XXVII. 1847. to tear it in pieces. The first of these was the Federal CHAP. Union, which not only gave a preponderance of votes in the general Diet to the monarchical and military states, but put the immense military force of its members entirely at their disposal. Out of the seventeen votes which composed the Diet, not more than one or two could be reckoned on by the commercial towns, or the liberal party in the smaller states: they never on a serious occasion could muster more than two votes, while Austria could command fifteen; and of the military forces of the Confederacy not less than 225,000 was at the disposal of the great military monarchies, or those whom they influenced. knowledge of how political and physical strength was thus arranged, prevented any partial outbreak in places where the democratic feeling was strongest, from its obvious hopelessness. The 85. preponder tholics in II. In this question a great degree of importance must be attached to the fact, that a majority of the German states Effect of the were of the Roman Catholic persuasion. Their inhabitants ance of Cawere, in 1820, nineteen millions to the Protestant seventeen the Confemillions. It is true, nearly the whole genius and intelligence deracy. of the Fatherland was to be found in the Protestant states of the north, and that they almost exclusively directed the thought of the German educated classes, and the character of German literature throughout the world. But although that circumstance will doubtless come to exercise a great and probably decisive influence on the fate of Germany in the end, it could not counteract, in the first instance, the efforts of the Catholic clergy in the Romish states to retain their flocks in a state of real ignorance. Rome has a perpetual dread of instruction and intelligence, because an unerring instinct tells it that they inevitably lead to division of opinion. The mere fact of the whole people in Austria and southern Germany being taught to read, had no influence in counteracting this tendency; on the contrary, it increased it. The people got leave to read nothing but little books of their priests composition. VOL. V. F XXVII. CHAP. Accordingly, on every important division in the Diet, the representatives of the Catholic states all voted with 1847. Austria and the monarchical party. 86. the expres ral opinion. III. It was a mistake to say, as is often done by the The army is liberal writers, that this decided superiority of the aristosion of gene- cratic party, both in the Diet and the governments of Germany, was owing to the wishes and aspirations of the people being crushed by the force of military power. Constituted as the army in all the states of the Confederacy is, its voice is the exponent, not the controller of general opinion. As every man, of whatever rank, without exception, is bound to serve three years in the armed force, at the expiration of which period he retires, and makes way for his successor, who during that period has grown up to the military age, the army is in fact an armed deputation of the nation, just as the juries in America are a judicial committee of the majority. It is possible with a mercenary force, which has no sympathy with the people among whom they are introduced, or with a victorious host which follows the standards of a Cæsar or a Napoleon, to crush effectually for a time the expression of general opinion; but with an army constituted as those of the German states are, this was impossible. The people have arms in their own hands: the whole population have been trained to their use; if they are dissatisfied with the existing system, they have the remedy in their own power. No one succession of soldiers remains so long in the service as to come to be detached from the people, and belong to the military caste. The armies of Germany are aristocratic, and support the monarchical cause, because the great majority of the people, whatever a portion of them in the great towns may be, are of the same way of thinking, lead a simple agricultural life, and are still subject to the old influences. IV. A prominent place in the causes influencing German policy and domestic history in recent times must be XXVII. 1847. Russia on the lesser assigned to the influence of Russia. This great power, CHAP. essentially monarchical and despotic in its system of government, is as tenacious of purpose and far-seeing in 87. policy, as the inhabitants of free states are vacillating Influence of and inconsiderate. The close union which subsisted be- Prussia and tween the Czar and the King of Prussia during the war states. of liberation, led to a very great influence of the former over the latter, and, in effect, has ever since rendered Prussia, so far as external policy is concerned, little more than an outwork of Muscovy. Austria entertained for long, and, till driven into her arms by the tortuous policy of England, a very great dread of Russia; and therefore the main efforts of the latter power, during the last quarter of a century, have been directed to gain the command of the Diet by means of extending its influence among the lesser powers. Fortuitous circumstances gave it the means of doing this with very great effect. Through the Empress Catherine, a Livonian princess, the Russian house of Romanzoff was connected with several reigning families in the north of Germany; the marriage of the Emperor Nicholas to a sister of the King of Prussia brought it into close connection with the royal family of Berlin, while that of the Emperor Alexander with a princess of the house of Baden had placed it in alliance with an old and highly connected family in central Germany. The vast armies of Russia, like those of the East India Company to Great Britain, furnished employment to the numerous youth of noble extraction in Germany, to whom circumstances and the general feeling left no other career but that of arms; and this means of influence was prodigally exerted by the cabinet of St Petersburg to extend its sway over the German powers. Thus the influence of Russia had become nearly omnipotent, especially in the lesser states, before the French Revolution of 1830; and so strongly was this felt by the popular party, that the greatest reproach which could be cast CHAP. upon a writer, and that which proved fatal to Kotzebue, was that he was a Russian spy. XXVII. 88. employ ment in government 1847. V. A very curious circumstance connected with the Influence of social condition of Germany in the first half of the ninethe want of teenth century, tended greatly to extend the influence of forcing men government, though at first sight it might seem calculated to become to have a directly opposite effect. This was, the great employés. extent to which education had been carried in the middle and lower ranks. That this universal opening of the gates of knowledge rendered nearly all young men at first liberal, and even revolutionary in their opinions, is indeed certain; and accordingly, extreme license of ideas in the schools and universities was one of the circumstances which most strongly excited the solicitude of the governments of Germany. But what came of these young men, when they left college and went into the world? Universally educated, they all sighed for intellectual rather than physical labour restricted in their walk of life by circumstances, there was not one in ten could find employment, or earn a subsistence in intellectual pursuits. Trade or manufactures in a country so little commercial could absorb only a limited number; the army furnished occupation merely for a few years in early life; colonies there were none; emigration, till the middle of the century, was almost unknown. Thus the only channel left open was that of government employment, and the great number who crowded accordingly into that line, gave the authorities an immense sway over those who had entered upon the career and felt the wants of real life. Dreaming of republics, and declaiming passages about Brutus and Cromwell, was very exciting, as long as the youths were at college, maintained by their parents, and animated by the presence of each other; but when they went out into the world, and found themselves alone in a garret, with scarce the means of purchasing one meal a-day, it became very desirable to exchange XXVII. 1847. such penury for the certainty and security of a govern- CHAP. ment office. Thus it was universally found in Germany that there were a dozen applicants for every vacant situation, how humble soever, that fell vacant, and that the visionary enthusiasm of the young aspirant was speedily cooled down by the chill atmosphere of real life after they left the universities. The ardent student, burning with the passion for freedom, who had fought two duels, with his meerschaum, his beer, and his liebens-wurdige schauspielerin, was ere long transformed into a quiet, respectable government employé, who toiled at his desk twelve hours a-day for eighty pounds a-year, and thanked his stars that, in the dread competition, he had drawn such a prize in the lottery of life. It would be the same in every other country if the means of existence were equally restricted. Cut off the backwoods and California from America, or Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow, with India and Australia, from England, and where would be the boasted independence of the Anglo-Saxon character? VI. Among the circumstances which tended to coerce for a very long period the rising democratic spirit Disastrous of Germany, must be reckoned the revolutions of Spain Germany of and Italy in 1820, and France in 1830, so productive of the revolu disaster to the cause of freedom in every part of the 1820 and world. Like all other attempts by force and violence to overturn governments and change institutions, they deeply injured the cause for which they had been undertaken; and it is hard to say whether they did this most effectually by their early success or their ultimate discomfiture. The first excited the terror of the monarchical and aristocratic party all over the world, buried their jealousies in oblivion, and caused them to coalesce cordially to oppose the revolutionary deluge: the last chilled the hopes of the friends of real freedom by the ill success which had attended the efforts of the revolutionists, and the apparent hopelessness of their cause. The treachery and defection 89. effects in tions of 1830. |