CHAP. passibus æquis, in the same beneficent career; and this XXVII. year saw the lines opened from Prerau to Olmütz, and 1841. from Wiener-Neustadt to Neukirchen. But so much more vigorous was the spirit of enterprise in the northern than 1 Ann. Hist. the southern states, that of fifteen railway lines at this 469. period existing in Germany, no less than ten belonged to states forming part of the Prussian Commercial League. xxiv. 468, 68. tion of the Two important events in the constitutional history of Inaugura Germany ensued in the following year, which well deCathedral of serve a place in European history. The first of these and King's was the inauguration of the Cathedral of Cologne, which peech at it. took place on October 15, to commemorate the entire Cologne, Oct. 15. On adjustment of the differences with the Holy See. this occasion the King spoke words pregnant with meaning, not only on the great principle of religious toleration, but on the still more thrilling topic of German unity and nationality. "We are not engaged here," said the monarch, with the earnest accent of deep emotion, "with the construction of an ordinary edifice it is a work bespeaking the spirit of union and of concord which animates THE WHOLE OF GERMANY, and all its persuasions, that we are now constructing. May, by the grace of God, the gates of this temple become to Germany the gates of a new era, when she may be great and powerful; and may all that is anti-German-that is, all that is not noble and true and sincere-be ever far from her may the shameful attempts to relax the bonds of concord which unite the German princes and people, and trouble the peace of persuasions, be shattered against them; and may that spirit which has interrupted the completion of this sacred edifice, the temple of our country, never reappear amongst us! That spirit is the 2 Ann. Hist. same as the one which, nine-and-twenty years ago, burst asunder our chains, and avenged the insults our country had received under the yoke of the stranger!"2 xxv. 338, 339. The next important step in the year, and a mighty one in the annals of German freedom, was the meeting XXVII. 1842. 69. the general Berlin. of the estates of the whole kingdom, which, for the first CHAP. time in Prussian history, was held at Berlin on the 19th October. It may be conceived what hopes and expectations this event awakened among a people so passionately Meeting of desirous of political enfranchisement as the middle ranks estates at of Prussia were. They were somewhat damped, how- Oct. 19. ever, by a passage in the opening speech which Count Arnim delivered in the name of the King: "Unity in the deliberations of this assembly-this is what his majesty confidently expects of you, at the moment when, of his sole royal pleasure, he has put in execution the important complement of the institution of estates by uniting the different provincial committees. In those cases where the provincial estates, in their separate and independent representation, and in the consideration of Ann. Hist. what is suitable for their respective interests, have sepa- Moniteur, rated without coming to an accord, upon them the com- 1842. mittee will here unite and reconcile them."1 xxv. 345; Oct. 24, of the gov These words recorded the real design of the govern- 70. ment in convoking this general assembly, which was by Secret views no means to erect a barrier which had in other countries ernment in proved often so serious against the royal authority, but this step. to obtain a means, under colour of reconciling the differences between the provincial assemblies, in reality of obtaining their direction. No real control of the executive was permitted either to the provincial or the united assembly on the contrary, by a royal ordinance of August 10 in the same year, the functions of the committees were limited to questions involving a diminution of taxation or the formation of railways. The session was always to be opened by the Minister of the Interior, and the secretaries were all to be chosen by the King. Important restrictions fettered the powers of the central assembly, and almost nullified its powers. No member was to be allowed to speak more than once on any question; the speakers were to address themselves to their respective chiefs of departments, and not to the opposite XXVII. 1843. CHAP. orators; and the representatives of the commons were only a third of the entire assembly. So little did the government contemplate any interference with its prerogatives, that when the provincial estates of Cologne desired to be permitted to present a petition to the King, who was then in their city, on the subject of commercial reform, they could not even obtain an audience. The session was closed at Berlin on November 10, after having sat just three weeks; and some questions of education, of taxation, and forming railroads, alone occupied their 14, 1842; attention. It terminated by a speech of the King in Roi, Nov. person, who congratulated the country on the formation of the States-General out of the committees of the provincial estates as "the last development of the PrusAnn. Hist. sian monarchy, and the satisfactory manner in which 346. they had discharged their duties, and justified his confidence."1 1 Moniteur, Discours du 11, 1842; Ann. Hist. (Doc. Hist.); xxv. 344, 71. constitu in 1843. Notwithstanding, however, these complimentary exProgress of pressions, confidence was very far indeed from being really tional ideas felt, and the government soon found that the concession they had already made was a great step in the career of constitutional freedom. Petitions for greater powers to the States-General, for the abolition of the censorship of the press, publicity of debates, and for real States-General, not mere committees of the provincial estates, crowded in next year from all quarters. From Königsberg no less than three hundred and fifty-five petitions to this effect were presented in the very next year. The ferment was particularly strong in the Rhenish provinces, whose estates petitioned that the States-General might be permitted to deliberate on all the affairs of the nation-not merely taxes and railways—and that entire publicity should be given to their debates in a perfectly free press. These demands, and the increasing excitement in the country, caused government to take fright and pause in its career. The amiable illusion of unity of opinion, which is always the dream of the inexperienced, XXVII. 1844. and with which the King had flattered himself, was already CHAP. dispelled by the sober reality of division, the invariable result and characteristic of emancipated man. The King agreed that the "accounts" produced to the estates should not be subjected to the censorship; but the publication of debates was only permitted to the Gazette de Prusse, the government organ, from which the other journals were obliged to take them. An important concession, however, was made by royal ordinances, 10th October 1842, Oct. 10, and 4th February 1843, which abolished the censorship Feb. 4, entirely of works extending to above twenty pages; and 1843. in regard to journals or lesser pamphlets, enjoined the censors to discharge their duties with gentleness and discretion, and not to erase anything which did not strike 271; and at the monarchical frame of government, or tend to bring Oct. 10, the institutions of the country into discredit, or existing laws in an unsuitable or insulting manner. principles, but how difficult of application to particular (Doc. Hist.) cases,1 1842. 1 Ann. Hist. xxvi. 269, ordinances, 1842, and 1843; Ann. discuss Feb. 4, Wise Hist. xxvi. 161, 163, 1844. 72. So great was the vigour with which the construction of railways was pushed forward, both in northern and Progress of southern Germany, in the succeeding year, that the lines were rendered complete from Hamburg to Trieste,—that is, from the Baltic to the Adriatic! Such a prodigious penetration of that hitherto inland and remote country by the means of communication and rapid conveyance, could not but have ere long an important influence on its political fortunes. Railways are the pioneers of thought; when they have opened the way, changes of opinion, and through them, of institutions and government, rapidly succeed. The material and pecuniary interests of governments lead them to favour a change in this respect, destined in the end to work a much greater change upon themselves. This appeared in this very year. A serious revolt broke out in Silesia, the most manufacturing district of Prussia, originating in a strike among the workmen, who complained of the lowness of their wages, and the ruinous XXVII. 1845. CHAP. effect of machinery upon their interests. This revolt soon embraced the whole manufacturing towns and districts, and was not put down but by the intervention of a large military force, and a deplorable effusion of human blood. 1 Ann. Hist. With the industry, the fabrics, and the riches of free states, 365. Germany was already inheriting their passions, their collisions of classes, and their dangers. xxvii. 361, 73. The increasing ferment of ideas, and the disposition to Important shake off the shackles of priestly as well as temporal movement authority, were strongly evinced in the succeeding year. in Germany A pretended relic of a saint, which had been exhibited at religious Treves for the adoration of the faithful, roused the indignation of a young Catholic priest, named Johan Ronge, who commenced preaching a reformation somewhat similar to that of Luther three hundred years before. The success of this bold attempt was at first such as to excite the greatest alarm in the papal conclave. The principles of the new sect were, that the supremacy of the Pope should be abolished, and he should be reduced to the mere rank of Bishop of Rome; that confession should be abolished, priests permitted to marry, and the mass be celebrated in the native tongue. This was cutting up the ascendancy of Rome by the roots, and it met, as might have been expected, with the most violent opposition from the Catholic party in every part of Germany. Deprived, however, of the aid of the fagot and the Inquisition, it was not so easy a matter as it once was to check the progress of heresy; and the schism of Ronge shook the Romish Church in Northern Germany to its foundation. Ronge and Czercky, the two leaders of the new sect, were formally excommunicated; but ere long, like many other reformers, they quarrelled, and this fresh schism was more fatal to the new opinions than the thunders of the Vatican. The King of Prussia was strongly urged, by a deputation from the magistrates of Berlin, to take vigorous measures against the ultra-Puritan party in that city, at the head of which were MM. Thiele and |