enthusiasm universal. 
 Lithuania had seen too well the example of the duchy. 
 Its nobles had been kindly treated by Russia, they saw 
 themselves flattered, their customs honoured. Alex- 
 ander also inspired them with hopes for the reunifica- 
 tion of all Poland, in a peaceful manner, under the 
 sceptre of Russia. France gave their peasants freedom 
 and demanded the greatest sacrifices. Its armies, 
 collected from ten nations, were devastating the land, 
 sacking towns and villages, castles and huts, in order 
 to keep themselves from starvation, and they were half 
 forced to commit the greatest deeds of violence. 1 
 
 The duchy had made tremendous efforts. 2 It had 
 raised and equipped an army of more than 60,000 
 men. 3 The expenses exceeded one hundred millions. 
 The annual revenue amounted to only forty millions. 
 The deficit of the year 1811 was twenty-one millions 
 of unpaid taxes, which had to be paid in natural 
 products. It is true that for the past five years the 
 richest harvests had been garnered, but the country 
 no longer had any export. In the north the " Berlin 
 Decrees " had closed Danzig ; in the south the Turkish 
 war had shut off Odessa. In the year 1812, on the 
 other hand, there had been a complete failure of crops. 
 The taxes were doubled, but no duties were paid in, 
 and many landowners made their estates over to the 
 
 1 Compare " Histoire de Napoleon et de la grandc aimee," by 
 Count de Segur. 
 
 2 Compare " Histoire de l'ambassade en Pologne," by Mr. de 
 Pradt. 
 
 3 " Je n'ai vu personne ! " said Napoleon on bis return to War- 
 saw.
 
 Poland. 135 
 
 treasury commission, because the taxes could not be 
 raised. The civil officers were not paid, and the con- 
 tractors had fled. 1 The payment of seven millions 
 which France owed for supplies was withheld with 
 worthless excuses. The salt mines of Wieliezka were 
 already mortgaged for twelve millions. Napoleon had 
 advanced the pay for the army for the month of June, 
 in the month of July it was stopped entirely, and 
 afterwards no payment was ever made. 
 
 Meantime the French armies marched through the 
 country, robbed the inhabitants, and carried off the 
 peasants and horses. Their number was increasing. 
 Well or sick they had to be fed, clothed and provided 
 'with everything. Warsaw was the capital, the 
 magazine, the hospital, and the ammunition depot. 
 When the Durutte division entered the city, rations for 
 64,000 men were served out daily, and there never had 
 been less than 6000 dealt out. 2 
 
 Considering the history of Poland, as we have, with 
 regard to its internal and social condition, the episode 
 of the duchy of Warsaw had to be cited, not because it 
 was an event which promoted or established the deve- 
 lopment of that condition, but because it was an inter- 
 ruption which hindered and partly retarded the same, 
 while at the same time it destroyed much that Prussia 
 had created at great sacrifices. 
 
 While the Polish nation was in the power of three 
 such different states as Austria, Russia, and Prussia, its 
 lot was naturally a varied one. Whatever we may 
 think of the political act which divided the state, it 
 
 1 A review, which was fixed for the first of November, 1811, 
 could not take place, because the soldiers had no shoes. 
 
 2 Yet Poland recovered more quickly than Lithuania. "Les 
 habitans de la Russie Blanche et de la Lithuanie sont les seuls 
 encore (1819), qui reduits a la miscre a la suite de la campagne 1812, 
 n'ayant ni manufactures, ni commerce, ni argent, attendent tout de 
 la providence et de la bienveillance de leur souverain." — Michel 
 Oginski, " Mcmoire sur la Pologne."
 
 136 Poland. 
 
 is certain that in one respect the greater part of the 
 nation received immeasurable benefits as regards 
 administration, police, and commerce, since it was 
 immediately subdivided into states which were far in 
 advance in all these departments. And it is certain 
 that it was forced into a position which the constitution 
 of the third of May, 1791, had it been carried out and 
 actually continued, could never have secured to it. 1 
 
 But, of course, no one likes to be forced, not even fco 
 be happy, and how often, indeed, an idea has been 
 valued more than a real advantage. 
 
 Moreover it was impossible to plan a measure for 
 the public good, which did not in some way oppose the 
 interests of the nobles, and for the simple reason that 
 these nobles were already in possession of all the 
 advantages. Therefore, in case of any of these changes 
 the noble could only suffer for the time being. But 
 these changes, which were inevitable, not only opposed 
 their interests, they also diminished their privileges, 
 which had become hallowed by two hundred years of 
 undisturbed possession. And those who now suffered 
 by the abolition of privileges usurped by their ancestors 
 were not guilty. In addition to this the downfall of the 
 country was keenly felt by the nobility, the only edu- 
 cated class in Poland, though perhaps only by it, and 
 the interest and patriotism of the noble was deeply 
 wounded, for his feeling of nationally was uncommonly 
 intense. 
 
 It was a difficult task, therefore, for that government 
 to watch and hold in check this numerous, powerful, 
 and influential class of citizens, and at the same time 
 to act on liberal principles ; and we believe that these 
 facts must never be disregarded when one is inclined to 
 criticize what happened on the part of the administra- 
 tion and the opposition which it encountered secretly 
 or openly. 
 
 1 Compare F. J. Jekel's " Analysis of the Constitution of May 3rd, 
 1791."
 
 Poland. 157 
 
 In order to give an idea of the way in which the 
 different governments strove to solve this problem, let 
 us next cite the following measures referring essentially 
 to the Austrian part of the country, which at the same 
 time throw full light on the state of affairs existing in 
 the interior. 
 
 First of all, the nobles were ordered to remove all 
 cannon and ammunition from . the country, on pain of 
 confiscation (Law of April, 1776). The sale of the 
 estates of nobles could only be made after an emigra- 
 tion tax of ten per cent. (September, 1781), and 
 strangers not naturalized could not buy estates in the 
 country. Permission to travel in foreign lands was 
 granted to those who had reached their twenty-eighth 
 year. Those subjects who did not spend half the year 
 on their estates in Galicia had to pay double taxes, 
 (Law of 1783, repealed 1790). The landowners were 
 compelled to lend their peasants corn for sowing ; 
 where this was not done the peasant was provided with 
 corn by the state, and this loan was at once paid by 
 sequestrating the lord's land (April, 1787). The estates 
 had to be surveyed at a great expense, and a fixed part 
 of the costs was apportioned to each village by a rural 
 tax, and the landowners sub-collected it from the 
 peasants. The landlord was responsible for this tax 
 as well as for all oppression of subordinates by his 
 tenants and officers (June, 1784), etc. 1 
 
 It cannot be denied that many of these measures, 
 while beneficial for the whole, must have been severe 
 upon privileged individuals, especially when they 
 attacked personal liberty, and that the nobles, too, 
 could find no compensation, although the woiwodes and 
 starosts were raised to the rank of counts, and the 
 deputies of the districts to the extensive order of 
 Austrian barons. 
 
 What the government did for the aid of commerce 
 
 1 Compare F. J. Jekel " Polens Staatsveriinderung," etc.
 
 13& Poland. 
 
 and industry, both of which had sunk so low, can never 
 be misinterpreted. Already in the year 1809 two 
 hundred and fifty miles of roads were constructed in 
 Galicia alone. The wholly ruined mining industry 
 was put into active operation. The salt-works of 
 Wieliezka, which under Polish rule had produced 
 6,000,000 hundredweight, under most favourable 
 circumstances, produced in 1809, 17,000,000 hundred- 
 weight of salt, 1 and the smelting furnancesof Jakubeny 
 annually produced more than 4000 hundredweight of 
 iron. The breed of horses was also improved by 
 excellent studs, which supplied not only the cavalry of 
 the greater part of the Austrian monarchy, but large 
 numbers also were allowed to be sold abroad. In 1817 
 Galicia had over 311,000 horses. 2 
 
 Trade and commerce were still mostly in the hands 
 of the Jews, who, as we described them before, have 
 continued to be what they were in former times. For 
 this reason and on account of their enormous increase 
 this race necessarily became the chief object of concern 
 to the governments, especially to Austria and Russia. 
 
 As the Jews marry when they are scarcely out of 
 their teens they are soon surrounded by a numerous 
 family, and an opportune bankruptcy is nothing less 
 than a rare expedient in order to establish the sons-in- 
 law. Their number has increased therefore incredibly, 
 and we may assume that in every census of the 
 population it is put too low, because the Jews still try 
 in every way possible to avoid being counted. 
 
 The following statistics 3 will convince one of the 
 extent of their increase, especially in the cities. 
 
 1 It has been estimated that these salt-mines have produced the 
 enormous amount of 550,000,000 cwt. of salt from the time of their 
 discovery till the year 1812. 
 
 2 But it had only 400,000 sheep. The Prussian part of the country 
 had 1,200,000 of them. 
 
 3 "Geographie de l'Est de l'Europe," published in 1825 at 
 Breslau, by Stanislaus Plater.
 
 Poland. 139 
 
 Posen contains 25,000 inhabitants, of these 5000, 
 that is one-fifth of the entire population, are Jews. 
 
 Warsaw, with 130,000 inhabitants, had in the year 
 1807 about 9000 Jews, in the year 1822 these had 
 already increased to 27,000, and likewise formed one- 
 fifth of the population. 
 
 Lemberg, with 50,000 inhabitants, has 15,000 
 Jews, thus making almost a third of the population of 
 this city. 
 
 In Wilna, 30,000 of the 50,000 inhabitants are Jews, 
 that is three-fifths; and in Brocly 17,000 of its 25,000 
 inhabitants, that is two-thirds of all its number are 
 Jews. 
 
 In the ojjen country, to be sure, the Jews are not so 
 numerous, yet in proportion to the population of the 
 provinces their number is remarkable. 
 
 The province of Posen has 980,000 inhabitants, of 
 these 70,000 are Jews, that is one-fourteenth of the 
 population. Galicia counts among its 4,000,000 in- 
 habitants 300,000 Jews, that is one-thirteenth. The 
 kingdom of Poland numbered 3,700,000 inhabitants, 
 of whom one-ninth, 400,000, are Jews. Lithuania, 
 Samagitia, Volhynia, White Russia, Ukraine, and 
 Podolia have 8,800,000 inhabitants, of whom 1,300,000, 
 or one-sixth, are Jews. 
 
 The total population of the above, formerly Polish 
 territory, is as follows: 17,480,000 inhabitants, of 
 whom 15,410,000 are Christians, 2,070,000 Jews. 
 
 According to this the Jews form more than the 
 eighth part of the Polish population, and considerably 
 exceed the number of inhabitants of kingdoms like 
 Wurtemberg, Saxony, or Denmark. In those pro- 
 vinces where the Jews are least numerous every four- 
 teenth person is a Jew, in others every ninth ; in the 
 most important cities of the land, on the other hand, 
 every fifth man, at least, is a Jew, while in a few cases 
 two of every three inhabitants are Jews. 
 
 If these strangers were formerly made to reside
 
 140 Poland. 
 
 outside of the cities in the suburbs, they have now 
 made the suburbs the city. 1 Their district is marked 
 by a kind of gate consisting of two posts which are 
 joined by an iron bar, and often the stone synagogue 
 proudly towers above the wooden church, showily deco- 
 rated within, but completely ruined. In the cities the 
 houses of the Jews are also wretched huts, yet they are 
 better than those of the Christians. Their costume is 
 the same throughout the country, and is quite Oriental, 
 flowing black garments fastened as far as the waist with 
 many hooks and extending to the ankles, high fur caps, 
 worn even in summer, and under them a black cap, 
 their heads shaved excepting two long ringlets on each 
 side, and an unshorn beard. They always wear slippers 
 except when travelling. This costume, the great 
 poverty of the masses, their uncleanliness and the death- 
 like pallor, characteristic of the whole race, make their 
 appearance more striking than pleasant. 
 
 All Jews, even those yet in Lithuania, speak German, 
 a circumstance which is of great convenience to 
 foreigners who are rarely acquainted with the different 
 languages of the country. The greater part still speak 
 Hebrew, and this ability to criticize in the presence of 
 the lower classes, without being understood, gives them 
 a certain kind of superiority. 
 
 The stranger is amazed at the number of these 
 people who sit idle before their doors in the sun and 
 converse with a liveliness of gesture and expression 
 peculiar to themselves. Thousands of them are to be 
 found at any time without employment, and yet they 
 all live. 
 
 Those Jews Avho are artisans have gained posses- 
 sion of the easiest and most profitable trades. They 
 are tailors, upholsterers, cabinet-makers, carpenters, 
 
 1 " Le plus gros endroit habitue par des Chretiens et des paysans 
 n'est jamais repute qu'un village, ' wiez.' II suffit au contraire 
 d'une douzaine de families juives pour en faire un ' miasteczko,' 
 petite ville." — Leonard Chodzko, " Les Juifs en Pologne."
 
 Poland. 141 
 
 rope-makers, weavers, millers, etc., but above all they 
 are watch-makers and jewellers. In the large cities 
 they crowd round the travellers and hire themselves as 
 agents, a kind of hired servant, who most punctually 
 transact all commissions for the very smallest com- 
 pensation. They know or find out everything, provide 
 all that is asked for, and though their obtrusiveness is 
 excessively annoying, they are altogether indispensable. 
 
 The inn everywhere belongs to the Jews. The 
 Polish traveller with his excellent horses, of which he 
 usually drives five, makes very long journeys and is 
 without choice as to a place of stopping when night 
 overtakes him. The rich man takes his own cook with 
 him, his silver service, his Hungarian wine ; everyone 
 takes his supper, several cushions and carpets which 
 are to be his bed, and he takes even his forage. 
 None of these things, of course, are to be found in the 
 inns, and the foreign traveller who does not happen to 
 be equipped in this manner would run actual risk of 
 starving, if every manor-house did not offer him a 
 hearty, hospitable reception, which can everywhere be 
 counted on. 
 
 But far greater profits flow into the hands of the 
 Jews from their being the first to put the value upon 
 the produce of the land, which they manage for the 
 landowner, or turn into money. The mills, distilleries, 
 and public-houses are their inexhaustible sources of 
 wealth, and the entire produce of the estates passes 
 through their hands. The Jew who rents the public- 
 houses in the village, is the one from whom the 
 landlord derives his chief income. He surrenders to 
 this Jew, whom he knows he can abuse ill-humouredly 
 with safety, by whom he knows himself to be cheated, 
 and with whom, however, he cannot dispense — to this 
 one he surrenders the management of his peasantry 
 without mercy, and without regard for the oppres- 
 sions which such a man will practise for his own 
 advantage.
 
 142 Poland. 
 
 Through the Jew the landlord also makes all his 
 purchases, ignoring all Christian merchants who, of 
 course, are unable in any way to compete with the 
 money-genius of this race. And almost all the cash is 
 in their hands, and the nobleman goes in debt for it 
 upon the best part of his estates. Because of the 
 multitude of Jews, and the important position held by 
 this people in the country, criticisms made by travellers 
 and writers upon their moral condition actually terrify 
 one. All methods are the same to them as long as 
 they serve their purpose. In the campaign of 1812, 
 the spies were Jews, who were paid by both parties, 
 and who betrayed both parties. In Wilna they 
 practised the most revolting cruelties on the un- 
 fortunate survivors of the French army. 1 In nine 
 lawsuits out of ten a Jew is sure to be the plaintiff or 
 the defendant. Since they are acquainted with the 
 interiors of every house and every family, they are the 
 informers throughout the whole country. 2 It is very 
 rare that the police detect a theft in which a Jew is 
 not involved as an accomplice, or as a receiver of 
 stolen goods. 3 It is the Jews who smuggle and arm 
 the peasants to do it by force, etc. 
 
 The Karaites are a notable exception ; they reject 
 the Talmud and hold to the text of the Scriptures. 
 They engage mostly in agriculture and keep themselves 
 wholly apart from the rest of the Jews, who are their 
 greatest enemies. There are between four and five 
 thousand of this sect, who live chiefly in Lithuania and 
 Volhynia. 
 
 Much has recently been done for the moral elevation 
 of the Jews. Emperor Joseph believed that this race 
 was naturally no more depraved than any other, that 
 it was unwilling to adjust itself to social and civil life ? 
 
 Scgur " Histoire de Napoleon." 
 8 Joseph Rohrer's " Gemiilde des osterreichischen Staates." 
 3 Malte Brun, "Tableau de Polognc."
 
 Poland. 143 
 
 and to fulfil these duties, chiefly because it had been 
 deprived of all the privileges and advantages of the 
 same. 1 Normal schools were built, which, despite all 
 opposition, even the girls had to attend. Without a 
 certificate of the normal school no youth was allowed 
 to be instructed in the Talmud, no marriage could be 
 contracted, and no apprentice be freed. The religious 
 customs of their ancestors were perfectly free, yet no 
 men were allowed to many under eighteen, no women 
 under sixteen. All jurisdiction was taken from the 
 Rabbis and they were not allowed to excommunicate 
 anyone. Fourteen thousand Jewish families were 
 settled as agriculturists, and the entire Jewish com- 
 munity paid the costs of the purchase of the land and 
 the agricultural implements, as well as of the farm 
 buildings. 
 
 In 1792 an important law was repealed, namely, 
 that no Jew could dwell in the country who was not a 
 farmer or a mechanic. However, they were forbidden, 
 on pain of banishment, to buy from the peasants the 
 unharvested corn, the unborn cattle and the unshorn 
 wool, things which were usually sold for drink before- 
 hand in the taverns. In Galicia the Jews are liable to 
 military service, but they are employed in the baggage- 
 train, unless " one voluntarily wishes to use a gun." 
 In the wars of 1813 and 1815, over fifteen thousand 
 Jews served under the Austrian flag. 
 
 By Ukas of April, 1827, the Russian Jews were 
 made liable to military service ; the Prussian, since 
 1817. 
 
 The most important enactment in favour of the 
 peasant in Galicia was when Emperor Joseph, April 
 5th, 1872, abolished bondage. Those subjects who 
 had no houses were permitted at once to leave their 
 
 1 Compare v. Dohni "Ueber die biirgerliclie Verbesserung der 
 Juden," and on the other hand, v. Kortum, " Ueber Judenthum und 
 Juden."
 
 144 Poland. 
 
 master, and were no longer obliged to do " orphan 
 service." Compelled services (Iioboten) were con- 
 tinued, but they were subjected to exact limitation 
 and arbitrament, June, 1786. 
 
 The immaturity of the peasant is best illustrated by 
 the regulations passed for his benefit. It was pro- 
 hibited to lend him more than three florins (12 
 groschen). No one was to give him brandy on credit. 
 Henceforth peasants were not obliged to buy a certain 
 quantity of brandy from their masters, and an attempt 
 was made to lessen the consumption of brandy by 
 establishing breweries. 
 
 In Prussia such special laws were not enacted for 
 Polish subjects ; the regulations enforced for all the 
 provinces were extended to these also, a thing that 
 could be done sooner, since the number of Poles under 
 Prussian rule was comparatively small. 
 
 Since the establishment of the kingdom of Prussia 
 this monarchy has been chiefly characterized by its 
 continuous though peaceful progress, by its unceasing 
 development and cultivation of its internal state of 
 affairs, without leaps and without revolutions, methods 
 which have given Prussia a place in the front of 
 reformation, of enlightenment, of liberal institutions, 
 and of a reasonable freedom, at least in Germany. 
 
 Thus Prussia now received a heterogenous element in 
 the annexation of Poland, and the more this addition 
 became necessary to the country's local requirements 
 the more necessary was it to seek to amalgamate it 
 with the whole. The determined effort of all the Poles 
 to preserve their nationality even amidst the dis- 
 memberment, and to see therein the only and last 
 guarantee of a possible reunion, brought them, there- 
 fore, at once into conflict with the natural tendencies 
 of the administration. 
 
 The institutions which in Prussia have proceeded 
 from the development of the people themselves, were 
 in the new province called into life at one stroke.
 
 Poland. 145 
 
 They found, therefore, neither the spirit nor the mind 
 of the people ready for them. Wherever enlightenment 
 had not prepared the "way for them, they caused 
 surprise, and the extension to Polish subjects of the 
 laws made for the monarchy was for them a veritable 
 revolution. 
 
 The equality of all classes before the law, and the 
 protection of the law for the very lowest class were 
 natural results of the union with Prussia. Moreover 
 this offered the oppressed peasant protection from ex- 
 cessive abuse. But as the Prussian country-law only 
 jDrovides for the abatement of existing burdens when 
 a diminution of the income has recently taken place, 
 for example, when fields are flooded or sanded, etc., 
 but a diminution is only possible when there is still an 
 income, the condition of the peasant who had nothing 
 more to lose than his life, was not thereby essentially 
 bettered. Such a great evil could not be alleviated by 
 ordinary measures. 
 
 Still this was absolutely necessary, for the condition 
 of the peasant and the state of agriculture had sunk 
 to the lowest level. 
 
 Since the customary " three-field system " robbed 
 the land of its strength annually, even under the 
 management of the owner, how much more must this 
 have been the case with a farmer who rented the farm 
 for a year, and who was, besides, a new hand on the 
 place. 
 
 As the fields became wastes, so the dwellings also 
 became ruins. The peasant did not lift his hand to 
 prop up the hut, which threatened to fall in upon his 
 head, and in which he no longer had any right of 
 ownership. It is true that there was abundance of 
 wood, straw, lime, and stone everywhere, and that 
 nature had scattered building materials in the fields 
 also surrounding the wretched villages, but it never 
 occurred to the peasant to pick them up, for he was 
 uncertain whether he would not be obliged to leave 
 
 vol. 1. L
 
 146 Poland. 
 
 without compensation at the end of a year's time what 
 he had built to-day. No fruit orchard, no garden 
 surrounds his house, for before the fruit ripens he who 
 planted it is perhaps driven away, and there are no 
 hedges nor ditches nor fences, because there is nothing 
 to protect or to enclose. Even the animal world 
 became stunted and crippled, under the curse of serf- 
 dom. Nowhere were there worse horses than those of 
 the peasants in Poland, once celebrated for its fine 
 breeds. This is easily explained, for the common 
 peasant harnesses the horse when two years old, over- 
 Avorks it daily, leaves it uncared for, and gives it only 
 the worst kind of fodder. If the cattle of the peasant 
 dies, the landlord has to reinace it, because he other- 
 wise could not do the work which was due to his 
 master. The landlord had to do everything ; he had 
 to build anew the buildings which would have stood a 
 long time with slight repairs on the part of the occu- 
 pant, he had to replace things that would have lasted 
 a long time with a little care in using, he had to 
 protect things which the peasant had no interest in 
 protecting. Bread, it is to be remembered, was a 
 rarity for the peasant in the great granary of Europe, 
 and potatoes were his sole nourishment. They fur* 
 nished him with his daily food, and, unfortunately, 
 his only drink. When the potato crop is exhausted, 
 usually early in the year, then the peasant expects that 
 his landlord shall miserably support him. He begs 
 everything from his lord's kindness, medicine for his 
 sickness, boards for his coffin and mass for the salvation 
 of his soul. And such is not the Polish peasant as 
 he was in the middle ages, but as he lives at this hour 
 in all villages, even under Prussian rule where the 
 emancipation has not taken place, 1 of which we are 
 about to speak. 
 
 1 Whoever has been in Poland, will not find this description 
 overdrawn in any respect. The truth demands it to be said, how- 
 ever, that most of the landlords do not abuse the extent of their
 
 Poland. 147 
 
 The period of Prussia's deepest external humiliation 
 was that of its highest internal development, and from 
 the very time it was hardest pressed by its French 
 neighbour, national and liberal institutions sprang into 
 existence. 
 
 One of the most important laws of that epoch was 
 the edict of September 14th, 1811, the regulation 
 of relations between landoAvner and peasant, which 
 was extended to the province of Posen, after it was 
 retaken, and which has already effected a complete 
 transformation in the condition of the peasant, and 
 must continue to do so. We must, therefore, present 
 the fundamental principles of this edict. 1 
 
 According to the general principles of public law 
 and political economy the right of the state to ordinary 
 and extraordinary taxes and dues is paramount, and 
 the dues to the landlord are subject to this limitation, 
 that he must leave the peasants means to exist, and to 
 satisfy the state. 
 
 In case the taxes and dues to the landlord do not 
 exceed one-third of the entire income of a hereditary 
 estate, their ability to do this is taken for granted. 
 
 Therefore the rights of the landlords were never 
 greater, nor would they have been allowed to be so by 
 law. 
 
 While the above edict gave all peasants, small 
 farmers, cottagers, holders of a hide of land, etc., full 
 right of ownership over two-thirds of the land hitherto 
 used by them and freed them from all services and 
 statute labour, which up to this time were connected 
 with this use, it gave at the same time the landlord one- 
 third of these lands as equivalent compensation. The 
 new owners had to renounce all claim to the obligation^ 
 hitherto fulfilled by the landlords, namely, the repairing 
 
 authority, and that many treat these subjects so dependent upon them 
 with a truly patriarchal kindness. 
 
 1 Compare " Code for the Koyal Prussian State," Part I., p. 281.
 
 148 Poland. 
 
 of buildings, the providing of agricultural implements, 
 the liability for public taxes and dues, and various 
 kinds of relief measures ; they assumed the payment of 
 taxes for their property and the present and future 
 communal taxes. For the purpose of rounding off and 
 enclosing the landlord's estates, things very important 
 for economy's sake, he was allowed to transfer his 
 peasantry to other farms, provided he dealt out estates 
 of equal value and the necessary new buildings. 
 
 Instead of giving one-third of the estate for compen- 
 sation, which was regarded as the most advantageous 
 where farms exceeded fifty acres, a settlement could be 
 effected, in case of the smaller estate, by means of 
 capital or rent, the latter by payment of one-third of 
 the entire sum in grain or in money. 
 
 Finally, such an estate not hereditary, which had 
 been leased by the landlords, for certain services or 
 dues, a fixed number of years or for an indefinite time, 
 was handed over to the temporary possessors as their 
 property after one-half had been ceded to the landlords 
 as a compensation for the same. 
 
 A space of two, three, or even six years, was fixed for 
 agreement upon such matters. Provided no under- 
 standing had been reached at that time, the settlement 
 was to be made by a committee of referees on the part 
 of the state. 
 
 Such were the principal features of this remarkable 
 law which, of course, underwent numerous modifica- 
 tions in its execution and was attended necessarily 
 with great difficulties, especially so in the Polish 
 provinces. The taxes were exceedingly varied, in some 
 places they did not equal one-third of the income of 
 the estates, in many they exceeded this proportion. 
 Since the regulation of service, the land had often been 
 made decidedly better or worse, or new soil even was 
 cultivated, and the obligations of the landlords differed 
 greatly and were changed to suit time and place. In 
 the case of more involved matters the more desirable
 
 Poland. 149 
 
 an amicable agreement, the less was the willingness to 
 have it. 
 
 The landlords naturally looked upon the whole 
 measure as harsh and injurious, especially when they 
 gauged it by their former privileges. " They com- 
 pensate us," they said, " with what is already our 
 property ; they increase the size of our fields which are 
 already too large, and deprive us of the hands which 
 were found to till them for us. Even if we were 
 willing to consider the cession of one-third and one- 
 half of the peasant lands generally as a compensation, it 
 cannot be compared with what we lose. The fields are 
 badly cultivated, and, therefore, of little value. The 
 laziness and idleness of our peasants will make labourers 
 scarce, wages high, especially since they must be paid 
 mostly in money, which is hard to raise. We were not 
 burdened by the duties from which we are freed ; our 
 extensive forests furnished us the means to meet them. 
 The surveying of the estates, and the special commis- 
 sions, cause us great expense, and we are exposed to 
 the exactions of subordinates who are always inclined 
 to take sides with the peasantry against us, and this 
 too in a matter where our property depends on the 
 insight, impartiality and uprightness of these com- 
 missions. 
 
 " But this reform will be of no avail to the common 
 man, at least not to our poor peasants. 1 In conse- 
 quence of the tutelage in which he has always lived, 
 the dangerous right which has been granted him of 
 encumbering his property with debt and of selling it 
 will bring about his ruin ; yes, even now the mere 
 prospect of this right induces the greater part of them to 
 mortgage their farms to the Jews, and it will result in 
 their being entirely lost to the owners, and placed m 
 
 1 It is true that it was necessary in some places to compel the 
 peasants to take possession of their new property. But this proves 
 nothing against the case. The same thing occurred in France under 
 Louis IX. The serf cannot value freedom before he knows it.
 
 150 Poland. 
 
 the hands of a class of men who will not husband 
 them, but convert them into an article of merchan- 
 dise." 
 
 As we have described the relation of the peasant to 
 the lord, we think that we need not add anything in 
 general about the necessity of giving him assistance, or 
 about the justice of the measures that have this object 
 in view. But with regard to their utility it would 
 be well to determine the point of view from which to 
 judge the reasonableness or unreasonableness of those 
 complaints. 
 
 Until now the great landowner had to have his 
 immeasurable fields cultivated by forced labour; the 
 labourer took no interest in the success of his day's 
 work ; the produce passed through the hands of sub- 
 ordinates, therefore it was not possible for the land to 
 be as valuable to him as to the small owner who 
 ploughs, sows and gathers in the harvest, and does not 
 allow the smallest piece of land to be unused. He 
 alone can offer the highest price for the land, he can 
 offer four times the amount it yields to the great land- 
 owner. From this it is obvious how much the cultiva- 
 tion of the land must be increased by decreasing the 
 extent of the property, and by increasing the number of 
 proprietors, especially in a country like Poland, where 
 the produce of the fields can be increased so greatly, 
 where endless woods, which bring in nothing, cover the 
 finest soil for wheat, and where only labourers are 
 needed to make this available. 
 
 Agriculture — and in this it differs wholly from 
 industry — can be brought to such a height of perfec- 
 tion that it cannot be improved upon, and this height 
 has actually been reached in several provinces of the 
 Prussian kingdom. In Poland, on the other hand, 
 industry and activity have still the greatest conquests 
 to make. 
 
 The distribution of property was the surest way to 
 reach this. The peasant Avas now certain that he was
 
 Poland. 151 
 
 working for himself and his family, that every improve- 
 ment, even if he did not live to see its result, was for 
 the benefit of his children, among whom he could 
 divide his property at will. It was no longer a 
 question of getting the greatest possible profits out of the 
 land in a short time, not caring whether its fertility 
 would thereby be injured, but chiefly of keeping the 
 property in a good condition. Though day labour 
 cost more than forced service, the former was incom- 
 parably better. Agriculture gained more labourers, 
 and the greater exertions of these labourers did more 
 work than formerly. 
 
 The right, naturally accompanying the lease of 
 property, to divide or transfer it, had the great ad- 
 vantage of freeing inherited farms from the burden 
 of debt, as the shares to be paid out could be acquired 
 by the sale of single estates. It was the means to 
 keep the estates free from debt. For by selling a part 
 every owner could hold his stock for the other part. 
 Estates which would have degenerated in the hands of 
 a poor, indebted owner, passed by purchase into the 
 possession of a prosperous man, who could keep them 
 in proper condition. 
 
 The state finally obtained a numerous and valuable 
 new class of landowners who, because their interests 
 bound them to the government, were trusty and faith- 
 ful subjects, a circumstance not to be overlooked in 
 this connection. A revolution could bring only loss to 
 the new proprietors, and, as they formed the bulk of 
 the nation, they were at the same time increasing their 
 power to such an extent as was bound to furnish the 
 best guaranty to the government. 
 
 Nowhere does the comparison between the old and 
 new condition become more manifest than in the very 
 province of Posen, where the contrasts meet, and 
 where a few hundred steps bring the observer from 
 villages, such as one would never expect to find in 
 Europe, to others where clean houses surrounded with
 
 152 Poland. 
 
 gardens and orchards, and fenced in with proper care, 
 delight the eye. 
 
 In this manner, within a few years, the Prussian 
 government will effect complete enfranchisement of the 
 peasants, and the conversion of a great part of them 
 into proprietors, an undertaking which was long 
 thought to be theoretically impossible, 1 and which un- 
 doubtedly would have been impossible for centuries in 
 independent Poland. For where in Poland would the 
 power of the state have been derived to encounter the 
 opposition of selfish interest, though a misconceived 
 interest ? where the dominating authority which would 
 have restrained the unbridled passions ? Only under 
 the sovereignty of a state firmly established and 
 already far advanced, like Prussia, could such a 
 measure be accomplished without involving the 
 country in a revolution and in the most violent re- 
 actions. 
 
 So much was done in Prussia for the peasant. 
 Schools were founded to educate the people, shops and 
 factories established to encourage commerce, and new 
 impetus was given to trade by the abolition of the 
 restrictions upon trade. 
 
 Neither Russia nor Austria was able to venture 
 
 1 Mably (in his work, "Du gouvernement et des lois de la Pologne") 
 and J. J. Rousseau ("Sur le gouvernement de Pologne "), planned a 
 constitution for the nation, in which they forgot the nation. Of the 
 peasants, that is, of fi of them, the latter says : "Je ne crains pas 
 seulement l'interet mal entendu, l'amour propre et les prejugcs des 
 maitres, je crandrai les vices et la lachete des serfs." Mably calls 
 them " une classe d'hommes abrutis et malheureux." Stanislaus 
 Leszczynski judges his fellow-countrymen differently : " qu'ils (les 
 paysans) jouissent d'une partie de nos immunites, l'etat n'aura peut- 
 ctre point de membres plus utiles. Qu'ils puissent s'unir entre eux 
 par un trafic mutuel, qu'ils n'ayent plus a craindre les vexations de 
 leurs maitres, les insultes des soldats, le mepris, les outrages de la 
 noblesse, qu'ils ayent des morceaux ■ de terre des maisons oil ils 
 puissent vivre en surete, qu'ils puissent laisser a leurs enfans les 
 acquisitions qu'ils auront faites — alors nous croirons vivre dans une 
 autre terre et sous un autre ciel."
 
 Poland. 153 
 
 upon so thorough a reform as the affranchisement of 
 the mass of the people in their Polish provinces, both 
 on account of the grade of development of these states 
 themselves, and of the principles which their govern- 
 ments pursue, and on account of the numerical pro- 
 portion of Polish subjects to their own. For while 
 the population of the Prussian state amounted to 
 twelve millions, that of Poland was scarcely one 
 million. In Austria, on the other hand, which had 
 about twenty-eight million inhabitants (of whom, by 
 the way, only five and one half millions were German) 
 the four million Polish subjects made one-seventh of 
 the entire population. In Russia thirteen million 
 Poles x were added to the forty million souls that form 
 the population of Russia in Europe, that is, the 
 
 1 The disposition not to count the Lithuanians, minor Russians, 
 etc., among the number of Poles, does not seem to be sustained by 
 history. 
 
 Both Russians and Poles are branches of the Slavonic main 
 trunk, and this kinship is recognized also in their languages. But 
 throughout Poland proper, the same language is spoken by all the 
 people, even by tbe common people, for there is no dialect or 
 patois, and genuine Polish is the same in all Poland. One 
 universal Russian language, on the other hand, which would be 
 spoken throughout the country, exists no more than one Slavonic 
 language. The prevailing language, the one commonly under- 
 stood by Russians, has a Slavonic origin, and sprang from the 
 fusion of Slavonic settlers with Ostiaks, Petscharians, Tartars, etc., 
 about the year 1114. It has thus become essentially different from 
 its half sister, the Polish. Slavonic by origin, moreover, are the 
 rest of the dialects which are spoken in the White, Red, and Black 
 Russias, and as they remained unmixed, they are much more like 
 the Polish than the Russian, and must pass as dialects of the former 
 rather than as branches of the latter. 
 
 As for the Lithuanians, they were originally as little related to 
 the Russians as to the Poles, for they were originally Herulian. 
 During the thirteenth century this race was subdued in Prussia by 
 the German knights ; in Livonia, by the knights of the order of the 
 sword ; only Lithuania remained independent, as it joined itself 
 closer to the Slavic races, and so the Lithuanians also soon adopted 
 the Polish language, and moreover the common people the dialect 
 of the White Russians, the educated the pure Polish. Even the old
 
 154 Poland. 
 
 Poles form one-third of the entire population, and 
 in comparison with Russia they occupied a small 
 territory, and, excepting their government, they were 
 a step in advance of the Russians. 
 
 names of the rivers and cities were exchanged for new Polish names 
 (Wilna, for example, was once Neri). 
 
 So in Lithuania the peculiar Herulian language was lost, and only 
 traces of it are found to-day in a few small villages. Both it and 
 chiefly the Samitian customs have been retained to a greater extent 
 under German rule, that is, in Samogitia, and the Samites even to 
 this day preserve an individuality differing from that of all their 
 neighbours. One is amazed to hear the language of the Greeks and 
 Scythians, of the Romans and Skandinavians re-echoing on the 
 lips of a nation which hardly knows the world's history. The 
 similarity of many words of the Samitian language as well as of 
 their inflections to those of the languages already mentioned, is sur- 
 prising, and almost the only possible explanation is the existence of 
 an original language (Japhetese language) of which the Slavic, 
 Germanic, Celtic, Romance, etc., themselves are only branches. 
 
 We cite a few illustrations from a large list (compare " Tableau de 
 la Pologne," edition of Chodzko 1830, Tome I., chap. XIII. De la 
 langue lithuanienne). 
 
 Lithuanian, menu ; Greek, niene ; Danish, maane (moon). 
 
 ,, ugnis • Latin, ignis (fire). 
 
 „ wandu ; Danish, vand (water). 
 
 „ nactis (night). 
 
 „ sunus (son). 
 
 „ wiras ; Latin, vir (man). 
 
 ,, ductie ; Greek, thygater ; English (daughter). 
 
 „ brotis ; Danish, broder (brother). 
 
 „ dantis ; Latin, dens (tooth). 
 
 „ nosis ; Latin, nasus (nose). 
 
 „ alminti ; Danish adminde {remind). 
 
 The remarkable agreement in declension with that of the classic 
 tongue may be illustrated by the conjugation of the verb " to be." 
 
 Ach essu, i" am. mess essam, we are. 
 
 tu essi, thou art. ius essat, you arc. 
 
 ance ir (Danish han, er) he is. ani ari, they are, etc. 
 
 Also the customs of the Samites, as they partly exist to-day, 
 frequently recall those of the Greeks and Romans. To this day, for 
 example, the bride is carried away by two friends of the bridegroom 
 before the marriage is celebrated. On the wedding-day she is blind- 
 folded, and conducted to each door of her house, honey is laid upon
 
 Poland. 155 
 
 At the Vienna Congress the part of the quondam 
 duchy of Warsaw which fell to the share of Russia was 
 raised to an independent kingdom, and after it was 
 joined to Russia by a constitution it was to have its 
 own government. 
 
 The chief objection of all the Poles to the creation of 
 this kingdom was, that only three millions were united 
 by it, while the unequal and greater number of their 
 countrymen were ruled by ukases and were kept 
 separate from the rest. 1 
 
 But if this establishment of an actual Polish state 
 seemed to the Poles a thing too small, it was regarded 
 
 her lips, and wheat scattered over her. Girls cut off the hair of the new 
 hride, and beat her as they lead her to her bridal bed. The funeral 
 obsequies to which the spirits of the departed are invited, the inter- 
 ment in hills, and the name of the first deity, Auxtea visa geist 
 (Danish hoieste vise geist), supreme wise spirit, vividly recall the 
 Skandinavian custom and language. 
 
 We have allowed ourselves to make this digression because it is a 
 question whether Russia has three or thirteen millions of Polish 
 subjects, and whether Austria rules over Poles or Russians in Galicia. 
 If the Lithuanians are not at all related to Russia by ancestry, if 
 not allied to the Poles by language, one does not understand why 
 fifty years of Russian rule ought to have made them more Russian 
 than four centuries' union with the republic of Poland made them 
 Poles. 
 
 1 It may be observed at this point that complaints about this, if 
 they really were made, ought to have been louder in Lithuania than 
 in Poland where utterance was given to them. Michael Oginski, 
 however, explains this riddle, Tome IV., chap. VI. p. 234. During 
 an audience given in November, 1815, hence at a time after the 
 kingdom had been recognized by all Europe, he complained to the 
 Emperor : " Qu'il n'est pas permis a Wilna de faire mention du 
 royaume de Pologne. Personne dans la socictc n'ose prononcer le 
 nom de Pologne ou de Polonais ; et l'organisation du nouveau 
 royaume est aussi peu connue chez nous, que si nous etions 
 eloignes de mille lieues de Varsovie." 
 
 " Je ne savais pas un mot de cela," repondit l'empereur avec 
 beaucoup de vivacite, "mais un trait de plume va changer," etc. 
 " J'ecrivais a Korsakow combien je suis ctonne du secret qu'on garde 
 et du secret qu'on fait a Wilna do l'existcnce d'un royaume que toutc 
 l'Europe recommit."
 
 156 Poland. 
 
 by the Russian party also as a thing too great. To the 
 former it was far less a guarantee of their freedom than 
 to the latter a hindrance which stood in the way of all 
 the government's measures, even at times when it 
 might sincerely have the best of intentions. One must 
 not forget that Poland was indebted to the emperor for 
 the retention of its name, its language, even its 
 nationality, to that emperor against whom it armed 
 itself up to the last moment ; although it seemed that 
 complete union or complete separation of all Poland 
 would necessarily have been preferable to this middle 
 course. 
 
 The union of Poland with another state revealed, as 
 nothing else, the peculiar affairs of this state itself. 
 Russia's ruler was the king whom they purposed to 
 bind by a constitution which he had the power to 
 violate at any moment, and often, of course, it was 
 for his interest to do so. Russian noblemen still 
 estimated their wealth according to the number of 
 their bond peasants, and could therefore regard only 
 with fear the approaching freedom of the peasant in 
 the neighbouring state. In Russia itself the greatest 
 reforms were necessary, and the development of this 
 state delayed that of Poland. Finally, Russia could 
 not grant Poland commercial advantages Avhich it itself 
 needed, for trade still depended upon Prussia, and the 
 Augustow Canal could not take the place of the 
 Vistula. 
 
 If at the very beginning governor and governed 
 met each other with distrust and hostile reminiscences, 
 the administration of the government by strangers or 
 by officials who were supported by strange authority, 
 aroused great bitterness. Attacks upon personal liberty 
 and loss of nationality that had been conceded once by 
 arrogant rulers, were deeply and universally felt. 
 
 As regards administrative affairs, Poland received 
 from Russia those institutions which all other civilized 
 countries in Europe had possessed for centuries, and
 
 Poland. 157 
 
 which had been held back only by the endless dis- 
 turbances of the diets and the wars consequent upon 
 them. These included a well-ordered system of nuance, 
 credit, and mortgage, a postal system, a well-organized 
 army, constructed roadways and canals, a university 
 and library at Warsaw, and several essential arrange- 
 ments of the same class. 
 
 The establishment of shops and factories was en- 
 couraged, and, as the importation of foreign goods was 
 forbidden, these soon acquired a considerable degree of 
 prosperity and excellence. Indeed, Poland exported 
 a large number of goods through Russia to China. 
 By this means also the Pole bought at forty per 
 cent, dearer at home than abroad, 1 which was more 
 expensive for the landowner since the price of 
 produce continued to be very cheap, both on account 
 of lack of communication by land and water, and 
 especially because a disproportionately small part of his 
 produce was consumed at home. Industry was created 
 through the colonization of foreigners, principally 
 Germans, by no means did it proceed from the people 
 themselves. The common people lacked the capital, 
 liberty, and intelligence required for undertakings of 
 that sort. Besides, great and oppressive privileges 2 
 were extant, which prevented the people from taking 
 part in manufacture and trade, and made the manu- 
 factures dear and poor in quality. Moreover, a few 
 prosperous manufacturers and merchants were unable 
 to constitute the middle-class of a nation, and in this 
 respect there was and continued to exist a want that 
 was not supplied. 
 
 Nothing was done for the good of the peasant. He 
 
 1 One frequently saw Polish landowners going twenty or thirty 
 miles to purchase cheaper and better clothes in the frontier towns of 
 Prussia. 
 
 2 In return for a large loan to the government, for example, a 
 rich Jew had exclusive right to sell tobacco in the whole kingdom, 
 and brandy in Warsaw.
 
 158 Poland. 
 
 was, of course, nominally free, but in reality without 
 property, bound to forced service, and, on the whole, 
 in the same wretched condition as we saw him before. 
 The only way to aid him was to loan him property, 
 but this also was attended with the greatest difficulty. 
 The government had to pause before giving the noble- 
 man, already displeased with the encroachment upon 
 his rights, so much cause for dissatisfaction, which, in 
 this case, could easily have been transferred to Russia 
 itself. Besides, the Polish peasant was not yet ready 
 for proprietorship. Nothing but time and education 
 could lend aid here, and the founding of schools was 
 necessarily the first step and the chief aim of the 
 government in order to gain for itself support among 
 the mass of the people — and this the sooner since it 
 seemed impossible to gain for itself the nobility of 
 Poland. 
 
 Let it not be imagined that we intend to claim that 
 the peasant of the duchy of Posen is more advanced in 
 culture, and more prepared for proprietorship than the 
 one in the kingdom. But with eleven millions of 
 German subjects, who were connected to the person of 
 their landlord by speech, customs, interests, a part of 
 them by long acquaintance with the government, and 
 all by a rare kind of confidence and universal love, 
 with such an element of stability much could be under- 
 taken that would have been a failure under other 
 circumstances. 
 
 But, through the purchase of the national estates, the 
 lot of the Polish peasantry in the kingdom was still 
 worse, for the new owners, without government inter- 
 ference, deprived the peasant of the more important 
 rights previously possessed by him upon these estates. 
 
 From the very moment when public opinion in 
 Poland declared itself against the government, every 
 avenue to participation in public matters was closed to 
 the young Pole. Necessity alone forced him to serve as 
 an officer in an army which he looked upon as an instru-
 
 Poland. 159 
 
 ment of oppression. Scientific instruction was avoided 
 either because students were watched and guarded in a 
 dishonourable manner, or because every position in the 
 civil offices was looked upon as dependent upon a 
 government, which from its very tendency did not 
 allow itself to be united with proper sentiments towards 
 the fatherland, and often because of a feigned 
 patriotism at the bottom of which was distaste for 
 solid, positive studies. The result was that the Pole 
 felt a kind of contempt for any of their countrymen 
 who accepted a position from the government, without 
 considering that in this very way the country, should 
 it once be left to care for itself, would by necessity be 
 without good officers and useful business-men in all its 
 departments. 
 
 Oppression at home drove the Pole to seek freedom 
 abroad. Early years were passed in travelling, which 
 otherwise are devoted to study, and Paris was the 
 rendezvous where most of the young men of this nation 
 received a superficial education, where they adopted 
 lofty views corresponding to their condition and their 
 age, and then, full of life and desire to work, they 
 returned to their country and to perfect indolence. 
 
 The wealthy man sought at his country seat the 
 only round of business in which he did not have to 
 humiliate himself before a hated government, and where 
 he had hopes of escaping its distrust and arbitrariness. 
 There now he assembled a great number of poor 
 fellow-countrymen, who had no bread because they 
 filled no offices, and whose patriotism or incapacity 
 gave them a right to the support of the rich. When — 
 and partly, by this very means — the rich man himself 
 became poor, and passed from the number of the 
 hospitable to the number of those who live from 
 hospitality, then Russia gained another new enemy 
 glowing with rage, who never ceased to ascribe his ruin 
 and every misfortune in general to the government and 
 to the subjection of his country.
 
 160 Poland. 
 
 Thus from day to day increased the number of young 
 men from the educated classes, who, full of attachment 
 to their nationality, were fired with ardent hatred 
 against Russia, men, who had much to win, and almost 
 nothing more to lose. Perhaps it is more characteristic 
 of the Poles than of any other people to let their 
 ill-humour escape in talk. But now when an 
 excessively severe censorship watched every written 
 thought, 1 and numerous agents of the police guarded 
 every harangue, when the Poles saw themselves 
 surrounded on every side by spies, or thought so, they 
 were actually driven into secret conspiracies, and, 
 because they themselves did not dare openly to express 
 an innocent thing, they committed the most guilty acts 
 secretly. There was a general confederation of almost 
 all Poles far and wide, not only at home, but through- 
 out all Europe ; dissatisfaction with the government 
 and hatred of its officials, were the counter-sign of all 
 of them ; imprisonment on account of free speech 
 became a martyrdom in the opinion of others, an act 
 showing hate for the nation was of itself a merit in 
 the eyes of beauty, and the favour of women spurred 
 men on to resist the law. 
 
 Such was the state of affairs when on the twenty- 
 ninth of November, 1830, a handful of students and 
 subordinate officers started a revolt in Warsaw, which 
 rapidly spread over all Poland, and a part of Russia, 
 for an instant overthrew the government, and in a few 
 days forced the Russian troops to leave the country. 
 
 If such an insignificant cause produced such a 
 frightful result, it could be onlv because the action of 
 these young students was nothing else than the spark 
 that fell into a heap of combustibles of dissatisfaction, 
 
 1 The Polish Revolution of 1830 is the only one of recent times to 
 which the press cannot be charged with having given assistance, 
 unless it be charged with excessive reticence. For since even the 
 most moderate expression of dissatisfaction was forbidden, Poland 
 passed directly from dissatisfaction to revolution.
 
 Poland. t6i 
 
 and the explosion would have been caused just as 
 easily, sooner or later, by any other accident. 
 
 Obviously the interests of mill-owners, manufacturers, 
 and merchants, in short, of all those belonging to the 
 middle class, were wholly opposed to such a revolution, 
 and during its entire duration they were actually its 
 opponents, but Ave have already seen that this middle 
 class continued to be of little weight in Poland. 
 
 The peasant was a disinterested observer, but by 
 no means unconcerned. Famine, disease, abuse, and 
 devastation, were the lot which fell to him on this as 
 on all similar occasions. But he had as little to hope 1 
 from the government as from his landlord, and did 
 what man oppressed by slavery always does, he suffered 
 patiently. 
 
 It was the nobleman that aroused this storm, and 
 what he was able to do in a country where the educated 
 class and the nobility are still one and the same, Russia 
 now learned in the deadly struggle. 
 
 The fires of this revolt are at this moment being 
 quenched with blood on the very fields of Wola, which 
 formerly witnessed the elections of kings, the splendour 
 and power of the Polish nation. Poland has been 
 conquered with the sword in its hand, and it has no 
 right to dictate conditions to the conqueror. But the 
 same young emperor of whom history has to record 
 such extraordinary deeds in the few years of his 
 sovereignty, at whose ascendency a terrible insurrection 
 was suppressed by his personal stability, rather than by 
 
 1 The Polish noblemen have been blamed for not having freed their 
 peasants, in order to make the revolution national. But what was 
 this freedom to consist of ? Bondage did not exist ; for the most part, 
 the personal privileges of the lords were limited humanly by civiliza- 
 tion itself. And if it will be imputed as sacrifice enough for the 
 landlord to furnish the peasant with property at his own cost, it 
 must be conceded that that moment when all bonds were loosed was 
 the most unfavourable one for the government to perform an act 
 which it had not dared to undertake even in a time of peace. 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 1 62 Poland. 
 
 anything else, before whose presence the crescent in 
 Persia as well as in Turkey is prostrated, who himself 
 hastened to the infected capital city to aid his suffering 
 people, this emperor has the power to make of Poland 
 what it is to be in Europe in future time. 
 
 From the very beginning the most striking con- 
 tradictions have marked the career of this people, 
 among whom the republic was combined with the 
 kingdom, the splendour of the throne with the impotency 
 of the ruler. We find the officers of the state rich 
 and the republic poor, the general of the crown power- 
 ful and the army feeble. Excessive luxury goes hand 
 in hand with naked poverty. Wildest courage and 
 noisiest resistance, schooled by necessity to yield, are 
 changed into docile submissiveness and speedy recon- 
 ciliation. Bribery, treachery and fraud are contrasted 
 Avith the greatest bravery and patriotism, and the most 
 herioc endurance of suffering. The history of the country 
 shows us characters, that would have been resplendent 
 in Greece or Rome, alongside of traitors and perjurers, 
 it shows the noble, generous brother who is the 
 law-giver and defender of his people, beside the 
 fierce, savage brother who leads foreign armies against 
 his own home ; it shows a father, who drew upon 
 himself the curse of his fellow-citizens and posterity, 
 and a son who wiped away the guilt of the father with 
 his own possessions, and his own blood. Yes, truly, 
 inconsistencies are commingled in one and the same 
 character, and we are amazed to behold men that have 
 fought with great distinction among their confederates 
 finally offering themselves as ready instruments of op- 
 pression. The same names which Poland honours as its 
 protectors are enumerated among the number of its 
 foes. 
 
 Excess of freedom, and excess of slavery have 
 destroyed independent Poland, but in its very ruins it 
 preserves the fusion of its resistant forces. A con- 
 stitutional state whose king is absolute monarch of
 
 Poland. 163 
 
 forty millions of Russians, enormous wealth and over- 
 whelming poverty, a fertile soil and untilled fields, 
 magnificent palaces surrounded by the most wretched 
 hovels ever inhabited by human beings, such we behold 
 Poland, the state, which was founded upon perfect 
 equality of all men, till this very day the land of in- 
 equality, of contrasts, and contradictions. 
 
 M 2
 
 THE WESTERN BOUNDARY.
 
 PEE FACE. 
 
 The following essay published in the second number of the " Deut- 
 schenViertdjdhrsschrift" l 1841, theoretically discusses a question to 
 which the author was to be called upon to help work out a practical 
 answer thirty years later in so glorious a manner. This circum- 
 stance alone makes the essay valuable to the reader of to-day, but still 
 more so the fact that much of the argument may be applied, in a 
 really surprising manner, to the present itself as well as to the year 
 1840. 
 
 At that date, 1840, Thiers, as minister of King Louis Philippe, 
 piqued by the defeat which France had suffered in the Oriental 
 question, and through the quadruple alliance of the great powers for 
 the protection of the Sultan, had openly declared that France must 
 seek satisfaction from Germany, and must demand the left bank of 
 the Ehine. The general patriotic indignation in Germany, which 
 found popular expression in Becker's song of the Ehine : " Sie sollen 
 ihn nicht haben," in combination with the peaceful inclination of 
 Louis Philippe, caused the downfall of the minister. Once again, 
 however, it became only too manifest how the French nation, which 
 had rejoiced at the claims of Thiers, had allowed itself to be deceived 
 in its desire for the German frontier. The present essay illustrates the 
 vanity of this desire with inexorable logic, and a conscientious regard 
 for historical facts. 
 
 1 The review " Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift," was published from 1841 till 
 1870, by J. G. Cotta in Stuttgart and was one of the first of German reviews 
 as long as it continued to exist. Among its contributors were the most 
 famous scientists and prominent military leaders, like Moltko and Ponitz.
 
 THE WESTERN BOUNDARY. 
 
 Since in France the claims on the boundary of the 
 Rhine are traditional, and since these on every occasion 
 and with the approval of all parties, are made to appear 
 as if France has to recall an ancient valid privilege 
 which Germany retains, to redress a heavy loss which 
 Germany inflicts upon it, to restore the natural bound- 
 aries which Germany has broken through in an un- 
 natural and unlawful manner ; since this is the domi- 
 nant conviction in France, and since not only ambitious 
 ministers, like Thiers, and young republicans, but also 
 loyal peers, like the Duke of Noailles, and gentle poets, 
 like Lamartine, have loudly and equally bona fide given 
 utterance to the same opinion, it is high time to submit 
 these French claims once for all to a purely historical 
 examination. We shall be as brief as possible, yet we 
 must turn to the history of early times, pretty far back, 
 in order to establish clearly the boundary relations of 
 France to Germany. 
 
 The Gauls, who formerly inhabited the country now 
 called France, were conquered by the great Caesar 
 about the middle of the first century before Christ, and 
 their entire country was incorporated in the Roman 
 Empire. For five hundred years they continued to 
 be subjects of the Roman Caesars, they accepted the 
 language, customs, religion, science, and art of the 
 Romans, and at the same time all the vices of the later 
 period of the empire. In the same epoch in which 
 Gaul was subjugated by the Romans, the ancient
 
 170 The Western Boundary. 
 
 Roman republic came to an end and the despotic and 
 gradually degenerating government of the emperors 
 began. At the end of this epoch Gaul shared the 
 misery of slavery and the worst demoralization with all 
 the other Roman provinces. Ecclesiastical and profane 
 writers of that period, whose works have been preserved 
 for us, vie with one another in giving us the most 
 shocking descriptions of it. Especially do they com- 
 plain of the Gauls' mania for the theatre, who, in the 
 midst of the murder and the conflagration accompany- 
 ing the migration of the nations, stand upon the 
 ruins of their cities and continue to cry for plays. 
 And the frivolity of their morals was such that all 
 indulged in licentious desires without regard to age 
 or blood-relationship. Every trace of political free- 
 dom and honour had disappeared to such an extent, 
 that, at the dissolution of the empire, there was no 
 class, no corporation, to be found which could or would 
 have established a new political structure. There 
 were only slaves left who were distributed among a few 
 rich satraps. 
 
 We think that these facts should be mentioned first 
 because the French, since the last century, have 
 laboured under the delusion that they are the direct 
 descendants and heirs of ancient republicanism. They 
 maintain that their revolution is a restoration of that 
 antique civil liberty, a reaction of democratic Roman- 
 ism or Latinism against aristocratic Germanism, an 
 emancipation of the ancient Roman-Gallic population 
 from the yoke of the German conquerors or from the 
 Franconian feudal lords. In this sense they have 
 sought to banish all remembrances of the Franks, they 
 have revived in their new republic the names of the 
 ancient Roman republic, the senate, the consuls. 
 
 To this end Napoleon also acted when he, like the 
 emperors of ancient Rome, gave back the conquered 
 land the oldest names, such as Liguria, Cisalpinia, 
 Helvetia, Belgium, Batavia, etc. Napoleon acted con-
 
 The Western Boundary. 171 
 
 sistently in doing this. But the republicans were 
 certainly wrong in terming themselves the heirs of the 
 freedom of ancient Rome, as Gaul had never known this 
 very thing, nor did it come under Roman rule until after 
 freedom had been carried to its grave. 
 
 By the Romans, the Gauls were robbed of all freedom ; 
 they were unnationalized, unnerved. They received 
 their freedom back again first from the German con- 
 querors, and their morals were improved. 
 
 While the Romans succeeded in a short time in com- 
 pletely subjugating the Gauls, they did not succeed in 
 doing the same with the Germans. The Germans, or 
 Deutschen, knew how to maintain their freedom and 
 independence against all attacks on the part of the 
 Roman Empire, and they struggled vigorously for five 
 hundred years against the superior power of Rome, a 
 period equally as long as that during which the Gauls 
 were the slaves of Rome. At last the Germans con- 
 quered, destroyed the Roman Empire, and also gained 
 a victory over Gaul. 
 
 The settlement of German conquerors in Gaul was 
 equally as fortunate and salutary for the Gaul as that 
 of the Romans had been unfortunate and harmful for 
 them. Through the Romans they had lost their 
 nationality, independence, freedom, good morals and 
 healthy existence, Through the Germans these same 
 were restored to them. It was first by the fusion of 
 the slavish population sunken in vice with the free 
 and strong Franks, Goths, and Burgundians that health- 
 ful life returned to the people of Gaul, a new national 
 sentiment, a new popular morality, established upon 
 honour, and a new state of justice, established upon 
 freedom. The vanquished were treated with forbear- 
 ance and received privileges which they had never 
 possessed under the Romans. Soon they shared in 
 ail the privileges of the conquerors, and in the duties 
 of government. They soon accustomed themselves to 
 the new constitutional liberty which the Franks bad
 
 172 The Western Boundary. 
 
 brought to them. Not only Franks, but Roman-Gauls 
 also appeared upon the Held of Mars and sat in the 
 council of the constitutional kings bound by election 
 and agreement. Therefore Montesquieu rightly says 
 freedom is a gift which the Franks brought to Gaul 
 from the Germanic forests. But the French of to-day 
 are seeking to forget this beautiful and true saying of 
 Montesquieu, and are unwilling to be reminded of it. 
 
 Gaul received still more benefices from the Germans. 
 In the beginning of the eighth century the Moham- 
 medans conquered Spain, and in innumerable bands 
 they pressed beyond the Pyrenees. The new Frankish 
 Empire in Gaul was not yet fully established. The 
 Roman language was spoken so generally that Germanic 
 ability was not yet able to vanquish all forms of weak- 
 ness. Therefore, western France submitted to the 
 crescent, and would have been completely subjected 
 and converted to the faith of the Mussulman had it not 
 been saved by the armed forces of Rhine-Franks, Sua- 
 bians, Bavarians, and Thuringians. 
 
 In the ninth century Germany was separated from 
 France as an empire under Lewis the German. France 
 was made a kingdom by itself, under Charles the Bald. 
 Now it is noticeable, and special weight should be 
 placed upon it, that the German emperors, though far 
 more powerful than the French kings, always pre- 
 served friendship with France, and never planned to 
 disturb or to weaken it. How fortunate it was for 
 France that it was always spared most on its weakest 
 side by its strongest neighbour, and was at no time 
 disturbed in its development ! 
 
 It was natural that at that time, moreover, the little 
 French kingdom should occupy a place subordinate to 
 the great German Empire. The Germans were the 
 lords of the universe. What were the Gauls to them ? 
 The Germans had shattered the yoke of Rome, they 
 had opposed a brazen wall to Islamism, they had 
 awakened new life in the ancient Roman provinces of
 
 The Western Boundary. 173 
 
 England, France, and Italy, they had laid a new founda- 
 tion for state constitutionality, civil freedom, prosperity 
 and honour. On the other hand, what had the Gauls 
 done ? They had as former slaves of Rome, as a van- 
 quished people received only the benefits which the 
 German conquerors had generously granted them. 
 They remained passive, the Germans alone possessed 
 the energy. Everything that was done to transform 
 ancient, degraded, degenerated Gaul into neAv salutary 
 and flourishing France, was done by the Germans. 
 Under such circumstances, indeed, it could not have 
 occurred to the Gauls to be willing to measure their 
 strength with the Germans or to claim political equality. 
 That the German empire must have been much greater 
 and more powerful than the French kingdom was a 
 matter of course. The Gauls enjoyed their new 
 freedom and independence, in truth, only as a gift of 
 the German victors. 
 
 Just as the complete transformation of the ancient 
 world in the middle ages proceeded from the Germans, 
 so there remained also with the Germans the power and 
 the evidence of this very same, that is, the crown of 
 the Caesars. And just as the complete conquest of 
 the Roman Empire proceeded from Germany, so 
 the kingdoms of Burgundy and Italy remained in- 
 corporated in the German Empire. How could the 
 Gauls have dared to complain of this extension of the 
 German Empire, for they themselves had been van- 
 quished by the Germans, and were emancipated merely 
 by the favour of the same victors? Centuries must elapse 
 before it could ever occur to the modern Frenchmen to 
 measure themselves with the Germans, and to be 
 willing to increase at their expense. The preponder- 
 ance of the Germans was so well established naturally 
 and historically, that it required a long lapse of time 
 till French envy could dare to meddle with the majesty 
 of the German nation. 
 
 Far into the thirteenth century, France continued to
 
 174 The Western Boundary. 
 
 be bounded by the Garonne, Loire, and Seine, and it 
 was solely by accident that it also came into possession 
 of the German earldom of Flanders, which had come 
 under French fealty through Count Baldwin, the son- 
 in-law of Charles the Bald. But all the rest of the 
 Netherlands, Luxemburgh, Lorraine, the free earldom 
 of Burgundy (franche comte), and the whole district of 
 the Saone and Rhone (the old kingdom of Burgundy 
 or Arelat), belonged to the German Empire. Excepting 
 Flanders, the political boundary of our empire extended 
 far beyond the limits imposed by the language, and this 
 was natural, for since the fifth century all this territory, 
 and even more, the entire early empire of the Romans, 
 was a lawful conquest of the Germans. 
 
 The boundary made by the language seems to have 
 been determined very soon after the conquest, and it 
 has been retained with few changes up to the present 
 day. Further west or south the settlements of the 
 German conquerors were thinner and more scattered ; 
 nearer the old home in the east and north they 
 were more dense. In the former case the victors 
 accepted the language of the far more numerous van- 
 quished from whom are derived the various Romance 
 dialects of Spanish, Italian, and French. In the latter 
 case the victors were superior in numbers, and the 
 German language was retained. The boundary between 
 the German and French linguistic districts begins on the 
 North Sea at Calais, and thence runs almost directly 
 east on a line north of which are the cities, Ypres, 
 Courtrai, Renaix, Grammont, Enghien, Brussels, 
 Louvain, Tirlemont, St. Trond, Tongres, Maastricht, 
 and Aachen, and south are the cities, St. Omer, 
 Lille, Tournai, Ath, Nivelles, Wavre, Jodoigne, 
 Liege, and Verviers. From Verviers this boundary 
 suddenly turns south southwest, passing through 
 Malmedy, Salm, HoufFalize, Bastogne, Rabay, to 
 Virton. From this point it turns again southwest, 
 and passes through Longwy, Thionville, (Dieclenhofen),
 
 The Western Boundary. 175 
 
 crosses the Moselle at Metz, runs along the water-shed 
 between the Moselle and the Saar, always keeping 
 south, as far as the Vosges, meets the same at the 
 sources of the Saar, runs on back of the Vosges, and 
 strikes southwards as far as Altkirch, but from that point 
 it bends somewhat easterly, nearly to the city of Bale, 
 then again it turns directly south across the Jura, 
 descends at Biel and thence follows the course of the 
 Aar and Saone, as far as the High Alps, also mounts 
 these, passes through the middle of Wallis, and still 
 includes Monte Rosa in the province of Savoy, the 
 mountain villages of which have recently attracted the 
 attention of several travellers. From Oberwallis the 
 boundary extends eastwards between the German and 
 Italian border land of languages, and straight through 
 the middle of the high mountains, with a preponderance 
 of the German element, so far as more German is found 
 to the south of the highest water-shecls than to the north 
 of them. We will not follow it exactly since we 
 propose here to speak only of the frontier opposite 
 France. 
 
 All peoples west of the boundary line mentioned speak 
 Italian or French, all east of the same German, and 
 this boundary between the languages has been pre- 
 served almost unchanged for over a century, as far as 
 the record of history extends. It is obvious then that 
 the entire district along the Rhine, both on the left 
 bank as well as the right, during this long era was, and 
 still is exclusively occupied by the Germans. 
 
 For the reasons given before, the empire of the 
 Germans still extends far beyond this frontier between 
 the languages, and the claim upon its ancient conquests 
 in the Roman territories cannot be disputed. 
 
 In the first place, in the thirteenth century when that 
 most celebrated family of our emperor, the noble house 
 of the Hohenstaufens, was defeated in that irreconcil- 
 able contest Avith the Roman hierarchy, France, in 
 league with the pope, dared to meddle with the rights
 
 176 The Western Boundary. 
 
 and honour of the German Empire. That empire, 
 without an emperor, disturbed by the intrigues of the 
 pope, lacerated by civil wars could not attend to the 
 attacks of its western neighbour. France seized the 
 inheritance of the Hohenstaufens in Naples, and the 
 kingdom of Burgundy on the Rhone (Arelat), and it 
 was a French prince that ordered the last scion of the 
 Suabian imperial house to fall under the executioner's 
 axe. 
 
 When one remembers that Gaul owes its restoration 
 and its new nourishing life to the Germans alone, and 
 that Germany never hindered nor even disturbed it 
 in its course of development, France's treatment of our 
 Suabian emperor seems far from honourable. Germany 
 had not deserved that from the hand of France. 
 
 We shall now only briefly state that France con- 
 tinued in its unjust measures, that it placed its princes 
 both on the Neapolitan and the Hungarian thrones, in 
 order to surround the German empire on all sides, 
 that it first formed a league with the pope, and then 
 soon made a complete slave of him, removed him from 
 Rome to Avignon, kept him in honourable imprison- 
 ment, and gradually enforced measures which were 
 eminently disastrous to the German empire. The 
 whole reign of Emperor Lewis of Bavaria was a 
 desperate struggle against the snares and intrigues of 
 Roman-French league. The wisdom and perseverance 
 of the emperors of the house of Luxemburgh first 
 succeeded in dissolving this Roman-French alliance, by 
 conducting the pope back to Rome, and by holding 
 France in check, while at the same time the French 
 dynasties in Naples and Hungary perished through 
 their own vices. 
 
 Yet a branch of the royal house of France was 
 firmly established between Germany and France. 
 This was the new Duke of Burgundy, who had made 
 important acquisitions at the cost of our empire, in 
 the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, partly by
 
 The Western Boundary. 177 
 
 partly by inheritance, partly by stratagem, 
 partly by force. Philip and his son, Charles the Bold 
 of Burgundy, had by these means gained possession of 
 Franche Comte, Luxemburgh, and the entire German 
 Netherlands. Charles had already secured Alsace for 
 himself by mortgage, then he planned also to conquer 
 Lorraine and Switzerland, to control the entire left bank 
 of the Rhine, and to assume the title of king. Had he 
 been successful in this plan, the French spirit which 
 held exclusive sway at his court would have acquired 
 extraordinary influence at the expense of the German. 
 Every one perceived that the Netherlands impatiently 
 wore the yoke of the non-German prince. Bloody 
 revolts of the Flemish, and of the citizens of Liege 
 were suppressed only with difficulty. The German 
 Oberland, however, prevented the danger. Alsace rose 
 up in arms, and the provincial governor of the Bur- 
 gundian ruler was executed by the people at Briesach. 
 Switzerland rose up in arms, and the proud Charles 
 was defeated in a few but very decisive battles. He 
 himself was slain, and his whole inheritance, as far as 
 it consisted of German imperial estates, including 
 Flanders, also passed over to the Austrian house ; the 
 rest of the French possessions of the duchy of Bur- 
 gundy returned to France. Should France, supported 
 by such reminiscences, wish to make, notwithstanding, 
 some historical claims on Flanders, Germany would be 
 able to reclaim Arelat with even more justice. 
 
 The natural ascendancy of the German empire was 
 restored. But France was unable to keep the peace. 
 It could no longer resist the desire for unjust conquests 
 and, as it did not dare to attack Germany itself, it 
 turned against Italy, relying upon the usual slowness 
 of the Germans, who would not hurry themselves to 
 make an effort in Italy's behalf. France had not the 
 slightest right in Italy, for its claim upon Naples, 
 which it had illegally seized from the Hohcnstaufens, 
 had to be held by force as a legitimate one. But 
 
 vol. 1. N
 
 17S The Western Boundary. 
 
 France desired not merely Naples, but all Upper Italy. 
 It started long, bloody and desolating Avars, without 
 any just cause, purely from avarice. It did not, how- 
 ever, attain its object. Its king was imprisoned and 
 dishonoured at Paris. The German Emperor, Charles 
 V., continued to rule in Italy as in Spain, which he had 
 inherited. Yet he made his political mistake in 
 dividing his great possessions, in tearing all the 
 Netherlands and the free earldom of Burgundy from 
 the German empire, and in giving them, together with 
 Naples and Milan, to his son Philip II. of Spain, while 
 his brother Ferdinand received only the rest. 
 
 Simultaneous with this began the great German 
 reformation, and unfortunately the divisions which 
 rent our empire soon gave France a new opportunity 
 for brigandage. The Protestants were defeated in the 
 Schmalkalden war. Prince Morice of Saxony, who, 
 until now, had fought on the emperor's side against 
 the Protestants, then committed his famous act of 
 treason, and allied himself with France for the 
 Protestant cause against the emperor. King Henry 
 II. of France broke down the frontier of the empire, 
 sending before him a revolutionary manifest, which 
 proclaimed freedom for the Germans and was sym- 
 bolically adorned with a liberty-cap and a dagger. 
 Who gave him the right to summon the Germans to 
 revolt against their emperor? The German empe- 
 rors had never interfered in the internal affairs of 
 France. To be sure, Henry II. was invited by Prince 
 Morice. But is it international law to accept the 
 invitation of a revolutionist, in order to disturb a 
 neighbouring country ? Henry II. wished to save 
 the liberty of the Germans, moreover their religious 
 liberty. But was he actually in earnest about it ? He 
 himself was Catholic, and continued to be Catholic, 
 and such a fanatical one that he ordered all the con- 
 verts to the Lutheran faith in France to be burned 
 alive, and he was personally present at these auto-da-fes.
 
 The Western Boundary. 179 
 
 While he hoped to befool the Germans with a gross lie, 
 namely, that he was acting for the rescue of their 
 religious liberty, he intended nothing else than to 
 make some conquests in German territory, which was 
 powerless to oppose him because of the general chaos 
 in the empire. By stratagem and force he gained 
 possession of the three cities and bishoprics of Metz, 
 Toul and Verdun, and he was permitted to hold them, 
 for the Germans were disunited and fighting with one 
 another, instead of uniting their strength to oppose 
 the enemy of the empire. Metz, till now a free 
 German imperial city, subsequently became inclined to 
 Lutheranism, lost its ancient freedom and was changed 
 into a French provincial city. iUso the religious 
 liberty, for which the king feigned to contend, was 
 wholly suppressed, the Lutheran confession of faith 
 was forbidden on pain of death. 
 
 The deadly hatred of both church parties in 
 Germany increased still more, and at last broke out 
 in that long struggle, which, under the name of the 
 Thirty Years' War, left such a direful record. 
 Sweden and France took part in this great civil war 
 of the Germans, both under the pretext of giving the 
 Protestants assistance against the emperor, but really 
 for the purpose of making conquests in Germany. 
 Sweden can produce much to excuse its part. Recent 
 historians of the Germans have been, indeed, too 
 generous with their reproaches for the King Gustavus 
 Adolphus. He desired to make conquests, he had, 
 indeed, the bold plan to become German emperor. 
 Very well, we do not doubt it. But if he had accom- 
 plished his plan, would it have been a misfortune for 
 us ? He was a prince of Germanic ancestry, he would 
 have become so German, that Sweden would soon 
 have been regarded only as a German province. Be- 
 sides, he was in earnest in his struggle for religious 
 liberty. He was- born and bred a Protestant, and 
 thoroughly convinced with the truth which at that 
 
 n 2
 
 180 The Western Boundary. 
 
 time was about to be suppressed. Was some political 
 ambition intermingled with his sentiments ? Who can 
 declare that the piety of this noble king was merely a 
 mask ? It certainly was not. His memory must con- 
 tinue to be sacred to all Protestants. 
 
 Thus Sweden was justified in interfering in the 
 Thirty Years' War, in assisting the hard-pressed 
 Protestants. But France ! What then did France 
 wish ? At the head of this kingdom stood a cardinal, 
 and next to him a Capuchin, the notorious Father 
 Joseph, who in the name of the king, not yet of age, 
 held sway. A cardinal and a monk ! Could they 
 have meant honesty with the cause of the Protestants ? 
 And yet they did not hesitate to renew the jugglery of 
 Henry II., and again to announce that they desired to 
 fight for the religious liberty of the German Protestants. 
 They had no other object than to rob Germany at a 
 moment when it was too weak to defend itself. France 
 acted like a thief that enters a burning city, not to 
 extinguish the fire, but to steal. It had not the least 
 right to interfere in German affairs. The people in 
 Germany understood this very well, and made a great 
 distinction between the Swedes and the French. It 
 greeted King Gustavus Adolphus as a saviour, it cast 
 itself upon its knees before him, and besought his 
 blessing. In the so-called saviour, on the other hand, 
 that came across the Rhine with French troops, in 
 General Turenne, it saw only a robber and an incen- 
 diary. Thousands of public voices of that time, 
 pamphlets, reports, and memorials spoke for the Swedes, 
 not one for the French. 
 
 Wearied at last by the long war, the German empire 
 finally had to surrender Alsace as booty to the 
 French, with the exception of the imperial cities, parti- 
 cularly Strasburg, which at that time were still left to 
 us, but were surrounded with French troops, and were 
 exposed without protection to the pleasure of France. 
 The flag of lilies was planted on the Rhine ; the
 
 The Western Boundary. 181 
 
 Rhine, at least a part of the Rhine, was now the 
 boundary of France. Can we call this then a natural 
 boundary ? In truth one does not need to belong to 
 the German nation which was so injured, and so 
 deeply wronged in its rights, in order to be con- 
 vinced that France has come up to the Rhine only 
 per nefas, that it never had a right either to make 
 conquests in the German empire, or even to interfere 
 in the affairs of Germany. 
 
 Germany was so worn-out that France was enabled 
 to continue its wicked game with little trouble. 
 France's conquests in Germany did not cease with the 
 peace of Westphalia, but they were then first systema- 
 tically begun. 
 
 While Germany was still only an empire in name, 
 but in fact a hollow heap of discordant and feeble 
 states, Louis XIV. in France brought all the provinces, 
 classes and parties under his power, and created the 
 absolute monarchy in which everything was subservient 
 to one will. This enabled him to levy immense taxes 
 and to raise enormous armies, an expenditure of 
 strength Avith which the neighbouring states in their 
 feeble condition could not compete. This transform- 
 ation of France under Louis XIV. may justly be 
 regarded as a Gallic-Roman reaction against the 
 Germanic element which had always been in force in 
 France, as a destruction of ancient Franconian 
 liberties of the people, and of state representation, as 
 a return to early Roman despotism, such as had been 
 customary in Gaul for five hundred years, from the 
 time of Caesar until that of Clovis. This explains 
 also the great revolution in taste, in art, and literature. 
 The court of Louis XIV. was surrounded with 
 memories of Roman antiquity, and with imitations of 
 ancient art. Ancient mythology was brought to life 
 again. Statues and pictures of ancient gods filled the 
 palaces and gardens ; the plays, operas and poems were 
 fashioned after this model. It was the middle ages of
 
 1 82 The Western Boundary. 
 
 the renaissance, the second birth of the Gallic-Roman 
 spirit. 
 
 But this spirit had none of the better pristine spirit 
 of the Roman and Greek republics, everything was 
 derived from the base spirit of the later Roman empire. 
 It was godless, immoral and heathen, despotic and 
 servile. The French court wallowed in all the vices 
 of the ancient world, and presented a scene of shame- 
 less public life, of which the people had no recollections, 
 but which was referred to by scholars as classic, and 
 was palliated. 
 
 Unfortunately Louis XIV. also adopted the ancient 
 Roman system of conquest, haughty contempt for all 
 popular rights, and while he regarded himself as heir 
 to the ancient Roman culture, it pleased him to see in 
 the Germans again only " barbarians " that he had a 
 right to subject to himself by stratagem and force, 
 just as the Roman emperors had exercised the same 
 right. It is true that the French kings before him 
 had pursued this policy and never regarded the rights 
 of their German neighbours, but Louis XIV. was much 
 more systematic in this policy. The Conquest of the 
 World and the establishment of a universal French 
 monarchy were always the dominant scheme of the 
 French cabinet and of the French nation. 
 
 Louis could inoculate the ancient Roman system into 
 the body politic of Europe most conveniently, if he 
 himself was the German emperor. He was all in a 
 position which made it possible for him to remove 
 Germanic institutions gradually from the German 
 Empire, as he did in France, and in their place to 
 establish Roman despotic institutions, to convert the 
 German emperor into an ancient Roman one, without 
 being perceived, and to date back the empire, which up 
 to this hour was reckoned from the time of Charle- 
 magne, to the time of Augustus. His influence in 
 Germany was great ; that of the house of Hapsburg 
 had been enfeebled since the Thirty Years' War, and
 
 The Western Boundary. iS 
 
 j 
 
 the younger, and somewhat more inactive Leopold, did 
 not seem to be an opponent against whom Louis 
 should not have ventured to make this undertaking 
 after the deatli of Ferdinand III. He did venture 
 it. Although the circumstances were greatly in his 
 favour at that time, yet he too failed at the imperial 
 election, like all previous French kings. German 
 princes often allowed themselves to be bribed by 
 France, to be induced to commit open treason and 
 revolt against emperor and empire, to accept pay in 
 war, but they never surrendered themselves to favour 
 France at the elections. In this respect they always 
 preserved a certain pride, and displayed more stability 
 than France expected. But they were not without 
 perjury, for they first gave France reason to hope, and 
 then deceived it. The intrigues at the election of 
 Leopold L, by which his competitor for the German 
 crown, Louis XIV., was excluded, are a web of the 
 basest perjuries committed on all sides. In order to 
 appease the anger of Louis XIV. on account of his dis- 
 appointed hopes, Prince John Philip of Mayence, the 
 imperial vice-chancellor, who conducted the election, 
 and his still more talented minister, Boineburg, united 
 the elective act favouring German interests with a 
 political act most injurious to those interests — absolutely 
 opposed to them, namely, the establishment of a 
 Rhenish confederation against the German emperor 
 and under the protectorate of France. Thus the 
 diplomatic intriguers in Mayence hoped not to injure 
 their cause either with the emperor or with France, 
 and to keep their hands in the game. The weak 
 emperor was satisfied with it, and he was very 
 anxious to save the Mayence plotter. But Louis 
 seemed to be extremely enraged, he terrified the 
 electoral prince of Mayence, and forced him to cast 
 himself unconditionally into the arms of France. 
 Boineburg, however, was not excused. Whatever 
 he had done for Louis in establishing the Rhenish con-
 
 184 The Western Boundary. 
 
 federation was ungratefully forgotten ; that he had 
 prevented the election of Louis at the imperial elec- 
 tion was charged against him as the worst of crimes r 
 and at the command of Louis XIV., John Philip, the 
 German imperial vice-chancellor, ordered his minister, 
 Boinebur";, to be arrested at the sitting of the diet at 
 Regensburg, and to be cast into prison. 
 
 Louis's influence became still greater when he 
 bribed the princes of the Rhenish confederation with 
 enormous sums of money annually, and almost all the 
 princes of west Germany flocked hither in order to beg 
 large, yes, even small sums. Indeed at the court of the 
 emperor, minister Lobkowitz, who was absolute in 
 power, was bribed with French money. The great 
 electoral Prince of Brandenburg alone represented the 
 honour and the interests of Germany, and reproached 
 the other princes for their treachery and their feeble- 
 ness. 
 
 Louis did not yet dare to attempt a direct attack 
 upon the German empire, in order to make any con- 
 quests in it, lest he should terrify the princes of the 
 Rhenish confederation, and again alienate them from 
 him. He still needed them. In the second place it 
 all depended upon being certain of both the flanks of 
 Germany, namely, Switzerland and the Netherlands. 
 If he succeeded in this, and he hoped to accomplish it 
 by means of this very Rhenish confederation, he could 
 then without further regard for the latter, fall at once 
 upon the German empire. 
 
 Switzerland he gained, as he had the confederation, 
 by bribery. An attack upon Switzerland would have 
 been dangerous, and wholly superfluous. The Swiss 
 offered themselves voluntarily to serve France, and in 
 all his wars Louis had from twenty to thirty thousand 
 Swiss in his pay, who were always foremost, and 
 often alone decided a victory or prevented a defeat. 
 Swiss diplomacy also served the French. The rulers 
 of the Swiss confederation were bribed by France,
 
 The Western Boundary. 185 
 
 they did everything that France desired, hindered the 
 movements of the emperor, opposed all demands of the 
 German empire, acted altogether as if Switzerland 
 were a French province. Ziirich alone struggled 
 against France. The Swiss had lost all sentiment for 
 German nationality, and yet they are German. All 
 their political foresight had gone. As republicans 
 they served a despot ; as neighbours they strengthened 
 a power which itself was destined sooner or later to be 
 equally dangerous to them, and to all other neigh- 
 bours. Had the Swiss fought for the German cause 
 with their strong armies, France would never had been 
 so powerful. Never did France gain an advantage 
 over Germany, except by German arms, by the assist- 
 ance of Germans who denied their own country. 
 
 The Swiss were secured by cunning intrigue and 
 money, and Louis now sought most of all to get 
 possession of the Netherlands. 
 
 King Charles Stuart II., who had been reinstated 
 after a great revolution in England, surrendered him- 
 self completely to the French policy, and undertook 
 to occupy the vigilant Hollanders by a combat on sea. 
 The Spanish Netherlands, supported neither by Holland 
 nor by the German empire, were flooded with French 
 armies and exposed their feebleness. The popular spirit 
 had been impaired by the training of the Jesuits. 
 Louis seized Arras, Hesdin, and a few other places 
 from the Spanish Netherlands and united them to 
 France. No one took any notice of it. It was not yet 
 time to capture all the Spanish Netherlands, as Louis 
 wished to have Holland first. If this country were in 
 his power, the southern Netherlands would naturally 
 fall into his hands of their own accord. But in order 
 to conquer Holland he still had need of the Rhenish 
 confederation which assured to him partly the alliance, 
 partly the neutrality of the German empire. He let 
 spring all the diplomatic mines. The confederation had 
 to supply troops for him. The emperor himself was
 
 1 86 The Western Boundary. 
 
 induced by Lobkowitz to look upon the conquest of 
 Holland peacefully, as the Hollanders, of course, were 
 only Calvinistic heretics. The English also allowed 
 themselves to be influenced by commercial jealousy to 
 assist the French against Holland. Now Holland seemed 
 to be lost, but the heroic uprising of the Hollanders 
 and the skill with which they used their water power, 
 opening the dikes and piercing the dams, as a protection 
 against their foe, prevented the triumphant journey of 
 the two hundred thousand men whom Louis had led to 
 the Scheldt. At the same time the Great Elector, 
 Prince of Brandenburg, was eagerly striving to arouse 
 the empire to go to the assistance of Holland ; the 
 emperor finally bestirred himself, and his general 
 Montecuculi, despite the prohibitive order of Lobkowitz, 
 was decidedly anti-French in his feelings. Louis no 
 longer dared to take any extreme measures, and he left 
 Holland in peace. 
 
 But he revenged himself when he sent the Swedes 
 into the territory of the Great Elector, and allowed the 
 emperor to be annoyed by the Turks in the East. It is 
 true that Louis called himself the Most Christian king, 
 but he did not hesitate to enter into a public alliance with 
 the Sultan. While the Great Elector and the emperor 
 were busied in another quarter, Louis again seized 
 the Spanish Netherlands and the Austrian posses- 
 sions on the Upper Rhine, and, in order to prevent 
 him from seizing more, the Spanish surrendered to 
 him Burgundy (the free earldom, franche comte) and 
 twelve important Netherland towns, Tournay, Lille, 
 Courtrai, etc., the Germans surrendered the city of 
 Freiburg in the Breisgau, which he converted into a 
 French fortification. This happened at the Treaty of 
 Nimeguen (" Nimm weg " — take away, people said it 
 meant) in 1678. 
 
 The great feebleness evinced by this surrender on the 
 part of the German empire incited the King of France 
 to continue to make more impudent demands. He
 
 The Western Boundary. 1S7 
 
 established the notorious chambers of reunion, which 
 were obliged to record all former alliances with the 
 German provinces and cities conquered by him, all 
 which he reclaimed at once as French property. The 
 emperor being at that time sorely pressed by the Turks 
 could not ward off these new French depredations. 
 German traitors assisted the French, and thus Stras- 
 burg fell, which until the year 1681 had been the un- 
 assailable bulwark of Germany on the Upper Rhine. 
 
 Since German historians have troubled themselves 
 very little with more detailed accounts of this lament- 
 able affair, we think it ought to be related here. We 
 closely follow the excellent work of Friese, who pub- 
 lished his " History of Strasburg from the year 1791 to 
 1795," in the midst of the storm of the revolution, a 
 work almost unknown in Germany, although it is 
 written in good German spirit and with great care. 
 It ought to be known that the citizens of Strasburg 
 hated and feared to come under the rule of France more 
 than anything else, that they had made the greatest 
 sacrifices in order to fortify their city sufficiently, that 
 they had frequently sought aid from the German 
 empire, and from the Swiss, their old allies, that they 
 had never allowed themselves to be ensnared or tricked 
 by intrigues of Louis, that before their feet was laid 
 the head of the lawyer, Obrecht, who had formerly 
 planned to betray the city to France. But from all 
 sides the French pressed hard upon Strasburg ; they 
 hindered its trade, they impoverished it little by 
 little and drove it to despair. At the same time 
 Obrecht junior, the son of the one executed, brooded 
 over revenge upon the honourable, resolute German- 
 minded chief-magistrate, Deitrich, who had principally 
 led to the discovery and punishment of the former's 
 father. Obrecht, with three hundred thousand imperial 
 dollars, entrusted to him by Louis XIV. for this purpose, 
 bribed the city secretary, Gimzcr, and a number of 
 other men, and, while the most influential citizens of
 
 1 88 The Western Boundary. 
 
 Strasburg were absent visiting the fair at Frankfort, 
 Strasburg was suddenly attacked by a large French 
 force. Terrible threats on their part, the intrigues of 
 the traitors, the absence of the best citizens, the im- 
 possibility of succour, the hopes of saving the ancient 
 liberties of the city by a capitulation were effectual. 
 The city was surrendered, and never since then has the 
 German flag floated upon its walls. Obrecht became a 
 Catholic and absolute governor of the King of France 
 in Strasburg. The fate of the noble chief-magistrate, 
 Dominicus Dietrich, is touching, and his memory ought 
 not to have been so neglected, as is the case, for in 
 what history of the German people has the tragic end 
 of this patriot been mentioned ? It is a hard lot to be 
 a patriot in Germany, for he is — forgotten. 
 
 Dietrich was summoned to Paris, and was retained 
 their lest a German party of opposition should be 
 formed about him. Having detained him a long 
 time they thought that he had become humble, and 
 they attempted to bribe him, in order that upon his 
 return to Strasburg he might preach French principles 
 to his party. The notorious minister, Louvois, ordered 
 him to be summoned, received him while reading his 
 Bible, and said to him as follows : " The chief people of 
 Antioch said to Mattathias : Thou art the most noble 
 and most powerful in this city, and hast many sons and 
 many friends, therefore enter thou first and do what the 
 king has commanded as all lands have done, and the 
 people of Judea that are still at Jerusalem : so shall 
 thou and thy sons have a gracious king and be endowed 
 with gold and silver, and great gifts." (I. Maccabees 
 2, 17-18.) But Dietrich, being a good Lutheran and 
 well versed in his Bible, answered on the spur of the 
 moment : " Then Mattathias said : Although all lands 
 were obedient to Antioch, and every man deserted the 
 law of his fathers, and consent to the command of the 
 king, yet I, my sons, and my brothers, are not willing to 
 desert the law " (the following verses) . After that they
 
 The Western Boundary. 189 
 
 made short work with him and banished him to south- 
 ern France, from which he was released when he had 
 become an old man, and then in order to die in Stras- 
 burg. 
 
 After Louis XIV. had acquired possession of this 
 German bulwark, he was no longer in need of a 
 Rhenish confederation, nor of the princes of western 
 Germany. From this stronghold his armies could 
 quickly invade the Palatinate and Suabia, and rob and 
 rule after their hearts' desire. Discarding the old 
 mask of friendship he carried death and desolation 
 into the lands of the same princes, whom he had so 
 long flattered as their beloved protector. He next 
 desired to gain possession of the whole electorate of 
 the Palatinate of the Rhine, for his brother Philip of 
 Orleans, who had espoused the sister of the elector, 
 Charles Lewis ; and he did this with still greater 
 arrogance, for the elector was still living, and legal 
 heirs of the house of Wittelsbach were not wanting. 
 A demon in human form suggested to the king that 
 he would be most sure of securing his object if he 
 frightened the feeble and discordant imperial princes of 
 Germany ; that they would consent to the most dis- 
 advantageous treaty, if he should terrify them as they 
 had never before been. Therefore he ordered that the 
 cities and villages of the peaceful and prosperous 
 Palatinate, of the neighbouring electorate of Mayence, 
 of the margrave of Baden, and even of the duchy of 
 Wurtemberg should be plundered and burned to the 
 ground, the inhabitants robbed, abused, insulted, 
 murdered as if Attila had returned with the Huns. 
 They burned Worms, Spires, Frankenthal, Alzey, 
 Andernach, Kochheim, Oberwesel, Kreuznach, Mann- 
 heim, Ladenburg, Weinheim, Gernsheim, Heppenheini, 
 Oppenheim, Durlach, Bruchsal, Rastall, Baden, 
 Bretten, Pforzheim, etc.; in the second invasion, 
 Heidelberg, Hirschau, Calw, Xeuenburg, Knittlingen, 
 Marbach, Yaihingen, etc., not including numerous
 
 190 The Western Boundary. 
 
 hamlets and villages, were destroyed. And Lonis XIV. 
 did all this without having been injured in the least 
 by Germany. And this king boasted of being at the 
 head of civilization ! 
 
 However, his plan did not wholly succeed. In 
 Mayence General Thiingen bravely resisted him, a man 
 whom our country's history has also ungratefully for- 
 gotten. The empire bestirred itself again. The 
 emperor had just become master of the Turks in the 
 East, and so Louis XIV., by the treaty of Ryswick 
 (" Beiss iveg" — tear away, as people then said) had 
 to rest contented with what the treaty of Nimeguen 
 secured to him, and with Strasburg and the imperial 
 towns of Alsace which had already been most cruelly 
 treated, and partly burned to the ground by him. 
 But he did not sret the Palatinate, and he was obliged 
 to give back Freiburg in the Breisgau in the year of 1 697. 
 
 To him Strasburg was far more important strate- 
 getically, than Freiburg, and besides he founded the 
 fortress of Hiiningen, a cannon-shot's distance from 
 Bale, in order to gain a broad basis for operation on 
 the Upper Rhine. The Swiss murmured but he 
 reconciled them, and bribed their regents by annual 
 payments and military stipends, so that he was 
 not at all apprehensive of them. They also were 
 practically pleased with everything, they continued to 
 furnish him with numerous regiments, and actually 
 forgot that he had cut off their trade with Alsace and 
 Burgundy. The policy of the Swiss confederation at 
 that time is the most despicable that republics have 
 ever had to be ashamed of. When Louis seized the 
 free imperial city of Strasburg, a republic that had for 
 ages been allied to the Swiss, and had often rendered 
 them assistance in their combats, he was not only not 
 opposed by the Swiss, but they sent their ambassadors 
 to him, and courted him in the most servile manner, 
 serving him at table in their official dress, and re- 
 ceiving presents of money from him.
 
 The Western Boundary. 191 
 
 Soon after that, just at the close of the century, the 
 family of Philip II. in Spain died out, and the German 
 line of the house of Hapsburg laid claim to his rich 
 inheritance. But the elder daughter of the last of the 
 Hapsburgs in Spain had been married to a grandson of 
 Louis XIV., and this made good the female succession. 
 Apart from the official and family importance of this 
 matter of inheritance, it was very natural that France 
 should necessarily fear a consolidation of Spain, the 
 Netherlands, Naples, and Milan with the German 
 empire, a restoration of the great monarchy of Charles 
 V., quite as much as Germany had to be alarmed at an 
 increase of French power through this Spanish inheri- 
 tance. Policy also necessarily forbade a decision of 
 this suit by the sword. 
 
 This time Germany had the advantage of having 
 England on its side. Whenever England acted in 
 union with Germany, France was overpowered. More- 
 over, Prince Eugene, of Savoy, who was at heart 
 the best German of those times, took his place at 
 the head of the imperial army, and wrought wonders 
 in military art against the French, as he had done 
 against the Turks. Then Louis, who was growing old, 
 saw himself humbled at last, saw his arrogant generals 
 and armies defeated, his treasures vainly squandered. 
 But his cunning and good luck saved him. England 
 broke from Germany, and left Prince Eugene in the 
 lurch in the presence of the French, left the German 
 diplomats in the lurch at the time of negotiations, and 
 by its faithless policy caused us to lose again the 
 fruits of such long and glorious battles. Yet France 
 could gain Spain only, and Spain continued to be 
 under the rule of Louis's grandson, a kingdom separate 
 from France, while the Spanish Netherlands, Naples, 
 and Milan passed directly over to Austria in the year 
 1713. 
 
 But all these advantages were soon swept away 
 again, because Emperor Charles VI. had no son, and
 
 192 The Western Boundary. 
 
 in order to secure the succession for his celebrated 
 daughter Maria Theresa, he purchased the consent of 
 other states, especially France, with great sacrifices. 
 For this purpose he surrendered Naples and Lorraine 
 to France of his own accord. The important surrender 
 of Lorraine was at that time still kept a secret, because 
 Francis, the young Duke of Lorraine, who married 
 Maria Theresa, received Tuscany instead of Lorraine, 
 and Lorraine itself was provisionally given to the 
 dethroned King of Poland, Stanislaus Teszcynski, who, 
 however, had no son, and after whose death, 1766, 
 France actually came into possession of the much and 
 long desired Lorraine. Naples became an independent 
 kingdom under a French king belonging to the house 
 of Louis XIV., as did Spain. 
 
 In this manner France acquired what it still holds 
 to-day, acquired it from Germany by robbery, by base 
 robbery in the midst of peace, or by fraudulent use of 
 our misfortune. It acquired the ancient kingdom of 
 Burgundy, the valley of the Rhone from Geneva to 
 Marseilles, at the time of our misfortune when the 
 Hohenstaufens became extinct. It acquired the 
 bishoprics of Lorraine at the time of our misfortune 
 during the Reformation. It acquired Alsace at the 
 time of our misfortune in the Thirty Years' War. At 
 the time of our feebleness and in the midst of peace, it 
 seized upon the earldom of Burgundy, a part of 
 the Netherlands and Strasburg. At the time of our 
 feebleness, and through the family compact of Charles 
 VI., which was most injurious to all German interests, 
 it won by a stroke of the pen beautiful Lorraine, so 
 long loyal to the German empire. The family of Louis 
 X1Y. ruled now both in Spain and Naples. 
 
 All that France acquired, it acquired at the expense 
 of Germany. The loss of the ancient kingdom of 
 Burgundy and of Naples, also of the free earldom of 
 Burgundy, of Italian Lorraine and of Italian Arras, 
 etc., was a great political loss, if not a national one.
 
 The Western Boundary. 193 
 
 By the loss of Alsace and German Lorraine, moreover, 
 we were deeply injured in our national interests. 
 These fine provinces were severed like a sound limb 
 from the living body of Germany, and were subjected 
 to the influence of a foreign nationality. But the 
 worst was, that by this example it was clearly proved 
 that the German nation had lost its ancient precedence 
 in Europe. Until this time Romance and Slavonic 
 peoples had been subject to German masters. Now 
 for the first time German people were subject to 
 foreign masters. What the Romance state in the west 
 had done, that was also done now by the Slavic 
 state in the East, and France had hardly taken Alsace 
 from us when Russia also on the other side took from 
 us German Livland. 
 
 As we were defeated by the French on the field, 
 as we had allowed them unpunished to wrest German 
 provinces from us, so also German spirit, as the 
 result of this, was subjected to the French. The 
 external losses kept pace with the internal degeneration 
 of Germany. Was it the cause or was it the result, 
 matters not ; all feeling for German national honour 
 and strength and loyalty, upon which the German 
 had once relied for his nationality, died out when 
 the French made their advances against Germany. 
 
 The German courts and the German nobility 
 patterned after the court of Louis XIV., copied his 
 despotism, his taste and his extravagances. They 
 suppressed the old-German, the popularly traditional 
 liberties both of the states and the cities. They 
 eagerly adopted the system of Louis XIV., the new 
 doctrine of absolute power, and they voluntarily served 
 as organs of the great Gallic-Roman reaction against 
 Germanism. We have already viewed the modern 
 despotism of Louis XIV. as the result of that 
 national reaction. This Romance element which had 
 so long been vanquished, and which under the sacred 
 flag of the Roman hierarchy had vainly battled against 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 194 The Western Boundary. 
 
 the German element, and was again overwhelmed by 
 the Reformation, now attained under the secular flag 
 of French despotism an undisputed victory. Every 
 popular right, every ancient form of popular represen- 
 tation was destroyed on German soil, or was degraded 
 to an empty formality. All German governments 
 adopted the French forms, the centralization of power, 
 the bureaucracy. In the modern forms were now 
 repeated the forms of the ancient Roman empire, with 
 its vice-regencies and prefectures. Therefore the old 
 Roman law, after having long clashed with the 
 German provincial and civic laws, now first gained 
 firm foothold in Germany, which never could have 
 happened had the desire for absolute power not come 
 to its assistance. 
 
 At the same time the courts and nobles in Germany 
 adopted the French language, and were ashamed to 
 speak their good old mother-tongue any longer. And 
 so German literature was despised by the nobles, and 
 French was introduced in its stead. 
 
 In the same way strict German morality was ex- 
 pelled from among the princes and nobles. They 
 travelled to Paris to cultivate themselves, and they 
 brought all sorts of fashions back to Germany with 
 them. Numerous pleasure castles, even for the clergy, 
 displayed to the astonished citizen and peasant in 
 Germany the resurrected splendour and revelry of the 
 Roman heathen festivities abounding in mythology and 
 debauchery. 
 
 In this way there vanished from the courts, and 
 from among the nobles, ancient and beautiful costumes, 
 and this new Parisian fashion was imitated in 
 Germany, first by the nobles, then by the middle 
 class. To a certain degree clothes make the man, so it 
 was by no means a matter of little importance that 
 Germany lowered itself and servilely donned the dis- 
 mantled garments of the French. It is moreover re- 
 markable that the new French fashions, though they
 
 The Western Boundary. 195 
 
 were constantly changing without cause, were never 
 exchanged for beautiful fashions, but on the contrary 
 always for ugly fashions, and altogether they were 
 patterns of every possible form of unnaturalness, un- 
 wholesomeness, and ugliness. From extensive wigs, 
 hoop-petticoats and ruffles of Louis XIV.'s time, 
 down to frocks and big sleeves, all French fashions 
 during those two centuries j)resent nothing that could 
 compare with the older national costumes for dressi- 
 ness, elegance, beauty, and appropriateness. In this 
 compliance of Europe to the legislation of the ugly, 
 there is a remarkable example of the irony of uni- 
 versal history. At the same time this symbolically 
 expresses the total unnaturalness of the French ascen- 
 dancy. 
 
 Finally, French influence exerted a great power 
 over German literature which had apparently remained 
 independent of it, and had even taken up sides against 
 it. It is true that a reaction on the part of German 
 literature against the French began with Lessing, that 
 the attack upon Gottsched, the leader of the French 
 school, encouraged almost all the young minds contem- 
 poraneous with and following Lessing, and gave new 
 impetus to German science and poetry. Although these 
 minds were courageously and decisively repelling the 
 direct influence of France, yet, without being conscious 
 of it, they were subjected to its indirect influence. 
 Without the example of French literature, as an 
 illustration, German writers would never have departed 
 so far from the Christian point of view, and so closely 
 approached the heathen antique position, as they have 
 done. And without the despotic forms of government 
 derived from France, German writers would never have 
 departed so far from a national and patriotic point of 
 view, and been impelled to a position so completely 
 individual on the one side, so cosmopolitan on the 
 other, as actually was the case. After the passionate 
 struggles of the Reformation, the religious mind of the 
 
 2
 
 196 The Western Boundary. 
 
 German schools also fell asleep, and nothing took its 
 place, except classical studies and French fashionable 
 literature. Therefore the young minds in Germany 
 involuntarily accustomed themselves to heathen and 
 un- German models, and hardly conceived the richness 
 of German intellectual and artistic life, as it had been 
 evolved during the middle ages. Although in their 
 opposition to the French they began to become con- 
 scious of themselves, yet it • was a consciousness felt 
 only in order to compete with the French in the 
 imitation of the antique, for they boasted that they 
 understood the antique better than the French ; and if 
 they had a suspicion that that of itself was not suffi- 
 cient, and that art blossoms would spring up again 
 from the German root still more beautiful than those 
 already produced in the hot-house of classicism, they 
 did not yet know how to find this root in their native 
 soil, and they borrowed all the implements for Germanic 
 reaction from their kinsmen, the English. 
 
 The intellectual men of Germany were debarred 
 from all participation in public affairs, they were ex- 
 cluded from all co-operation in governmental affairs, 
 through despotic and aristocratic forms of government, 
 they were appointed to poor scholastic positions or to 
 pensions granted by the princes, they were intimidated 
 by the outer world, and were driven to the world of 
 imagination. They belonged to some independent 
 province, but as yet they knew of the German empire 
 as a whole only in the form of a caricature, which 
 was even then a subject of ridicule. Therefore they 
 studied only to gain some kind of a livelihood, to get 
 a position in their province, and by this office to 
 become cosmopolitans. While they were conscious 
 that they were at one extreme of littleness, that 
 their vocation was an exceedingly narrow and cir- 
 cumscribed one, they fell at the same time into the 
 other extreme, and sought an unbounded circle of 
 action for at least their intellect and their feelings.
 
 The Western Boundary. 197 
 
 They devoted themselves to the world (under the then 
 favourite title of cosmopolitans, that is, citizens of the 
 world) or to mankind, under the equally favourite 
 name of humanity. About German nationality, how- 
 ever, and about the country's interests not a word 
 was said. The narrow-minded provincialism of the 
 common people did not rise to such a height, and 
 geniuses soared far beyond them into the regions of 
 the universality of mankind. That explains why even 
 Lessing, during the Seven Years' War, interests himself 
 in everything else excepting this war which was de- 
 stroying his country. That is the reason why Goethe 
 still later took no part in the great events of Germany, 
 and felt only that they unpleasantly disturbed his 
 poetic dreams. Even Schiller declares once in a letter 
 to Korner, " patriotism is something limited, true genius 
 can never be inspired for one nation, but only for all 
 mankind." The enthusiasm which seized upon the 
 youth of Germany in the latter half of last century, 
 the so-called storm and stress period, was in reality 
 only aimed at the emancipation of humanity, or the 
 humane, and was by no means a national tendency. 
 Nay, it was originally derived from France, it was only 
 adopted from Rousseau. 
 
 King Frederick II. won immortal fame when he 
 defeated the French at Rossbach, and turned the fear 
 of them into ridicule. French policy, seizing every 
 opportunity to rob Germany again, broke the agree- 
 ment with Prussia, to which it was indebted for Naples 
 and Lorraine, immediately after the death of Charles 
 VI.; it did not recognize the beautiful Maria Theresa, 
 as his heir, and it sent new armies to Germany. 
 Meanwhile Prussia reconciled itself with Maria Theresa, 
 and France went away empty-handed. With so much 
 the greater eagerness did France now join the coali- 
 tion of Austria, Russia, Saxony and Sweden, which 
 was intended to conquer and divide Prussia. The 
 infamous plot was devised in the heart of France, at
 
 198 The Western Boundary. 
 
 Versailles. If it had succeeded, France would have 
 carried off a part of the booty, it would have gained a 
 German district in the west. But the military genius 
 of Frederick and the stable loyalty of Prussia frustrated 
 the whole plan. The endangered state of Prussia 
 came out of the Seven Years' War more gloriously 
 than ever, and France again got nothing. 
 
 Yet by no means did Frederick use the humiliation 
 of the French to teach the Germans a great political 
 lesson, to explain to them the faithless policy of France, 
 which never grew old, to excite their animosity against 
 France, to tear away the bonds with which French 
 thought and taste, French literature and fashion had 
 bound them. On the contrary, he did everything to 
 establish and extend the influence of those very French 
 whom he had defeated on the field of battle, whom he 
 had made even ridiculous, over German education and 
 civilization. He j^referred to read, speak, and write 
 French, he despised German philosophers and poets 
 (with a few exceptions hardly worth mentioning), and 
 invited to his court only French scholars and poets, 
 some of whom were the most demoralized characters. 
 He immediately favoured the most perfect freedom of 
 the press upon questions of morality and religion (but 
 not upon political topics), and, as the young emperor, 
 Joseph II., followed his example, Germany was soon 
 flooded with translations and imitations of immoral and 
 irreligious works with which France was then overflow- 
 ing. After the death of Lessing, who had fought so 
 valiantly against the earlier Gallic mania, a new, still 
 fiercer mania broke out. It was time that the old French 
 play, the beloved pastoral scenes, the obscene mythology, 
 etc., were banished, but in their place appeared the new 
 French philosophical romances which were consistently 
 and intelligently planned for the complete destruction 
 of all the moral and religious principles of society. 
 Goethe and his new school, just then beginning to 
 flourish, were unable to direct this influx of French
 
 The Western Boundary. 199 
 
 frivolity, nor did they wish to, but rather yielded to it 
 in many respects, just as Wieland also had done still 
 earlier (and in this respect he differed from Lessing), 
 and just as the lesser but very popular poets were still 
 doing, for example, the Nicolai School, Kotzebue, etc. 
 French ideas, however, had the greatest influence 
 upon the secret societies, among which that of the 
 Illuminati had the definite purpose of causing the down- 
 fall of Christianity. 
 
 To such an unlimited extent did French culture 
 prevail among us without any influence from Germany 
 being felt in turn in France. At that time it was 
 assumed to be a well-known fact that the French were 
 the exemplary people of culture, and compared with the 
 other nations of Europe just as the Greeks once did 
 with the surrounding barbarians, Scythians, etc. The 
 French not only affected an inexpressible scorn for the 
 Germans, but they actually overflowed with it. In 
 Germany the people were contented with this, for the 
 great Frederick himself unconditionally recognized the 
 superiority of the French. Even the more enlightened 
 minds and prouder spirits of that time, though they 
 censured much that was French, and were busily 
 engaged in honouring what was German in turn, allowed 
 themselves to be overawed by the fine language, and by 
 the dazzling ideas of the then immensely popular French 
 philosophers who, under the guidance of Rousseau, 
 promised the renaissance of humanity the realization 
 (jf an ideal government, the fulfilment of all the dreams 
 of world-reformers. The philosophical school of Kant 
 and Fichte, the rationalism in Protestant theology 
 striving for supremacy, many inspired poets and 
 historians shared in these sympathies. Although 
 German scholarship and German thought made them- 
 selves otherwise felt in works of science and in poetry, 
 in many ways independent of French influence, yet 
 there was never at that time a genuine national party 
 in Germany, there was nowhere a centre for national
 
 200 The Western Boundary. 
 
 opposition and reaction against the universal prevalent 
 French ideas, nowhere a patriotic consciousness that 
 resolutely headed itself against the stream. 
 
 Such was the position of Germanism to Gallic- 
 Romanism, immediately preceding the French Revolu- 
 tion. 
 
 This great event has, as is well known, already been 
 variously criticized. French philosophy has boasted 
 that it had foreseen it, had prepared for it. But it is 
 not so. The philosophy, the educated classes, and 
 the press were not capable of improvising such a 
 catastrophe. Only the bankruptcy of the government, 
 and only the extreme poverty of the lower classes, of 
 those very classes that troubled themselves least about 
 philosophy and literature, that were not even able to 
 read, these brought about the Revolution, and then, of 
 course, all the noble and just passions of the educated 
 classes intermingled in it. These last have been justly 
 accredited with having had a great share in this 
 terrible event, but it was only a share in the develop- 
 ment of the same, not in its origin. Quite apart from 
 the opinions and practices of the higher classes, the 
 Revolution broke out as a physical necessity, and 
 originated in the wretchedness and poverty of the 
 provinces, not from the intellectual revelries of the 
 capital. In truth one is bound to maintain, and this 
 was not evident to people at that time, that the 
 Revolution was a revival of the old Franconian, that is, 
 Germanic element of popular freedom and popular re- 
 presentation, so long suppressed in France, a reaction 
 against the new Gallic-Roman element of despotism 
 that arose with Louis XIV. The people simply desired 
 to recover the old Franconian, old Burgundian consti- 
 tution, in a word, the ancient German institutions of 
 primary assemblies, of military jurisdiction, of the im- 
 perial assembly. Hence the agreement of the new French 
 constitution with that of the English, hence all the ad- 
 vantages of the representative system. Had the French
 
 The Western Boundary. 201 
 
 people been able to act for themselves when they began 
 this Revolution, its Germanic character would have 
 been still more clearly represented. But from the 
 beginning the philosophers of the capital interfered 
 with it, they latently falsified the original character of 
 the Revolution, while they most eagerly gave their 
 services to it, and obtruded themselves upon it as leaders. 
 These philosophers, with their customary arrogance, 
 now declare that the Revolution was by no means a 
 reaction of freedom-loving Germanism against despotic 
 Romanism, but, on the very contrary, a reaction of the 
 Gallic-Roman people, long ago oppressed by the Fran- 
 conian kings and nobles, against these same foreign 
 usurpers. 
 
 But the French knew very well what they were 
 doing when they devised this falsehood. They intended 
 to rob the Germanic nation of the ancient glory of its 
 institutions, and to ascribe to themselves alone the 
 honour of having thus rediscovered liberty. One need 
 not be amazed at it. Yet one cannot but be surprised 
 to find that German historians and politicians credit 
 and repeat it. The English also are guilty of this 
 mistake. Jealous of France they (with Edmund Burke 
 at their head) are wholly unwilling to grant that the 
 French Revolution proceeded from a desire on the part 
 of the unfortunate people for Germanic principles, for a 
 constitution like that of the English, and they take 
 pleasure in unanimously proclaiming this to be a fan- 
 tastic imitation of ancient republics. 
 
 These same Jacobins of the capital who acquired 
 control of the Revolution, and whose action, as is well 
 known, naturally awakened opposition in the provinces, 
 have also held fast to the Gallic-Roman principle chiefly 
 because the French again planned conquests in Germany. 
 A number of German Illuminati, cosmopolitans, and 
 freedom-enthusiasts rushed to meet them. These men, 
 in whom there was not a trace of national pride and 
 patriotism, even begged them to come to Germany and
 
 202 The Western Boundary. 
 
 to introduce here the new French freedom. They vied 
 with one another in offering them cities and provinces, 
 and besought them, as if for a favour, to unite to 
 France that basely betrayed Mayence, the last bulwark 
 on the Upper Rhine after the loss of Strasburg. Even 
 Georg Forster, the celebrated circumnavigator of the 
 globe, one of the most respected scholars of Germany, 
 was conspicuous in this embassy of Mayence citizens, 
 traitors to their country. 
 
 All this was natural. Who was willing to get 
 excited over it ? Such consequences were unavoid- 
 able when once all the earlier events had taken place. 
 We described above the feeling in Germany before 
 the Reformation. The Illuminati and their friends, 
 the admirers of French literature and philosophy, 
 were legion, and unfortunately the people of Germany 
 were so unused to freedom, especially scholars and 
 writers had learned to take so little part in the 
 political life of their country, that the novelty of 
 freedom, the thought of possible co-operation in the 
 affairs of state surprised, electrified, and inspired 
 them with a manly, at the same time childish, desire 
 for political activity. Now, since this was denied 
 them in their own country, since at the very first 
 notice of the outbreak of the French Revolution 
 strict guard and police inspection were instituted in 
 Germany, these people, intoxicated with freedom, 
 emigrated to France, they betook themselves to Faris 
 or waited here at least for the coming of the salvation. 
 
 The Jacobins of Paris received their German friends 
 very well at first. They were afraid of Russia and 
 Austria, they were attacked by these powers, they 
 hoped to devise a diversion for these poAvers by a 
 revolution in Germany, and in addition much weight 
 was laid on the friendship which the German enthusiasts 
 proffered, them. They honoured the latter very 
 highly ; would one believe that a Prussian, Baron 
 ( 'loots, became president of the Jacobin club, and a
 
 The Western Boundary. 203 
 
 Swiss parson, Gobel, became Archbishop of Paris ? 
 The latter solemnly laid aside his priestly canonicals in 
 the national convention and forswore the Christian 
 religion, an example followed by the entire French 
 republic. But how greatly deceived were these 
 enthusiasts when they fancied that they could make 
 use of the French, for they themselves only were the 
 instruments of the French ! As soon as the Jacobins 
 perceived that the support of the Illuminati in 
 Germany was not great enough to revolutionize our 
 empire in form, and since they, 011 the other hand, 
 dared to hope for Prussia's separation from the 
 coalition, they made short work with all those ob- 
 trusive German enthusiasts in Paris, and had them 
 repaid for their good faith by scornfully cutting off 
 their heads. 
 
 The policy of conquest was much dearer to the 
 hearts of the French than liberty. The new republi- 
 cans had no scruples against flattering a king, a German 
 king, indeed, at the very moment when they had 
 hardly ceased to assure the German people of repub- 
 lican liberty. They troubled themselves little about 
 the principle if it had any profit in it. 
 
 And, unfortunately, Prussia entered into the treaty. 
 It was jealous of Austria, and it believed that it 
 Avas acting according to the wish of the great Fred- 
 erick, who had recently died, when it formed an 
 alliance with France against Austria. It surrendered 
 itself to an extremely disastrous deception. 
 
 Prussia, the young state in which rested the future 
 of Germany, had to do everything that served the 
 universal German interests, it dare do nothing that 
 imperiled the same. It had to represent the national 
 honour in opposition to the old traditional foe of the 
 empire, the overbearing neighbour. It did not dare to 
 assume an ambiguous and, indeed, a hostile attitude 
 towards the rest of Germany, it never dared to make 
 a common cause with the enemvof Germanv. Wisdom
 
 204 The Western Boundary. 
 
 had already forbidden it to confide in French friend- 
 ship, for France had always defrauded its friends in 
 Germany. 
 
 Prussia, having first outstripped Austria in a fierce 
 contest, was now running after France, and took only 
 a lukewarm part in the war ; soon it stopped alto- 
 gether, and finally concluded the one-sided treaty 
 with France at Bale, 1795. By this means Austria 
 was isolated, repulsed, defeated. The entire left bank 
 of the Rhine and the Netherlands were lost to 
 Germany. 
 
 By means of this well-devised treaty of peace 
 with Prussia the French avoided the troublesome duty 
 of keeping their promises to the people. That 
 dangerous method of exciting the people was no 
 longer necessary now, for the enemies of France were 
 not to be feared after the separation of Prussia from 
 the coalition. So they were no longer bound by the 
 promise to liberate the people. Now they could 
 again make conquests and rob the rich frontier lands 
 of the German empire in the old-fashioned way without 
 being the least ashamed of it. So the Netherlands, 
 Holland, the Rhenish electorates, the Palatinate, and, 
 soon afterwards, Switzerland, were not liberated by the 
 brotherly league, as had been promised, but they were 
 hostilely vanquished and overrun with a military and 
 civil army of robbers, that plundered by force all 
 the public and private wealth of the countries mentioned, 
 or understood how to steal it away with the skill and 
 trickery of financial magicians. The French com- 
 missioners thought of everything, took everything. 
 
 The Netherlanders and Hollanders and citizens of 
 Treves protested in vain. The French had declared 
 that they wished only to free them, to salute them as 
 a free people, had solemnly promised them their auton- 
 omy, free elections, independence, republican honour, 
 republican happiness — and now they treat them like 
 conquered enemies, they take everything away, do not
 
 The Western Boundary. 205 
 
 allow free elections, brutally dictate to them and leave 
 them nothing but blind obedience. If they had to 
 exchange merely one form of tyranny for another and 
 a bad condition for a worse, why did they promise 
 them liberty ? 
 
 After that the provinces of Germany across the 
 Rhine were plundered of everything ; they kept, of 
 course, their political and civil institutions which, in 
 comparison with the earlier state of affairs, must be 
 looked upon as an improvement, as a salutary reform. 
 However, people were deceived as regards the origin 
 of these institutions. They received them as something 
 altogether new, which could have been invented only 
 by French ingenuity, or which were results of the 
 ancient republicanism born again in France. But they 
 were nothing else than old Germanic institutions, 
 borrowed first of all from England, where old German 
 liberty has been preserved in its purest and most 
 ancient form. The jury, for example, was neither 
 something new, exclusively French, nor something 
 antique, but an English, originally a Germanic institu- 
 tion, which had formerly been developed among the 
 Franks as among all German tribes. 
 
 The Swiss were the most miserable at that time. 
 For centuries they had pursued an anti-national policy 
 against Germany, they had wronged their German 
 kinsmen in every way, the French they had favoured 
 in every way. Hundreds of thousands of Swiss had 
 fallen from time to time while fighting for France, in 
 the wars of the Reformation, of Louis XIV. and 
 XV. They had shed their life's blood to make France 
 great. As Germans they had fought against Germans 
 in order that France, laughing both to scorn, should 
 alone succeed. Now they were earning their reward. 
 In vain did they explain that they had long, long been 
 free, ever since the time of William Tell, that it was 
 not at all necessary that the French should come with 
 the pretext of liberating them now for the first time.
 
 2o6 The Western Boundary. 
 
 They humbly prayed that the French would not 
 liberate them. " Be silent/' was the command, " you 
 must let yourselves be freed." So the French came, 
 conquered the country, ruled it by their own creatures, 
 did not observe free elections, declared those null which 
 had been boldly held, notwithstanding, and stole, stole 
 like the ravens. With the millions which were seized 
 here Bonaparte equipped the navy and army with 
 which he went to Egypt, and Copts and Arabs tested 
 the value of the old gold pieces of Bern on the foot of 
 the pyramids. 
 
 As soon as France had assured itself of the conquest 
 of the entire left bank of the Rhine and Italy, it ceased 
 to be republic. Both events resulted from the same 
 cause. The French people dissatisfied, passionately 
 enraged against king and nobility, embittered with the 
 intendants and financial frauds, were revenged by the 
 death of the king and by the emigration of the nobles ; 
 the bankruptcy of the state had been averted, and 
 besides, they had now conquered the neighbouring- 
 lands and had enriched themselves with the booty. So 
 the people were now satisfied. What need had they 
 now of the phantom of the republic ? Napoleon blew 
 it away by a breath. Napoleon alone was now the 
 man of the nation, for he understood, as a French king 
 before him never had, how to flatter the two chief 
 passions of the nation, desire for fame and covetousness. 
 He led them to victory everywhere, and he gave them 
 the plundered booty of all countries. 
 
 The poor German empire ! It had to behold all 
 these changes in France and to suffer anew under each 
 of them. Under how many false pretences, for what 
 totally opposing principles had the French not come to 
 us already, in order to rob under the mask of giving 
 us assistance ! That ancient kingdom of Burgundy 
 they tore from us in the name of the pope and of the 
 only saving church. The bishoprics of Lorraine and 
 Alsace they tore from us in the name of the Reforma-
 
 The Western Boundary.' 207 
 
 tion, as the protectors of the Lutherans. Strasburg 
 and the republic of Holland they seized in the name of 
 the absolute monarchy. Spain, Naples, Burgundy, and 
 Lorraine they won in the name of legitimacy, and 
 finally Holland, the Netherlands, the entire left bank of 
 the Rhine, and Switzerland they united, or allied at 
 least most closely with France, in the name of liberty 
 and of the republican principle. Four times they 
 changed that principle, but with each change they 
 stole away land from us. And so it was at least certain 
 that Napoleon no longer needed an excuse, that he 
 discarded the hypocritical mask of principles and 
 openly appeared as a robber, when he made interest 
 alone answer the purpose of policy and despised no 
 means to attain that end. 
 
 Napoleon stole into the hearts of the French, and he 
 will always dwell there, not only because he was a 
 great man, but still more because he most boldly ex- 
 pressed and accomplished what all the French think 
 and desire, because by his very greatness he excused 
 the odiousness of covetousness, which is the secret of 
 their nationality. One may say what one will, but 
 Napoleon has to thank his genius for the admiration of 
 the French, but for their love he has to thank only 
 his profound immorality. 
 
 In Germany this great military genius found half the 
 work already done. The left bank of the Rhine, to- 
 gether with both our flanks, Holland on one side, 
 Switzerland on the other, had already been torn from 
 us, Prussia was already separated from Austria, and 
 was neutral when Napoleon drove the steeds of his 
 chariot of victory for the first time over the plains of 
 Germany. Had he been half the great man that he 
 actually was, he would have overpowered us. Our 
 empire was not accustomed to valiant uprisings and 
 popular summons, but, rather to the contrary, to 
 cowardly fear, cringing obedience, and humiliation. 
 No matter to whom it humbled itself. Warlike
 
 208 The Western Boundary. 
 
 Prussia did nothing for the rescue of the empire, 
 it rather hindered it by its neutrality, which was 
 almost equivalent to an alliance with France, and 
 Austria alone had already shed half its life blood, 
 having fought under the leadership of its ancient im- 
 perial house with the noblest endurance and loyalty. 
 
 The consequences are well known. The western 
 part of the empire was formed into a new Rhenish 
 confederacy like the former, under the protectorate 
 of France, and with the special advantage to Germany, 
 that even the last remnants of state and municipal 
 liberty were destroyed, and a completely despotic form 
 of government was introduced everywhere. Austria 
 was robbed of its western and southern provinces. 
 Prussia reaped the same gratitude from France that 
 Switzerland had earlier ; it was rewarded for its loyalty 
 with abuse and insult ; finally it was cast out and 
 almost ruined. 
 
 If Prussia had not concluded the treaty of Bale, had 
 it rendered loyal aid to Austria, had it also encouraged 
 the rest of the imperial allies, and had it used before- 
 hand the abundance of men and money (among the 
 nobler classes), then in the j)ossession of Germany, for 
 great united efforts against France, instead of letting 
 this abundance soon afterwards fall into the hands of 
 the French, France would have been conquered, 
 perhaps ; at least, it would have been forced to make a 
 fair treaty of peace. But Prussia did nothing ; and 
 this right wing of the German situation quietly beheld 
 how the left one (Austria) was broken. That Napo- 
 leon would also fall at once upon the right wing, which 
 could no longer be aided by the broken left one, hence 
 must be conquered, Prussia could easily have imagined. 
 Will Germany, indeed, ever understand that it is always 
 important for France to smite one half of Germany 
 through the other or after the other, as it has never 
 been able to manage the whole ? 
 
 Meanwhile, although under the present circumstances
 
 The Western Boundary. 209 
 
 Napoleon easily got the better of Germany, an inner 
 presentiment said to him, nevertheless, these obedient 
 subjects, these amiable neighbours that suffer them- 
 selves to be beaten on both sides like drams, these 
 phlegmatic Germans, and he was fond of honouring them 
 with the title "Dummheit" (stupidity), are not to be 
 wholly trusted, sometimes there can be a thunderstorm 
 among them, and the lightning may strike him. There- 
 fore, he not only took steps to divide the Germans, to 
 estrange the various tribes of the same people from one 
 another more than they had been, to natter the one, 
 to terrify the other, and on the whole to weaken them, 
 to keep the German press under the strictest censor- 
 ship, to check personal freedom by the police, an in- 
 stitution of this kind almost new in Germany, etc., but 
 he also believed that a great European offensive and 
 defensive alliance of Romanism and Slavism was 
 necessary in order to hold Germanism securely down. 
 Therefore he formed his close alliance with Emperor 
 Alexander in the year 1807. 
 
 This alliance of the Romans and Slavs had been 
 planned already between Louis XIV. and Peter the 
 Great for the destruction of Germany. Only because 
 the one took Alsace, could the other take Livland. 
 Now the ruin of Germany was carried on about a 
 century longer. The French ruled not only on the 
 Rhine, but also on the Elbe, and the Russians already 
 held Livland, Kusland, Eschland, and almost all Poland, 
 and he also took Finland. 
 
 If this alliance had lasted longer, Germany would 
 have been completely destroyed by it, for no one would 
 have dared to oppose this coalition if it had declared, 
 " Prussia has ceased to exist." Even Austria would 
 have had to succumb. It is not improper for us to 
 recall what humiliations befell our honourable, ancient, 
 princely houses at Erfurt and Dresden, how insolently 
 they were treated by the French, and no less by the 
 Russians, for Alexander had not so much delicacy as to 
 
 vol. 1. p
 
 210 The Western Boundary. 
 
 be absent from the great hare-hunt which Napoleon had 
 prepared in the battle-field of Jena, two years after the 
 battle. One may and should, in truth, think of such 
 insults, in order that one may recall also from time to 
 time what there is to do to prevent their return. 
 
 The slow, gradual annihilation of the last remnant of 
 independence possessed by the German princes and the 
 German nation, which would have inevitably followed, 
 if France and Russia had remained united for a time, 
 was fortunately spared us ; not, however, by our own 
 merit, but by the miraculous dispensation of God — 
 Russia and France begrudged each other the booty, 
 and became enemies. 
 
 If this was a great stroke of good fortune for Ger- 
 many for which we are not able to thank heaven enough, 
 yet there is associated with it a reflection of the most 
 painful nature. Never before, during the two thousand 
 years that German history has been recorded, were all 
 Germans subject to the will of a foreigner. Never had 
 the Romans forced us to yield ; Attila himself had 
 subdued only a part of the Germans, the others fought 
 under independent princes against him and conquered 
 him. Now, for the first time, in the year 1812, were all 
 Germans, without exception, obliged to serve a foreign 
 master ; all German states, without exception, had to 
 furnish soldiers to a foreign lord, and to submit to the 
 command of a foreigner, in order to fight for a foreign 
 cause. 
 
 When this disgrace of a nation, which for two 
 thousand years had been the sovereign of Europe, 
 became evident, heaven itself seemed to find it unen- 
 durable, and gave its sign to remind men what they 
 ought to have done even with its aid. Truly, those 
 great natural terrors that announced the fall of 
 Napoleon cause the German nation to be deeply 
 ashamed. 
 
 Now, for the first time, the nation started up in 
 wild rage, ardent for vengeance, terrible as nature
 
 The Western Boundary. 2 1 1 
 
 whose sign it had seen. But the enthusiasm came, 
 indeed, somewhat late. We are obliged to ask, with 
 amazement, why did the Germans now first do what 
 they could have done long before ? How many provinces, 
 how many millions of money had the Germans allowed 
 to be seized from them since the times of Louis XIV. ? 
 With the means, which they had negligently sur- 
 rendered to the French, they could have pursued the 
 latter even across the Seine more than a hundred years 
 before. A union of the princes, a general summons of 
 the people could have taken place much earlier, and 
 would have had just as favourable a result as in the 
 year 1813. 
 
 However, it is a natural characteristic of the German 
 people that they take time in all matters. They com- 
 pleted the Reformation, too, after a long trial of 
 patience. What necessity did was done at last, though 
 tardily. The German princes united, the German 
 people arose en masse, and more was not needed to 
 conquer France's entire force and the hero of the 
 century. The zeal and the talent of the German 
 generals, the enthusiasm and bravery of the armies 
 themselves were extraordinary, and especially so, in- 
 deed, because the war was waged by the entire nation 
 as such. This gave it the emphasis, this the rare 
 enthusiasm, and this sent that terror before the armies 
 which nothing resists. When such a great people as 
 the Germans become angered and arise in a body, 
 France must tremble even though it had ten Napo- 
 leons. 
 
 People and army waged the war purely as a national 
 war. At that time not only Napoleon was hated, but 
 the French also. Since, however, the German govern- 
 ments did not conduct the war alone, though the 
 German armies alone decided the issue, since Russia 
 especially had great influence, and Russia was more 
 afraid of an increase of German power, because the 
 Germans were nearer, than the continuance of a strong 
 
 p 2
 
 212 The Western Boundary. 
 
 French state which was more distant and could be of 
 future service to Russia against Germany ; in the very 
 midst of the war itself diplomacy was already planning 
 not to allow the victory of the Germans over the French 
 to go too far. This was expressed in the explanation 
 that the war was not a national war, not a war against 
 France, but only against the person of Napoleon. 
 
 Upon this understanding also the treaty was con- 
 cluded. The opportunity was offered Germany to 
 revenge with one blow all the injuries which it had 
 suffered for centuries from France, to take back all the 
 provinces that had been torn from the German empire. 
 But this opportunity was not used. France kept not 
 only Italian Burgundy and Italian Lorraine, but also 
 German Alsace and German Lorraine. It kept Stras- 
 burg, the key of Upper Germany. Also the potent 
 messenger of conquered France sat in the congress of 
 Vienna and in judgment over Germany, for example, 
 over the division of Saxony, while no representative of 
 a German principality was allowed to meddle with the 
 matter of the new French constitution. 
 
 In the meantime the new constitution of France was 
 made to copy the English ; a constitutional king with 
 two houses, etc., thus again essentially Germanic in 
 its nature. After the great tragic comedy of the 
 Renaissance, the antique republic and the antique 
 despotism had been played out, a return was made to 
 the original want which had caused the Revolution, 
 namely, to the need of Germanic guaranties, of old 
 Frankish popular representation according to the 
 classes. 
 
 Germany had exerted all its force to win the victory, 
 but not to employ the victory equally as well. How- 
 ever, the simple fact that the entire French force, all 
 French pride, all the military genius of France were 
 not a match for a popular call of the Germans, was well 
 worth knowing. It demonstrated to the French what 
 Germany was able to do if it wished. It instilled a
 
 The Western Boundary. 213 
 
 shyness into them, but it tempted us to dare. It 
 taught their heads to reflect that if the Germans some 
 time in the future should be inclined to make a general 
 call against France once again, the victory would be 
 just as little doubtful, but that afterwards this victory 
 would be employed perhaps more to the advantage of 
 Germany, and to the loss of France, than this first 
 one. 
 
 It was equally dangerous to leave the French so 
 much power, yes, indeed, to leave it in possession of 
 German provinces and so important a military-political 
 outpost as Strasburg. It was dangerous to make only 
 Napoleon the scape-goat, and to heap upon him all the 
 curse and to spare France itself, for history teaches that 
 Napoleon only continued the wrong the French kings 
 long before him had done us. Napoleon was not the 
 first cause and France the second cause, but France 
 was the first cause and Napoleon the second cause. 
 Napoleon was a passing event, France was permanent. 
 With France we had to do centuries before, and with 
 France we shall have to do centuries to come. Hence 
 it is not a question of the weakening of Napoleon, but 
 of France. 
 
 Wholly apart from the internal political arrangement 
 of the newly-established German confederacy, it was 
 without doubt in the interest of all German states that 
 France was weakened, that at least it did not retain 
 Strasburg and the German provinces. As regards this 
 boundary question it is quite immaterial how the union 
 of the German states is arranged internally. Whether 
 Germany is an empire or a confederation of many states, 
 whether the form of government is an absolute mon- 
 archy or a constitutional one, is of no account, but it 
 must always seek to insure itself against attacks from 
 the neighbour on the west, and, once for all, to fix the 
 western boundary which has been jeopardized so many 
 times. 
 
 But, unfortunately, the external question has been
 
 214 The Western Boundary. 
 
 forgotten on account of the internal one. The conten- 
 tion over how Germany is to be constructed internally 
 has taken the attention from that far more important 
 contention over the boundary. They did not reflect 
 that there is no lack of time in undertaking internal 
 reforms, but that incalculable time will never replace 
 the loss of frontier provinces which they now have and 
 surrender again in an unexpected moment. 
 
 If, however, we turn from Germany and fix our at- 
 tention upon France only, it becomes as manifest as 
 daylight that France owes only gratitude to the German 
 powers which, as conquerors, passed such a generous 
 sentence upon it, and left it so many advantages at the 
 cost of Germany. Never was a foe more kindly and 
 sparingly treated than were the French at that time 
 by the Germans. 
 
 But the French are unwilling to acknowledge this. 
 The plain facts speak, but they are unwilling to hear 
 anything. They behave as if a great wrong had been 
 done them. 
 
 The French Revolution ended with the satisfaction 
 of the want that had called it into existence. The 
 foreign, especially German powers, were so generous 
 as not to disturb this natural development in any way. 
 France kept the Germanic legal guaranties which it 
 had desired in the year 1789, a constitution, a con- 
 stitutional king, responsible ministers, two houses, 
 equality before the law, freedom of the press, public 
 administration of justice, etc., as England has. It 
 could be satisfied with these in 1815 also, and in 1830 
 they were continued. The July Revolution proved 
 that these Germanic legal guaranties answered the 
 actual need of the French people, for they survived it. 
 The anti-Germanic Romance party did not succeed in 
 overthrowing these, although it strived to do so in a 
 double manner when it wished to restore by the 
 decrees the despotic system of Louis XIV., and by the 
 republican and Bonapartian uprisings, the convention
 
 The Western Boundary. 215 
 
 and the empire, those two ghostly regenerations of the 
 old Roman world. 
 
 Meanwhile Romanism gave vent to its indignation 
 in the free press everywhere. It first invoked national 
 honour, the old need of fame and the warlike dispo- 
 sition in which this is rooted. Then it invoked the 
 equally ancient covetousness of the nation, the lust to 
 enrich itself with foreign possessions. Re-conquest of 
 the left bank of the Rhine and of the Netherlands was 
 the Avatchword of the " National," and from time to 
 time was regularly re-echoed in the houses of congress 
 also. The same idea was made the basis of numerous 
 historical works and memoirs which were disseminated 
 in France and over all Europe, and in which the deeds 
 of the grand army and the majesty of the empire were 
 recalled to the memory of the French with all the 
 colours of an ardent imagination. By these means, 
 which should have aroused national feeling, men fought 
 at the same time against the foreign policy of the citi- 
 zens' kino; and against the foreign land itself. Now 
 they wished to warn, then to terrify. 
 
 But since the citizens' king was supported by the 
 majority of proprietors, of fathers of the house and 
 family with whom the need of the simple Germanic 
 legal guaranties is greater than the Romance desire for 
 war, Romanism pointed a special weapon against these 
 citizens, namely, the republican weapon. In opposition 
 to the constitutional monarchy, which is favourable to 
 the citizen class, he demanded democracy, the political 
 emancipation of the proletarian, in a word, the mob 
 rule, as in the year 1793. He wished to destroy the 
 government of the proprietors which dissatisfied him, 
 by the revolt of the non-proprietors. In behalf of this 
 he harangued the crowd with old cosmopolitan 
 theorems in the new form of St. Simonism, with the 
 ideal of the republic of workmen, etc., and he awakened 
 at the same time the bloody remembrances of the reign 
 of terror, partly in order to accustom the mob again
 
 216 The Western Boundary. 
 
 to cannibalistic appetites, to fill them with horrible 
 passions, partly in order to make the peaceful citizens 
 afraid. 
 
 Since furthermore a happy home-life and the sanctity 
 of marriage are the chief supports of citizenship, 
 Romanism pointed its weapons against these also, and 
 declared open warfare against marriage and morals and 
 at the same time, of course, against Christianity, just 
 as it did before in the first Revolution. All the impiety 
 and obscenity of the older Voltaireian school were rum- 
 maged up again, the immoral literature of the earlier 
 times was scattered abroad in new publications, and 
 was supplemented by numberless new books of the 
 same kind. The theatre courted these Jacobin ten- 
 dencies. Crime and lewdness were introduced upon 
 the French stage, after the order of the day, just as in 
 the pleasure writings. 
 
 Finally, as the internal revolutionary attempts and 
 the oft-repeated murderous plots against the life of the 
 king amounted to nothing, minister Thiers succeeded 
 in bringing about a war with a foreign power, and 
 although the breaking out of the same was hindered 
 by the wisdom of the king, yet this event had 
 necessarily started great activity among the neigh- 
 bours, and especially in Germany. Despite the wisdom 
 of the king the war cry was louder in France than 
 ever, and men of the most diverse parties agreed in 
 this matter. No longer did merely the " National," 
 no longer merely the proletarian and beautiful-haired 
 lounger-ab out- town of Paris desire the left bank of the 
 Rhine, but a minister himself, honourable peers, ex- 
 tremely conservative deputies cried in the same tone. 
 On the other hand was heard remonstrated — now is 
 not the time to think of conquests in opposition to all 
 Europe in arms, but not a voice was heard to lift itself 
 against the right and morality of conquest. That 
 France actually had a right to the left bank of the 
 Rhine and that the Rhine was France's natural
 
 The Western Boundary. 217 
 
 boundary, was everywhere in France regarded as well 
 known, as something that was a matter of course. 
 
 Even though peace is continued, the younger gene- 
 ration in France is bred to believe that it has a sacred 
 right to the Rhine, and its mission is to make it, 
 at the first opportunity, the boundary of France. 
 " The Rhine boundary must be a reality," that is the 
 theme for the future of France. 
 
 We think that we have sufficiently proved in the 
 preceding historical discussion that France has not 
 the slightest legal claim to the Rhine boundary. But 
 we also know very well that all that has been said to 
 the French about it has been like talking to the wind. 
 They will not hear. The more plainly ail the proofs 
 of history and nature and all the arguments of reason 
 and morals speak against them, the less are they 
 willing to hear of them. 
 
 So it only remains to be seen whether Germany is 
 strong enough, and will remain so, to reject by force the 
 illegal claims of France under all circumstances. It 
 is truly lamentable that after we have been neighbours 
 of two thousand years standing, after we have received 
 so many blows from the French and given them so 
 many back in turn, they, notwithstanding, have not 
 yet been able to bring themselves to understand their 
 true position to us. The study of history flourishes in 
 France as with us, a thousand means and avenues to 
 intelligence are open, and yet such a blinded passion- 
 ateness prevails among the French that they intention- 
 ally deceive themselves with an illusion and disdain 
 to see the truth, even in its brightest daylight. 
 
 Thoughtful reflection, reason, justice, and fairness, 
 which ought to be present in the intercourse of two 
 such old and powerful neighbours, and which we are 
 always ready to keep, are despised by the French. 
 Only might shall decide ; whenever they differ with 
 us, they seize the sword. History must vanish in 
 all directions before the passion of the moment.
 
 2i8 The Western Boundary. 
 
 Future clangers are despised just as past experiences 
 are trampled under foot. Desire rushes upon its object 
 in spite of everything, indifferent as to who will perish 
 thereby. 
 
 Even though we are strong enough to drive away 
 might with might, yet it is sad to see the darkness of 
 rude, barbarous passion, and the domain of unreasonable 
 force again impend threateningly over us, after so 
 many experiences and in the century of the greatest 
 enlightenment. But who warrants us that some weak- 
 ness will not sometime come upon us, that we shall not 
 be involved in some conflict of internal or external policy 
 wherein our vigilance and our strength will be relaxed ? 
 What have we then to fear from a neighbour who 
 knows no right but might, and who is not ashamed 
 openly to confess that he, to-day even, as in the cen- 
 turies of fist-combats, is only on the watch to find us 
 once weak, disunited, or unguarded, in order to fall 
 upon us again and rob us ? 
 
 Therefore it is our task, if we cannot instruct the old 
 wicked neighbour, to make our good right perfectly 
 clear to ourselves at least, to bring the whole body of 
 the German nation to consciousness. To no German 
 must it be hidden or remain indifferent that if France 
 and Germany ever come to settle with each other all 
 debit is on his side and all credit on ours. We have 
 to demand of France only what it has wrongfully torn 
 from us. France, on the other hand, has nothing to 
 demand of us, not a hamlet, not a tree. The Rhine is, 
 as Arndt has said briefly and well, Germany's river, 
 not Germany's boundary. If we argue from historical 
 right, then everything that France has gained on its 
 eastern frontier since the thirteenth century, has been 
 robbed from Germany, then all Burgundian and 
 Lorrainian lands are our old property wrongfully 
 seized upon, and we should have accordingly still more 
 to reclaim than the boundary fixed by the language. 
 If we argue from the national point of view and make
 
 The Western Boundary. 219 
 
 the language the national boundary of the nations, 
 then the entire Rhine belongs to us, its whole bank on 
 the left and right, for German has been spoken in the 
 whole river-district of the Rhine for fourteen 
 centuries ; accordingly, France would not have to 
 claim the left bank of the Rhine from us, but we should 
 have to claim Alsace and Lorraine from it. If, finally, 
 we argue from positive right as it has been fixed 
 by the last treaties, then France has sanctioned indeed 
 its unjust possession of Lorraine and Alsace by means 
 of these, but these treaties exclude France from every 
 claim to the other parts of the left bank of the Rhine. 
 But if France no longer recognizes the treaties of 1814 
 and 1815, the only legal titles that have secured to it 
 its old theft from Germany, and which we have always 
 honestly recognized, though they were very detri- 
 mental to us, if France itself breaks these treaties and 
 begins war, then we ought to unite with the firm 
 determination, as God wills and as He grants victory 
 to the righteous cause, never again to make those 
 treaties the basis of a new peace, and not to sheathe 
 the sword until our whole right has become ours, until 
 France has paid its whole debt to us. 
 
 Our task is further to educate more intelligently and 
 more thoroughly the political sense which seems to 
 return gradually among us, after that we have lost it 
 for centuries, that is, to view all the questions of the 
 day, be it the discussion of a principle or of some par- 
 ticular point of interest, from a higher national point 
 of view, and never to forget the external policy because 
 of internal differences. This forgetfulness alone has 
 been the source of all our misfortune. Only because 
 we Germans were quarrelling among ourselves about 
 opinions, or about provincial interests and thereby for- 
 got to jDrotect our frontiers against external foes, could 
 neighbours have robbed us and weakened us. Much 
 has happened to prevent the return of such unfortunate 
 quarrels in Germany for the future. The German
 
 220 The Western Boundary. 
 
 peoples no longer cherish that former unreasonable 
 jealousy towards one another, or by no means to such 
 a degree as formerly. The dynasties also are more 
 closely connected, and they find their interest is much 
 better protected in a policy of agreement than formerly 
 in one of separation. Only the strife over opinions 
 and convictions, over constitutional and religious 
 questions, is still rife and has not yet reached a satis- 
 factory solution. But has too much been asked of a 
 nation so great, so ancient, so experienced, and 
 thoroughly educated as the German, if one begs of it 
 not to hostilize itself within itself so long as so many 
 foes threaten it from without ? Whatever be the object 
 about which we hostilize ourselves, the result will 
 always be that each of our inner quarrels will 
 be used from the outside for our ruin. We must ever 
 regard ourselves, even in the midst of peace, as a great 
 army in camp and in sight of a powerful foe. In such 
 a condition it does not become us to take our stand 
 hostilely against one another, however natural and 
 right may apparently be the occasion for it. We 
 must always stand with our face towards the enemy 
 without.
 
 RAILWAY ROUTES.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 In the year 1843 the following essay was published in the Keview, 
 "Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift, under the title : " Welche Kucksichten 
 kommen bei der Wahl der Eichtung von Eisenbahnen in Betracht 1 " 
 and signed with an M. "We have reason to doubt that the publica- 
 tion of the essay, at that time, met with the appreciation which it 
 deserved, in consequence of the uncertain opinion then prevailing as 
 to the value and great importance of railways as well as to their 
 future development. 
 
 In a letter announcing the reception of the essay, the Cotta com- 
 pany showed their appreciation of its importance and acknowledged 
 the same to the author as follows : 
 
 <f At all events permit us to send you in addition, as a small proof 
 of the value which we place upon your contribution to our journals, 
 a contribution to your library, which we pray you kindly to 
 receive. 
 
 " Schiller's and Goethe's "Works, with steel-engravings and 
 wood-cuts, also Schiller's, Goethe's and Freiligrath's Poems en 
 miniature.'" 
 
 We are forced to admire the quick insight with which Von 
 Moltke, then major on the general's staff, recognized the great 
 importance of railways, their value to the state, and their significance 
 in respect to public economy, at a time when the governments of 
 nearly all the states did not regard it advantageous for them 
 to construct railways with state funds, and to assume their manage- 
 ment. Excepting a few intelligent and broader-minded men, public 
 opinion was still little disposed towards railways. In this connec- 
 tion, we only need to recall the difficulties which the great national 
 economist, F. List, had to overcome hefore he succeeded in calling 
 the Magdeburg-Leipzig railway into existence. 1 
 
 Together with the keen penetration which is noticeable in his 
 criticism of the value and importance of railways, technical knowledge 
 
 1 "Leipzig-Dresden Railway, a work of Frederiok List," by Dr. Nieder- 
 muller: Leipzig, 1880 — Archiv fur Eisenbahnivesen. Annual series of 1880, 
 number 5. Beginning of the construction, spring, 1838. Operation of the 
 whole line for passenger trips, 18th August, 1840, and for regularly run- 
 ning goodB trains 1st November, 1840.
 
 224 Railway Routes. 
 
 and practical understanding are prominent, which go to show that 
 the author is well instructed in a subject far removed from his own 
 particular profession, information which discloses a perfectly accurate 
 and technical study of the experience, derived from the construction 
 and management of railways in other countries, especially in England, 
 the cradle of railways. The exact description of the locomotive, its 
 operation and efficiency, deserve special attention ; a savant could 
 not have given it more correctly. Furthermore, in this essay,. are 
 evolved the principles then followed in building and managing rail- 
 ways, which could give instruction to many a technologist ; there is 
 added, moreover, statistical material, relating to lines already built, so 
 that one is justified in making the title read : Upon the building, and 
 managing of railways." 
 
 The treatise contains an abundance of timely utterances, the truth 
 of which was recognized only by a few at the time of their first 
 publication, it also contains many important and sharp-sighted infer- 
 ences. 
 
 Moreover it, like everything written by the Field-marshal, is 
 briefly and decisively expressed, wholly comprehensible, and scien- 
 tifically discussed. We must not omit calling attention to only the 
 following words, which give a thoroughly correct judgment, as 
 regards the future developments of railway traffic. 
 
 " Passengers are the most valuable goods, those for which the 
 highest rates may be demanded, and on this account nearly all 
 railways have been hitherto calculated for passenger traffic ; the 
 goods traffic, however, has been treated as a secondary matter. 
 And yet the time is not far distant, when it will be seen that 
 the transport of goods is the very basis of all railway operation, 
 which will make the investment profitable, and that the actual 
 national-economic use of the railways is to be sought in it." 
 
 And again it reads : 
 
 " People require numerous considerations in travelling, but goods 
 require only punctual and safe transport." 
 
 These remarks, made almost fifty years ago, have all come true ! 
 "What demands are now made of the railway companies by people, 
 in order that they may be carried rapidly, comfortably, provided with 
 ventilation, not too warm and not too cold, and yet cheaply. What 
 enormous dimensions the transport of goods by railway has at- 
 tained, and how appropriate was the remark, that the transport of 
 goods would make the roads profitable. It cannot be exactly 
 estimated, how great are the costs which fall exclusively to the 
 share of passengers, and which to goods alone, yet it is undis- 
 puted that the chief earnings of the railways are to be credited to 
 the transport of goods ; indeed, in some parts it is maintained that 
 passenger traffic not only earns nothing in consequence of the great 
 demands made for the accommodation and carrying of passengers, but 
 rather requires an extra outlay.
 
 Railway Routes. 225 
 
 Major von Moltke, as can only be expected, also manifests his 
 own great interest in the new mode of communication by personal co- 
 operation in the building of railways. From a letter to his brother 
 Ludwig, dated April 13th, 1844, it is learned that he belonged at 
 that time to the managing board of the Berlin-Hamburg Railway, 1 
 and from other sources we know that he took an important part in 
 its construction. 
 
 The passage in the letter referred to reads : "' While France 
 is still deliberating in the Houses, we have constructed three hundred 
 miles of railway, and are at work on over two hundred miles. 
 Among these latter is the Hamburg- Berlin line, to whose board of 
 administration I belong. The greatest difficulty remaining for us to 
 overcome is the Royal Danish Government, which wishes to compel 
 us to keep the route along the Elbe through Lauenburg, which costs 
 us two million thalers more than that by the way of Schwarzenbeck, 
 as we chose. There is talk of sending a deputation to Copenhagen, 
 in which I am to take part, yet perhaps the matter can be settled 
 by diplomacy. Meanwhile we have begun to build, and intend to 
 have it finished in 1846." 
 
 May 13th, 1844, he writes to his brother Adolf in regard to this 
 matter : — 
 
 " The bearer of this letter is the director of the Berlin-Hamburg 
 Railway, Herr Costenoble ; 2 his companion, Herr Neuhaus, one of the 
 counsellors of construction, 3 is chief-engineer ; and also Dr. Abendroth, 
 from Hamburg, who is chairman of the committee of this com- 
 pany. You will find all three educated, able, and also pleasant 
 gentlemen. They make this journey because of the difficulties 
 which the Danish Government oppose to our undertaking. Their 
 object is to make some acquaintances in Copenhagen, and although I 
 have said to them that you are engaged in an altogether different 
 business, yet they wish to make your acquaintance, and hope that 
 you will enlighten them in regard to personal matters." 
 
 At the close of the essay we note that the author even then saw 
 what advantages there were for the State in the proper and judicious 
 building of railways, in a planned network of Government roads, and 
 in respect to military interests. We cannot but be amazed with 
 the penetration — one might say, with the prophetic foresight with 
 which Moltke so early recognized the great value of railways to his 
 own department, his own profession. This knowledge afterwards 
 brought him into a position, one that had been entrusted to him for 
 the safety of Germany, to use the railways for military purposes, and 
 
 1 In this capacity Major von Moltke was frequently associated with 
 Moritz Robert-Tornow, Privy Counsellor to the Board of Trade. 
 
 2 He was afterwards president of the Royal Railway Board of the Lower 
 Silesian-Marcian Railway in Berlin. 
 
 8 He was builder of the Berlin-Hamburg Railway, and for many years 
 he was president of its Board of Managers. 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 Railway Routes. 
 
 to do it properly. If this was evident already in 1866, we see it 
 applied in a much more perfect and better-planned manner at the 
 mobilization of the army in 1870, and in the war at that time, when 
 the first victorious battles were made possible by the speedy 
 mobilization of the troops. This same knowledge, in union with 
 past experiences, also assisted him to employ this mode of communi- 
 cation in the military system, and to use it more extensively for 
 military matters by taking routes which were well known on all 
 sides to be important and necessary. 
 
 Thus by the supreme order of the Cabinet of January 31st, 1867, 
 a Railway Department in the grand staff of the general was created ; 
 its head received his appointment as independent chief of the Rail- 
 way Department 1 by the supreme order of the Cabinet, May 8th, 
 1871. 
 
 About the same time, a railway battalion for military purposes was 
 formed by supreme Cabinet order of May 19th, 1871, which was 
 increased December 30th, 1875, to a railway regiment, and on 
 February 20th, 1890, to a railway brigade, which arrangements were 
 at once recognized by other States, and were adopted by them. 
 
 Thus we can imagine what satisfaction the Field-Marshal must 
 have felt upon finding the means of communication by railway, 
 which he had welcomed at first with expressions of confidence, 
 soaring to a height beyond his expectations, and upon being per- 
 mitted to follow their development for half a century till the un- 
 foreseen results of the present were attained. 
 
 W. Streckert. 
 
 1 Major von Brandenstein, afterwards chief of the engineer and pioneer 
 corps, and general inspector of the fortifications.
 
 CONSIDERATIONS IN THE CHOICE 
 
 OF 
 
 RAILWAY ROUTES. 
 
 Many wise men believe that the railways, which so 
 universally attract attention to-day, are a symptom 
 of the sickly unrest and nervous impatience of our 
 times, which are not able to do anything fast enough. 
 Others regard them as a necessary evil, unavoidable 
 as was the introduction of the spinning-machine among 
 us, after that our neighbour had introduced it. The 
 more general belief is, however, that these new means 
 of communication, for which such great sacrifices have 
 been made, and still greater will be, will somewhat 
 satisfy the actually existing desire for the union of 
 things intellectual and material. 
 
 He who recalls the condition of all kinds of communi- 
 cation in his youth might well believe that the age of 
 Methuselah has now been reached by him, when he 
 views the present condition of the same. And yet it 
 was only thirty years ago when we ourselves were 
 swallowed up in the bottomless sand or deep clay roads 
 before the gates of the principal cities. A trip from 
 Berlin to Potsdam required the preparation of a 
 journey. Frankfort-on-the-Oder was two days' distant 
 from Berlin. One took leave of his friends and 
 equipped himself for all the inconveniences of bad 
 storms, poor night-lodgings and over-timed carriages. 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 Railway Routes. 
 
 Droves of horses panted with their burdens over steep 
 mountains and through deep valleys, over dangerous 
 stone piers, with most lucky mishaps, and every- 
 where paviage, bridge-tax, and passage-money were 
 levied. The highways of the Middle Ages were almost 
 unchanged until our time, except that the robber- 
 knights were supplanted by the legitimate way-laying 
 of the toll-gates. 
 
 After the long, bloody battles inherited by our 
 century from the preceding one, had ended, a complete 
 revolution of the avenues of communication took place. 
 Since the Treaty of Paris the energy of nations has 
 passed from destruction to creation in every respect, 
 and more has been done for ways of communication 
 in the past thirty years than in the three centuries 
 preceding. A net of highways between all more 
 important points has been made, and in Germany 
 alone the total mileage of artificial roads constructed 
 during this period amounts to one-half of the earth's 
 circumference. Yet the paved roads alone were not 
 sufficient for the industry which had sprung up, 
 and continued to develop more strongly, and the 
 invention of the locomotive and railroads now first 
 made it possible to meet the demands of the new state 
 of affairs. 
 
 Although this invention of our days greatly busies 
 the minds of men, yet it may be affirmed that a know- 
 ledge of the properties of the same is by no means 
 generally spread abroad. Not that there is need of 
 excellent works upon this subject ; they are, however, 
 for the most part comprehensible to the technologist 
 alone, just as generally popular interpretations 1 follow 
 after science has made the way. Therefore, before 
 we discuss the particular object of our investigation, 
 it will not be amiss to collect a few technical details, 
 
 1 So far as we know, there existed, in 1842, neither a popular 
 treatise upon railways nor a technical work upon their construction 
 and management. — Str.
 
 Railway Routes. 229 
 
 so that they will be comprehensible and clear to the 
 layman. 
 
 It is well known that the railway is a way with 
 tracks of strong cast-iron rails, 1 which, with the 
 slightest possible deviation from the straight line 
 (horizontally and vertically), that is, by the shortest 
 route, and with as little ascent and descent as possible, 
 are laid between the points to be joined. To answer 
 these conditions, the railway will sometimes be cut 
 through elevations as a narrow pass, sometimes pierce 
 them as a tunnel ; at times it must stride over the 
 valleys as a pier, bridge, or viaduct, but often it has 
 to pass around in gentle curves, when such surface diffi- 
 culties cannot be overcome. 
 
 After that the plan or surface of the way has been 
 laid out so that it corresponds as much as possible 
 to the conditions just mentioned, the rails, which must 
 be exactly parallel to each other, are carefully fastened 
 on stone supports, 2 oftener on heavy wooden beams, by 
 means of cast-iron supporters, 3 or now mostly with 
 headed spikes. 4 The usual form of the rail resembles 
 in a cross-section the figure of a T, over whose upper 
 surface the wheels run. Its weight amounts to 14, 20, 
 even 24 pounds for the running foot ; its length 
 
 1 Cast-iron rails, three feet or more long, were laid as longi- 
 tudinal sleepers in the surface construction of the first English 
 railways, and afterwards in the construction of horizontal sleepers 
 until the middle of the year 1840. The first wrought-iron rails, 
 fifteen feet long, and in the present usual form, were rolled in the 
 year 1828, at a foundry near Durham. — Str. 
 
 2 The stone cubes or single supports of the rails, which were mostly 
 used at first, are still to be found on over 500 km. of main and side 
 tracks of the German railways ; over 300 km. of them are on the 
 Bavarian lines, most of the rest on the Prussian. — Str. 
 
 3 The kind of rail-supports that have come to be generally used on 
 English lines has been laid for about 800 km. on the German lines, 
 and that, too, mostly in the Magdeburg division. — Str. 
 
 4 At present wooden sleepers are most generally used to fasten 
 rails on. — Str.
 
 230 Railway Routes. 
 
 averages 15 feet. 1 As it is well known that the metal 
 expands with altogether irresistible force at every in- 
 crease of temperature, it is necessary to leave a short 
 space of about one-eighth of an inch 2 between every 
 two rails. 
 
 Because, as was just said, the iron track is not sunk 
 in an indenture, as is the ordinary road, but is 
 elevated, it is necessary for the wheels of the carriage, 
 which are to move over the same, to be provided with 
 a small edge or tram on the inner surface, so that they 
 cannot run off this rail. 
 
 One other peculiarity of these iron wheels is that they 
 do not revolve on their axles, as is the case with 
 wagons, but, since it is necessary to keep their gauge 
 very exact, they sit fast upon the axles, and revolve 
 simultaneously with them in the pedestals which are 
 fastened under the carriages. 3 
 
 In order to make as much room as possible, the 
 carriage-top is made much wider than the track-way. 
 For this purpose the box is placed over the wheels, not, 
 as usually, between them, and therefore, to avoid the 
 danger of upsetting, the wheels have to be built much 
 lower than on ordinary vehicles, although large wheels 
 would be a great advantage for railways also. They 
 have tried to gain this advantage, on a new English 
 railway, by increasing the width between the rails. 4 
 The wheels could then be built higher without risk, 
 and, of course, a much greater speed was attained ; 
 
 1 At present the rails used on the main railways in Germany- 
 measure up to 12 metres in length, and weigh up to 52 kg. per 
 metre. — Ste. 
 
 2 The space is determined by the length of each rail, and the 
 greatest variation in temperature. — Str. 
 
 3 The chief difference in the movement of railway carriages and 
 ordinary road carriages. — Str. 
 
 4 The width on several English lines, for example, the Great 
 Western, is 2-135 metres (7 English feet), while on the Continent 
 (with the exception of Russia and Spain) the normal width of T435 
 metres has been almost generally employed. — Str.
 
 Railway Routes. 231 
 
 but other technical difficulties, not in order of discus- 
 sion here, were met with, which caused the Continental 
 roads to keep their usual width of track. 
 
 It is obvious that a carriage on a railway will be 
 moved far more easily than on an ordinary roadway. 
 The load which is drawn on a railway by one horse at 
 the rapidity of two-thirds of a mile per hour, requires 
 for the same speed on a granite track, like that of the 
 " Commercial Road " in London, or those in Upper 
 Italian cities, 4 horses ; on a highway, from 8 to 1 6 ; on 
 ordinary country roads, 33 to 66. 
 
 A whole row of heavily laden carriages are joined, 
 therefore, on the railway, and in front of this train is 
 attached one black magic horse, snorting out steam 
 and belching out fire, called the locomotive, the 
 nature of which we shall examine somewhat more 
 closely. Certainly it is not our intention to give in 
 detail the description of a machine so complicated as 
 that of a locomotive, that triumph of human invention, 
 but the essentials and generalities may be touched upon 
 in this essay. 
 
 Between the wheels and upon springs there is placed 
 a w r ater-tank of wrought iron, firmly constructed ; it 
 is called the boiler, almost like the form of a reclining 
 cylinder, and takes up nearly the entire length of the 
 carriage. At its rear, and almost surrounded by 
 water, is the fire-box, in which a great fire is kept, from 
 which the heat is conducted by means of a system of 
 brass tubes, forty or fifty in number, in order to make 
 the greatest possible surface of contact, through the 
 water to a chimney standing on the fore end of the 
 locomotive. After that the water which has been 
 pumped into the boiler to a certain height, and has 
 been brought to the boiling point, steam is generated 
 upon whose elasticity depends the operation of all 
 steam-engines. Steam's expansiveness increases with 
 the height of the temperature by which it is gene- 
 rated, and the steam enclosed within the walls of the
 
 232 Railway Routes. 
 
 boiler will, if it continues to expand, finally burst 
 the boiler though it be very firmly made, unless an 
 opening has been provided for it as soon as its expan- 
 sion reaches a certain degree. Now this is done in case 
 of the locomotive either by means of the cylinder, 
 when the machine is in operation, or by the safety- 
 valve, when it is at rest. 
 
 Steam is said to have an expansive power of 40, 50, 
 60 lbs., in case the force with which it presses upon 
 the sides of the boiler from within is equal to 40, 50, 
 60 lbs. weight on every square inch of the boiler's 
 surface. If one imagines, for example, that a piece 
 on the top of the boiler one foot square is loose, then 
 with 60 lbs. of expansion the pressure on it must be 
 8640 lbs. to prevent it from being blown into the air 
 by the steam. If now the joined plates of which a 
 steam-boiler is constructed endure only 60 lbs. pressure 
 and actually no more, it is easily seen that a pressure 
 exceeding this maximum limit would necessarily burst 
 the boiler with a fearful explosion, for the steam con- 
 fined in it would form under ordinary pressure a 
 volume more than four hundred times as great. There, 
 are, of course, openings in the steam-boiler to prevent 
 this, and their covers are pressed down by a weight 
 equivalent to 60 lbs. to the square inch, or, what is the 
 same, they are held down by a spring proportionally 
 strong. These are the safety-valves. As soon as the 
 pressure within the boiler exceeds that resting on the 
 valve, the latter is opened and we see a white cloud 
 rush upwards which we usually call steam, though it is 
 steam already compressed to water, for steam is in- 
 visible like the atmosphere itself. The force with which 
 this surplus of strength escapes and which would suffice 
 to gain the prize for the electro-magnetic machine, 
 now gives us an idea of the efficiency of the locomotive. 
 As soon as enough steam has escaped through the 
 safety-valve to reduce the pressure to not more than 
 60 lbs., the valve sinks of itself and closes the boiler.
 
 Railway Routes. 233 
 
 The cylinders in front on either side of the boiler 
 form another way of escape for the steam. In the 
 cylinder is a piston or ram which can be driven for- 
 wards or backwards. When, by means of a regulator, 
 the steam is allowed to enter the front end of the 
 cylinder by a certain passage, it drives the piston back 
 with great force. But before the piston reaches the 
 end of the cylinder the passage through which the 
 steam entered is closed by means of a simple and in- 
 genious arrangement, and an escape for the same is 
 opened leading to the smoke-stack by which it passes 
 out at once. Simultaneously an opening in the rear 
 end of the cylinder is unclosed through which the 
 steam from the boiler now slowly passes into the 
 cylinder, but enters on the opposite side of the piston 
 and drives it forwards until again the escape to the 
 smoke-stack opens and the steam again presses into 
 the forward end. The piston is thus continuously and 
 rapidly driven forwards and backwards. 
 
 The entire apparatus of the steam-carnage rests on 
 four, six, or eight wheels, and of these the driving- 
 wheels must be distinguished from the guiding- wheels. 1 
 The latter are smaller and serve only to bear the 
 weight of the machine ; the former, far greater in 
 diameter, are intended to drive it forward. The 
 pistons in the cylinders, of which we have just spoken, 
 are joined by connecting-rods to the driving-wheels, 
 so that each movement, once forwards and once back- 
 wards, of the former result in a complete revolution 
 of the latter. 
 
 Friction is produced whenever two bodies in imme- 
 diate contact move over each other. It is this that 
 obstructs motion in all machines, first lessening it and 
 finally stopping it altogether. Yet the use of loco- 
 
 1 The locomotive built by George Stephenson which received the 
 prize given for the best and most rapid machine on the Stockton- 
 Darlington Railway, near Rainhill, on October 6, 1829, had four 
 wheels. — Str.
 
 234 Railway Routes. 
 
 motives for moving loads depends on this very same 
 friction. The elasticity of the steam generated in the 
 boiler drives the piston backwards and forwards in 
 the cylinders, as we have seen, and this motion is next 
 imparted to the driving-wheels, which thus receive the 
 power to revolve. Because they find resistance, gene- 
 rally called adhesion, on the iron rails on which they 
 rest, and this prevents them from revolving unob- 
 structed on their axles, they drive this axle forwards, 
 that is, they roll forwards and draw the load attached 
 along with them. 
 
 When locomotives were first placed on iron rails the 
 flanges or fellies of the wheels were provided with 
 teeth which were made to fit into corresponding inden- 
 tures in the rails. 1 This was accompanied with great 
 inconveniences, and it was a long time before it was be- 
 lieved that there was a great amount of friction between 
 turning wheels and rails almost smooth, and that thou- 
 sands of hundredweights could be moved by means of 
 this useful friction, and that too up very steep grades. 
 
 The obstructive friction, on the other hand, is that 
 which is found in cases of all wheels between the axles 
 and the wheel-caps, and, in a less degree, between the 
 fellies and the rails, finally, between the inner parts of 
 the machine itself. This resistance increases propor- 
 tionally to the weight which rests upon the axles. 
 
 If the total resistances exceed the greatness of ad- 
 hesion the locomotive and carriages stop, and the 
 driving-wheels, grinding on the rails with a great 
 amount of resistance, turn on their own axles. 
 
 Many experiments have shown that the force 
 
 1 In 1804 coal-trains were run by machines on the ascents of the 
 Merthyr-Tydvil line in South Wales, by R. Trevethick, into the 
 wheels of which were driven nails, outside of the running surface of 
 the rails, and the heads of these nails caught into the wooden longi- 
 tudinal sleepers. In 1812, on the Middleton coal-line, a train was 
 moved by a locomotive built by Blenkinsop, by means of a rack lying 
 along the line and by cog-wheels. — Str.
 
 Railway Routes. 235 
 
 necessary to overcome the resistance, and to set in 
 motion a wheeled vehicle on a hard and level surface, 
 is about equal to one three-hundredths of the weight x 
 of the object to be moved ; in other words, a hundred- 
 weight on a cord passing over a roller would move a 
 wagon of about 300 cwt. (not counting, of course, the 
 stiffness of the cord and the friction of the roller). 
 
 But as soon as the road ascends, and consequently 
 the load to be moved is said to be increased, the power 
 necessary to overcome the resistance must be still in- 
 creased by new power. This is constant throughout, 
 nor can any part of it be removed ; it is the same 
 for the worst field-way and for the smoothest rail- 
 way, the same for a steep and for a gentle ascent. 2 
 If the road has to be conducted, for example, over a hill 
 twenty feet high, the power required to draw the load 
 up the said hill would be quite the same whether it 
 be necessary to ascend a grade of 3 ^ or 1( f 00 , with 
 the only difference that in this case unequal amounts 
 of power are employed for equal amounts of time, and, 
 of course, in the given case these amounts of power 
 would be proportional to each amount of time as 300 
 is to 1000. The sum total of all the amounts remains, 
 however, the same, and is equivalent to the weight of 
 the entire load to be moved. 
 
 Let us imagine a stretch of railway with a 3 ~ 
 ascending grade, up which a load of 300 cwt. is to be 
 carried ; we need first 1 cwt. to overcome the fric- 
 tion, next 3 J of the load, or a second 1 cwt., to move 
 the load, a total of 2 cwt., or twice the amount 
 
 1 Wood estimates T ± T) Macneil -^ T , Pambour -^o to -§-£o, and 
 under favourable circumstances still less. 
 
 2 The gradient of the railway is usually designated by a fraction, 
 whose numerator tells the height, and the denominator the length of 
 the inclined plain. If a road 300 feet long ascends about one foot 
 it is said to have an inclination of 1*300 or ^^. Should it ascend 
 or descend about one perch for 1000 perches, the gradient is desig- 
 nated 1-1000 or y^Vo-
 
 236 Railway Routes. 
 
 necessary to move it on a horizontal plane. Again, for 
 the ascent of a grade of 1*150 there is need of 1 cwt. 
 of power to overcome the friction, but for the moving 
 of the load are needed yf § = 2 cwt., hence a total of 
 3 cwt., or three times the amount necessary to move it 
 on a horizontal surface ; with a grade of 1*100, four 
 times the amount, and with grades of g 3 ^ and g- 7 four 
 and one-half and nine times the power are required. 
 Yet grades of the last kind are found on English lines 
 and are traversed by locomotives. If a locomotive 
 drawing the greatest possible load with its greatest 
 speed on a horizontal line and with its greatest gener- 
 ation of steam reaches the slightest grade, although it 
 sloped only at the rate of 1( f o> an d if it is desired to 
 travel further with the same speed and load, there is 
 nothing to do but to attach a second (assistant) loco- 
 motive. 
 
 If time or power is lost by the ascension of steep 
 surfaces, the same, on the other hand, is regained to 
 a certain degree by the descent of the same grade. 
 The weight of the load also increases the speed of the 
 same, as it overcomes the resistance of the friction. 
 On a grade of 1*224 up to 1*300 the weight of the load 
 is equal to the friction. The carnages, therefore, will 
 slowly roll down of themselves. 1 If the incline is 
 more gradual, gravitation in union with steam power 
 assists in increasing the speed none the less ; but only 
 when the grade is considerably greater than 3 ^ does 
 this cease to be a favourable circumstance, because one 
 cannot travel with less than zero steam power, and be- 
 cause, in order to avoid a too rapid and dangerous 
 descent, the wheels must be locked, which is harmful 
 to both rails and carriage. 
 
 It is obvious that, in the descent of a steep and 
 smooth surface, which inclines at the rate of 1*300, a 
 
 1 Since gradual declines are not dangerous for the descent of car- 
 riages, it is permissible to locate stations also on descending grades 
 of 1-400.— Str.
 
 Railway Routes. 237 
 
 dangerous velocity must necessarily be acquired at 
 last, provided the incline is very long. For, according 
 to the universal law of gravitation, the motion, though 
 primarily slow, increases in velocity at every new 
 division of time, and so on to infinity. But another 
 obstacle simultaneously opposes this velocity, and the 
 experiments recently made on the Liverpool-Manchester 
 line and on the Grand Junction line have furnished 
 data quite as important as they are astonishing. A 
 long distance was taken, extending horizontally fully 
 half a German mile, so that a train of eight or twelve 
 heavily-loaded goods-vans could be moved on it with 
 great velocity to the edge of a steep descent, which 
 inclined at the rate of ^ for a third of a German mile. 
 The wagons were allowed to descend this incline unob- 
 structed. They stationed several men every fifty perches 
 along this declivity, who observed the exact moment by 
 watches indicating the seconds, when the train passed 
 by them. They thus ascertained the time which the 
 wagons had to take in running through each of the 
 equidistant spaces. From a series of fourteen obser- 
 vations it was shown that, during the first seconds of 
 time the load acquired an increasing velocity, but that 
 this soon became invariably constant. Under the stated 
 conditions, the speed amounted to 5f up to 8J German 
 miles per hour. Since the resistance of the load only, 
 not of the speed, is determined, the resistance of the 
 air must in this case be the element to arrest greater 
 velocity. This resistance of the air is proportioned, not 
 only according to the front surface of the moving object, 
 but also according to the upper surface Avhich, by its 
 movement, comes in contact with the air, and its resist- 
 ance increases according to the square of its speed ; that 
 is, if a wagon travels at 2, 3, 4, 5 times greater velo- 
 city, the resistance will be 4, 9, 16, 25 times greater. 
 It increases, therefore, by rapid progression, and the 
 velocity produced by the descent is arrested as soon as 
 a certain degree of velocity is reached.
 
 238 Railway Routes. 
 
 Those who are less acquainted with these proportions 
 may imagine that the descent of 1*300 is a precipitous 
 declivity, and, therefore, it is not superfluous to make 
 the observation that, with a 3 ^ ascent to every perch, 
 an elevation of half an inch is not attained, and that 
 an unpractised eye would easily be doubtful whether a 
 surface, inclining at the rate of 3 ^- , ascended or de- 
 scended on this side or that. And yet this very 
 incline, which the floor of a room may have, without 
 being noticed by the occupant, is a steep declivity for 
 railway business, necessitating double the amount of 
 power, and demanding at the same time an increase of 
 running expenses. 
 
 We intend to illustrate still more closely the 
 efficiency of the locomotive by a definite example. 
 Let us imagine a steam locomotive with cylinders 
 twelve inches in diameter, the pistons of which offer to 
 the steam a surface of 22 6f- square inches, and this 
 equals a pressure of 13,579 lbs. (with an expansion of 
 60 lbs. per square inch). The force then put upon the 
 circumference of the driving-wheels is in proportion to 
 that given above as the length of the piston-stroke to 
 half the circumference of the wheels ; that is, with a 
 16-inch beat, and driving-wheels 5 feet high, it bears 
 the ratio of about 16 : 94f. The force with which the 
 locomotive strives to move itself and the load attached 
 to it amounts, therefore, to — 
 
 1 R 
 
 gp x 13,579 = 2304 lbs. 
 
 It has been proved by experiment that such a loco- 
 motive requires 110 lbs. to move itself, which, deducted 
 from the above figures, leave 2194 lbs., or about 20 cwt. 
 of drawing-power for the load. Yet a part of this 
 must also be deducted in overcoming the internal 
 friction of the machine, which is equally proportional 
 to the mass of the load attached, and, therefore, cannot 
 be determined once for all.
 
 Railway Routes. 239 
 
 As has been stated, the result of many accurate 
 experiments is that a load on wheels in a horizontal 
 line in good condition may be moved by 3 J to 2 ^ , 
 and under less favourable conditions to 2 ^- 4 , of its own 
 weight. Let us base our calculations upon the second 
 of these figures. If, then, 2y cwt. be deducted from the 
 above 20 cwt., for the overcoming of the internal 
 resistance of the machine, the power left would suffice 
 to move about 17f x 280 = 4984 cwt. If we deduct 
 from this still the tender of 100 cwt., the remainder 
 shows that a locomotive of the given construction on a 
 horizontal line will set in motion the enormous load of 
 a train of wagons weighing 4884 cwt. 
 
 Next to this maximum of load we have to notice the 
 maximum of speed. 
 
 The speed depends upon the amount of steam which 
 the machine is able to generate each time. If, after 
 that the steam reaches an expansion of 60 lbs. pressure 
 to the square inch, and the train has been put in 
 motion, the generation of steam is suddenly interrupted, 
 the motion itself would decrease at once and finally 
 stop. For a part of the bulk of steam escapes at every 
 stroke of the piston ; the faster the locomotive travels, 
 the more piston-strokes it makes each time, the more 
 steam escapes, and the faster, therefore, must the latter 
 be generated if its effect is to remain the same. 
 
 The generation of steam, however, depends upon the 
 size of the heated surface in contact with the water 
 contained in the boiler ; it is thus determined by the 
 original construction of the machine. If the locomotive 
 is able each time to generate just as much steam as it 
 loses through the piston-strokes, the motion will then 
 be constant, all things being equal. If it generates 
 more than the cylinders absorb, the surplus escapes by 
 the safety-valve or is again condensed into water, and 
 this, therefore, determines the maximum of speed for 
 each machine, which cannot be exceeded without 
 lightening the load, unless the expansion of steam be
 
 240 Railway Routes. 
 
 increased by loading the valves and thus adding the 
 risk of bursting the boiler. 
 
 A machine, like the one before our mind's eye, is 
 constructed so that it generates in one hour steam from 
 38 cubic feet of water * with an actual pressure of 60 
 lbs. to the square inch, which, under the ordinary pres- 
 sure of the atmosphere, occupies 16,350 cubic feet, and 
 the whole is to issue through the cylinders. We may 
 thus estimate the number of piston-strokes, the revolu- 
 tions of the driving-wheels, and thus the distance 
 traversed in one hour. The result shows that the 
 greatest working power of our engine is as follows : it 
 moves a load of 4884 cwt. on a horizontal way 5161 
 perches, or roundly 2\ miles, in one hour. 
 
 If the load is lessened, then pressure on the pistons 
 is lessened, and both pistons and wheels will move faster, 
 that is, a greater distance will be travelled in the 
 same time. The speed thus acquired would be limited 
 in the first place, if the heating surface of the boiler were 
 unable to generate as much steam as the cylinders absorb. 
 But in order to avoid danger it is necessary that the 
 motion should be measured by a regulator long before 
 this happened. 
 
 The greatest speed is made, of course, when the 
 machine with full force descends a down grade, when, 
 for example, it descended the ^ 6 grade near Rainhill, 
 with a speed of 63| feet per second, or 10 German 
 miles per hour, or again when the load is reduced to a 
 minimum, namely, when the locomotive goes alone. 
 The distance from Potsdam to Berlin was once 
 traversed in this way in 17 J minutes, that is, more 
 than one German mile had to be travelled in five 
 
 1 Locomotives for fast service evaporate 60 cubic feet of water in 
 an hour, or about one pound of water every second. The volume of 
 steam generated in one second would be under the pressure of the 
 atmosphere like a pillar whose basal surface would be 6 feet long, 
 G wide and 1000 high.
 
 Railway Routes. 241 
 
 minutes, which, of course, cannot take place with- 
 out danger and involves a great destruction of 
 material. 1 
 
 And again, if a locomotive draws a load not so heavy 
 with great speed, the load can be increased by lessen- 
 ing the speed. For the pressure on the piston increases 
 with the load and thus produces a higher expansion of 
 the steam in the cylinder which tends to equalize the 
 expansion in the boiler. This, however, has its limit. 
 If the pressure on the pistons is greater than the pres- 
 sure on the safety-valves, they will open and let the 
 steam escape. If the load continued to be increased 
 the locomotive and wagons would finally stop, and if 
 the generation of steam is kept up, the driving-wheels 
 would revolve on their own axles with great force. In 
 this case the pistons are to be regarded only as greater 
 safety-valves of the steam-boiler. The increase of 
 speed, therefore, beyond a fixed point, cannot produce 
 greater power of locomotion. The locomotive power 
 and speed are reciprocally conditioned, but within 
 certain limits. These depend on the original construc- 
 tion of the machine, and moreover, the former, on the 
 expansion of steam which the boiler can contain, and 
 on the diameter of the cylinders ; the latter, on the 
 amount of water that can be heated and evaporated 
 and on the size of the driving-wheels. 
 
 We thus find here also the well-known fundamental 
 law of all mechanics confirmed, namely, that what is 
 gained in time is lost in power, and what is saved in 
 power is spent in time ; for the mechanical effect 
 remains quite the same, one may move ten pounds one 
 foot or one pound ten feet in a given length of time. 
 And this law is only modified to a greater degree in a 
 machine put together like the steam engine. 
 
 The results ascertained by calculation and verified 
 
 1 The greatest speed that can be made on German railways 
 amounts to 90 km. (12 miles) per hour. — Str. 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 242 Railway Routes. 
 
 by experiment show that a locomotive of the above 
 dimensions with a speed per hour of 
 
 12,571 
 
 rods 
 
 or 
 
 about 
 
 6| 
 
 miles 
 
 draws 986 
 
 cwt, 
 
 8,217 
 
 d 
 
 )i 
 
 1} 
 
 4} 
 
 j) 
 
 2 465 
 
 11 
 
 4,777 
 
 5) 
 
 >> 
 
 11 
 
 2 1 
 
 >) 
 
 ,, o,ooy 
 
 11 
 
 Thus the various rates of speed are to the rates of 
 weight as 6| : 4J : 2^ = 1 : 2\ : 5J ; that is, if the 
 machine moves about one-third as rapidly, it draws 
 more than five times the load. 
 
 Another engine with cylinders only 10 J inches wide 
 and wheels 4 ft. 10 inches high at a speed of 
 
 17,348 
 
 rods 
 
 or 
 
 about 
 
 8| 
 
 miles 
 
 draws 493 
 
 cwt. 
 
 11,135 
 
 11 
 
 )> 
 
 )> 
 
 5i 
 
 11 
 
 „ 1,478 
 
 a 
 
 5,841 
 
 i) 
 
 n 
 
 )i 
 
 3" 
 
 1) 
 
 „ 3,982 
 
 11 
 
 Here the various rates of speed are to the weights 
 almost as 3:2:1 = 1:3:8; that is, one-third the 
 less speed gives eight times the greater weight. 
 
 But by a very much greater decrease of speed, it 
 will not be possible to move a still greater load, because 
 its pressure on the pistons Avould then cause the 
 adhesion or "seizure" of the drivino;- wheels on to the 
 rails. 
 
 It is therefore obvious why lighter locomotives with 
 small ten-inch cylinders are used for passenger traffic, 
 where the chief object is time, but heavy locomotives 
 with large cylinders (as much as thirteen inches) x and 
 small wheels for goods traffic, where the greatest 
 possible load is to be moved. The wheels are often 
 doubled in number so that a greater share of the weight 
 of the engine rests on the driving-wheels, thus decreas- 
 ing the adhesion. Such locomotives are built as heavy 
 as 236 cwt., in order to seize firmly on the rails. 2 
 
 1 At present cylinders with diameters as great as 650 millimeters 
 are used. — Str. 
 
 2 The weight of the heavy locomotives and tenders used on German 
 railways amounts to 55 tons (1100 cwt.) when they are not loaded 
 with water and fuel. — Stb.
 
 Railway Routes. 243 
 
 They move slowly and with greater power, and thus 
 require much less repairing. 
 
 We have already hinted at the effect of the grades 
 of a railway upon the management, when the load 
 must not only be drawn but also lifted. We have just 
 seen that a heavy machine, its own weight included, 
 draws the enormous load of 5539 cwt. in a straight line 
 at a speed of fully 2^ German miles per hour. The 
 engines are generally constructed for less speed, 
 namely, two miles per hour, in order to have a greater 
 horse-power ; but there is always a certain surplus of 
 power necessary to overcome incidental obstacles, such 
 as wind, bad condition of the rails, irregularities of the 
 same, etc. 
 
 The state of the weather has greater influence than 
 is generally supposed. When the wind 1 opposes the 
 direction of motion, it delays it ; and still more so if it 
 comes from the side, for it then presses the wagons, 
 forming; a broad surface together with the wheel rims 
 against the rails, thus causing a great amount of fric- 
 tion. Under such circumstances, in September, 1839 
 (on a gentle incline between Bruges and Ostend), three 
 locomotives were needed to take a train of only eleven 
 wagons, and even then twice the amount of time was 
 spent in traversing this distance. 
 
 The adhesion of the driving-wheels is diminished in 
 case of slippery ice or foul rails. According to the 
 experiments made in England the amount of adhesion, 
 under most favourable conditions, is equal to one- 
 seventh of the weight resting on the driving-wheels, but 
 under unfavourable conditions it is decreased to one- 
 twenty-seventh. 2 In the first case the adhesion and 
 the maximum horse-power of a locomotive weighing 
 236 cwt., of which about 140 cwt. rest upon the driv- 
 
 1 Experience proves that the effect of the wind upon the motion of 
 a train is not an unimportant item and is often the cause of delays. 
 — Str. 
 
 ~ It is generally estimated from J- to ■}. — Str. 
 
 B 2
 
 244 Railway Routes. 
 
 ing-wheels, would be = L j- = 20 cwt. (as was com- 
 puted above), but in the second case only -^f-, or less 
 than 5 cwt. American engineers compute the ad- 
 hesion, under most favourable conditions, to be ^, 
 and under most unfavourable ^, hence considerably 
 higher, but this circumstance remains to be well 
 examined, for it is specially important to roads whicli 
 have heavy grades. 
 
 The grades are for the most part of greatest import- 
 ance to railways, and we have observed above that 
 undulations on the surface, hardly perceptible to the 
 eye, can become great obstacles in the laying-out of a 
 road. We must examine this more closely. 
 
 In the experiments made in England on the Liver- 
 pool-Manchester and Grand Junction railway, a train 
 weighing 1463 cwt. was made to travel from Birming- 
 ham to Liverpool and from Liverpool to Birmingham, 
 and, as already described, at every quarter of an 
 English mile its speed in ascending and descending 
 the various grades was taken, as well as on the hori- 
 zontal stretch. If then the time required for ascent 
 and the time for descent are found to give also the 
 average of speed in a horizontal line, then it must 
 follow that the present ascents and descents of the 
 road result in no delays, as far as the speed is con- 
 cerned, and that no more time is required to move the 
 roads than if they were perfectly horizontal. The 
 results of this investigation are to be seen in the table 
 on opposite page. 
 
 The differences of the mean velocities are here 
 shown to be so slight that the ascending and descend- 
 ing grades are equalized up to ^7. When the train 
 ascended the grade 1*330 it lost time, and travelled 
 only twenty-five English miles per hour instead of 
 30*93 miles which it would have made on the horizon- 
 tal line ; but when it descended the same it gained 
 time and made thirty-seven miles per hour. The loss
 
 Railway Routes. 
 
 245 
 
 in the one direction therefore was as great as the gain 
 in the other. 
 
 
 Speed of the train on this decline 
 
 
 
 per hour in English miles. 
 
 
 Gradient. 
 
 
 Mean velocity. 
 
 In ascending and descending. 
 
 1-177 
 
 22-25 
 
 41-52 
 
 31-78 
 
 1265 
 
 24-87 
 
 39-13 
 
 32-06 
 
 1-330 
 
 25-26 
 
 37-07 
 
 31-16 
 
 1-400 
 
 26-87 
 
 36-75 
 
 31-81 
 
 1-532 
 
 27-35 
 
 34-30 
 
 30-82 
 
 1-590 
 
 27-27 
 
 33-16 
 
 30-21 
 
 1-650 
 
 29-03 
 
 32-58 
 
 30-80 
 
 Horizontal 
 
 30-93 
 
 30-93 
 
 30-93 
 
 It might be supposed that more fuel would be con- 
 sumed in making the ascent, but this is not so. As 
 soon as an engine ascends a grade it undergoes a 
 greater resistance, and hence works more slowly. 
 There is, therefore, with the same generation of steam 
 a greater expansion of steam in the boiler and in the 
 cylinders, consequently a greater pressure ujDon the 
 piston and a stronger pulling-power, without a greater 
 consumption of fuel than on a level. As far as fuel is 
 concerned it is a gain generally to attach the heaviest 
 possible load to the engine. In the experiments made 
 by Cambour on the Liverpool-Manchester line the 
 locomotive Atlas, for example, required 697 lbs. of coke 
 to draw 493 cwt., and only double the amount of coke 
 to draw 3745 cwt., that is, almost eight times as heavy 
 a load. But in this respect such an ascent equals an 
 increase of load. The steam that rushes out of the 
 cylinders into the smoke-stack, operates like a bellows 
 on the furnace. While the piston-strokes become less 
 frequent, the lire also burns itself away more slowly
 
 246 Railway Routes. 
 
 and consumes less coal. In making the descent almost 
 no fuel is needed or, at least, only as much as is 
 necessary to keep up the fire, for a new force is added, 
 that of weight, which at a 3 J grade is just enough to 
 overcome the friction. 
 
 But if neither time nor fuel are lost in case of grades, 
 so far as they counterbalance each other, this is by no 
 means so with the power that is to be employed. 
 
 Steep grades on a railway lengthen the distance, in- 
 crease the running expenses, decrease the speed, in- 
 crease the wear and tear, and possibly endanger the 
 profits of the entire enterprise. Railways, therefore, 
 and especially those expected to have a heavy goods 
 traffic, must seek, as far as it is feasible, to take a 
 direction verging little from the level. 
 
 The engine which under favourable conditions will 
 draw 5539 cwt. on a level at a speed of two and a half 
 miles per hour, will on grades of x ( f 00 draw only 4327 ; 
 on grades of 3 ^ draw only 2865 ; and on grades 
 of cftf draw only 1192. 
 
 If on a railway level spaces alternate with such 
 grades two things may be done : either the load may 
 be regulated equally according to the steepest of these 
 ascents ; that is, if grades of 3 ^ occur, the locomotive 
 will have only a load of 2865 cwt. attached, or the train 
 is actually laden with the full load and is assisted up 
 the steep places by an auxiliary locomotive. The 
 former method is used, for example, on the Darlington 
 line, where the grades, to be sure, are not very steep, 
 but are so frequent that an auxiliary locomotive cannot 
 be placed on every one of them ; the latter, on the 
 other hand, for the goods trains on the Liverpool line, 
 where occur grades of ^and even j^. 1 The passenger 
 trains are moved there without auxiliaries, because 
 these are not calculated to have a full load. The weight 
 of the passengers amounts, perhaps, to half the gross 
 
 1 Adhesion- roads have been built with grades of T V — Str.
 
 Railway Routes. 247 
 
 weight, and as the locomotive itself at grades of 3 J is 
 still able to draw 3000 cwt., this makes it possible for 
 every train to carry about 700 passengers, which as 
 an average means a very large traffic, such as is very 
 seldom reached. On the Belgian lines, in the year 
 1839, the average number of travellers for each train 
 was only 107. 1 
 
 Passengers are the most valuable goods, those for 
 which the highest rates may be demanded, and on this 
 account nearly all railways have been hitherto planned 
 for passenger traffic ; the goods traffic, however, has 
 been treated as a secondary matter. Yet the time is 
 not far distant when it will be seen that the transport 
 of goods is the very basis of all railway operation, 
 which will make the investment profitable, and that the 
 actual national economic use of the railways is to be 
 sought in it. 
 
 People require numerous considerations in transport, 
 goods only punctual and safe conveyance. The former 
 wish to be carried rapidly, at least from four to five 
 miles per hour, so that the rails, and especially the 
 locomotives, are used up with the fearful speed. In 
 England, it is estimated that there is one locomotive in 
 service for every English mile. 2 The goods transport 
 allows a moderate speed of about 1-J or 2 miles per 
 hour, 3 and thus saves the running stock. On the Belgian 
 lines, at the end of the year 1841, there were 17 per 
 cent, of passenger carriages and 1^ per cent, of goods 
 wagons undergoing repairs. 4 The passenger traffic is 
 
 1 In the year 1889-90, the total number of persons carried on the 
 railways of Germany amounted to 376,825,000. There are for every 
 10,000 inhabitants 8 - 41 km. of railway lines, and for every 100 square 
 km. 7*37 km. — Str. 
 
 2 On the German regular-gauge railways there are, on an average, 
 3*27 locomotives to 10 km. of railway in operation. — Str. 
 
 3 The goods trains on the main railways of Germany run at an 
 average speed, including the stoppage at stations, of 15 km. per hour, 
 and express goods trains at an average rate of 20 km. — Str. 
 
 4 On the regular-gauge railways of Germany at present 20 per
 
 248 Railway Routes. 
 
 subject to the greatest fluctuation. In a favourable 
 season, at the time of festivities or chance occasions, 
 there is an enormous press, while at other times the 
 trains run half empty. But full loads may always be 
 counted on in case of the transport of goods, for these 
 do not, like the traveller at the moment of his arrival, 
 demand to go farther, but their departure may almost 
 always be delayed till the next transport. They do not 
 require frequent and expensive inspection of the lines, 
 and the running expenses are not essentially greater, 
 though the quantity of material to be transported 
 may be doubled or many times increased. 
 
 It has been learned from the Belgian railways that in 
 case of a very great reduction of fares for passengers, 
 the number of travellers does not at all make good the 
 loss which the increase of business produces, and which, 
 instead of relieving the necessary journeys, often pro- 
 vokes travelling back and forth, a thing injurious from 
 an economical standpoint, at least wholly useless. The 
 greatest possible reduction of rates on goods, on the 
 other hand, is advantageous to all classes of society, to 
 producers and consumers ; it enhances the whole wealth 
 of a nation. The Belgian report for 1840 rightly says 
 that the transport of heavy goods furnishes the chief 
 income of the business, without requiring a proportion- 
 ally great expenditure for the same. But if, then, the 
 lightening of the goods traffic is the chief object both 
 for the income of the enterprise and for an important 
 economical reason, the construction of the roads with 
 the least possible grades becomes a matter of essential 
 importance. For, although the passenger traffic of a 
 road admits of light grades, yet disadvantages enter at 
 once in the case of goods traffic, where it is a question 
 of moving as many hundredweight as possible with the 
 same train. 
 
 cent, of locomotives are undergoing repairs ; 15 of passenger car- 
 riages ; and 6 of goods wagons ; that is, of all the rolling-stock 
 of this class. — Str.
 
 Railway Routes. 
 
 249 
 
 On a railway having 3 J grades, with a given 
 number of locomotives in operation, either only half as 
 much tonnage can be moved as on one equally long, but 
 level, or the same tonnage only with twice the number 
 of locomotives. Since for this purpose the auxiliary 
 locomotives are employed, which must be kept ready 
 for future use by each road, the management of the 
 former line will not only cost exactly double that of the 
 latter, but its expenses will be very much greater. 
 But in the case of most of the great railways, the lay of 
 the land makes it by no means easy, not even every- 
 where possible, to avoid the grades. The following 
 table, giving the steepest grades of the most important 
 railways in Europe, shows to what an extent irregu- 
 larities of the earth have had to be overcome : — 
 
 Germany. 
 
 Brunswick — Vienenburg 
 Munich — Augsburg 
 Cologne — Aachen 
 Taunusbahn 
 Leipzig — Dresden 
 Vienna — Raab . 
 Berlin — Frankfort 
 
 Belgium. 
 
 Mons — Jurbise . 
 Waremme — Ans. 
 Tubize — Braine le Comte . 
 Liege — Prussian Frontier . 
 
 France. 
 
 Paris — St. Germain — Mulhausen 
 Thann — and Strasburg — Bale 
 
 England. 
 
 Southampton 
 
 Manchester — Bury 
 Leeds — Selby 
 Newcastle — Carlisle 
 Manchester — Leeds 
 London — Brighton 
 London —Croydon 
 
 Steepest Grade. 
 
 1-283 
 1-280 
 1-264 
 1-250 
 1-200 
 1-137 
 1-114 
 
 1-317 
 1-303 
 1-223 
 1-100 
 
 1-100 
 1-125 
 
 1-202 
 1-200 
 1-16G 
 1-1G0 
 1-150 
 1-147 
 1 100
 
 250 Railway Routes. 
 
 England {continued). Steepest Grade. 
 
 Grand Junction ..... I'lOO 
 
 Dublin— Kingston . . . . TICK) 
 
 Liverpool — Manchester . . . 1*089 
 
 Birmingham — Gloucester . . . T037 
 
 This last distance is traversed, notwithstanding the 
 grade, and that, too, with American locomotives. 
 Generally, grades of 3 J can be regarded as unavoid- 
 able on long lines. 1 Although the level or a line 
 deviating very little from it is advantageous, yet it is 
 evident that there is a limit beyond which the expense 
 necessary to be made to secure this advantage would 
 be so great as to be out of proportion with the results 
 to be gained. An illustration will make this manifest. 
 
 If between two places, which are two miles apart, 
 there is a hill 80 ft. high, and precipitous on both sides, 
 a railway with a grade of 3 ^ will mount the same 
 without any further surface correction. But should it 
 be desired to reduce the grade to 1*1000, it would be 
 necessary to make a cut two miles longer, and 56 feet 
 (80 — 24) deeper in the middle. And to complete 
 this, perhaps, it would be necessary to make a tunnel ; 
 at all events, the earth work would require an expendi- 
 ture of several hundreds of thousands. The following 
 facts may be given here in order to give an idea of the 
 expense required for such works. 
 
 A cut, such as the one mentioned, would require at 
 least 800,000 rods of earth to be excavated. On 
 German lines that have been constructed with the least 
 expense the average cost of excavation has been 1^ thalers 
 (Prussian currency) per rod ; this cut, therefore, would 
 cost about one million thalers. The cuts on the lines 
 mentioned were not more than 30 feet deep. But, apart 
 from the still greater number of rods of earth which 
 
 1 The steepest passable grade on the main railways of Germany is 
 limited to g 1 ^, and in exceptional cases is said not to be greater than 
 A.— Str.
 
 Railway Routes. 251 
 
 would have to be removed in the cut proposed, the 
 expense of excavating increases greatly according to 
 the depth from which the earth has to be taken. 
 Should there be no place to deposit the earth, should 
 the ground be sandy and loose, so that the slopes would 
 have to be kept more even, the expense would be in- 
 creased so greatly that it would be better to construct 
 a tunnel. 
 
 On the Cologne-Aachen line the construction of the 
 tunnel cost 150 thalers per foot ; on the Leipzig- 
 Dresden line, 183 thalers ; on the London-Birmingham 
 (the Kilsbury tunnel) 300 thalers, or, on an average, 
 every quarter-mile cost one million thalers. 
 
 One of the most important questions to be asked in 
 the building of every railway is : How much shall the 
 surface be corrected in order to secure a better 
 gradient ? in other words, How much shall be expended 
 in construction in order to save in running expenses ? 
 The former, a sum paid out once for all time represents 
 capital, the latter, one recurring annually, represents 
 income. 
 
 This question can by no means be answered generally, 
 but it must be ascertained specially for each concrete 
 case. But we shall attempt to lay down the principle 
 upon which this depends. 
 
 On one side of the account is placed the estimate of 
 the line's cost in positive figures with sufficient exact- 
 ness, providing the maximum of the grading is fixed 
 a ^ lobe 300 or iio- Estimations are no longer ex- 
 ceeded by twice the amount, or even four times the 
 same, and from our present experience the estimate 
 must very nearly equal the cost of construction, so that 
 essential changes do not make them incorrect after- 
 wards. It may be stated with sufficient certainty that 
 the line in the first case will cost eight millions, in the 
 second seven, and in the third six. 
 
 But the second part cannot be answered with equal 
 definiteness. It may be inferred that the travel be-
 
 252 Railway Routes. 
 
 tween two cities connected by a railway must be 
 increased to a great extent. In this respect the result 
 has always surpassed the greatest expectation. 
 There travelled, for example, daily : — 
 
 
 Before the con- 
 
 
 
 struction of the 
 
 
 
 railway. 
 
 After. 
 
 Between Liverpool and Manchester 
 
 400 people 
 
 1620 
 
 „ Stockton „ Darlington 
 
 130 „ 
 
 630 
 
 ,, Newcastle „ Carlisle ... 
 
 90 „ 
 
 500 
 
 , Arbroath „ Forfar 
 
 20 „ 
 
 200 
 
 „ Brussels „ Antwerp ... 
 
 200 „ 
 
 3000 
 
 Hence the travel was increased about four, five, ten 
 and fifteen fold. 1 
 
 The goods traffic cannot, of course, be estimated in 
 this manner, for it is governed by altogether different 
 conditions, by a fixed law of demand and supply. But 
 both increase likewise when the tariff decreases, and 
 speed and safety of transport become greater. But in 
 all such matters the quantity cannot be ascertained, but 
 this quantity is a very important thing to know. 
 
 The surface correction from a gradient of 3 J to 
 x (^o, in the example given, has cost one million thalers. 
 It may further be ascertained that the mere transport 
 expenses on -the first grade will cost seven silver pfen- 
 nige per hundredweight and per mile, on the second 
 four pf., because on the former the power must be in- 
 creased or the load decreased. This increase in running 
 expenses on one mile of grade, each way, provided six 
 million hundredweight of goods are carried, would 
 amount to eighteen millions silver pfennige or fifty 
 thousand thalers, which must be renewed annually, and 
 therefore, at four per cent, it represents a capital of 
 1 J millions. Thus, if one could have anticipated such 
 
 1 Estimating Germany's population at 40| millions, each person 
 makes 9'3 journeys on the regular-gauge railways in Germany. — 
 Str.
 
 Railway Routes. 253 
 
 a traffic or a still greater one, it would have been 
 justifiable to expend one million for a cut through 
 the hill, and there would oe gained for all time the net 
 profits of the undertaking. If, on the other hand, the 
 goods traffic were not so great, if there were only four 
 or five million hundredweight to be transported 
 annually on the line, the interest on the capital ex- 
 pended in the correction has been lost then for all 
 time. Large surface corrections must, therefore, be 
 thoroughly considered. But, on the other hand, a 
 later increase of traffic through increase in business, 
 through conjunction with other lines is very possible, 
 while a supplementary correction interrupts the entire 
 traffic and involves the loss of almost all former ex- 
 penditures. 
 
 We hardly need to say that we have selected very 
 extreme cases for illustration and that it is seldom 
 necessary to make a cut costing one million. It is al- 
 most always possible to make a circuit and avoid such 
 a correction of surface. 
 
 If the direction of a railway is changed it is done by 
 turning the course very gradually. If a train is being 
 pulled in a straight line and is made to change its 
 course by means of a curve, the power of inertia 
 inherent in every body causes the flanges of the wheels 
 to press against the outer line of rails, so that there is 
 not only much more friction, but also in consequence 
 of the narrow radii and the great speed, great danger 
 lest the locomotive should jump the rails or the axle 
 should break. Since, moreover, on every curve the 
 outer of the two parallel lines of rails must be longer 
 than the inner, the wheels have to travel a greater dis- 
 tance on this outer one than on the inner. But both 
 wheels are fastened to the same axle, so that one cannot 
 revolve faster than the other, the outer wheels are 
 forced, therefore, to slide, and thus again increase their 
 friction. 
 
 Several very ingenious arrangements have been
 
 254 Railway Routes. 
 
 planned to remove this difficulty, but the result has not 
 yet been satisfactory. The fellies of the wheels, for 
 example, have been made conical, so that the outside 
 diameter of the wheel was less than the one inside. If 
 on a curve turning towards the right the centrifugal 
 force drives the wagon against the outer rail, the left 
 wheels revolve on the inner and greater diameter, the 
 right on the outer and smaller one, 1 so that the former 
 travels a longer distance in the same length of time, the 
 latter a shorter. But the conical form of the wheels 
 has the great fault of producing a swaying motion on 
 even a straight line, and such a heavy sidewise oscil- 
 lation (mou cement de lacet) is greatly increased on those 
 wagons that are quite a distance from the locomotive. 
 
 Another plan was to arrange the rails in such a way 
 that the outer wheel, when on the curve, would not run 
 on the felly, but on the flange, and thus necessarily 
 prevent it from sliding off. This sliding would have 
 to be hindered by a special rim on the rail. But such 
 an arrangement would be possible only when all the 
 curves on a line are described with a very short radius, 
 and then only in case of the usual and necessary 
 height of the flange. 
 
 Moreover the wagons have been supplied with four 
 pairs of wheels, 2 every two pairs of which are put as 
 closely together as possible and are so joined together 
 that the axles continue to be parallel with the wagon 
 but in such a Avay that they can be slightly turned 
 from their regular position. In case of the engine this 
 is disadvantageous, as the wheels cannot be joined to- 
 gether, and thus the weight on the driving-wheels, 
 consequently the adhesion, is diminished, while with 
 the wagons this adhesion becomes very great, which 
 
 1 It has not been proved generally that the replacement of the 
 conical running surface on the wheel-tires with a cylindrical one 
 will answer the purpose. — Str. 
 
 2 Wagons with so-called truck-frames are of late used on the 
 German railways (with four and more pairs of wheels). — Str.
 
 Railway Routes. 255 
 
 also causes many inconveniences. The usual remedy 
 is .to lay the outer rails a little higher than the 
 inner so that when the centrifugal force drives the 
 wagons outward, their weight will draw l them inwards 
 again, whereby, of course, the sliding of the outer 
 wheels has not been overcome. 
 
 All these remedies are unable to answer the purpose 
 completely, as may be inferred from what has been 
 said, since the centrifugal force is a variable one, which 
 increases and decreases with the rate of speed, while 
 the weight is altogether constant. It is always safest 
 to construct the curves with a very large radius, or to 
 moderate the speed at the sharper curves. 
 
 Experiments made in England have shown that on 
 curves described with a radius of -J- an English mile = 
 213 rods, the speed of the train is equal to that on a 
 straight piece of the line. Nor was it possible to 
 observe the slightest decrease of speed, and these experi- 
 ments were made frequently and under different 
 conditions, so that the final result cannot be doubted. 
 On the railways that have been built in Germany there 
 are curves 2 described with radii from 300 to 100 rods ; 
 in France with radii from 300 to 100 rods ; in Belgium 
 with radii from 300 to 100 rods ; in England, indeed, 
 with radii from 100 to 70 rods. 
 
 Although these conditions are more or less perfectly 
 analagous, yet indirect courses are deviations from 
 straight lines horizontally projected just as grades are 
 from vertically projected lines. The latter require 
 that the original power be increased ; the former, that 
 it be employed a longer time. If you cannot avoid 
 the hill, which you are unwilling to cut through, in 
 
 1 The elevation of the outer rails on curves is determined by the 
 length of the radius of the same and the speed made by the trains. — 
 Str. 
 
 2 The smallest admissible radius of curves on German railways of 
 regular gauge is 300 metres, and in exceptional cases 180 metres. — 
 Str.
 
 256 Railway Routes. 
 
 any other way than by a circuit of three-fourths of a 
 mile, the final expense will be about the same. For if 
 the mere running expenses on the level amount to four 
 silver pfennige, the circuit of three-fourths of a mile 
 makes an additional cost of three silver pfennige, which 
 for six millions hundredweight also amounts to 50,000 
 thalers annually. 
 
 Six millions hundredweight, as stated before, is an 
 assumed amount, which cannot be easily realized on 
 one German line, 1 and this example was chosen merely 
 in order to show that circumstances themselves justify 
 making a very great increase of invested capital. In 
 order to determine the value of a circuit more exactly 
 by figures, let us base our calculation upon the propor- 
 tions given by the Belgian and the Leipzig-Dresden 
 lines. 
 
 In the year 1840 the total number of miles travelled 
 on the Belgian roads was 156,801. The whole expenses 
 during this time were as follows : — 
 
 generally. per mile, 
 
 francs. thlr. s. grosc. pf. 
 For employes, for maintenance, 
 
 buildings, supplying of 
 
 materials, etc. 630,812 1 2 — 
 
 Running-power, maintenance, re- 
 pairs and supply of rolling 
 
 stock, illumination of rails, 
 
 coke - furnaces, -workshops, 
 
 water-stations, etc. ... ... 1,835,772 3 3 8 
 
 Direction, inspection, management, 
 
 import and export of goods, 
 
 etc 530,526 — 27 — 
 
 For each mile travelled by a train 
 
 1 The following shows how greatly the goods traffic has increased : 
 in the accounts of the year 1889-90 on regular-gauge German rail- 
 ways there were carried 212,093,339 tons (4,241,866,780 cwt.) of 
 goods of all kinds for tariff, and besides 1,473,282 tons of goods for 
 the service; but 136,150,937 tons (2,723,018,740 cwt.) for tariff 
 was the portion carried by the Prussian government railways and by 
 railways controlled by the Prussian State.
 
 Railway Routes. 257 
 
 In the same year 46,868 miles were travelled on the 
 Leipzig-Dresden road . 
 
 The expenses were 
 
 generally. 
 
 
 per mile. 
 
 
 
 dol. 
 
 thlr 
 
 . s. grosc. 
 
 pf. 
 
 Keeping of the road 
 
 54,656 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 
 Kunning of the road 
 
 50,559 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 Firing and repairs on locomotives, 
 
 
 
 
 
 maintenance and rebuilding of 
 
 
 
 
 
 coaches, wagons, etc. 
 
 119,622 
 
 2 
 
 16 
 
 7 
 
 Management 
 
 23,391 
 
 — 
 
 14 
 
 11 
 
 Total for each train per mile * ... 5 8 10 
 
 Moreover (if the number of miles travelled annually 
 be divided by the number of miles in the road) the 
 daily travel on the Belgian roads was more than nine 
 times their entire length, on the Saxon more than 
 eight times. If we use only the last quantities given 
 in our illustration, we find that the travel on a road 
 making a circuit of three-fourths of a mile amounts 
 daily to f x 8 or 6 miles, hence an additional expense 
 of about 31 dols. daily, or annually of more than 11,000 
 clols., hence the circuit of one mile costs more than the 
 interest on half a million dollars for running expenses, 
 not counting in the cost of construction. 
 
 Circuits, however, are preferable to heavy grades, 
 for they expose the management to less casualties, they 
 are not so destructive to the running stock, and, if they 
 save a great amount of engineering, they generally 
 require less expense to maintain them. 
 
 The detours are the second important question to be 
 discussed in determining the character of a railway. 
 
 However great an influence grades and the length of 
 
 1 A comparison of the expenses of a train per mile with the 
 statistics quoted here for the same cannot be made, for the trains do 
 not remain on one line, but run on others also. The running 
 expenses on the regular-gauge German railways amounted to 16,80L 
 marks per kilometer of the average length of line in operation. — 
 Str. 
 
 VOL. I. S
 
 258 Railway Routes. 
 
 a road may have upon the amount of capital invested 
 and cheapness of operation, the commercial relations, 
 however, are under all circumstances the determin- 
 ing factor in the direction of railways (at least with 
 private enterprises). No one will build a railway over 
 a barren desert, merely because it is level and because 
 it can go straight ahead. On the contrary, Ave see 
 some of them prospering in the most unfavourable 
 locations, provided only they answer the actual 
 demands of commerce. For this reason railways ought 
 to adopt the old route of trade established in a country, 
 for they do not create a new trade in and for them- 
 selves, but they only multiply that which already exists. 
 The railway ought not to be the absolutely shortest 
 line between two termini, but, as far as possible, touch 
 manufacturing cities and prosperous country districts. 
 A poor locality will not become rich because long goods 
 trains rush across its fields, nor a city a commercial 
 centre with great invested capital and outside business 
 connections because a railway leads to it. 1 The rail- 
 way will succeed and bring success only there where 
 the need of quick and cheap communication has been 
 present. Detours therefore are justifiable to a certain 
 extent, and the commercial relations determine the 
 direction of a line in this latter case more than the lay 
 of the land. 
 
 The railway ought, therefore, to consider not merely 
 the interests of the two termini, however important 
 these may be, but also materially that of the country 
 lying between them and the smaller cities. 2 The travel 
 
 1 The great amount of business which trade and industry have 
 received by means of railways has not infrequently made unindus- 
 trious cities and poor localities centres of commerce and industrious 
 cities, especially the places that became junctions on busy railway 
 lines. — Str. 
 
 2 This requirement is now being taken into account by the build- 
 ing of lines of secondary importance, while the main lines serve 
 almost exclusively in making the shortest connection between the 
 chief stations (commercial and industrial cities). — Str.
 
 Railway Routes. 259 
 
 of these parts, the so-called inner traffic, is much more 
 important than is generally inferred. In the year 1840 
 the half of the whole Belgian population, namely 2J 
 millions of people, had travelled on the 45 miles of the 
 Belgian lines, and, according to the inquiries that were 
 made, everyone of these people had travelled on an aver- 
 age only 5^ miles. In the year 1841, on the Magde- 
 burg-Leipzig line, each traveller had gone on an average 
 5^ miles ; on the Leipzig-Dresden, 1\ miles. Thus it is 
 by no means the through communication, from terminus 
 to terminus, which supports the road, but chiefly the 
 travellers of short distances, from intermediate station 
 to intermediate station, or from one of these to the 
 terminus. 1 But if a line does not touch towns forming 
 such intermediate stations, it loses this important traffic. 
 
 The question whether a detour of so many thousand 
 rods shall be made in order to touch this busy city, or 
 that productive district, depends solely on a proper 
 consideration of the increased cost of construction and 
 the additional operating expenses for said thousand 
 rods, in comparison with the anticipated increase of 
 traffic, which latter, however, can be determined only 
 approximately. 
 
 The statement is generally true that active, busy 
 traffic allows and demands a more expensive and more 
 perfect railway-plant, a less organized state of trade 
 and industry are satisfied with a less perfect medium, 
 and only such a one makes it profitable. 2 Hence the 
 enormous and yet admissible expense of the English 
 lines, hence the necessary cheapness of the German. 
 
 In England, for example, the London-Greenwich 
 line, only a little over three-fourths of a mile long, cost 
 5,480,000 thalers, but, of course, for exceptional reasons, 
 
 1 This statement holds true to-day ; on the regular-gauge German 
 railways each passenger travels on an average 26 99 km. 
 
 2 In earlier years railways were almost all built alike, but in the 
 last decade those lines which had to expect less business have also 
 been built and equipped more simply. — Str. 
 
 s 2
 
 26o 
 
 Railway Routes. 
 
 as this line is built the whole distance on arches of 
 masonry, and one-third of its distance lies in the city 
 of London itself. The mere property indemnification 
 cost more than two millions of dollars. 
 
 The following are the costs per German mile : — 
 
 
 
 
 Thlr. 
 
 In England- 
 
 —London — Croydon. 
 
 • • . 
 
 2,302,000 
 
 
 Manchester — Bolton . 
 
 . • . 
 
 1,890,000 
 
 
 London — Birmingham 
 
 . . . 
 
 1,560,000 
 
 
 Liverpool — Manchester 
 
 . . • 
 
 1,380,000 
 
 
 Great Western . 
 
 
 1,340,000 
 
 
 Manchester — Leeds 
 
 • • • 
 
 1,260,000 
 
 
 Grand Junction . 
 
 ... 
 
 720,000 
 
 
 Preston — Lancaster . 
 
 , . . 
 
 716,000 
 
 
 North Union 
 
 ... 
 
 704,000 
 
 
 Leeds — Selhy . 
 
 . 
 
 544,000 
 
 
 Glasgow — Garnkirk . 
 
 • . • 
 
 378,000 
 
 
 York — North Midlands 
 
 ... 
 
 306,000 
 
 
 Arbroath — Forfar 
 
 ... 
 
 216,000 
 
 
 Arbroath- — Dundee 
 
 ... 
 
 210,000 
 
 In France— 
 
 -Etienne — Lyons . 
 
 . • • 
 
 592,000 
 
 In Belgiuni- 
 
 -The first thirteen sections, which for 
 about three-quarters the distance have 
 
 
 
 only a single track 1 . 
 
 . 
 
 304,000 
 
 In Germany, 
 
 with single track — Cologne- 
 
 — Aachen 
 
 500,000 
 
 
 Dusseldorf — Elberfeld 
 
 
 500,000 
 
 
 Berlin — Potsdam 
 
 ... 
 
 400,000 
 
 
 Leipzig — Dresden (double 
 
 track). 
 
 360,000 
 
 
 Baden 
 
 . . 
 
 370,000 
 
 
 Tannus 
 
 . . 
 
 320,000 
 
 
 Hamburg — Bergedorf . 
 
 ... 
 
 375,000 
 
 
 Munich — Augsburg . 
 
 
 270,000 
 
 
 Berlin — Frankfort-on-Oder. 
 
 250,000 
 
 
 Berlin — Anhalt . 
 
 . 
 
 210,000 
 
 
 Berlin — Stettin (narrow " 
 
 crown wide ") 
 
 184,000 
 
 
 Magdeburg — Leipzig . 
 
 
 209,000 
 
 
 Kaiser Ferdinand — Nordbahn 
 
 164,000 
 
 Railway lines which had to overcome such enormous 
 
 irregularities of surface, 
 
 as the Cologne-Aachen and 
 
 1 The line from Liege to Verviers, which is still building, will be, 
 however, much more expensive, in fact the most expensive on the 
 Continent.
 
 Railway Routes. 261 
 
 Diisseldorf-Elberfeld, cannot give up any proportion of 
 its commerce, nor likewise those that had to pay a big 
 apprentice's fee for the novelty of the thing. It may 
 be assumed that the railways in Germany can be rebuilt 
 for one-fourth of a million on an average per current 
 mile. 1 Accordingly the expenses of a railway increase 
 about three-quarter millions for each mile of detour, if 
 the increased running expenses be added as half a 
 million of capital to the average building-capital of a 
 quarter a million, and these three-quarter millions 
 ought to be overbalanced by the anticipated increase 
 of traffic gained by the detour. 
 
 We have seen how both the surface of the land and 
 business matters compel railways to deviate from the 
 straight line : it remains to allude in a few words to the 
 political and territorial relations. 
 
 It is natural that the position of a railway should 
 lead commerce to take a certain direction for a long 
 time and from a wide territory. One would, therefore, 
 have supposed that governments would have put them- 
 selves at once at the head of these undertakings, in order 
 to control the directions of the roads for the interest of 
 the community. But this was not the case. 
 
 In England, to be sure, everything could be en- 
 trusted to the partnership of private individuals. There 
 seemed to be no undertaking too great or too expensive 
 for their surplus of capital, for the people's spirit of 
 enterprise, and for the highly developed industry and 
 commerce ; and there were no political boundaries 
 
 1 The building-capital expended on the construction and equip- 
 ment of the regular-gauge German railways amounts to 252,268 
 marks for one kilometer in length of operation. The total cost of the 
 city line in Berlin, including the shared costs for the reconstruction 
 of the Silesian station in Berlin, and for the new station at Char- 
 lottenburg, amounted to a round 68,140,000 marks for \\\ km. of 
 length, of which 33,412,000 marks were paid for property indemni- 
 fication, and the latter would have demanded much more, if the line 
 had not passed long distances over fiscal property, and had not 
 touched the outer parts of the city of Ackerland. — Str,
 
 262 Railway Routes. 
 
 within the entire kingdom, washed on all sides by the 
 sea, which placed barriers in the way of construction, or 
 elicited feelings of jealousy. But it was different on 
 the Continent, especially in Germany. Yet the Bel- 
 gian Government was not long the only one that under- 
 took to build railways for the whole country upon a 
 plan predetermined, and for the interest of the 
 state as well as of individuals. The results have 
 already shown how successfully it has done this. 
 
 In choosing the route for railways in Germany it is 
 not a question whether this or that inland town should 
 be touched, but very often whether universal com- 
 merce ought to take its course through a kingdom or 
 avoid it. Yet all this was entrusted to the enterprising 
 spirit of private people, and let it be said in their 
 honour that Germany became through their courage 
 and insight the richest country in railways on the Con- 
 tinent, Belgium excepted, before the Government gave 
 them any assistance. 1 Of course passenger traffic was 
 the main object, only the most lucrative lines were con- 
 structed, and routes were taken which would not be 
 satisfactory for a system of railways planned by the 
 government. 
 
 But it soon became apparent that the government 
 could not be separated from such great undertakings. 2 
 Then the postal system conflicted with the railways, 
 which would be a substantial gain for the administra- 
 tion if in its hands, and which, as private property, 
 became a competitor that could not be overcome. 
 Necessity ; the furnishing the less favoured provinces 
 with a readier market for their produce ; the uniting 
 the more distant parts of the country with the main 
 part ; finally, the military interests ; in fact, everything 
 
 1 The total length of regular-gauge German railways, exclusive of 
 branch lines to manufacturing concerns, etc., at present amounts to 
 41,879 km., and that of narrow-gauge to 1051 km. — Str. 
 
 2 Legislation upon the railway enterprises in Prussia, from the 
 3rd of November, 1838. — Str.
 
 Railway Routes. 263 
 
 urged the building of roads in those places, even where 
 they could not immediately pay a profit, and the state 
 alone was able to do this. 
 
 Nearly all the German Governments have gradually 
 undertaken of themselves the construction of railways 
 under various conditions, or have supported or 
 guaranteed such operations. 1 Prussia took this step 
 at last, but in the most splendid style, for a guarantee 
 was given at once for two hundred miles of railway, 
 and the problem which we have tried to throw light 
 upon will, therefore, be abundantly discussed here in 
 the near future. 2 
 
 1 Order of the Supreme Cabinet of November 22nd, 1842, concern- 
 ing 3| per cent, bonds to be taken up on some railway concerns in 
 need of help, in Prussia. — Str. 
 
 2 According to the law of December 7th, 1849, the first railways 
 built in Prussia by the state and the Saarbrucke line were opened, 
 1850, the first of the eastern line (Ostbahn), 1851. — Str.
 
 THE EASTERN QUESTION
 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 The five shorter essays that follow were published between the years 
 1841 and 1844 in the Augsburger AUgemeinen Zeitung. These are : 
 " Germany and Palestine," 1841 ; " The Country and People of the 
 Kurds," 1841 ; " The Military and Political Situation of the Ottoman 
 Empire," 1841; " Keshid, Izzet, and the Porte," 1842; "The 
 Mouth of the Danube," 1844. 
 
 These essays, according to their contents, may be grouped together 
 under the title " Essays upon the Eastern Question, "^and although the 
 second discusses it from an ethnographical standpoint, and the fifth 
 from a geographical one, yet all five treat primarily of the political 
 and military events in the East, that have often greatly agitated 
 Europe in the past and continue to do so at present. 
 
 Late in the autumn of 1839, Moltke returned from Turkey where, 
 during his four years' residence, he had acquired a thorough know- 
 ledge of the country and the people, and had collected various and 
 valuable stores of information. He could thus be well regarded as 
 one of the most authoritative, most efficient critics of the East. 
 
 After his return from the battlefield of Nisib, there was a momen- 
 tary pause in the long years of contentions between the Sublime 
 Porte and its rebellious vassal, Mehemed Ali of Egypt, when it 
 seemed as if the decaying power of the Turks would be completely 
 crushed. The Sultan, Mahmoud III., who had begun to reform his 
 empire with an iron hand, but with little success, had died a short 
 time before the terrible news of Nisib had reached Stamboul. His 
 successor was Abdul Mejid, a weak lad of sixteen. He found his 
 empire without army or navy, for the traitorous Kapudan Pascha 
 had taken the latter to Alexandria to Mehemed Ali ; he found all 
 Syria in the hands of the Egyptians, to whom the way to the 
 Bosphorus was open. But Mehemed Ali was not able to reap the 
 benefits of the success he had won, and when Rescind Pasha, who 
 had an European education and favoured progress, entered the 
 ministry at Constantinople, those European powers that were 
 inclined to support the integrity and temporal development of 
 Turkey, began to lay hold upon stronger measures. The Hattis- 
 cherif of Gulhane, which was executed by Rescind (2nd November,
 
 268 The Eastern Question. 
 
 1839), was most influential in producing a favourable impression on 
 the powers. This decree of the Sultan insured to all his subjects, 
 both the Faithful and the Kajah, security for their lives, honour and 
 property, equal taxation, and a systematic collection of the taxes ; 
 he thus meant to take a far more important step on the road of reform. 
 The ministry of Thiers in France alone still continued to support the 
 bold demands of Mehemed Ali, so that the rest of the great European 
 powers formed a quadruple alliance for the protection of the Porte 
 (July 15th, 1840), and made military advancements against the rebel- 
 lious vice-regent, who had relied upon the aid of France which had 
 not been actually given. An Anglo- Austrian fleet and a Turkish land- 
 force attacked the Egyptians in Syria, and after Beyrout, Akka, 
 and other coast towns had fallen, and the inhabitants of Syria had 
 taken up arms for the Sultan, Ibrahim Pasha, the son and general of 
 Mehemed Ali, vacated the country and led his army back to Egypt 
 in a manner that soon resembled flight. In the meantime an 
 English squadron appeared before Alexandria, and Mehemed Ali 
 was again forced to beg for peace, which was granted him upon 
 acknowledgment of the inheritance of his dynasty (in the beginning 
 of 1841). 
 
 But soon after these events Rescind Pasha left the ministry, and 
 a short time after Izzet Mehemed Pasha was appointed his successor. 
 Izzet was one of the mo4 influential leaders of the old Turkish con- 
 servative party, and his entrance into office was the signal for a 
 complete rupture in the endeavours for reform. But there were so 
 many influences brought to bear upon the weak young Sultan that 
 Izzet also remained a short time in the ministry, and the government 
 at Constantinople continued to be agitated for a long time by oppos- 
 ing factions, nor was it able to become master of the internal 
 difficulties during the time in which the following articles were 
 written. Rebellions in Crete, complications in the government of 
 the Lebanon, a serious quarrel with Persia, disturbances in the 
 Danube principalities, all combined to make the condition of the 
 Ottoman Empire insecure for years, and a menace to the peace of the 
 world. 
 
 It seemed necessary to preface the following essays with this 
 cursory historical review, for the purpose of informing the reader of 
 to-day.
 
 ESSAYS 
 
 UPON THE 
 
 EASTERN QUESTION 
 
 GERMANY AND PALESTINE. 
 
 A little company of Europeans lias brought the 
 Syrian question, which was long unsettled, to a speedy 
 issue by means of a forcible and successful mode of 
 action. Acre fell under the thunders of an Anglo- 
 Austrian fleet, and the phantom of an Egyptian- Arabian 
 power vanished of itself. Lovely Syria was con- 
 quered a second time for the padishah, the bold vassal 
 who had so long defied his authority till he was 
 
 humbled in the dust but is the Eastern conflict now 
 
 settled by this means? Hardly anyone will answer 
 this in the affirmative if he has travelled through the 
 Turkish provinces and is able and willing to recognize 
 the truth. 
 
 The complete extinction of military spirit among 
 these races that were once so warlike is manifested on 
 every new occasion. If it was in the interest of the 
 English to lay stress upon the strength and boldness of 
 the action of the Turkish army against Ibrahim, the 
 peaceful and impartial witnesses and associates, on the 
 other hand, declare that they saw just as little display 
 of brilliant fighting as a year before at Nisib. The 
 Europeans have done everything. From the moment
 
 270 The Eastern Question. 
 
 that they left the scene, when their fleet sailed away 
 from the Syrian coast, the Turkish army had scarcely 
 taken a step farther, and yet there was required only a 
 last push to effect the complete destruction of the de- 
 cayed structure of might and barbarism. The Porte 
 was unable to conquer the rich country between the 
 Euphrates and the Mediterranean Sea, and it has as 
 little power to hold these provinces, had they been 
 presented to the Porte. It is not able to keep the 
 Syrians in subjection by a strong form of government, 
 as the military despotism of Ibrahim had been, nor can 
 it gain that country by a just and faithful administra- 
 tion of laws, because the very first element necessary 
 for such an administration, honest officers, was wholly 
 wanting, and the Hattischerif of Gulhane could not 
 produce it by magic. If the Ottoman Government 
 desired to set aside a rich salary for its governors, they 
 will continue to make the usual extortions in addition 
 to the salary. The Turkish pashas will return with 
 their farming of taxes and selling of offices, with their 
 force-sales and bondage, in short, with their old 
 despotism and oppression, and Syria will rise in arms 
 against its new rulers, just as it has always done in 
 times past against former rulers, because it has always 
 been abused. Small revolutions will arise among the 
 mountaineers and in the big cities. Then a war will 
 be waged, just as the Rescind Pashas and Hails Pashas 
 fought against the unfortunate Kurds, when they slew 
 women and children, and burned down the beautiful 
 villages in order to rule a short time over an exhausted 
 and desolated country which, however, they could not 
 retain for a long time. Certainly, there is no need of 
 foresight to prophesy that, even if there is no attack 
 made from without, the Turks will again be driven out 
 of Syria in one or two years. 
 
 But this shock will not fail to come. The fact that 
 one of the strong powers withdrew from the Euro- 
 pean Areopagus, which had undertaken to solve the
 
 The Eastern Question. 271 
 
 Syrian problem, has, indeed, not been able to set 
 back its measures, though its absence has perceptibly 
 influenced the results of this same. A few broad- 
 sides from the line of British ships commanded by 
 the brave Napier would have frightened the Arabian 
 garde nationale from their wretched batteries in front 
 of Alexandria, and the flames of a general revolution 
 would have broken out in Egypt which had been fear- 
 fully and long oppressed. Instead of this, and out of 
 regard for France, the Grand- Seignior was forced, or 
 what is equivalent to the same, was most politely invited 
 by the quadruple alliance to sanction a part of the usur- 
 pation of his vassal. The heir of the caliphs, the 
 multiplier of the inseparable empire, is to bestow a part 
 of this very empire upon a rebel as an inheritance. 
 But what is meant by inheritance in the dynasty of the 
 Arnauts ? Whoever is acquainted with the state of 
 affairs in the East knows also how loose the family ties 
 are there. The sons and daughters of Mehemed Ali 
 are the children of his wives, and part of them are so 
 little related that they could intermarry. Ibrahim, for 
 example, is only the stepson of the Governor of Egypt. 
 The Ottoman Empire itself was not held by right of 
 primogeniture but by right of seniority. The right of 
 primogeniture of a minor could not be made good 
 against the might of an uncle, and in doubtful cases 
 secret executions, putting out of eyes, or other acts of 
 violence, were always necessary to help along the un- 
 certain succession. Just so it would be now if the 
 offspring of the reigning house were not raised in the 
 " princes' coop," if they commanded provinces and 
 armies, and if they had the power and of course the 
 disposition also to fight among themselves for the rich 
 inheritance. Finally, the descendants of the Arnautian 
 guncharger are not encircled with that religious nimbus 
 which hallows the descendants of Osman, and even the 
 most distant relatives, the Tartar Khans at Rodosto, 
 in the eyes of the Mussulmans. Foreign rulers also will
 
 272 The Eastern Question. 
 
 stretch out their arms for a part of the great inheritance 
 of the venerable Vice-regent, at the moment when he 
 departs from the scenes of his long and active life. 
 
 If it is possible to regenerate the Turkish Empire as 
 such, it can proceed only from a generation which must 
 be educated to it, and that, too, from Mussulman roots. 
 All proselytism and attempts at Europeanization, all 
 hostile attacks, as well as friendly interpositions, lead 
 only to complete dissolution. The Porte became 
 weaker because of the protection of Russia than it had 
 been after the fall of Varna ; it is weaker to-day when 
 England presents it with Syria than when it lost the 
 battle of Nisib. The marasmus of total indifference 
 has seized the mass of the people, and the government, 
 acting only by the impulse that foreigners have given 
 it, has sunk into a state of impotency which offers every 
 lucky adventurer a prospect for the success of his am- 
 bitious plans. The complications of the years 1830, 
 1833, 1839 and 1840, will be renewed and at shorter 
 intervals. Is the peace of Europe to be exposed each 
 time to the serious danger in which it now is ? 
 
 Till now, European diplomacy has sought only to 
 delay the crises ; it has not undertaken to remove the 
 causes which give rise to them. Of course, important 
 and well-established objections can be made against 
 every remedy which has been proposed, but with mere 
 negation nothing is done. 
 
 A few voices have dared to declare that there is 
 no real life inherent in the body of the Turkish state ; 
 that Islam permits neither progress nor change ; that 
 reform has broken Mussulman strength, and it can- 
 not be replaced by foreign institutions ; that a great, 
 helpless, and defenceless country having entered into 
 the circle of European powers is a continual source of 
 jealousy, of terror, and of contention ; that whatever 
 cannot exist naturally must perish ; that Turkey must 
 be divided. 
 
 Such a step is contrary to moral right, with which
 
 The Eastern Question. 273 
 
 policy by no means accords, though it strives to do so 
 more and more ; while, on the other hand, it is opposed 
 by the warning example of a former division, the 
 results of which will not be forgotten by Europe for a 
 long time to come. Finally, the division of Turkey 
 will be like the division of a diamond ring ; the question 
 is, Who is to possess the most precious of solitaires, 
 Constantinople ? Who will be satisfied with the worth- 
 less remainder, with the extensive stretches of land 
 which are occupied by semi- Arabic races ? Other 
 voices have advised that certain portions of the 
 Turkish territory be surrendered to European civiliza- 
 tion, as has been done with Hellas. 
 
 An enthusiastic desire for the land where the 
 Redeemer was born, where He lived, taught, and 
 suffered, once caused millions of pious Christians to give 
 up their homes and suffer unspeakable hardships in 
 order to tread the consecrated ground of Palestine. 
 The flower of western knighthood shed its life-blood in 
 order to wrest the holy places from the dominion of the 
 infidels. How greatly this religious feeling had cooled, 
 when, just eight hundred years after the first crusade, 
 the great general of the very nation bearing the title of 
 Protector of the Catholic Faith in the East, could say 
 drily enough, after the conquest of Egypt, " Jerusalem 
 n'entre pas dans ma ligne d'operation ! " The present 
 feeling lies between these two extremes, and the thought 
 of placing Palestine under Christian protection does not 
 seem to be given up in Europe. However, religious feel- 
 ings alone dare not decide the point in politics. Palestine 
 as a Christian principality must, in its first step to- 
 wards fulfilment, contain also the possibility of its con- 
 tinuance. Should it be desired to make Jerusalem with 
 the holy places about it one state by itself, as was done 
 with Cracow, it would be a state in a deserted, barren 
 district, cut off from the sea, far from its protectors, 
 surrounded by Arabian bands of robbers, threatened by 
 Mussulman neighbours, and rent internally by furious 
 
 vol. 1. t
 
 274 The Eastern Question. 
 
 hatred among the sects. Such a state would certainly 
 be a very unfortunate creation. Truly it is a fortunate 
 thing that the tolerant Mussulmans had the power in 
 their hands, and not one of the sects which have so 
 completely forgotten the doctrine of gentle toleration 
 and brotherly love at the grave of the Redeemer, that 
 we blush before the infidels. From the very beginning 
 this much is apparent, that the new creation must have 
 a more extensive territory, a part of the sea-coast, that 
 it must be fortified. Why should the fine harbour and 
 the strong walls of Acre be surrendered into the hands 
 of the weak Turks, which they would lose again the 
 next instant ? 
 
 It may be further claimed that the control of the 
 new state ought to be handed over to a sovereign 
 prince of the German nation and of genuine tolerance. 
 The exclusive supremacy of any Christian church would 
 disseminate seeds of destruction at the very beginning 
 of the state's existence. We said a German prince, 
 because Germany has the negative advantage of not 
 being a maritime power, while it has the nearest com- 
 mercial road to the East through the navigation of the 
 Danube and the Austrian ports on the Adriatic. 
 Finally, we said a sovereign prince, because only this 
 form of government is fitted for a semi-barbarous state 
 of affairs, because it is the best of all forms in the hands 
 of a just, wise, and energetic regent, and because only 
 such a ruler can make anything out of the new creation. 
 
 The Greeks had fought for and gained their indepen- 
 dence, not, indeed, without the help of Europe, bat 
 principally through their own exertions. They are a 
 nation of their own, and therefore had a right to 
 demand that their administration, their army, their 
 officials, and their sovereign should be Greek. But 
 here lies a great difficulty in the way of the progress 
 of the Greek state, for the people destined to provide 
 these elements is itself as yet in a state of semi-civiliza- 
 tion. The case would be far different with the in-
 
 The Eastern Question. 275 
 
 habitants of Southern Syria. They would be freed 
 from the Turkish yoke, but as they have not yet reached 
 even the Greek stage of civilization, it would be most 
 likely that the Europeans, so superior to them in 
 morality, knowledge, and energy, would supply the 
 nobility, the privileged class and the officials. But, of 
 course, these Europeans ought not to be the deserters 
 from the other nations, as is the case in Turkey. The 
 state which gives Palestine a prince must, beside making 
 him an allowance, provide him out of the number of 
 her military and civil servants with a body of tried 
 men, whose services would be absolutely indispensable. 
 For without prudent, active, and above all, honest 
 officials, no administration, and certainly no coloniza- 
 tion, is conceivable. As to the army of a ruler of 
 Palestine, it is easy to see that it would necessarily be 
 very small, in order riot to be a useless burden on the 
 country. Its nucleus would be a few battalions, 
 squadrons, and batteries, with European soldiers and 
 officers, in which, however, vacancies might occasion- 
 ally be filled by natives. By the side of these there 
 should be gradually introduced a kind of general 
 armament, after the 'pattern of the Sipahi or the 
 Austrian military frontier. This last system is so 
 admirably suited for a rising colony, that it is incon- 
 ceivable why in Algiers all other means, even the 
 Chinese wall round the Metija, were proposed rather 
 than this. The fleet would consist simply of a few 
 corvettes to protect the commerce against the pirates 
 of the Mediterranean. Provided with such means of 
 defence, the country Avonld be safe from the neighbour- 
 ing tribes of Arabs, as well as from Turkish and 
 Egyptian encroachments. In case of a more serious 
 danger, the protecting powers would have to intervene. 
 Internal administration would provide government 
 with the largest field for its activities in a country 
 like this, where everything has still to be created, but 
 where all requisite materials are to be found in such 
 
 t 2
 
 276 The Eastern Question. 
 
 abundance. There would be no difficulty in attracting 
 settlers and capitalists to this rich soil, to live under 
 this bright sky, as soon as they saw that they would 
 find protection for their property and persons, security 
 for their industrial and commercial enterprises, im- 
 partial justice and complete religious toleration. The 
 influence of such model government amongst nations, 
 which have hitherto had only extortioners for their 
 rulers, would be immense. Palestine would be a Avail 
 of protection for Syria against Egypt, and if the latter 
 should ever be governed by any other hereditary 
 dynasty than the Ottoman it would afford the best 
 security against Turkish aggression. As Palestine is 
 situated on the direct route of communication between 
 India and Europe, the ports along the coast and the 
 highways through the country would be filled with 
 the treasures of two continents, and, by the deliverance 
 of 'the Holy Sepulchre, Christian Europe would obtain 
 a satisfaction which has been withheld from her for 
 generations. 
 
 We candidly confess our belief in the idea, on which 
 so much ridicule has been cast, of a general European 
 peace. Not that long and bloody wars are to cease 
 from henceforth, our armies be disbanded, and our 
 cannon recast into nails ; that is too much to expect, 
 but is not the whole course of the world's history an 
 approximation to such a peace ? When we look back 
 to the earliest ages, do we not see the hand of everyone 
 raised against his neighbour ? And even in the middle 
 ages, did not knights and barons, castles and towns 
 continue to fight with each other till stopped by the 
 princes, who claimed the monopoly of war for them- 
 selves ? And to-day ! Is a Spanish war of succession, 
 or a war " pour les beaux yeux de Madame," possible 
 in our times ? 
 
 Would Holland be allowed to disturb the peace of 
 Europe for the sake of a province, Naples for the 
 monopoly of sulphur, Portugal for the navigation of
 
 The Eastern Question. 277 
 
 the Douro ? It is for a very small number of powers 
 that the possibility of setting the world ablaze is 
 reserved. Wars will become rarer and rarer because 
 they are growing expensive beyond measure ; positively 
 because of the actual cost, negatively because of the 
 necessary neglect of work. Has not the population of 
 Prussia, under a good and wise administration, in- 
 creased by a fourth in twenty-five years of peace ? and 
 are not her fifteen millions of inhabitants better fed, 
 clothed, and instructed to-day than her eleven millions 
 used to be ? Are not such results equal to a victorious 
 campaign or to the conquest of a province, with this 
 great difference, that they were not gained at the 
 expense of other nations, nor with the sacrifice of the 
 enormous number of victims that a war demands ? 
 and is there any European country that has not made 
 similar conquests, though in most cases they have been 
 on a smaller scale ? When we consider the milliards 
 which Europe has to spend every year on her military 
 budget, the millions of men in the prime of life who 
 are called away from their business in order to be 
 trained for a possible war, it is not hard to see how 
 these immense powers might be utilized and made 
 more and more productive. May we not hope that 
 Europe will, in the course perhaps of decades, perhaps 
 of centuries, agree upon a mutual disarmament, and 
 show us the reverse of the picture presented to us to- 
 day by France, who wishes to sell her coat for a suit of 
 armour ? 
 
 It has been said that with the cessation of war, men 
 would lose their moral energy and unlearn the virtue 
 of sacrificing their lives for an idea, whether honour, 
 loyalty, glory, patriotism, or religion. This fear may 
 not be altogether without foundation, and the rarer 
 war becomes in Europe, the more necessary will it be 
 to find a field of activity for the surplus energy of the 
 rising generation. England has found in every conti- 
 nent and on every ocean scenes of action, where the
 
 278 The Eastern Question. 
 
 younger sons of her nobility are provided for, where 
 the martial courage of her youths is tried, where new 
 channels are opened to her commerce and new markets 
 for her industry. France has sought an outlet for the 
 often morbid excess of her energy in Algiers, and if her 
 attempts at colonization have so far met with little 
 success, we wish her endeavours the best results in the 
 interest of civilization. But should not Germany 
 gladly seize the opportunity of extending German 
 civilization and energy, industry and honesty beyond 
 the German frontier, when such an opportunity pre- 
 sents itself? 
 
 THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE OF THE 
 KURDS. 
 
 Those who are interested in the denouement of the 
 tragedy in the East will be surprised to hear a report 
 of new risings in Kurdistan, at the moment when 
 everybody believed the affairs of the Turkish Empire 
 settled by the interference of the four great European 
 powers. And yet the insurrection is only a consequence 
 of this interference. With the battle of Nisib the 
 sovereignty of the Padishah over the newly defeated 
 Kurds, who, however, were never completely subdued, 
 had ceased. We felt that we had no power over 
 the mountain tribes, and so they were left alone. But 
 now that English and Austrian cannon have left the 
 Porte free to act, she demands as before taxes and the 
 corvee, money and recruits, and thus causes the insur- 
 rection which must come before long even if it has not 
 broken out already. The phenomenon reminds us of a 
 mighty stream which flows onwards with unruffled 
 surface, until it is opposed by rocks, when it reveals for 
 the first time, by the surging and roaring of its waters,
 
 The Eastern Question. 279 
 
 the force with which it moves. The province had 
 already renounced its allegiance, and the first attempt 
 to recover it called forth open insurrection. In giving 
 a short sketch of the people and the country which at 
 the present moment may well attract the eyes of all 
 Europe, we will not begin with Xenophon, but simply 
 mention that the " Karduches " are to this day the 
 terror of all intruders, and that they still construct 
 those houses with little towers of which the Greek 
 general tells us ; we will not vainly attempt to clear up 
 the long and dark history of this people, nor stay to 
 inquire whether they are a tribe of Tartar immigrants, 
 or the descendants of the old Medes and Chalclamns 
 whose language is preserved in the Bibles of those 
 villages on the Persian frontier which have remained 
 Christian. We wish rather to describe the Kurds and 
 their home, as they appear to-day to observers, who 
 had an opportunity of spending some time amongst 
 them, travellers who, ignorant of the language, and 
 surrounded by a thousand dangers, real and imaginary, 
 hurried over these mountains by the perilous passes of 
 Bitlis and Djinlamerik. 
 
 If any nation is bound to the soil, it is the 
 Kurds. Heirs of an ancient agriculture, they live in 
 the valleys of the Armenian table-land, shunning the 
 plains where the brooks of their native mountains are 
 dried up, and though the winters are severe, they enjoy 
 long and beautiful summers. Among them are a few 
 wandering shepherds, but for the most part they are 
 an essentially agricultural people, to this extent 
 nomadic that when the heat in the valleys becomes op- 
 pressive and the rays of the sun free the mountain 
 pastures from the snow, they drive their herds a step 
 higher, for a time exchanging their houses for tents of 
 black goat-hair. 
 
 Quite in accordance with this manner of life is the 
 fact that in the district inhabited by them we find 
 nothing but villages, detached farms are nowhere to be
 
 280 The Eastern Question. 
 
 seen, nor yet towns of any size. The latter are not in 
 Kurdistan but round it. If a line be drawn from 
 Diarbekir, cutting through Mardin, Nisibin, Djesereh- 
 Ibn-Omer, Van, Mush, Paluh, Derindeh, Maresh and 
 Andiaman, it will encircle Kurdistan proper, in the in- 
 terior of which only very small towns such as Tacho, 
 Bitlis, Soort, Hassu-Keffa, Thiro, Portek, Troglu, etc., 
 are to be found. The population of these is principally 
 Kurdish, and it is only in the plains of Karput and 
 Malatia that we find the two towns with these names, 
 places of importance, it is true, but decidedly not 
 Kurdish. In all these towns there is a wonderful 
 mixture of nations, languages and religions. The 
 Christians, the older part of the population, are the de- 
 scendants of the ancient Assyrians and Chaldeans, 
 mixed with Armenians who immigrated at a later 
 period. The former are for the greater part Jacobites 
 and Nestorians, who are sharply divided by the differ- 
 ence of their opinions ; the latter, with the exception of 
 some proselytes gained by the Propaganda at Rome 
 and St. Lazaro of Venice, belong to the Greek Church. 
 These Christians intermarried with the neighbouring 
 Kurds, and over the population thus formed passed the 
 wave of Saracens which the Crusaders were here com- 
 pelled to resist, leaving a sediment everywhere behind 
 it of greater or less amount. Finally the Turks 
 obtained the supremacy, and the Jews, who are distri- 
 buted over the world as universally as iron, are not 
 wanting. 
 
 In the south the home of the Kurds is sharply 
 bounded by the mountains. Beyond their range the 
 Arab villages cease ; agriculture is unknown, and it is 
 only in a few walled towns that the inhabitants are safe 
 from Arab raids. The Kurds who inhabit the Sindshar 
 mountains form an isolated outpost, this mountain 
 chain rises steep and wall-like from the immense steppe 
 of Mesopotamia. In the north and east, however, the 
 Kurds are mixed with the Armenians, and it is only in
 
 The Eastern Question. 281 
 
 the wooded mountains north of Pain, which attain a 
 great height and are almost inaccessible, that they 
 possess an exclusive domain, into which neither the 
 Turkish army nor the inquisitive traveller has ever 
 penetrated. The subjugation of this last refuge of 
 Kurdish independence had been planned by Hafiz 
 Pasha, 1 when the Egyptian war broke out. This 
 district, therefore, remained closed to European ex- 
 ploration, and will very likely remain so for a long- 
 time to come. 
 
 Within the limits we have indicated, the Kurds 
 inhabit the zone which extends from the region of the 
 fir-tree and the Palamut oak down to that of the olive 
 and pomegranate, from the steep rocks and snow- 
 covered peaks whence the streams gush noisily forth, 
 down to the valleys and rice-fields, through which the 
 same streams flow with gentle windings. Agriculture 
 is limited to this zone, for the peaks above are covered 
 with snow and masses of ice, even when the sun has 
 scorched up all the vegetation in the treeless steppes 
 below. 
 
 The Kurdish villages afford a pleasant prospect. As 
 the traveller approaches them, he beholds, while still 
 far off, groups of walnut-trees, under whose shade the 
 houses lie hidden. Near the spring or brook, which is 
 never absent, there stands, as a rule, a plantation of 
 poplars, which are indispensable for the building of the 
 cottages. As they are well watered, and exposed to the 
 life-giving heat of the sun, these trees reach an extra- 
 ordinary height in an incredibly short time ; they 
 grow as thickly as the blades in a corn-field, and 
 the trunks are slim and straight like reeds. The 
 villages are surrounded by vineyards, olive plantations, 
 gardens, or cornfields, according to the altitude, but 
 only very few of them can boast of a minaret, which the 
 
 1 Hafiz Pasha was Commander-in-Chief of the Turkish Army in 
 Syria in 1838 and 1839 ; hedost the battle of Nisib.
 
 282 The Eastern Question. 
 
 smallest Turkish villages possess. The outer walls of 
 their dwelling-houses are built of a kind of air-dried 
 brick, which is made of clay and crushed straw without 
 any wood ; instead of windows, there are only a few 
 narrow openings, which are placed rather high, and are 
 not closed, as neither glass nor paper is known in these 
 districts. The entrance is guarded by a strong oaken 
 door. The ceiling is made of a layer of poplars placed 
 at intervals of nine inches ; over these branches are 
 laid, and the whole is covered with clay and gravel to 
 a thickness of about one or one and a half feet. This 
 platform is used by the family as a sleeping-place 
 during the summer, and is often surrounded by a 
 parapet about four feet high. The houses of the 
 wealthier people have two storeys, and are sometimes 
 built of stone ; they are generally provided on one side 
 with a square tower. Everything is arranged with a 
 view to defence in their intestine feuds. 
 
 Besides the small apartments where the women are 
 kept in the strictest seclusion, there is, in the interior, a 
 larger room, which is the same as the selamlik of the 
 Turks. At the upper end is the fire-place or hearth, 
 on a level with the floor ; on both sides is a low 
 divan with cushions, and the Avealthier people have a 
 carpet on the floor. This is all the furniture that the 
 room contains. 
 
 The paths which connect the different villages are 
 most precipitous, and cannot be passed even on mules 
 without risk ; to the unaccustomed rider the effect is 
 appalling. Each community keeps to itself, and neither 
 needs nor desires intercourse with the others. The 
 principal occupation of the women is weaving the 
 cotton and mixed silks, the red and black striped 
 materials for the wide trowsers, the black mantles of 
 goat-hair, which, together with sandals and white 
 felt caps, compose the dress of the men. With the 
 aid of a few sticks set upright in the ground, they 
 weave the beautiful and durable carpets which are the
 
 The Eastern Question. 283 
 
 chief luxury of their homes. The men till the fields, 
 tend their flocks, and smoke, or go out to fight. 
 
 It would be very difficult to give even an approxi- 
 mate idea of the number of the Kurds ; in any case it 
 exceeds half a million. The greater number are 
 Moslems ; on the Persian frontier there are Christian 
 Kurds, and on the Sindshar and the Southern bound- 
 ary live the Yezids, whom the Turks believe to be 
 devil- worshippers, and who are, therefore, allowed to be 
 sold as slaves. The Armenians, who live amongst them 
 in considerable numbers, are all Christians of the Greek 
 Church. All Kurds have a certain national likeness. 
 Their skin is not any darker than that of their neigh- 
 bours the Turkomans and Armenians ; they are 
 generally tall and stalwart, their noses are aquiline, but 
 their eyes are set very close together, which sometimes 
 gives them the appearance of squinting. 
 
 They show great dexterity and practical knowledge 
 in the works they construct for purposes of irrigation. 
 Without the use of any levelling instruments they con- 
 duct the water from the springs and streams for leagues 
 along the mountain sides to the point where they are 
 in need of the element which is here indispensable for 
 all vegetation. The mountain slopes are often cut into 
 terraces up to an astonishing height, just as in our best 
 cultivated vine districts, in order to gain a few feet of 
 productive soil. Plantations, fields, and aqueducts are 
 the principal features of Kurdish agriculture. 
 
 Such is the home and the climate to which this 
 race is so deeply attached. When, in the year 1838, 
 Hafiz Pasha had driven the inhabitants of Karsann- 
 Dagh with fire and sword into their highest and most 
 inaccessible hiding-places, and when, now that they 
 were surrounded on all sides, fcod began to be scarce, 
 a deputation of their elders appeared before the tent of 
 the conqueror to implore his pity. The Pasha knew of 
 no better means of transforming these people into 
 faithful subjects of the Porte than that of transplanting
 
 284 The Eastern Question. 
 
 tliem from their inaccessible mountains into the plain. 
 There he promised them ten times the property they 
 possessed at their homes (on such occasions his gene- 
 rosity knew no bounds), freedom from all taxes and 
 military service for three years, and pointed out to 
 them in bright colours the riches which they would be 
 able to gain by the cultivation of the silkworm and by 
 horse-breeding, instead of mulberry-picking and sheep- 
 rearing. But one might as well offer to build a nest 
 for a fish. Mournfully the old men looked up to heaven, 
 j)romising everything they were asked ; they then re- 
 turned to their families, loaded with presents, and re- 
 ported how they had been received. Thereupon women 
 and children took up arms, the skirmishes were renewed, 
 and did not end till the insurgents were entirely defeated : 
 but the project of a colonization in the plain had to be 
 abandoned. 
 
 Kurdistan is an aggregate of single communities 
 without any bond of union. Sometimes, but very 
 rarely, an old castle may be seen, perched on a lofty 
 and inaccessible mountain-top, or hedged in between 
 perpendicular walls of rock. These castles are used by 
 some of the Beys, not as residences, but as places of 
 refuge in times of danger. None of these small princes 
 exercise permanent authority over any great part of 
 the country, and it is only in times of danger and 
 distress that men like Revandus Bey, Vedehan Bey, 
 and Sayd Bey have been able to gather any consider- 
 able body of their countrymen round their standards. 
 But, even then, these armies melted away in a very 
 short time, and each soldier refused to defend more 
 than his own hearth. This is where the weakness of 
 the people lies. They would be unconquerable if they 
 were united, but none of them have ever attempted to 
 lend a helping hand to their neighbours, and while 
 Reshid and Hafiz Pasha were invading one district, 
 the others rejoiced in their temporary safety till it was 
 their turn.
 
 The Eastern Question. 285 
 
 From the Arabs, who present a complete contrast to 
 this people, the Kurds have been protected by a 
 natural frontier since their last settlements in the plain 
 were destroyed by troops of horsemen from the 
 desert. The Arabian lion cannot harm the Kurdish 
 falcon in these mountain clefts, and on the other hand, 
 the latter is powerless against the former, so long as he 
 remains in his own element. 
 
 Persia would be the most dangerous enemy of the 
 Kurds on account of her nearness, if she had not sunk 
 into total impotence. They did succumb to the 
 Pashas of Bagdad and Diarbekir, but principally be- 
 cause at that time a large army of 50,000 men could be 
 employed against them, which the Padishah was ob- 
 liged to maintain in that remote region for quite a 
 different purpose, that is, to keej) a watch on Ibrahim. 
 The Porte herself knows best what sacrifices of men, 
 money, and material are required in order to occupy 
 Kurdistan for the space of a few years. She was, 
 however, compelled to make these sacrifices, as without 
 the help of Kurdistan it would have been impossible 
 for her to bear the burden of the " status quo " for 
 seven years. Her artillery, which was conveyed into 
 these mountain valleys with immense exertion by 
 camels or by human labour, provided her with a 
 weapon far superior to anything which the Kurds 
 could bring against it, and yet castles with garrisons 
 of from forty to eighty men resisted all their attempts 
 for thirty- two and even forty days. 
 
 Meanwhile famine and disease made dreadful havoc 
 among the besiegers, and if Hafiz Pasha's last expedi- 
 tion came speedily to an end, it was principally owing 
 to the fact that Kurds were fighting against Kurds. 
 The same men who had fought so badly in the plain, 
 under the Turkish flag, were now seen storming in- 
 trenched caverns, villages, and strongholds, or defend- 
 ing them with the utmost daring. The love of plunder 
 and the love of home were powerful motives on one
 
 286 The Eastern Question. 
 
 of these occasions, but on the other they were 
 absent. 
 
 The nature of the soil seldom permits the Kurds to 
 fight on horseback. Their cavalry, who ride excellent 
 horses, are generally armed with bows and arrows, or 
 with long lances of bamboo, the upper ends of which 
 are ornamented with thick pads of ostrich feathers ; for 
 defence they still carry their little round shells of wicker- 
 work covered with skins. But the long gun which the 
 foot soldiers carry, with its Persian barrels of damas- 
 keened iron, still often provided with a matchlock, is a 
 terrible weapon in so perilous and difficult a country. 
 All this shows that there is a strong defensive element 
 in the Kurdish nation, and one must not imagine for 
 a moment that the Russians would not meet with an 
 extremely obstinate resistance, if they ever attempted 
 the conquest of this country. Here they would find 
 the same fanaticism and the same difficult mountain 
 warfare, so uncongenial to the Russian soldier, that 
 they have been compelled to face in the Caucasus, 
 where, spite of the sea and the nearness of the country 
 to their own, their efforts have hitherto been in vain. 
 
 But the same considerations show that the Kurds are 
 not much to be feared when they assume the offensive. 
 The large towns outside their territory are perhaps a 
 temptation to them, but though they may plunder 
 them now and then, they do not care to possess them 
 or shut themselves up within those walls, which glow 
 with the heat of the sun. In particular Mossul and 
 Bagdad lie quite out of the sphere of their operations. 
 Nor are we inclined to regard their latest insurrection 
 as a matter vitally affecting the continuance of the 
 Turkish Empire. Kurdistan has never been assimilated 
 into it, but has only been for a time mechanically 
 mixed with the other provinces. In its present condi- 
 tion it is not to be regarded as a corroding cancer, but 
 as a dissevered member of that great political body of 
 which so many limbs have already perished. It is also
 
 The Eastern Question. 287 
 
 quite possible that the Turkish army now available for 
 use in Asia may, by once more marching through 
 these lovely valleys, burning the villages and trampling 
 down the crops, force a few Kurdish districts into re- 
 newed obedience to the Padishah. But the fact, that 
 it would be necessary to repeat the same. bloody work 
 again and again, and that every levy of recruits or 
 collection of taxes would demand a similar display of 
 power, suggests serious considerations as to the state 
 of the Empire, which Europe is at present so interested 
 in preserving by her fleets and her armies. 
 
 THE MILITARY AND POLITICAL SITUATION 
 OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Those who follow the development of events in the 
 East with any attention, cannot fail to see that the 
 Turkish Empire is rushing more and more rapidly down 
 the steep road to ruin. Since Navarino and Adrianople 
 the Padishah has fought no battles against other than 
 his own subjects. The nations who had been hostile to 
 him for hundreds of years, suddenly became as many 
 friends and, before long, protectors. Help and advice 
 were pressed on him from all quarters, more 
 liberally as it seemed to him, than his case required, 
 and each interposition in his favour left him weaker 
 than he had been when confronted by the danger from 
 which such interposition had been intended to deliver 
 him. And now that the English and Austrian cannon 
 have helped him to regain the long coveted prize "I 
 Syria, the vast stage of the Ottoman Empire presents 
 us once more with the spectacle of discontent and 
 mutiny on the one side, of confusion and weakness on 
 the other.
 
 288 The Eastern Question. 
 
 We read in the newspapers that the insurrection 
 in Bulgaria is put down. Hussein, the Pasha of 
 Widdin, the destroyer of the Janissaries, a gouty old 
 man, almost ninety years old, has succeeded in pacify- 
 ing the country. The old cut-throat has let loose his 
 Arnauts against the discontented Rajahs. His greedy 
 hirelings swoop down upon the ill-armed hosts of Bul- 
 garian Christians, burn their villages and crops, drag 
 women and children into captivity, and drive the rem- 
 nant which escapes slaughter into the mountains, where 
 the men who have been thus abandoned to hunger and 
 misery, form themselves in their turn into bands of 
 robbers. By this means the difficulty is postponed, the 
 only method, it would appear, by which questions 
 affecting Turkey can at present be solved. 
 
 It is doubtful whether in our survey of the Turkish 
 Empire we ought to include those principalities in 
 which no Turk is any longer allowed to live, and where 
 the Turkish Government cannot convey its orders 
 without sending its Tartars on board Austrian vessels, 
 and allowing them to be put up in quarantine for a 
 fortnight. Meanwhile we see one royal chamberlain 
 after another arrive in Servia, and none of them is able 
 to put an end to the confusion there. Old Milosh 
 Obrenovitch watches events from across the Danube, 
 as if thinking that a time will come when he will be 
 able to rejoin his old companions in arms, remind them 
 of the glorious fight of their younger days, and free his 
 country for ever from the Moslems. 
 
 The provinces of Albania and Bosnia from which 
 the Porte drew, or rather bought by the offer of high 
 pay the means of pacifying Bulgaria, are in a state 
 which is far from satisfactory. Yet it is thought at 
 Stamboul that fortune has been specially propitious 
 whenever the Divan succeeds temporarily in making its 
 power felt among these mountains. Ali Pasha of 
 Zanina is no more, and if things came to the worst, the 
 Austrian frontier soldiers would restore order, however
 
 The Eastern Question. 289 
 
 much they might dislike meddling with the affairs of a 
 foreign country. 
 
 Graver faces will be seen at Pasha Kapussi when 
 the determined attitude of the " Romans " inThessaly 
 is discussed. The formation of an independent king- 
 dom out of a territory of the Ottoman Empire inhabited 
 by Greek Rajahs, was a greater grievance to the Porte 
 and a more bitter personal affront to Sultan Mahmoud 
 than all the other losses. This fact, and the obvious 
 example of a state whose progress in spite of all 
 difficulties is undeniable, while under the administration 
 of the Pashas everything retrogrades, can hardly be lost 
 upon the neighbouring Greek Christian population of 
 Thessaly. There is no need to stimulate the fermenta- 
 tion from outside ; the principal seat of the intrigues 
 is to be looked for on Mount Athos, which is almost 
 exclusively inhabited by monks, and the whole question 
 becomes all the more critical, the more it assumes a 
 religious complexion. 
 
 Discontent has asserted itself much more openly in 
 Crete, which is ablaze with the lurid names of insurrec- 
 tion. Among her highest officials, the Porte possesses 
 but a very small number of men of proved efficiency, 
 for those nonentities who continually succeed each 
 other in the Seraskeriat, and who are in turns Ministers 
 of Marine, are entirely out of the question when im- 
 portant commissions are to be assigned. One of these 
 few is Tahir Pasha, an orthodox Turk, with an iron 
 will endowed with many-sided knowledge, and practical 
 utility, but hard, cruel, and full of hatred against the 
 Christians and the European Cabinets, whom he has 
 never forgiven the day of Navarino. This man is 
 charged with the pacification of the island. Though 
 the result of his enterprise can by no means be fore- 
 seen with any certainty, it is probable that he will 
 drive the rebels from the field with his artillery, against 
 which they have nothing to oppose, and that he will 
 restore Turkish rule in the towns. But that he will 
 
 vol. 1. u
 
 290 The Eastern Question. 
 
 penetrate into the mountains and repeat the scenes of 
 Karsann-Dagh, 1 we may be permitted to doubt. Here 
 again we see an indefinite adjournment of the situation. 
 
 Nothing has been heard lately of the disturbances in 
 Kurdistan, but without doubt only because the Porte 
 allows matters to take their own course. But as soon 
 as Turkey finds herself compelled, in her hour of need, 
 to enforce her claim to draw upon the resources of this 
 province, a reaction will certainly set in, and the news- 
 j3apers will once more report disturbances in the Taurus 
 and in Mesopotamia. 
 
 Whereas in a former article the opinion was ex- 
 pressed that the Turks would hardly be able to retain 
 the recovered province of Syria longer than a year, this 
 prediction seems likely to be fulfilled in a still shorter 
 period. In Syria there is only one real and permanent 
 power, that of the Emir Beshir, who has shown his rare 
 sagacity by allying himself with the Egyptians against 
 the Turks, and with the Turks against the Egyptians, 
 and it is very possible that this Emir, or the heir of his 
 policy, may look down from his mountains upon more 
 than one change in the plain. But it is very proble- 
 matical what increase of power the Porte would gain 
 from the renewed possession of the rich coast where the 
 greater part of her available forces would be as en- 
 tirely absorbed after as before the conquest. The 
 memory of so many thousands of the noblest men of 
 Germany, France and Italy, of so many millions of 
 devout Christians, who willingly sacrificed their pro- 
 perty and their lives in order that they might set foot 
 on the consecrated soil of Palestine, drink from the 
 waters of Jordan and behold the holy city — all this has 
 hitherto counted in the calculations of the European 
 Cabinets as so much empty moonshine. Jerusalem and 
 the grave of the Redeemer, Syria and the fate of the 
 Christian population have been once more abandoned 
 
 1 Compare p. 283.
 
 The Eastern Question. 291 
 
 to the Infidels, and the reins of government placed in 
 trembling hands, from which they threaten to fall again 
 every moment. Meanwhile there is time to reconsider 
 the matter, for we may depend upon it, that before 
 long Syria will be for the second time as much at our 
 disposal as it was after the victory of Acre. 
 
 While the Anglo- Austrian victories have been far 
 from giving back to Christianity her holy places, the 
 heir of the Califs is just as far from regaining his by 
 them. At present Arabia obeys neither the Pasha nor 
 the Padishah ; new prophets arise there and, according 
 as they belong to the fanatical or to the Puritanical 
 sect, prophesy the fall or the purification of Islam, but 
 all equally reject the authority of the Sultan. 
 
 Egypt is more independent after her defeats, than 
 she ever was before. Though deprived of one part 
 of his possessions, Mehmed Ali has obtained in re- 
 spect of his diminished territory the recognition and, 
 to a certain extent, the guarantee of the European 
 powers. One claim of the usurper, to which Sultan 
 Mahmoud would never have dreamt of assenting, that 
 his authority should be hereditary in his family, has 
 been allowed by Mahmoud's son. The tribute has 
 been lightened, and to the order for the reduction of 
 his army, the old Pasha has replied with all humility 
 and submission by new levies of troops. Though far 
 from believing in the hundreds of thousands of regular 
 troops and national guards, or in the possibility of re- 
 conquering Syria with this rabble, we yet cannot help 
 thinking: that Mehmed Ali will in future be able to 
 
 CD 
 
 choose at his pleasure between the friendship and pro- 
 tection of France, England, and Russia. 
 
 To whatever direction the young Sultan may look 
 from his palace on the Bosphorus, he sees himself sur- 
 rounded by dissatisfaction, insubordination and revolt. 
 Let us now examine the means which are at Iiis 
 disposal for the maintenance of his authority and 
 rights. 
 
 u 2
 
 292 The Eastern Question. 
 
 Rescind Pasha, without doubt the most eminent man 
 in Turkey, has been obliged to relinquish his office 
 as prime minister. This incident however will trouble 
 him little, for he will probably be soon recalled to his 
 old post, because he is in fact indispensable. But this 
 man, who is sincerely anxious to benefit his country, 
 cannot but be pained to see the most important reforms 
 which he has introduced in the administration, rejected 
 as impracticable. One of these is the attempted separa- 
 tion of the military executive power from the adminis- 
 trative power, and the direct collection of taxes for the 
 exchequer. This scheme, which would be as advantage- 
 ous to the tax payers as to the Government, fails partly 
 on account of the distracted condition of the provinces, 
 in which it is impossible to raise taxes without a display 
 of power or the intervention of the military governors, 
 and partly for want of honest officials, an evil which has 
 been in operation for hundreds of years. Throughout 
 the empire therefore, a return has been made to the old 
 system, by which the Government received the amount 
 of the taxes from the Pashas in advance, and they for 
 their part borrowed it from Armenian bankers at 
 enormous rates of interest, and afterwards recouped 
 themselves by the aid of the military power placed at 
 their disposal. The Turkish translation of a French 
 Charte Gulhane has evidently not increased the moral 
 power of the Sultan and has happily remained without 
 any consequences. From a philanthropic point of 
 view it is all very well for the descendant of Osman, 
 Bajazid, and Suleiman to proclaim the equality of the 
 Rajahs and the Moslems, but it is absolutely fatal to 
 Turkish rule, which is principally based upon the 
 sovereignty of the Faithful over the Infidels. The 
 celebrated Hattischerif has drawn the attention of one 
 part of the subjects of the empire to the rights of 
 humanity they are entitled to claim, and of another to 
 the privileges of ascendancy they are on the point of 
 losing. This latter warning refers principally to the
 
 The Eastern Question. 293 
 
 Ulemas, the most powerful, the best educated and the 
 most influential class, and its effect is to loosen the 
 only tie which unites the Padishah with the different 
 nations of his vast empire which are only held together 
 by community of faith. When that is gone nothing 
 remains but physical force, the power of the army. 
 
 Since the defeat at Nisib the Porte has been able to 
 do little for the development of her army. It is only 
 in the department of the artillery, no doubt the most 
 effective portion of a modern Oriental Army, that the 
 employment of Prussian officers and sergeants has led 
 to the attainment of a perfection far in excess of any- 
 thing which at Constantinople had ever been thought 
 possible. The employment of Turkish soldiers against 
 foreign enemies has long been out of the question ; this 
 possibility is so far from entering into the calculations 
 of the divan, that even the strongholds on the frontier, 
 Rustchuk and Silistria, Shumla and Varna, are without 
 any garrison of regular troops, and consequently the 
 country from the banks of the Danube to the Avails of 
 the capital is unprotected. The Turkish Xisam would 
 be quite equal to putting down insurrections at home 
 wherever their numbers were sufficient, and wherever 
 the nature of the ground did not give their opponents 
 too great an advantage. 
 
 Yet the Government has never, since the peace of 
 Adrianople, been able to raise a standing army of more 
 than 75,000 men, without calling out the Rediffs or 
 militia, who, however, can only be kept together for a 
 few weeks or months if this measure is not to lead to 
 catastrophes like the desertion of the corps of Izzet 
 Pasha and Osman Pasha in the year 1839. At the 
 present moment the Porte has at its command hardly 
 more than 50,000, or at the most 60,000, regulars, and 
 even this comparatively small number is a great drain 
 upon the country. As everything necessary for the 
 equipment of the troops must be supplied from Belgium, 
 Austria, and England, this equipment, bad as it is, costs
 
 294 The Eastern Question. 
 
 more than double as much as that of any other Euro- 
 pean army ; but the greatest difficulty is the recruit- 
 ing. Abundance of food, together with deficient 
 physical exercise, the crowding in the vast barracks 
 (some of which contain quarters for 8000 men), the 
 total want of physicians and medicines, and, in addition, 
 the repugnance of the people to compulsory life-long 
 service, produce a mortality amongst the soldiers, of 
 which we can form no idea. Plague, typhus, dysentery, 
 and desertion are continually thinning the Turkish 
 lines, and we may assume without exaggeration, that 
 apart from skirmishes and battles, the number of 
 recruits annually amounts to about a fourth or a third 
 of the total forces. It is a well-known fact that 
 polygamy causes decrease of population ; if in addition 
 youths who have barely reached the age of manhood 
 are dragged into the celibacy of military service, it is 
 easy to understand what disproportion there must be 
 between the Mohammedans and the steadily-increasing 
 Rajahs, especially the vigorous xArmenians. But how 
 can 50,000 men suffice to repress the universal dis- 
 order in an empire Avhich reaches from Bagdad to 
 Belgrade, from Ararat to Lebanon ; and that, too, in 
 a country where communication is so difficult, that 
 for every movement of troops, a special road must 
 be constructed ? Hoav can they possibly perform 
 their allotted task of presenting a firm front to 
 Egypt at the very time that they are expected to 
 restrain the turbulent population of Syria in their 
 rear, scale the mountain hiding-places of the Kurds, 
 pursue the flying Aral) through the desert, re-conquer 
 Crete, curb the seditious spirit rampant in Thessaly, 
 Albania, Servia, and Roumelia, and, simultaneously 
 with all this, guard a capital of half a million inhabi- 
 tants, upon whose tranquillity and order the existence 
 of the whole Empire depends ? There is one remedy 
 which might help to treble the Ottoman forces, that is 
 the arming of the Rajahs. If the Porte had united the
 
 The Eastern Question. 295 
 
 interest of her Christian subjects with her OAvn by a 
 good administration, or, to be just, if she had been able 
 to do so, this expedient would have saved her. Before 
 Nisib this measure was proposed, and might, with 
 precaution, perhaps have been partially executed. As 
 things are to-day, it must be owned that the remedy 
 would be worse than the evil. 
 
 The reports concerning the young Sultan's health 
 are far from satisfactory. None of Abdul Mejid's 
 numerous marriages has as yet provided him with a 
 male heir, and should he die without one, the sole 
 remaining representative of the ancient house of Osman 
 would be a boy fourteen years of age ; who, to judge 
 from his appearance, is no stronger than his elder 
 brother. If anything were wanted to make the dreadful 
 confusion complete, it would be the extinction of the 
 dynasty, so sacred in the eyes of the Moslems, of the 
 founder of their Empire. 
 
 But even apart from the possibility of such an event, 
 the continuance of the Ottoman Empire is only con- 
 ceivable on the condition of its being contracted within 
 its natural boundaries. In Europe these would only 
 include Constantinople and the Thracian Isthmus with 
 Aclrianople ; but in Asia the large and rich district, 
 which is washed by two seas, and which is bounded on 
 the south by a line which would retain Erzerum, Mush, 
 Malatia, Kaisariah, and Konieh for the Turkish. Empire. 
 All the rest, however legitimate may be the Padishah's 
 claims for it, is no longer to be held, and even Bagdad, 
 Diarbekir, and Orfa are mere islands in a strange 
 Arabic-Kurdish sea. 
 
 If we consider the incalculable consequences which 
 would flow from the sudden disappearance of the 
 Ottoman Empire, from the universal concert of nations, 
 it is not to be wondered at that European statesman- 
 ship tries to postpone such a catastrophe to a distant 
 future. But has not the dismemberment of bhe Empire 
 already begun? Does not the tricolor wave in Algiers
 
 296 The Eastern Question. 
 
 and the palm branch on the Nile ? Has not Russia's 
 frontier advanced from the Don to the Pruth, from the 
 Pruth to the Danube, and beyond the Caucasus ? Is 
 not Morea free ? and do the principalities obey the 
 firmans of the Padishah? Did not all this happen 
 through the action of those very powers who proclaim 
 the integrity of the Empire and the legitimacy of her 
 ruler ? And would it not be advisable to prop up 
 other separate portions of the old rotten building, in 
 order that when the threatened collapse occurs they may 
 remain standing, and not cover Europe with their ruins ? 
 But, unfortunately, we see the dissevered provinces 
 and countries under the influence of Russia, France, 
 and England, but not under that of Germany. It is a 
 striking fact that in Turkey we always hear of these 
 three powers, but never of Austria, and yet the latter 
 should be held in greater regard there, for it is Austria's 
 sworcl which will some day be thrown into the scale 
 to decide the fate of this Empire. All the fleets in the 
 world can neither execute nor prevent the division of 
 Turkey ; Austria's armies may do the one, and can 
 certainly do the other. How much of the noblest 
 German blood has been shed in fruitless expeditions to 
 Rome ? How often has the glorious double Eagle been 
 carried over the Alps only to be repulsed on the Italian 
 soil, which it was so difficult to reach ? Austria has 
 always directed her attacks against the West, whilst in 
 the East she only defended herself. She turned her 
 sword to the West, her shield towards the East. This 
 policy seemed to be justified, as on the one side there 
 were all the treasures of civilization heaped together, 
 while on the other there was nothing but desolate 
 regions with barbarous inhabitants. But to-day 
 Austria has her share in the Hesperian gardens ; the 
 principalities which are struggling for emancipation, 
 especially Servia, throw themselves upon her protection 
 only to be repulsed. Is Russia to find there an open 
 field for the still further extension of her influence ?
 
 The Eastern Question. 297 
 
 What German heart is not filled with sorrow at the 
 sight of the long processions of our countrymen, who, 
 with their wives and children, their goods and chattels, 
 go to seek a new home on the other side of the ocean ? 
 Wallachia is a country wide enough to receive them 
 all, and even by the poorest can now be easily reached 
 in a few days at small expense by the new road along 
 the Danube. There they would find a rich soil, nor 
 would they miss the forests, the murmuring streams, 
 and the mountains or plains of their homes. They 
 would find a Christian Government and the beginnings 
 of order, which indeed would be greatly promoted if 
 the privilege of hereditary authority were conferred on 
 the Hospodars, a privilege which the cut-throat on the 
 Nile has extorted for his own family in the midst of 
 his defeats. By concluding treaties with the philan- 
 thropic Prince Ghika, by abolishing the present consular 
 system which makes all immigration a burden on the 
 Government, by appointing an embassy armed with 
 the powers of the higher law-courts and charged to 
 uphold the interests of the colonists with the govern- 
 ment of the country, industry and diligence would be 
 ensured that safety which is requisite for prosperity 
 under the most favourable conditions. Then German 
 industry need no longer flee to the noxious swamps and 
 the glowing sun of other continents, and while the 
 German language would be heard on the banks of the 
 proud Danube, German civilization would stretch from 
 the Swabian Mountains to the mouth of the Sulina. 
 
 RESCHID, IZZET, AND THE PORTE. 
 
 The fall of Izzet Mehmet Pasha, the embittered oppo- 
 nent of the Christians, has excited a hope in ni;mv 
 quarters that the Porte will now introduce a new
 
 298 The Eastern Question. 
 
 system of Government, which may end the precarious 
 state of tilings in the East. But for Turkey there are 
 really only two systems, and Rescind and Izzet are their 
 representatives. As the present state of affairs did not 
 seem to contain in itself any guarantee of its continu- 
 ance, those two men, though working by opposite 
 methods, were both attempting to make it more 
 durable. The one strove to advance towards the 
 institutions under the influence of which he had seen 
 the Christian nations in the West become great, 
 powerful, rich, and far superior to his own. The other 
 wished to return to the principles on which a succes- 
 sion of powerful monarchs, from Sultan Orchan to 
 Suliman the law-giver, had governed the East vic- 
 toriously and happily. Reschid is, without doubt, the 
 best educated statesman, in the European sense of the 
 word, that Turkey has possessed up to the present 
 time, and it is to be lamented that this honest, zealous 
 architect did not work along with the strong* but ill- 
 advised destroyer jiahmoud. No government which 
 was not strong at home could undertake to declare 
 the gradual emancipation of its Christian subjects, but 
 at the moment of greatest Aveakness the hattischerif of 
 G-ulhane could not pass beyond the walls of the palace 
 without awakening; the discontent of those to whom the 
 rule of the believers over the Rajahs was both a precept 
 of religion and a maxim of government, without call- 
 ing forth defiance, opposition, and mutiny among the 
 Christians who for three hundred years had been sorely 
 oppressed and maltreated. But these plans were never 
 executed ; the most important act of Reschid was in- 
 disputably his attempt to raise the state revenues 
 directly, which would not only have doubled the 
 revenue of the Government, but would have been an 
 enormous relief to the taxed. If this enterprise had 
 succeeded, it would have been possible to win all classes 
 of subjects so completely that the step might have been 
 ventured upon of inviting the Christians to share the
 
 The Eastern Question. 299 
 
 heaviest of state burdens, military service. By this 
 means the military position of the Empire would have 
 assumed an entirely different aspect, and the emancipa- 
 tion of the Rajahs would have followed as a matter of 
 course. But this noble intention was not realised. 
 The Government was dismayed by the financial losses 
 which evidently would have been incurred by the tran- 
 sition from the old system of anticipating the revenues 
 to the new one ; the governors of the provinces and 
 their satellites had a common interest against this 
 arrangement, and while they accepted the higher pay, 
 they allowed the old extortions to be continued ; in 
 short, the project was found impracticable even during 
 the ministry of Rescind himself, principally because 
 there was a lack of honest officials, who cannot be 
 created by any governmental decree, but can only be 
 trained with a new generation. 
 
 The views of Reschid would never have been listened 
 to at the Divan if Turkey had not been in such a 
 weak condition after the defeat at Nisib, the falling 
 away of the fleet, and the death of Mahmoud. As soon 
 as Syria had been conquered by the Christians and 
 given to the Turks, the Egyptians humiliated, and in 
 consequence Europe herself threatened with a quarrel 
 amongst her great powers, the Porte quickly passed 
 over to a new system. 
 
 It cannot be disputed that with Izzet and Tahir 
 Pasha, two of the ablest and most powerful men of 
 the old school, came into office, but it is just such men 
 as these that the Porte does not require in that place, 
 I K 'cause they entangle her in quarrels with her own 
 and foreign countries, to Avhich this weak government 
 is not equal; and that was what happened when the 
 hopes which Reschid had fostered in the Rajahs were 
 disappointed by his successors. Mildness encouraged 
 opposition, severity led to the revolt which blazed out 
 in Candia, in Lebanon, and in the Balkans. To this 
 was added the difference with the Greek Government,
 
 300 The Eastern Question. 
 
 this thorn in the side of all Mohammedans, this danger- 
 ous example of a successful insurrection of Christian 
 subjects, where not even outward appearance was kept 
 up as with the bastard states on the Danube. It is true 
 that Izzet tried to reform the finances by curtailing 
 the salaries, which in Turkey are very high, but very 
 few officials receive salaries at all ; those who can, pay 
 themselves at the expense of the subjects. No other 
 result, therefore, was to be expected from this measure 
 beyond the discontent of a few magnates at Constanti- 
 nople. But the fall of Izzet was principally due to his 
 misunderstandings with the high diplomacy at Pera, 
 which troubled the Porte much more than the revolt of 
 a few provinces, a chronic malady to which the Empire 
 has long been accustomed. 
 
 The attempts which Rescind and Izzet made on oppo- 
 site principles have effected no improvements in the 
 internal condition of the country, but, on the contrary, 
 the impotence of the Government has become more 
 evident, the complaints of the Osmanli louder, and the 
 defiance of the Rajahs bolder. It would be quite in 
 accordance with the character of the Divan to abandon 
 such attempts for the present, let matters go on as they 
 are, and trust Allah for the rest. Without doubt, we 
 shall shortly see such combinations as Halil and Sayd 
 Pashas, Rauf and Akif Pashas — and whatever may be 
 the names of other nonentities — succeed each other in 
 office according as favour and intrigue may decide. As 
 for old Chosrev, we have racked our brains to know 
 whether he was for reform or for reaction, for Russia or 
 for France. The truth is that he has no opinions at all 
 on these subjects, except that he himself must gain 
 power and keep it. His extensive connections in all 
 parts of the Empire make him fitter than anyone else 
 to maintain the internal tranquility which the Porte so 
 much needs, nor does this old man of eighty lack either 
 the energy of character or the ruthless severity which 
 this task requires. In short, Mehmet Chosrev is the
 
 The Eastern Question. 301 
 
 very man for the circumstances, and we should not be 
 at all surprised to see him again in the seraskeriat before 
 long. 
 
 But what a state of things ! The existence of the 
 Porte depends upon the conservative principles of 
 Europe, and, yet, she herself tramples upon these prin- 
 ciples in Servia without understanding that she is 
 undermining her own ultimate foundations. The 
 Empire will fall to pieces as soon as the European 
 powers cease to agree concerning its continuance or 
 come to an agreement concerning its end. The first 
 contingency might arise suddenly and unexpectedly, a 
 complication, like that in Servia, might be the cause, 
 but the consequence would, in such a case, be beyond 
 all calculations. The second contingency would depend 
 on the voluntary action of the European cabinets, and 
 the consequences could in their main outlines be fore- 
 seen, weighed, and regulated. At all events this is a 
 catastrophe which, we may assume, must come. The 
 only question is whether to put it off indefinitely and 
 allow ourselves to be taken by surprise, or to look the 
 danger in the face and hasten on the crisis in order to 
 remain master of the situation. 
 
 We have already drawn attention to the fact that on 
 Asiatic soil there are still to be found many germs of 
 life favourable to the continuance of Ottoman su- 
 premacy. Though the Turkish population is here, too, 
 continually decreasing owing to well known causes, 
 yet it is still numerous. The extensive Armenian 
 population is faithfully devoted to the Porte, averse to 
 all revolt, and patient in suffering and labour. Except 
 for their religion, these Armenians are, in manner, 
 custom, habit, inclination and views, real Turks, so 
 much so, that they speak Turkish more than their own 
 language. At Brussa or Koniah the Padishah may be 
 able to reign for another century by his pashas and 
 mutselims, by farming out the taxes, raising forced 
 loans or firmans, and by relying upon the Ulemas and
 
 302 The Eastern Question. 
 
 tlie Recliffs. But Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Adana, 
 Arabia and Kurdistan, Roumelia, Bosnia, and the 
 Danubian principalities are already slipping from his 
 grasp. All these countries will, without fail, pass into 
 strange hands, or become independent under foreign 
 protection. 
 
 It may be said that we are shaking the bearskin 
 before killing the bear ; but Ave are convinced that the 
 Porte will have few objections to urge against a migra- 
 tion to its native soil of Asia as soon as an Austro- 
 Russian army appears in Bulgaria, or an Anglo-French 
 fleet in the Sea of Marmora. The difficulty does not 
 lie in the conquest of Turkey, but in the division of the 
 conquered territory, especially as Constantinople is the 
 jewel of this rich crown, which, itself indivisible, is of 
 greater value than all the rest. In our opinion the 
 only natural and possible solution of this problem is the 
 formation of a Christian Byzantine Empire at Con- 
 stantinople, the re -establishment of which has been 
 already begun in Hellas by the will of Europe. What- 
 ever the view we take of the new Greek State, no one 
 Avill deny its growth and progress, while Turkey is 
 decaying and almost dead. The eyes of the Greeks in 
 Thessaly, Macedonia, and the islands of the Archipelago 
 are turned towards Hellas, and there is no reason why 
 the Slavonic population of Bulgaria itself should not 
 prefer to join a Russo-Greek rather than a Byzantine- 
 Greek church, should not rather obey the Czar than 
 the Sultan. As we have already seen, whenever the 
 reconstruction of Eastern Europe takes place the rains of 
 the old edifice will suffice to compensate both those who 
 have armed for the fight, and those who have taken no 
 share in it, "11 y en a pour tons" but to make the par- 
 tition is not part of our present purpose. Thus much, 
 however, we think Ave are entitled to assert, that when 
 the sword of Eyoub has been carried 0A T cr the Helles- 
 pont back to the land Avhence it came ; Avhen the dome 
 of St. Sophia is once more surmounted by that cross for
 
 The Eastern Question. 
 
 0^0 
 
 which it was built ; wheu the shores of the two Straits 
 are no longer obedient to one will, and that a weak one ; 
 and when the two inland seas are opened to the flags of 
 all nations ; then, and not till then, will the peace of the 
 East be assured for a long series of years. 
 
 THE MOUTH OF THE DANUBE. 
 
 The attention of the reader of this newspaper 1 has, 
 several times lately, been drawn to the importance of 
 the Danube, as the principal means of communication 
 between the heart of Germany and the East, as well as to 
 the obstacles which impede free navigation at the mouths 
 of our greatest stream, and the hope has been raised 
 that the latter might be avoided by the construction of 
 a canal in the neighbourhood of Trajan's wall. We 
 cannot share this hope, as personal observation has con- 
 firmed our conviction of the total impracticability of 
 the enterprise. From Widin the Danube flows for 
 almost thirty miles in an easterly direction through the 
 wide valley and plain between the Carpathian moun- 
 tains and the Balkans. At Rassova, at a distance of 
 only seven miles from the Black Sea, the stream 
 suddenly changes its normal course, though opposed by 
 nothing more than a gently rising tract of land with an 
 even and sandy surface. But more than this, a number 
 of shallow lakes and a stream with a very slight fall 
 seem to continue the immense Danube valley to the 
 east as far as the Euxine. Even where this valley ends, 
 at a distance of not more than 3000 paces from the sea. 
 and half a mile from Port Kustendje, there rise no 
 mountain cones or rocky walls, but the valley and 
 banks become flatter and flatter till they end in a 
 
 1 Compare Preface.
 
 304 The Eastern Question. 
 
 gently undulating plain. It is undeniable that on the 
 map this district presents the exact appearance of a 
 branch of the Danube which has been choked up by- 
 sand, where the lakes are due to the remnant of the 
 chalk formation, and the marshy depressions mark out 
 the old river-bed. 
 
 From Rassova the Danube flows due north and 
 almost parallel to the coast of the Black Sea for twenty 
 German miles, as far as Galatz ; thence it flows for 
 about the same distance through the reed-covered 
 delta, through which it sends three arms. As, for the 
 present at any rate, the steamers of the Danube 
 Navigation, that splendid achievement of private 
 enterprise, proceed in the first place to Constantinople, 
 they are compelled after leaving Rassova, to perform a 
 journey of seventy miles through the Sulineh mouth 
 before passing Kustendje, which is separated from 
 Rassova, or, more accurately, from Boghas-Kjoi, the 
 Tchernavoda of the maps, by a distance of no more 
 than seven miles. No wonder then, that there is a 
 wish for a canal here and would be even if there were 
 no other difficulties than those presented by the Sulineh 
 mouth. 
 
 In constructing a canal, the first difficulty to be con- 
 sidered is, whence to draw the water to feed it. Now 
 the Danube, even as far down as Isaktchi, has a con- 
 siderably rapid fall, and a very natural suggestion is 
 to provide the new channel with the necessary water 
 from the rich store of the main river. In this case locks 
 would be needed in order to prevent the water rushing 
 too powerfully into the sea ; for though the Danube 
 near Isaktchi has but one, and thence to the mouth but 
 two feet of fall per German mile, yet thirty-five feet of 
 total fall distributed over seven German miles, would 
 still produce a considerable current. But in order to 
 feed the canal with the waters of the Danube, a neces- 
 sary condition would be that its bed should run without 
 any rise, but rather with the necessary fall, from the level
 
 The Eastern Question. 305 
 
 of the Danube near Boghas-Kjoi to the level of the Black 
 Sea, at a depth sufficient for navigation. This would 
 necessitate cutting through all the intervening heights 
 down to the level of the canal-bed. These heights rise 
 gently, but without interruption for almost seven German 
 miles, for their culminating point lies near the sea, not 
 more than a quarter of a German mile distant from it. 
 The ground slopes towards the sea for a short dis- 
 tance, and then suddenly ends in perpendicular cliffs, 
 sixty to eighty feet in height, whose bases are washed 
 by the Euxine. The texture of this mass of chalk- 
 mountains, and its continuity which is nowhere broken 
 through its whole thickness, and which forms the 
 foundation of the whole of Dobrudsha and Bulgaria, 
 
 o 7 
 
 shows distinctly that there can never have been a 
 mouth of the Danube in the neighbourhood of 
 Kustendje, but that the stream has been diverted 
 along the glacis-like western slope of a low range of 
 hills, the eastern inclination of which has in the course 
 of centuries been for the greater part submerged by 
 the sea. 
 
 The height of the culminating point has been care- 
 fully measured from the shore. 1 The lowest part of the 
 ridge, about half a German mile west of Kustendje is 
 166 j^, Prussian duodecimal feet above the level of the 
 sea. From that point the valley of Karasu descends to 
 the Avest, first like a shallow ditch, then between rocks 
 which become steeper and steeper, but without water for 
 three and a-half German miles to Allakapu. Below this 
 point the marshy surface of the valley does not slope 
 perceptibly towards the Danube, and at high water it 
 is flooded by the stream. On the east the descent 
 towards the sea is much more rapid. The only place 
 within a short distance of Kustendje, where the sea is 
 not bounded by an uninterrupted wall of chalk, lies 
 
 1 This interesting work was executed by Major Baron Von Vincke 
 in the year 1838. 
 
 VOL. I. X
 
 306 The Eastern Question. 
 
 three-quarters of a German mile south of this little 
 town. The ground is there hollowed into a shallow 
 cavity, and the precipice, still fifty feet high, is formed 
 of layers of loam and clay. No continuous indentation 
 in the mountain ridge or interruption in the founda- 
 tion of the chalk rocks is to be perceived even here. 
 
 It is clear, from what has been said, that this ridge 161 
 feet high, would have to be excavated to a depth of ten 
 feet below the lowest water-mark of the Danube. But 
 now imagine a cutting, whose length from Allakapu to 
 the sea would be three and a-half German miles, whose 
 greatest depth would be 171 feet deep, and whose upper 
 width at this deepest part would need to be at least 600 
 feet, excavated too, at least for the greater part, out of 
 the solid rock ! 
 
 For these reasons no objection on the part of the 
 Russians to the draining off of the waters of the 
 Danube from Rassova need trouble us much. 
 
 There are canals as, for example, the Trollhatta in 
 Sweden, which surmount higher hills than those which 
 are the cause of the circuitous course of the Danube. 
 But in those cases there must be on the heights them- 
 selves large reservoirs or considerable supplies of water 
 sufficient to fill the canal and to make good the loss 
 which is incurred by evaporation and the use of the 
 locks through which in this case the vessels ascend or 
 descend step by step. But the lakes of Tchernavoda 
 and Karasu lie almost at the same level as the surface 
 of the Danube near Boghas-Kjoi, the tributary stream, 
 which is quite insignificant, and on the heights them- 
 selves there are for miles and miles neither brooks nor 
 ponds nor lakes. The Dobrudsha, though surrounded 
 by water on all sides, is a district most scantily supplied 
 with water. During the summer there is not a drop 
 of it in the valleys, every trace of watercourse dis- 
 appears, and in the villages which lie at great distances 
 from one another, the drinking water is drawn up from 
 the wells by ropes of from sixty to eighty feet in length.
 
 The Eastern Question. 307 
 
 It is not impossible that there may be a point on the 
 ridge lower than the one measured, somewhere to the 
 south of it, and forming the head of a valley, deviating 
 from the Karasu Valley near Umurdsha Saya, in the 
 direction of Lascale and the Tekirajol, and it would be 
 interesting if this region too could be carefully levelled. 
 So much is certain, there is no real gap in the mountain 
 ridge there, and very probably, what was saved in the 
 depth of the excavations would be lost again owing to 
 the considerable increase in length. 
 
 But next to the construction of a canal, hopes have 
 been raised by the project of a railway in the direction 
 of Trajan's wall. Travellers can be taken on an im- 
 proved road from Rassova to Kustendje in four hours. 
 By rail it would be done in an hour and a-half less. 
 But in a journey from Vienna or Pesth to Constanti- 
 nople a saving of two hours and a-half is of no great im- 
 portance, and it would require a much greater increase 
 in the goods traffic than there is at present any reason 
 to expect, to stand the expense of a double trans-ship- 
 ment. The construction, maintenance and working of 
 a railway in this out-of-the-way and desolate district 
 would be very expensive. Add to this the bad condi- 
 tion of the harbour of Kustendje, which is shallow, 
 narrow and quite unprotected from the eastern and 
 southern gales. The little town has lain in ruins since 
 1829, and was in 1838 only inhabited by forty families. 
 Everything there would need to be created from the 
 beginning. Therefore it would be better not to 
 harbour delusions and unfounded expectations, but to 
 look for the real difficulties where they are to be found, 
 that is, in the nature of the navigation through the 
 Sulineh mouth. The local obstacles there are much 
 smaller than is generally supposed * and far less im- 
 portant than those encountered in the middle course of 
 
 1 Compare "Briefe iiber Zustande und Begebenheiten in tier 
 Turkei ana den Jaliren 1835 bis 1839."
 
 30S The Eastern Question. 
 
 that stream, Avhich are described in an interesting article 
 published in this paper not long ago. They could be 
 overcome with the tenth part of the expenditure that a 
 railway or a canal from Boghas-Kjoi to Kustendje 
 would entail. But to tell the truth it is not these 
 difficulties of which people are afraid but the real or 
 imaginary encroachments of Russia, the quarantine- 
 stations on both sides of the Sulineh, provided with 
 cannon and situated in a boggy lowland of ten miles, 
 which, according to the treaty of Adrianople, is to be 
 left uninhabited, the attempts to subject Austrian 
 steamers to a visitation, and similar drawbacks. 
 
 In case of a war Trajan's wall will not be sufficient 
 to stop the Russian armies or to cover the much dis- 
 cussed new commercial road. The Dobrudsha is a 
 deserted district with an adsurdly thin population. 
 It is flanked on one side by Wallachia and on the other 
 by the sea, both of which are dominated by Russia. 
 Hirsova, Isaktchi, Matchin and Tuldsha have been 
 razed. Before Kustendje are the opening Russian mines, 
 looking as if they had been blasted but yesterday. It 
 seems as if the Porte meant to rely for her defence on 
 the Balkans, on Varna and Shumla. She will occupy 
 the places on the middle course of the Danube as 
 advanced posts, but certainly will not keep an army to 
 hold the Dobrudsha. However, in time of peace we 
 must and may hope that Austria will protect the rights 
 and future of the Danubian countries, and that Ger- 
 many in the end will succeed in liberating the mouths 
 of her great rivers. 
 
 THE END.
 
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