XXVII. 1837. CHAP. Papal See relative to marriages of Protestants and Catholics, which threatened to revive the flames of theological controversy in Germany, which had slumbered since the Peace of Westphalia. This dispute arose in consequence of an article in the Prussian law which conferred on the father, in case of mixed marriages, the right of choosing in which religion his children should be brought up, in default of which choice they were to be educated in his own. This law, how agreeable soever to the principle of the patria potestas, recognised in all ages over the whole civilised world as indispensable to the peace and regulation of families, was far from being equally so to the dignitaries of the Romish Church, who ever direct their principal efforts to secure the spread of their faith in that sex which, though weakest in intellect, is the first in charms and influence. Accordingly the Pope, by a brief dated 25th March 1830, which was the foundation of the whole dispute that followed, enjoined the prelates to make the Catholic spouse, in the case of mixed marriages, come under an engagement to bring up the children in the Romish faith. It was the obedience yielded by the Catholic clergy in Prussia which occasioned all the dissensions that followed. Another subject of dispute between the Government and the See of the Vatican was the theological tenets of Dr Hermes, which admitted freedom of thought to a degree that was deemed incompatible with the tranquil despotism of the Church of Rome, and were accordingly denounced by a papal bull on 26th September 1835; and in pursuance of it the Archbishop of Cologne published an ordinance forbidding any student in theology to receive lessons in the University of Bonn, which had embraced the principles of Hermes. Matters at length came to such a pass that, after having exhausted all means of conciliation, government resolved on removing the archbishop by force. This was a very hazardous step, as the great majority of the inhabitants of the Rhenish provinces of Prussia were CHAP. XXVII. 1837. Nov. 20, Catholics, and zealously attached to their faith. It was accomplished, however, happily without bloodshed. On the 28th November the whole garrison of Cologne was put under arms. Cannon, with matches lighted, guarded 1837. all the approaches to the archbishop's palace; and the governor of the Rhenish provinces, accompanied by the commandant of Cologne, entered the building and informed his grace he was dismissed, and their prisoner. He was Moniteur, immediately conducted, under a powerful escort of cavalry 1837; Ann. and artillery, out of the city, and conveyed to the fortress 401, 402. of Minden.1 Nov. 23, Hist. xx. 59. sensation this event. It may readily be conceived what a sensation this coup d'état-executed by the temporal authorities alone, and Immense on a prelate so eminent in station as the Archbishop of excited by Cologne, in the midst of a zealous Catholic populationexcited in Europe. Such was the clamour raised on all sides some approving, some condemning that it was absolutely stunning, and recalled the days when the powerful but rude arm of Luther shook to its centre the fabric of papal power in Europe. The government soon after published a long manifesto, in which the grounds of their complaint against the archbishop were fully detailed.* This led to a rejoinder from the consistory of the VatiOn December 16, the Pope protested "in favour of the violated immunities of the church, the episcopal dignity trampled under foot, the jurisdiction of the Holy See so flagrantly usurped, and the rights of the Catholic can. "L'Archevêque a donc forfait à sa patrie et à ses devoirs; il s'est mis en opposition avec les ordonnances et les lois existantes; de plus, il a fait pour miner ces lois et les renverser des tentatives sourdes, que non-seulement il cherchait à cacher au gouvernement, mais sur lesquelles il trompait et trahissait son souverain, en faisant accroire qu'il respectait tout ce qu'il ne songeait qu'à fouler à ses pieds. Toutes ces allégations sont clairement établies par des pièces qui, par des motifs de haute convenance, ne peuvent être portées jusqu'à présent à la connaissance générale. Ces faits graves et criminels joints à un coupable mépris de tout avertissement, et à des déclarations écrites de l'archevêque, faites à divers reprises, qu'il entend persister dans sa rébellion, justifiaient déjà seuls et provoquaient d'une manière impérieuse les mesures que le pouvoir temporel vient de prendre."--Exposé du Gouvernement Prussien, 22 Nov. 1837; Ann. Hist., xx. 403. XXVII. 1838. Dec. 11. CHAP. Church and the holy set at nought;" and this was soon after followed by an exposition from Rome of their side of the question. Meanwhile the excitement was daily increasing in the Rhenish provinces; and on the 11th December a riot took place in Münster, which was only suppressed by several charges of cavalry, and at the expense of several persons wounded. Anxious if possible to appease the Papal See, the cabinet of Berlin sent a most able diplomatist-whose suavity of manners, not less than his literary and theological acquirements, eminently qualified him for the task-M. le Chevalier Bunsen,* to Rome, to endeavour to effect an adjustment. The negotiation was prolonged for a very long period, and in the end was terminated in a species of compromise. The Catholic clergy, in obedience to the supreme pontiff, agreed to cease to make inquiries into the religion in which the children of mixed marriages were educated; while the king, by a wise and tolerant edict, declared on the one hand that, if the Catholic spouse refused to emit a declaration as to the religion in which his children were brought up, he should not be subjected to ecclesiastical censures; and that the Catholic priest was not to be constrained to celebrate the mixed marriage according to any forms but those of the Catholic Church. This judicious compromise at length allayed a ferment which had subsisted for three years, and threatened again, after an interval of two hundred years, to deluge Germany with blood in a theological quarrel. It is a curious circumstance, indicating at Sydney once the unchangeable policy of the Church of Rome, and Peter the danger of generalising too soon from imperfect data, Letters. that within thirty years of the time when an able divine Ann. Hist. of the Church of England had asserted,1 in advocating the Catholic claims in Ireland, that all danger from the ambition of the Court of Rome had disappeared, and that the supreme pontiff had become "a pope of wax,' "2 this June 10, 1838. 1 The Rev. Smith in Plymley's xx. 404, 405, and xxi. 242, 245. * Since the highly-esteemed Prussian Minister in London, and author of the celebrated Life of Hippolytus. XXVII. waxen pope convulsed Europe from one end to the other, CHAP. by advancing pretensions combated by Henry II. in the twelfth century, and which recalled the days of Thomasà-Becket. 1838. 60. ma- Wise interthat tions of the nal regula Prussian 1838. The remaining and last years of the Prussian monarch were chiefly devoted to regulations directed to the terial prosperity of his subjects, whose industry at period was taking so rapid and extraordinary a step. government. A wise regulation, which it would have been well for Nov. 3, Great Britain had its rulers adopted, provided that every project for forming a railway should, in the first instance, be submitted to government for its sanction, with a statement of its subscribers, who were all personally and absolutely bound to pay 40 per cent on the estimated price, from which obligation they were not relieved by selling the shares, or the company taking them off their hands, declared null all sales of shares before this had been done, and prohibited all rival lines for thirty years after the first had been constructed. At the same time the Prussian government gave proof of its liberality by an edict which opened all the universities in the Confederacy to Prussian students, under the reasonable condition only that those who wished to practise medicine in the monarchy should study a certain time in one of its universities; and of its toleration, and desire to throw oil on the bitterness of theological controversy, by commencing the entire restoration and completion of the cathedral of Cologne, originally commenced in the year 1248, and which, sedulously followed up in subsequent years, has rendered it the most beautiful of Ann. Hist. the many beautiful structures of that description in 248. Europe.1 The year 1839 was marked in Northern Germany by two events which strikingly evinced the liberal and enlightened spirit of the age. The first was a general amnesty proclaimed in Prussia for all lesser delinquencies and all Crown debtors below 50 thalers (£6), on occasion xxi. 246, XXVII. 1839. 61. the 300th formation, and treaty of recipro city with Holland. CHAP. of the three hundredth anniversary of the Reformation. This act of grace, in a truly catholic spirit, embraced persons of all religious persuasions, not those only who Amnesty on had embraced the Lutheran creed. The next was a most anniversary important one, which, in favour of certain states in Norof the thern Germany, of which Prussia, Hanover, and Saxony were the most considerable, established an entire reciprocity of duties, in themselves very moderate, on the most important articles of commerce with Holland. This measure was important in itself, but it became doubly so in its results, as the first step towards the establishment of the ZOLLVEREIN, or union for the purpose of collecting import and export duties, on one uniform scale, for behoof of the parties forming part of the union, which has since contributed so much to the prosperity of Northern Germany, and augmented so largely the influence and con1 Ann. Hist. sideration of Prussia, the acknowledged head of the Confederacy, and by whose servants the various duties are collected.1 Aug. 10, 1839. xxii. 297, 299. 62. King of revival of the ques constitu tion. Political passion seemed stilled by these beneficent Death of the changes, and Germany, industrious and enlightened, Prussia, and seemed occupied only with the career of wealth and independence which they were calculated to bring to its tion of the inhabitants. But an event soon occurred which showed that the desire for power only slumbered and was not extinguished, and was gaining strength by the growth and prosperity of the middle class, among whom it always is most strongly felt. Frederick-William III., King of Prussia, died on the 7th June 1840, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. The close of his long and eventful reign dis * * He was born on 15th October 1775, and married, on 13th November 1801, the Princess Louisa of Bavaria.-Ann. Hist. xxiii. 422. In his testament, Frederick-William addressed the following eloquent instructions to his son and heir, which, better than anything else, explain his views in the last and most critical years of his life: "It is on you, my dear Frederick, that will henceforward fall the weight of affairs, and their responsibility. The position you have hitherto occupied has prepared you for it better than any other heir to the throne. It is for you to justify my hopes and those of the country. Your principles and your sentiments afford me a |