XXVII. 1815. 1 Ann. Reg. CHAP. be willing to receive the emigrants; and that the subjects of each might enlist in the service of any other, if not already subject to military service in their own country. Finally, the Diet was at its first meeting to occupy itself chives Di- with framing uniform regulations to secure the freedom of tiques, iv. the press, and the security of authors and publishers from 1815, 109; and Ar ploma 2, 24. 5. forces of the acy. oppression.1 The preparations alike for protection from external Military enemies, and for the crushing of internal discord in this Confeder- great Confederacy, were of proportional magnitude. The troops which the different states were bound to furnish for the common defence, were minutely specified, arranged according to the population and revenue of each state; and they constituted, upon the whole, an immense military force. The quota was taken at an hundredth part of the entire population of each state; and as the population of the different states composing the Confederacy was 30,163,483, the whole force was 301,637 men. Of this body 222,000 were infantry of the line, 11,700 light infantry, 43,000 cavalry, 22,000 artillery, and 3000 pioneers. It was all organised, and the arrangements made for its command, its rallying points, &c., with the utmost precision and minuteness.. Great as this force was, it constituted not more than two-thirds of what the German powers could bring into the field if acting in concert, for the principal states were put down at a small part only of their whole inhabitants, being those in Germany proper. Thus Austria was set down. only at 9,482,000 souls, and 94,822 soldiers, as Hungary, Gallicia, and the Italian States were excluded; whereas in reality she had 32,000,000 souls, and 320,000 men in arms. Prussia was taken at 7,923,000 inhabitants, 79,230 men; whereas, including the Polish provinces, she had even then above 10,000,000, and 150,000 soldiers. If the whole resources of the states which formed part of the Confederacy were taken into consideration, including the Netherlands and Denmark, they presented a mass of XXVII. 1815. 60,000,000 souls, who could bring 600,000 combatants CHAP. into the field; of whom one-half belonged to Germany proper, and entered into the Confederacy.* It was stipulated that considerable sums (60,000,000 francs, or £2,400,000) should be given from the common stock of * The following valuable Table was compiled at this time by the different governments, and formed the basis of the military constitution :— -Archives Diplomatiques, iv. 270; and Almanach de Gotha, 1855, p. 435. XXVII. 1815. CHAP. the allied powers to Prussia and the lesser powers, to put Mayence, Landau, and Luxembourg, and the fortresses on the Rhine, in a respectable state of defence, and that the great stronghold of Mayence should be garrisoned by 13,000 men, of whom one-half should be Prussians and one-half Austrians, and Landau exclusively by Austrians. One-sixth of the infantry, and two-thirds of the subaltern officers, and two-thirds of the cavalry of each state, were to be always under arms, and the whole ready to turn out on four weeks' notice. No provision was made for erecting or strengthening any fortresses on the Vistula or towards Russia, as no danger was apprehended from that Nov. 1815, quarter;-a striking instance of the manner in which Paris; Arch. men, how able soever, are in their collective capacity Dip. iv. 190, 194, 241. governed by the memory of the past, rather than the anticipation of the future.1 1 Traité, 6. External and internal pros to Germany. Experience has proved that this constitution of the German Confederation was wisely formed with a view to peace and external defence and internal peace. Forty years have pret this now elapsed (1855) since it was established, and during has secured that long period, with the single exception of one year, when the French revolution of 1848 had violently shaken all the European states, Germany has enjoyed, both externally and internally, uninterrupted peace. No foreign power has ventured to assail a Confederacy which had 300,000 men ready to repel insult, and could double the number from the resources of the principal states of the union. No domestic dissension was possible in one so strongly cemented, and in which so overwhelming a force was at all times ready to enforce obedience to the fundamental law, that no one state was on any account to make war on any other state, and that all differences were to be submitted to the decision of the Diet. By this auspicious union Germany has, for the first time in history, become a great power, possessing vast military forces, capable of exercising a preponderating influence in central Europe, and enjoying within itself the XXVII. 1815. inestimable blessing of domestic peace and tranquillity. CHAP. Immense have been the effects of this blessed change. From being the battle-field of Europe, in which rival states or hostile religions sought a theatre for mutual slaughter, it has become the abode of peace, tranquillity, and industry. Nearly a whole generation know war only from the traditions of their fathers, or the moving annals of former times. The melancholy traces of the Thirty Years' War, which for nearly two centuries had been visible on the Fatherland, have been nearly obliterated by the forty years' peace; and, strange to say, the first long period of unbroken rest which its inhabitants have ever enjoyed, has arisen from the desolating wars of the French Revolution. rial pros country: statistics. The effects of this long period of repose, and of the 7. entire cessation of domestic war, upon the development of Great mateindustry and the increase of social prosperity, have been perity of the immense. The termination not only of war, but of the cotits dread of war, for so considerable a time, has been sufficient to stimulate activity and rouse effort, and spread happiness to an extraordinary degree. The vigour and energy called forth in the war of liberation has not been lost by its termination; it has only been turned into a different channel. The Germans have realised the vision of the prophet: they have turned their swords into pruning-hooks. In Prussia, in particular, where the excitement was the greatest, and the most extraordinary efforts were made, this effect has been most conspicuous. Its population has advanced since the peace more rapidly than that of any other state in Europe: it is doubling in every fifty-two years.* Its inhabitants, which were ten millions at the battle of Waterloo, are now above sixteen millions; and its wealth and industry have advanced in a similar proportion. The entire inhabitants of the Con -MALTE BRUN, v. 276; and Almanach de Gotha, 1855, p. 434. 1815. CHAP. federacy have increased twelve millions during the last XXVII. forty years-from thirty they have advanced to fortytwo millions. The industry of the inhabitants has kept pace with this great increase. Not only have the labours of agriculture raised food sufficient to feed the huge and increasing multitude, but large quantities of grain and cattle are annually exported; and England, since the repeal of the Corn Laws, is indebted to Northern Germany for a considerable part of its immense imports of corn. Manufactures have sprung up in various quarters where they were formerly unknown-the printed cotton goods of Silesia have come to rival the British; the coloured glass of Bohemia, the china of Dresden, are admired throughout the world. The chief commercial cities of the Confederacy, Hamburg, Frankfort, Lübeck, Bremen, have doubled in inhabitants; their bankers number all the kings of Europe among their debtors; and the burgher class in these great emporiums of industry has acquired such wealth and consideration as to come materially to influence the political doctrines and social changes of the country.1 1 Malte Brun, v. 1, 277. 8. of its capi chief cities. Nor has the wealth and prosperity of the country been Splendour less signally evinced in those more refined and imaginatals and tive branches of industry which bespeak the elevation of the general mind, and the spread of easy circumstances and improved taste among the more affluent classes. The pleasing duty will fall to the historian, in a succeeding part of this work, of recording the great men who have given to modern Germany immortal celebrity in philosophy, literature, and the fine arts; but, considered as an indication of general prosperity and the efflorescence of an advancing and happy civilisation, they are not less worthy of consideration. The change on the capitals and cities of Germany during the last forty years has been such as to exceed belief, and speaks volumes as to the beneficent effect of the institutions which have shielded it during so long a period alike from foreign |