BOOK II.

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT GERMAN UNITY.

CHAPTER I.

THE MARCH REVOLUTION.

 

We have seen that in countless German hearts the conviction was fixed, that “this state of things could not last.” At Louis Philippe’s death a fresh revolution was looked for in Paris; then there would be found in Germany “room for free souls to breathe freely,” and German Unity would be realized at one bold stroke. The signal for the outbreak came unexpectedly soon: on the 24th of February, 1848, the King was driven from Paris and the democratic Republic proclaimed: the strength and progress of the national party in Germany was now to be tested. At different times it had blazed up, and again had been completely stifled. After a long period of inactivity it now arose anew with youthful vigor, and with all the enthusiasm and inexperience of youth. It was as if a day of student­like hilarity had dawned for the whole German nation.

The effect of the crisis at Paris was stunning to all the German Governments, but like that of a spark among the inflammable feelings of the people. It worked upon them both to a degree which it is impossible now, after the lapse of a generation, to comprehend. At that time the memories of 1793 and 1830 were still alive. No one doubted the zeal and irresistibleness of the revolutionary’ propaganda among the French: the victory of the communistic Democracy in Paris, and the overthrow of all barriers by the Republican mobs already stood before their eyes.

The hands of Austria were tied by the troubles in Italy and Hungary. Prussia urged England in vain to join with the three Eastern Powers in an effort to confine the godless spirit of Radicalism to French territory. The other German Courts were too much troubled by their consciences, which pointed out to them the wretched condition to which they had allowed the military efficiency of their people to degenerate by their niggardliness and jealousy for their own authority. So much the more desperately did they clutch for salvation at the last straw, the love and loyalty of their subjects. But, unfortunately, most of them knew too well that no help could be expected from that quarter: faithful to Metternich’s suggestions, they had uninterruptedly for thirty years crippled or annihilated, for selfish ends, the political rights of their people; and now from every side, and from every class of society, the overwhelming flood of clamorous demands burst forth upon them.

It was everywhere politicians from the citizen-class, who had hitherto led the Opposition in the Chambers and through the newspapers ; and it was they, who now gave the signal for the initiation of the new movement. All the different elements of burgher society, merchants and manufacturers, physicians and lawyers, professors and teachers, artists and authors, and, not among the least zealous, a large number of officials, joined these leaders with enthusiasm. In the minds of these supporters of the cause the first and most important demands to be made were in the direction of National Unity, towards which the first step was a German Parliament; and in the line of freedom of thought, which must begin with freedom of the Press and the right to form societies and to hold meetings. The great mass of the laboring population did not long remain behind. The announcement that the people were to be sovereign, that all men had equal rights, that the burdens of taxation and of military service should cease, that the German man was henceforth to lead a free and easy life, and that to ensure these blessings he was to be presented with sword and musket,—all this allured them also with irresistible force.

The movement began as early as the 28th of February in the South of Germany, and then spread into all the Lesser and Petty States, carrying everything before it. Its course was everywhere the same. Mighty assemblies of the people proclaimed the demands of the times: the concession of all those assumed privileges of freedom, the summoning of a German Parliament, the providing of every citizen with arms, and, above all, the transference of the ministerial offices to champions of the Liberal party. In violent petitions, accompanied sometimes by boisterous tumults in the streets and with terrible threats in the event of a refusal, these claims were laid before the ruling Princes. Nowhere did it come to acts of bloody outrage; for in view of the imposing unanimity of the whole population, not a single Government dared to make any resistance, and very soon the leaders of the Opposition everywhere occupied ministerial seats. The socialistic demands of the artisans for protection in’ their unequal competition with manufactories, of the operatives for a greater share in the profits of the manufacturers, of the peasants for, free game-laws and the right to gather windfalls and litter without molestation, — all these were pacified by the promise of the approaching popular legislation; in only a few parts of the country did the peasants, to satisfy the hatred which had been accumulating for years, go so far as to demolish the seigniorial seats. Resentment was especially felt against the police and their irregular proceedings. “No more arbitrary rule!” cried the moderate Liberals, ‘‘but everywhere strict obedience to the laws.” “No more laws!” proclaimed the Extremists; “every law limits freedom.”

A resistless stream of ideal and of vulgar passions swept the masses before it. At one blow, fully one-third of Germany became the prey of unchecked anarchy. No official dared either to command or to forbid; in fact, the word “Authority” was everywhere forgotten. In the absence of all resistance, the movement kept itself within sufferable and sometimes even good-natured bounds. Every one did what he liked, with no intention of injuring any one else; yet now and then it was evident that, in the course of time, such a condition of license would sink the masses into a state of increasing barbarism, so that they would then be ready and willing to follow in the foul and bloody path of any good-for-nothing demagogue.

The leaders of the movement meanwhile enjoyed the full consciousness of victory; borne onward by popular favor, not yet hampered by jealous divisions in their party, they were able to take a decisive step forward towards the attainment of the goal of National Unity. Fifty-one influential men, mostly from the South and West of Germany, two from Prussia, and one Austrian that happened to be present, met on the 5th of March at Heidelberg, to decide upon the measures most immediately necessary. Those who had been present at Offenburg and at Heppenheim here met together: and the contrast between their respective bases of operations became at once evident, and showed itself to be irreconcilable. The question of a Tariff Parliament or a Confederate Parliament was no longer disputed, nor the question of a restricted or an entire Germany; but the discussion turned upon whether the object to be attained was a social democracy, or a monarchical form of national government. With stormy violence Hecker and Struve proposed the immediate proclamation of the German Republic. Heinrich von Gagern, as fiery as Hecker and as forcible as Struve, opposed them both: the watchword, he said, should not be a German Republic, but a German Empire.

There was no hope of a reconciliation between these two tendencies. In the endeavor to put off a division as long as possible, it was voted to leave to the future the decision of this question, and, for the present, to spend all their united energies upon securing the immediate summoning of a German Parliament. A Committee of seven members was to arrange some method for the election of deputies to this Parliament, and then to call together a large convention of champions of the German cause to carry out their plan.

Gagern, who had meanwhile become Prime Minister in Darmstadt, hastened thither, filled with the spirit of the principles expressed at Heppenheim, that a Parliament was of no use without a government to lead it. Here he met his brother Max, and agreed with him that the latter, as Ambassador from Nassau, accompanied by one Hessian General, should try to win as many Courts as possible to the project of a temporary central government. The Court of Baden at once assented to the proposition. The King of Würtemberg followed, declaring that only Prussia could assume the leadership, provided, of course, she was in favor of such a constitutional system; in Munich, where King Louis was hard-pressed by democratic seditions, it was not possible to obtain a hearing; but, on the other hand, at Dresden the new Minister, Von der Pfordten, offered his hearty support.

The result of the different conventions was a programme, which embraced in a few short sentences a complete outline of the projected central government: a president with responsible ministers, a senate of the united States, a popular house composed of representatives for every seventy thousand souls, the relegation to this supreme authority of all matters connected with the military, with diplomacy, and with commerce, tariff and trade, a Confederate court of justice and the guarantee of the popular rights of freedom. The representatives of the above-mentioned Courts hastened to the decisive spot, to Berlin.

At the same time, the Commission of Seven also accepted this programme, and on the 11th of March invited all the German men of rank and other notables to a convention to be held on the 31st, at Frankfort, for the discussion of the proposed German Parliament. This convention, constituted as it was, could lay no claim to being invested, either by its own nature or by commission, with the right of enacting binding resolutions: but as things were, it was very probable that no one would dare to oppose their conclusions. Just at this time certain events occurred, which seemed to extend at once this probability in an unexpected degree.

On the 13th of March, the astonishing, the unheard-of came to pass! The Government of one of the European Great Powers, that Government which had hitherto been the source and the retreat of German reactionary principles, the Government of Prince Metternich fell! It fell without a struggle, like the Lords of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen and of Anhalt-Dessau, before a vigorous expression of the popular will. A few riots in the streets, which were easily suppressed by the troops, a few excesses committed by the mob in the suburbs, which after some slight pillaging ceased of themselves, a deputation of Vienna students, and another from the Estates of Lower Austria:—these were sufficient to impress upon the Archdukes and the Ministers the necessity of yielding and of dismissing Metternich. The solution of the riddle is to be found in the fact that the Archdukes and Ministers had grown thoroughly tired of the pedantic statesman, who was always preaching, and yet who had everywhere, especially lately, suffered defeat; and they seized the first excuse to rid themselves of his presence.

Not without dignity did the old Prince lay down his office; and now the formerly systematic government got wholly out of joint. It became alarmingly evident that under Metternich’s administration there had been no growth of mental vigor in Austria. At his departure the ship of state was left without a rudder, and she tossed about for a long time, the sport of ever-changing storms. After the troops had left the city on the 14th of March, the Court and Government in Vienna stood under the protection, and consequently under the control, of a lax militia and of a throng of Radical students. It was not until the 20tb that under the presidency of Count Ficquelmont a new Cabinet could be formed. The Italians in Lombardy and Venice rose in a national insurrection, which was swelled by accessions from the whole of Italy, and soon supported by the army of Sardinia. Hungary was just on the point of rebellion. There was already a commotion in the Slavonic provinces, especially in Bohemia. In the German crown-lands, the peasants rose against the manorial lords, and the burghers would hear no more of police and of taxes. It was, indeed, a very doubtful question, whether in three months there would be any Austria at all.

A similar revulsion came about, but in another way, in Prussia. King Frederick William was, at the very outset, touched indirectly by the revolutionary movement in an exceedingly sensitive point, although the wound was not dangerous for the State : before the end of February, a democratic faction in his dearly-loved Swiss principality of Neuchatel, supported by volunteers from the neighboring Cantons, had at one blow got the upper hand and thrown off the Prussian yoke. The King was deeply affected by this, and was thoroughly angry; but for the time being he could do no more than send a vigorous protest to the Swiss Confederate Government.

So much the more clearly did he see in the events in Germany strong motives for advocating a reform of the German Confederation. One of his most trusted friends, General von Radowitz, had received, as early as the 20th of November, 1847, the royal assent to a memorial, in which the Confederate Diet was urged to undertake the creation of a better Confederate military organization, the establishment of a Confederate court of justice, and thorough-going legislation concerning items of commerce, tariff, and trade; and in all these questions, the decision of a majority was demanded in place of the unanimity which had hitherto been required. In spite of all the experiences of Hardenberg and of Bernstorff, it does not seem to have occurred to the King nor to his adviser, that such an increase of the power of the old Confederate Diet, without a thorough remodelling of the same, meant political suicide for

Prussia and for the Tariff-Union. On the 1st of March Radowitz was sent with these propositions to Vienna. The distant murmurs of the German uprising assured him a favorable reception; but before the propositions could have any practical result, he was overtaken by the impetuous storm of the Revolution. With a heavy heart the General sent back word that even the King of Bavaria had now approved of the fatal scheme of a German Parliament, and that the Austrian Government was completely out of gear.

In Prussia itself, in the provinces of the Rhine and of Westphalia, in East Prussia and in Silesia, the sentiment of the people was the same as in the Petty States; and at the beginning of March, a radical excitement among the masses began in Berlin, which increased daily in intensity and force. Immense popular meetings were held outside of the city, numbering at first hundreds, but soon thousands, stirred by fiery speeches in the name of Liberty, and by the stormy adoption of violent resolutions. Soon there were tumults in all the streets; the police, who interfered, were repelled; and even the military succeeded in quelling the riots only after many a bloody encounter. All the anarchists of Europe naturally directed their attention to Berlin; for the Prussian monarchy was the most dangerous opponent of their schemes, not only because it was internally strong, but precisely because it was more favorably inclined to reform, than Austria. The railways brought day after day throngs of these foreign anarchists to the capital, especially Rhinelanders and Poles. On the 15th of March, the first experiments were made in building barricades; on the 16th, the troops were obliged to make use of their fire-arms, to clear the streets. To the King, this shedding of citizens’ blood was not only abhorrent in itself, but a source of mortification as a disgrace to his authority; and he decided to put an end to the disturbance by making overtures upon a national basis. The night before the 18th, he signed a document, which embodied almost the very same particulars as Gagern’s programme, except that the King did not demand the title of Commander­in-Chief, but was satisfied with the office of a Field­Marshal. In this document he summoned the United Provincial Diet to meet on the 2d of April for further consultation about the framing of a Prussian Constitution, and by a special decree he repealed the Prussian Press-Law.

At the news of these concessions, the square in front of the royal palace was filled, on the morning of the 18th of March, with many thousands of people, who at first exultingly shouted their thanks to their sovereign. But gradually the appearance of the crowd changed. Mobs of the proletarians cried out, that all this did not relieve their distress; others demanded the withdrawal of the troops, and one gang tried to force its way through a portal of the royal palace. The King- ordered the square to be cleared. Thereupon a company of infantry advanced from each side, while in the middle rode a squadron of dragoons with sheathed weapons, at a walking pace. Immediately the scenes of the preceding days were renewed. The people rushed against the dragoons with abusive and threatening shouts, so that the horses became restive, and many riders were obliged to draw their sabres to defend themselves. Accidentally the guns of two grenadiers were discharged, one by the awkwardness of the soldier himself, the other by the blow of a workingman upon the trigger; the bullets flew harmlessly into the air, and, indeed, no individual during the whole affair was injured at all.

Directly after the report of these shots, the crowd scattered, and the cries spread like wildfire through the streets : Treachery! Murder! Arms! Barricades! The story went round, that the dragoons had charged upon the people, and that the grenadiers, with a salvo from a whole battalion, had killed multitudes of defenceless citizens. The storm of indignation became general. Especially the youth: students, apprentices, and operatives threw themselves into the struggle with wild enthusiasm. The sympathy of the population was without exception on their side. Barricades without number sprang up in all quarters, as if by magic. In a few hours the whole city of Berlin became one great encampment of rebels.

The Commander-in-Chief of the troops, General von Prittwitz, was, from, the very first, convinced that his force of twelve thousand men would not be large enough to garrison the whole extensive city. Therefore, he decided to take in the most important portion of it, a circle about the palace, having a diameter of, perhaps, a mile and a half; if the people did not then yield, he purposed to quit the city and to force a surrender by a blockade and bombardment. The first part of his plan he executed successfully in the night, under a bright moon, the struggle lasting eight hours. Ilis progress was slow, not because of the strength of the resistance, which, in fact, demanded only at a few points great exertions and much sacrifice, but rather in consequence of the mood of the King, who, horrified as he was at the outbreak of such a conflict with his people, now wept bitterly, and now sank into a speechless apathy. From time to time he gave permission to attack only a single point, or to occupy a single street; and it was only after long explanations and much persuasion, that he at last granted the power of moving forward at discretion.

At nine o’clock in the evening he gave audience to Baron Georg Vincke, whom the Minister, Bodelschwingh, had summoned to Berlin to the conference about the future constitution. Vincke represented to the King the danger of keeping up a fight, which only increased the bitterness of the people, and asserted that, if the troops were withdrawn, peace and order would of their own accord be re-established in the city. The King dismissed him without having expressed himself with regard to the matter; yet Vincke’s words had made a certain impression upon him; towards midnight, unable to endure any longer the noise of the fighting in the streets, he summoned General von Prittwitz, emphasized to him his aversion to further bloodshed, and ordered him to hold his position, but not to act any more upon the offensive. Immediately afterwards, he resolved to make the first advances towards a reconciliation, and wrote, himself, a proclamation, headed: “To my beloved citizens of Berlin.” In this, he promised the withdrawal of the troops, so soon as the people should remove the barricades.

Thereupon, on the morning of the 19th of March, one deputation of citizens after another waited upon the King, with the declaration that a reverse order of procedure could alone lead to the desired result: that it would be impossible to tear down the barricades, so long as the sight of the troops in arms added fuel to the rage of the people; but that, if the troops were first withdrawn, the citizens themselves would secure the return of a law-abiding condition of things. After long hesitation and resistance, and in spite of the earnest remonstrances of General von Prittwitz and of the Prince of Prussia, the King finally allowed Count Arnim-Boytzenburg, who had been appointed Minister in the place of Bodelschwingh, to wring from him the momentous order.

The troops left the streets. At first, in accordance with the wish of the Prince, they remained in the vicinity of the palace; but soon after, upon command of the General, retired to their barracks. They were followed by insulting crowds of proletarians, who during the night and the next morning threatened the isolated barracks so seriously, that Prittwitz took it upon himself, inasmuch as there was to be no more fighting, to withdraw all the regiments from the city. So that, for the time, the Revolution held sway in Berlin as in Vienna.

As is usual in such cases, the sequel immediately showed that the peace-loving citizens were by no means able to fulfil at once their promise to restore order and quiet. Even on the very same day, the King was grossly insulted by the heroes of the barricades. The rumor that the Prince of Prussia had given the order, on the 18th, which resulted in so much bloodshed, although entirely unfounded, had so enraged the people against the heir to the throne, that the King, fearing for his brother’s personal safety, sent him off to England. Meanwhile the gradual restoration of order was begun, by the formation and the arming of a force composed of citizens, and by the dismissal of the old Ministry. Under the Presidency of Count Arnim-Boytzenburg, who was soon followed by the leader of the Rhine Liberals, Ludolf Camphausen, two prominent members of the United Provincial Diet, Alfred von Auerswald and Count Schwerin, were summoned to seats in the new Cabinet. The Department of Foreign Affairs was placed in the hands of Baron Heinrich von Arnim, until this time Ambassador at Paris, an intelligent man of more boldness than prudence, long since disgusted with the weakness of Prussian diplomacy, and thoroughly determined, in the new order of things, to be the representative of new power and vigor. His entrance upon the scene was followed by very impor­tant, but at the same time very critical changes.

It would be impossible adequately to portray the alternating moods that took possession of the King’s mind during these days. The terrible scenes which he had just passed through, he would a few weeks before have held to be utterly inconceivable. In them, he saw the work of the dregs of European civilization, the outbreak of a deeply laid and malignant conspiracy, the product of a satanic power. He was both deeply depressed and highly excited. Ilis most sacred feelings had been wounded, his loftiest ideals had been dragged in the mire; never afterwards, in his later life, did he overcome the impressions of these months. Wherever he cast his eyes, he seemed to see Anarchy, now wanton and now dangerous; and everywhere, behind a thin veil, Sedition with uplifted arm, ready to strike a blow. The healthy life of honest sentiment and of ideal aspiration, which pulsated by the side of this feverish restlessness among the populace, he entirely overlooked, or credited it with no power and no wisdom. In Prussia and for Prussia, there was nothing to do at present but to stem the tide of dire destruction.

The only thing that refreshed his spirit amid these dismal thoughts, and seemed to offer a field for his creative activity, was his interest in the cause of Germany. If it was true, that formerly, owing to Metternich’s influence, the King had restrained his wishes within the limits of the old Confederate Constitution, and did not, until after Metternich’s fall in Vienna, propose a representation of the Estates in the Confederate Diet, it must now be confessed, that after that time he gradually went beyond all bounds, and allowed his fancy to revel in brilliant conceptions of the restoration, in all its former glory, of the Holy Roman Empire. Accordingly, he was quite ready at the suggestion of Arnim to turn the attention of the people from national troubles to the common cause of Germany. An enthusiastic proclamation of March 21st, not free, however, from indiscreet expressions, declared : “There is no means of salvation for us from our present threatening situation but a closer union with the German Princes and Nations under one leadership. I take upon myself, today, to be this leader during these perilous times. My people, who do not fear dangers, will not forsake me; and Germany will gather about me with confidence. I have assumed today the old German colors, and have placed my people under the revered banner of the German Empire. Prussia’s interests shall henceforth be those of Germany. As evidence of his intention to carry out this project, the King rode through the streets of the city in a solemn procession, surrounded by ministers and generals, citizens and students, all decorated with scarfs of black, red, and gold, and proclaimed to the people in several speeches the coming of the new German era.

Many men of the old Prussian school looked upon this display as undignified, rather than impressive. Certainly, immediate and vigorous action was to be expected on the part of the King after this parade; and the arrival of the younger Gagern in Berlin, on the very same clay, offered a suitable occasion and opportunity for further steps. The next measures, that should have been taken, were very evidently: to request the Confederate Diet to set at once the time for the election of deputies for a Parliament, and to make it as soon as possible; to request the Governments to name their representatives in the work of forming a constitution; and to promise his (the King’s) appearance in person at the opening of the Parliament, and the appointment of responsible ministers for the discharge of the executive functions. There would have been no lack of clamors from the democratic party, nor of complaints from the Courts; but who can calculate the effect which the resolute action of a heroic and clear-sighted personality could have produced at this time of insecurity and upheaval. To be sure, it would have led to a rupture of the old Confederate fetters, but in such a way, that this would have marked the end of a revolution, and not its beginning.

But, alas! Our Fatherland was not destined to be so fortunate. The unhappy course of events in the Berlin riots, first the bloody conflict and then the weak submission of the King, offered to the republican party in Germany the opportunity of overwhelming, with a flood of insult and derision, in thousands of newspaper­articles, placards and speeches, the most powerful of their opponents — the cowardly tyrant, who let his own people be mowed down, and then, when beaten, abjectly begged for mercy, and who now wished to decorate his infamous forehead with the German Imperial Crown! Especially in Baden and Saxony these reproaches filled the mass of the people with violent hatred towards the King. When, on the 23d of March, the representatives of those States that had responded to Gagern’s appeal convened for consultation with Von Arnim, Würtemberg, Darmstadt, and Nassau held firmly to the proposed plan; but Baden and Saxony recoiled from definite pledges, and excused themselves by wishing to wait for fresh instructions from their Courts.

This, certainly, was not in itself likely to prompt the King to immediate action. And, moreover, serious news came just then from Vienna. However weak the Austrian Government might be, it was not willing on any account to allow a Prussian hegemony to be established in Germany, but still wished to assert at any price the leading position, which it had hitherto held. At the risk of mortally offending its turbulent Slavonic subjects, it declared itself now to be German in every vein. Not without its approval did the Vienna newspapers re-echo the abuse heaped upon Frederick William; and as they could not fittingly oppose to him, as an ideal hero, the half-witted Emperor Ferdinand, they drew the attention of Germany to the Archduke John, who, in spite of his defeats on the field of battle, enjoyed a certain popularity in Vienna, because of having married below his rank, and on account of a supposed toast drunk by him to German Unity.

A black, red. and gold banner floated from the spire of St. Stephen’s; the Emperor was presented to the people from a window of the Hofburg, holding a banner of the same sort in his hand; and the Press and clubs resounded once more with enthusiasm for the German National Cause. On the 24th of March, there was sent to all the German Courts a circular, which protested in decided terms against any change whatever in the German Confederate Constitution, without the assent of all the members of the Diet.

These reports from Vienna, following quickly upon one another, put a sudden end to the zealous ardor, which had been manifested in Berlin on the 21st. As for the leadership in the hour of danger—the idea could no longer be entertained. The King had suffered a fresh mortification from the ridicule with which the democratic party had received his well-meant manifesto. He decided to watch the course of events, and contented himself with announcing, on the 25th of March, to the German Governments, that he was ready, if the Confederate Diet wished it, to send deputies from the Estates to Frankfort.

Meanwhile, Baron von Arnim did not allow himself to be disconcerted by the ill-success, however marked, of his first attempt. Just at this time, the people in Schleswig-Holstein had risen in opposition to .the unlawful proceedings of Denmark ; King Frederick VII., urged on by the Copenhagen Democrats, though in flagrant violation of the ancient rights of the land, had torn Schleswig violently from Holstein, and taken steps towards the incorporation of the former into Denmark proper. Thereupon, with the unanimous support of the people, a Provisional Government had formed itself at Kiel and had taken upon itself the conduct of an armed resistance. Considering how extraordinarily popular their cause was throughout Germany, Arnim thought he should find in it the mighty lever, with which to restore the prestige of Prussia, and even to raise it higher than before.

The King, on the 24th of March, formally recognized the claims of the Duchies. Prussian troops advanced for their defence to the frontier, and the States bordering on the North Sea were called upon to assist. Arnim, borne along by the enthusiastic approval of the people, did not take the matter very seriously; he rather regarded his action as the execution, somewhat irregular, to be sure, of the orders of the Confederate Government, on the ground of the decree of September 16th, 1846, and was of the opinion that Denmark would by no means on this account venture a war with Germany. Only too soon was he to be bitterly undeceived; and we shall later see that, however just the cause of Schleswig may have been, Arnim's method of setting to work drew down upon Prussia the ill-will of all the Great Powers, especially that of Russia.

This same 24th of March witnessed another decision of the Prussian Government, which was only too well adapted to increase the anger of Russia, and at the same time to endanger Prussia's own safety. We have remarked what lively sympathy and admiration all Liberals, little as they knew about the true history of Poland’s fall, had felt since 1830 for the courage and persistence of the Polish people. As we have said, many Poles had helped to build and defend the Berlin barricades; and one of the first demands of the victorious Democrats was the amnesty of the condemned rebels of 1846. The pardoned prisoners, greeted on all sides with ovations, hastened immediately into the Province of Posen, and there, in token of their grati­tude for the amnesty, incited an insurrection against the Prussian authorities, and inflamed their compatriots against the half-million German residents of the Province.

The Archbishop Przyluski then came from Posen, at the head of an immense Polish deputation, to Berlin, to lay before the Government the demands of their nation. He did not, indeed, succeed in gaining all that he wished; nevertheless, the Ministry, on the 24th, under the pressure of the current of popular feeling, promised a national reorganization of the Grand Duchy of Posen, which should be further considered in detail by a Commission chosen from the two nationalities. But already, on the 23d, at the reception by the Polish Central Committee of a delegation of German inhabitants of the city of Posen, the former had roundly declared that their aim was nothing less than the restoration of entire Poland.

While the traditional order of things was being thus disturbed in all the German States, while in one place enthusiasm for German Unity, and in another the passionate desire for Democratic Freedom had unsettled the existing conditions, the high and mighty Confederate Diet had let itself also be swept on by the current of the times, without an attempt at resistance. It had raised the German banner above its Hall of Assembly, had recognized the necessity of a German Parliament, and had invited seventeen champions of Liberalism, one for each Curia, to draw up a new Confederate Constitution. The time now drew near for the meeting of the assembly called for this same purpose by the Committee of Seven. This assembly later received the name of the Preliminary Parliament. In the Confederate Diet the desire very naturally arose to forestall this unofficial assembly in the great question of the day, the convening of a national Parliament.

To insure the successful issue of this all-important matter, so critical for Germany’s future, it was not only necessary to enact a law concerning the election of representatives to the future Parliament, but it would certainly be most essential to form as soon as possible, for its guidance, a provisional Confederate Executive, and through this Executive to lay before the Parliament the outline of a Constitution, which should serve as a basis of its operations. But the Confederate Diet still stood under the baleful influences that reigned at its birth ; it was unable to act definitely and positively. Gagern’s scheme was before it. Against most of the points it had nothing to bring up. Nevertheless, it did not dare to propose, in view of the present state of popular sentiment, a Senate of the individual Governments, an Upper House. Still less could it agree in the matter of a Head. It was clear to all, that if any one man were to be raised to this position, it could be only the King of Prussia. Austria and Bavaria protested against this under all circumstances, on principle; and many others feared lest the savage hatred of the people toward the King should make his nomination impossible.

So it was decided to summon the Parliament without any Head. Whether the outline of a constitution should be laid before them, should depend on the work of the Seventeen; the Governments should themselves decide whether their representatives in the Parliament were to be delegates from the Chambers, or deputies chosen by popular ballot. Consequently, on the 30th of March, the Act of the Confederate Diet appeared, which called upon the Governments to have elected, as soon as possible, a representative for every seventy thousand souls by the already existing constitutional methods; so that the work of framing a German Constitution might be accomplished by the united action of the Governments and the People. Accordingly, it was the Confederate Diet that first proposed for the future Imperial Parliament the one-chamber system. The other questions, that the Diet had not succeeded in deciding, were left to be discussed and determined in the Parliament.

This was, doubtless, another proof of the impotence of the Confederate Diet; yet it cannot be concealed that the crowd of free representatives of the People, who now hurried together to form the “Preliminary Parliament,” were not destined to succeed any better.

 

CHAPTER II. THE PARTIES.

 

When, on the 31st of March, the Preliminary Parliament opened its sessions, it was composed of five hundred members, of whom the great majority were South Germans, two were Austrians, and one hundred and forty-one were Prussians. The Committee of Seven brought forward Gagern’s programme as a basis of proceedings ; but Struve rose at once and moved the proclamation of an indivisible German Republic. He and his companions had meanwhile covered Baden with a firmly united network of democratic societies, had, as far as lay in their power, put arms into the hands of their people, and had received from Paris the promise of a strong and well-equipped contingent. They spread about openly in Frankfort threats of breaking up the Convention, if it should not agree to their proposals. This produced such an effect upon the majority, that, although it did not accept Struve’s plans, it nevertheless did not discuss Gagern’s programme, but seized upon the hitherto successful expedient of leaving these disputed questions to be settled by the Parliament, and limited itself to taking the necessary steps for convening this Parliament as soon as possible.

Even with this limitation, the proceedings were stormy to the highest degree; once the rumor spread that an armed mob was approaching with the intention of driving out all the lukewarm and indisposed from the Convention. Meanwhile, the majority held closely together, and a motion of Hecker’s, that the Convention should remain in session until the opening of the Parliament, received scarcely one-third of the votes. This was a strong evidence of the cool-headedness of the German middle-class and of its hatred of violence; for certainly these men, who had voluntarily travelled to Frankfort, must be considered as the most zealous of all Liberals; and they showed themselves to be such in all the decisions of the Convention.

Schleswig and East and West Prussia were henceforth to belong to the German Confederation, and consequently should choose deputies to the Parliament. The same question with regard to the Germans in Posen was referred, out of tender consideration for their beloved Poles, to the decision of the Parliament; but, on the other hand, the restoration of Poland was proclaimed to be a sacred duty of the German Nation. The fact that the fulfilment of this duty would involve a great war with Russia did not deter, at least, the Republicans. On the contrary, it seemed to them to be a glorious thing to march forth in league with their French brethren, to the overthrow of the Asiatic barbarian and the prince of all despots.

The representatives to the Parliament were not to be elected in the proportion of one to every seventy thousand inhabitants, as the Confederate Diet had decreed, but of one to every fifty thousand, and they were to be elected by universal suffrage. In that case the Parliament would not, as the latest decrees of the Confederate Diet implied, unite with the Governments in framing a Constitution; but, according to the motion of the Badener Soiron, the deciding of questions concerning the Constitution would be intrusted solely and alone to a National Assembly, chosen by the People to frame a Constitution, except so far as this Assembly saw fit to inquire after the opinions of the Cabinets.

After the Convention had appointed a Committee of fifty members to watch the proceedings of the Confed­erate Diet, it closed its sessions on the 4th of April, externally in the greatest harmony. On all sides Liberty and Union had been the cry; and in the name of Liberty the most radical resolutions had been passed; but so far as Union was concerned, dissension was only concealed by the fact that all positive resolutions and motions were laid on the table. The members were not yet free from the old German tendency to revel arm in arm over ideal inspirations, but in practical action bitterly to oppose one another. The common national feeling had not yet made sufficient progress among them to overcome individual conceits and the political proneness to split into factions. Some longed for Union—only it must not be monarchical; and others desired it just as ardently—only it must not be Prussian. Thus the spirit of opposition was everywhere; yet every one meanwhile consoled himself with the hope, that in the presence of the majesty of a Parliament sprung from the People, every mischievous idiosyncrasy must fall to the ground.

At first the advocates of the resolutions passed in the Preliminary Parliament had every reason to be satisfied with their success. The Confederate Diet passed immediately, on the 7th of April, a decree quite in accordance with the “wish of the People,” concerning the elections that were to take place for the National Assembly, called for the purpose of framing a Constitution.” Even in Prussia, the Government and the Diet conformed to the requisition, although the Diet had already begun its elections on the basis of the former decree of the Confederation; a new law now called upon the people to elect deputies to the Parliament on the basis of universal suffrage.

Even more readily were the suggestions of the Preliminary Parliament obeyed in the affairs of Schleswig-Holstein. On the 4th of April the Confederate Diet directed Prussia to protect the Duchies ; and when, immediately afterward, the Danes in Schleswig opened hostilities, the Confederate Diet recognized at once the Provisional Government at Kiel. The latter hesitated no longer, upon the retreat of the Danish troops, to arrange the Parliamentary elections in Schleswig also, and, in this way, to put the seal upon the reception of the country into the Confederation.

The second demand of the Preliminary Parliament in regard to the extension of the Confederation, namely, the admission of East and West Prussia, was upon the motion of Prussia granted quite as unreservedly by the Confederate Diet in a decree passed April 11th; and soon afterwards, the German half of the Province of Posen was likewise admitted. In doing this, Prussia gave up her claim to being independent as a European Great Power by reason of her possession of lands outside of Germany; and after the step thus taken on the 11th, she could not again win back this right, until her King should become the actual Head of a future united Government. But this was still a long way off.

Yet all this compliance on the part of the existing Governments with the commands of an entirely unauthorized assembly, to join in the most hazardous enterprises, did not deter the Republicans from unfurling, shortly after the close of the Preliminary Parliament, the banner of armed rebellion. This occurred at the same time at the two extremes of the Confederate territory: in Baden on the shores of Lake Constance, and in the Polish province of Posen.

The platform of the South German party had been already announced by the poet Herwegh, in a declaration sent by him from Paris on the 1st of April, in which he said: “We recognize no power on earth but the People and the will of the People as a whole”; and yet, a few sentences further, he continues very naively: “The Republic is for us a matter of conscience and of religion; and no majority whatever can today force a monarchy upon us.” And again : “It is our conviction, and we express it openly, that the new era cannot dawn for Germany without an uprising among the people.”

The meaning of all this was: let the majority decide as it may, the People, that is Herwegli and his associates, are determined to drive out with violence all monarchs; “for,” as he says later on, with especial reference to his Polish associates: “these monarchs would render impossible any serious conflict with Russia.” Hecker was quite of the same opinion: the People are sovereign, but they must not choose a monarchy. He had already said to his friends, toward the close of the Preliminary Parliament: “We cannot do anything here in Frankfort; Baden is the place to strike the first blow.” So they hurried into the southern part of Baden, where their societies had been the hardest at work, and where accessions from Switzerland were also expected.

On the 12th of April, at Constance, Hecker announced to the world the great enterprise, summoned to the standard all men of the neighboring country, who were capable of bearing arms, and proclaimed the deposition of all who were then in office. The Confederate Diet opposed to them troops from Baden, Hesse, and Würtemberg, who completely routed in the first encounter at Kandcr, on the 20th, a band of insurgents under Hecker, and a second under Struve at Steinen. A company of armed peasants, who had occupied Freiburg on the 22d, were overpowered on the 24th. Then came Herwegli with his Parisian volunteers across the Rhine; but they were overtaken on the 27th at Dossenbach by a company of Würtembergers and chased over the Swiss frontier in disorderly flight.

The three leaders succeeded in escaping with their lives.

Their Polish confederates had meanwhile shown more martial courage and very much less honor. As we have seen, the King had promised their deputation a national reorganization of the Province by a Commis­sion composed of members of both nations, under the condition that no unlawful measures should be taken, and all meddling with Russian Poland avoided. They had promised this and then gone their own way without restraint. That united Commission formed itself at once of seven Poles, who only after much solicitation had the goodness to admit two Germans, although then only as spectators. In the fortified and strongly occupied capital city, Posen, they offered the German inhabitants friendship and concord; but in the smaller towns and in the open country the nobles with all their kinsmen and households took up arms, and as far as they could, compelled the Polish peasants to join their ranks; strengthened themselves by receiving accessions from Russian Poland and from Galicia, as well as by welcoming countless emigrants who hastened to them from France; levied tributes of money and of supplies upon both Poles and Germans; tore down the Prussian eagle; sequestered the royal funds; drove out the Prussian officials; and maltreated Germans and Jews who refused to obey them.

Inasmuch as there were in the Province, by the side of seven hundred thousand Poles, not less than five hundred thousand Germans, the latter continually sent more and more vigorous protests and complaints to Berlin ; yet even there the sympathy with the Poles was so strong that General von Willisen, who had always been enthusiastic for the restoration of Poland, was sent to them as Commissary for the Reorganization. He warned the Poles that they should preserve law and order; yet he watched their excesses with patient calmness and restrained the military from any energetic measures. So that the throng of men armed with scythes increased daily, incited, moreover, by the Archbishop Przyluski and, in accordance with his instructions, by the whole body of the Polish clergy. These preached to the peasants, hitherto for the most part loyal, that to be Polish and to be Catholic went hand in hand: every one that did not join the revolution would be forced into the heretical church by the Prussians; but whoever shouldered his scythe, should receive, after the liberation of his country, three acres of plough-land, a cow, and, after death, eternal salvation. General von Willisen was not thereby hindered from making a compact with the National Committee, to the effect that the number of the Polish troops should be limited to four battalions, and he assigned to each a distinct garrison—so far, at least, recognizing a national armament. The Poles took possession of these forts, but kept on recruiting without interruption, extorted fresh contributions, and continued to drive out Prussian officials. Meanwhile, the complaints of the German population had so far had an effect in Berlin, that a royal decree excluded those districts that contained more German than Polish inhabitants from the Reorganization; and soon afterward they were assigned to the German Confederation.

This called forth immediately a thundering declaration from the Poles, that this was a repetition of the old crime, a seventh partition of Poland, which they were ready to resent at the risk of their lives. Willisen’s compact was blown to the winds, and everywhere an open warfare was begun. In this struggle the Poles manifested equally an extraordinary heroism in face of the troops and a barbarous cruelty towards the defenceless Germans and Jews. Several bold sallies of small Polish companies were successful. Once their leader, Mieroslawski, even gained the victory over a much larger, but badly-disciplined detachment near Miloslaw. In the long run, however, they could not hold out against greater numbers. In the first part of May, after Mieroslawski had laid down his arms, the rebellion was everywhere smothered, the seditious bands broken up, and peace again restored.

The geographical position of Baden and Posen prevented, of course, the insurgents in these countries from directly helping each other or working together. Yet, in spite of this, the defeat of one meant a sore blow for the other. The best revolutionary soldiers in Herwegh’s onslaught would have been the victorious Poles; and the successful kindling of a German revolutionary conflagration would have most materially helped along the cause of Mieroslawski. But now they had seriously damaged each other’s cause by the premature exposure of their aims. The Poles had shown what Germans living under their rule might expect to suffer; and had testified by their own repeated declarations, that it was not only the whole province of Posen, but West Prussia, which had just been admitted into the Confederation, that they wished to recover. The people of Baden, on the other hand, had openly confessed their allegiance to the Jacobin principles of 1793, which regarded the Sovereign Will of the People as but an empty name, and justified the Republican fanatics in resorting to every violent measure of terrorism. And then, after such masterful pretensions, what wretched bickering and what a cowardly flight! Robert Blum was, from his radical standpoint, undoubtedly right, when he wrote to his wife at this time: “Hecker, by his mad behavior, has been guilty of treason to the German People.”

After these unsuccessful outbreaks of violence, the love for Poland and the enthusiasm for a Republic were in a great measure cooled down and extinguished. The Sovereigns were, for their part, convinced that there was no help against Democrats foot soldiers.

Yet the Radical party did not lose heart. What the revolt had lost for them, they hoped to gain in the Parliament. Therefore they entered into the work of the elections with redoubled energy. They did not talk any longer about a Republic, but so much the more zealously about the Sovereignty of the People. The monarchs might remain in power; but they should everywhere carry out the popular will. That was the true constitutional monarchy, and everything else only a miserable counterfeit,—like what the lukewarm and treacherous half-Liberals of Gagern’s stamp had in view. Whole men, they said, were needed, who would stand firm for the rights of the people and for their welfare, who would procure for the day-laborer an abundance of food, who would free the workman from the tyranny of capital, and who would provide the common peasant with sufficient land to till. Destruction then to the aristocrats, the misers, the hard-hearted egoists!

These doctrines were assiduously taught in town and village; and in hundreds of places they served to increase the excitement of the masses and led to fierce and often bloody frays. The wild rejoicings of the first few weeks of the Revolution gave place to a dull sort of fermentation.

During this raging and storming of the Revolution, the Commission of Seventeen was at work at Frankfort, in the Hall of the Confederation, upon the plan of a national constitution which was to serve, as it might have under propitious circumstances, as an outline offered by the Confederate Diet to the National Parliament. Here there came up quite other subjects of dispute and discord than the question between a monarchy and a republic. The task was not, as with the Radicals, to tear down all existing codes and then to set up in an open field, following their untrammelled fancy, an entirely new order of things. Whoever, in the general enthusiasm for unity, took account of the data as they actually presented themselves, found himself at the outset confronted by that great question, which had for a whole century in various forms made up the content of German history, namely : the relation of the two Great Powers in the nation to each other and to the independent position of the smaller States. Was it possible in a united confederation to satisfy both these Powers? If not, then would it be better, for the sake of closer union, to forego the German lands of the one ? Or. on the other hand, for the sake of keeping  all German lands together, to abandon the idea of such union and be contented with some slight changes in the Confederation as it then existed ? As we have seen, the discussion at Heppenheim really turned upon this question, and it was at the bottom of what was done there, even if no mention was made of it. Henceforth it was to be the controlling factor in the national movement.

The chairman of the Commission, of Seventeen was Dahlmann, the famous historian, and the leader of the celebrated Gottingen Professors, at this time one of the most prominent teachers at the University of Bonn. He was a man of good parts and of strict integrity, of fixed convictions and courageous patriotism; in politics he was a rigid doctrinaire, who, in accordance with the teachings of Montesquieu and De Lolme concerning the English political system, held a constitutional monarchy to be, by all means, the best form of government. He hoped to shape the future German constitution after this model: an hereditary Imperial Crown with responsible ministers; an Upper House comprising the reigning Sovereigns and one hundred and sixty-one Imperial councillors chosen by the Chambers: and a Lower House elected by the people on the basis of universal suffrage; the Imperial Authority should have sole control of the military and of all matters of diplomacy, commerce, customs, and trade, there being no duties between all the Imperial countries: the former contingents from the Confederate States should be resolved into one Imperial army, all whose officers should be appointed by the Emperor, who should also have control of the garrisons and forts. At the same time, the constitution proposed a set of vigorous rules for the governing of the individual States, and gave the people the assurance of the most comprehensive rights of freedom. In a word, according to this plan, the Empire would be a constitutional unit, the provinces retaining their hereditary heads and complete autonomy in matters of civil and criminal law, of police, of churches, and of schools, as well as, to some extent, in the question of taxation.

Surely, such a constitution would not have threatened in any way the internal life of the various German races, neither in their peculiar customs, nor in their unhampered development; every argument based on this fear would certainly have been unfounded. But the more vital question was, whether this constitutional framework was sufficiently well adapted to the existing circumstances for its own merits to outweigh every objection to it. Or, in other words : had the desire for unity so strongly taken hold of the German people that it could allure their minds as well as their hearts so far from the traditional standard of Individualism? This question must, as we know from the experiences of the Preliminary Parliament, be answered in the negative. Dahlmann’s scheme, while it possessed great merit as an ideal, could not, in those days and under those conditions, be realized.

As to the size of the proposed empire, Dahlmann’s idea was to take in, beside Schleswig, also East and West Prussia, and half of Posen, that is to say, the whole of the Prussian State. But with regard to the Austrian crown-lands his opinion was different. This was owing to the fact that on the same day, the 11th of April, upon which on Prussia’s own motion its Eastern Provinces had been admitted into the Confederation, the Emperor Ferdinand had granted to his Hungarian States a ministry of their own, responsible to the Diet at Pesth, thus leaving to the two halves of the Empire that were separated by the river Leitha no common bond save his own personal sovereignty. Dahlmann recognized this separation of interests, and applied it to the question of their admission into the German Empire: Germany had nothing to do with the Hungarian crown-lands; but the country on this side of the Leitha should belong to the German Empire, and be subject to all the laws and ordinances of the German Imperial government; there should be no customs between it and the rest of Germany, and one half of the Austrian troops should be incorporated into the German Imperial army.

Everybody knew that the Emperor of Austria would not agree to this, even if the German Imperial crown were offered to him: so it was evident to the whole world that Dahlmann’s scheme presupposed the withdrawal of Austria, and consequently the election of the King of Prussia to the imperial throne.

Opposition arose on all sides. The representative of Bavaria refused to take any part in the deliberations. Herr von Schmerling of Vienna treated the scheme with cool irony. The Seventeen voted only by a small majority to lay it before the Confederate Diet. There it fairly rained protests; although the Diet, at this time, was composed of new members, and liberal throughout, yet it was not able to agree even upon a provisional Executive, much less did it arrive at any decision upon Dahlmann’s scheme. It was again deemed advisable to lay some outline of a constitution before the Parliament; but the declaration of the Deputy from Darmstadt, Herr von Lepel, that the proposed system would never do, was unanimously upheld. Dahlmann’s motion (as was customary in the proceedings of the Confederate Diet) was buried in the records of a committee.

When, directly afterward, the scheme was published, there arose in the Radical press, in spite of the democratic clauses about the rights of property and of suffrage, a storm of rage against the idea of a Prussian hereditary Emperor. The Sovereigns, too, were indignant that Dahlmann had proposed to put them into his ‘Upper House” with one hundred and sixty-one of their own subjects, and to let these latter outvote them.

Not one of them would expose himself to such a disgrace.

In the midst of this hail-storm of execrations, a letter from the Prince of Prussia to the Ambassador Bunsen threw a joyous ray of light into Dahlmann’s heart. In this letter the Prince commended the plan in the highest terms, at the same time giving expression to his decided approval of a constitutional system, and criticising with the judgment of an expert, Dahlmann’s scheme in detail. He questioned especially the exaggerated limitations of the rights of the individual Governments in their own States. He thought that this was carried further than was necessary for the proposed centralized system. He, too, considered the position allotted to the German Princes in the Upper House as out of the question. Indeed, he doubted whether it were not desirable to win for the great Reform the favor of the Sovereigns by making the office of Emperor elective. The scheme as a whole, however, he considered a mag­nificent production, a masterpiece in clearness and conciseness, and of sterling value. “It evinces,” he said, “a comprehension of modern German conditions, that could only spring from a true German heart, and it deserves the thankful recognition of the whole Fatherland.”

The vision of the future presented by this letter from the Prussian Heir-Apparent was indeed fascinating; but so much the more comfortless for Dahlmann and his associates was the actual present, as revealed in a correspondence, which was carried on at the same time with Frederick William IV, the man on whom, for the moment, everything depended. He, the King of Prussia, to whom the Imperial crown of a restricted Germany would fall, proved himself to be eagerly desirous of keeping Germany entire, and thoroughly imbued with mediaeval notions.

In reply to a letter from the English Prince-Consort, the King had sketched an outline of the future Empire as he had pictured it to himself: a Confederation of States (not a Federal Union) with a Council of Sov­ereigns and a Parliament. At the head of such a government there should not be, as the Prince-Consort proposed, an Emperor chosen for a stated time; but the Emperor of Austria, as the first in honor among the Teutonic races, should become, once for all, “Roman Emperor;” then under him there should be a ‘‘Teuton King,” chosen for life to be the highest authority in the Empire, elected, as of old, at Frankfort in the conclave of the ancient Cathedral of St. Bartholomew, there accepted by the acclamations of the people, and then anointed and crowned, if Catholic by the Archbishop of Cologne, if Protestant by an Archbishop of Magdeburg, who was to be appointed Primas Germanice.

The King sent this outline to Dahlmann just at the moment when the latter was finishing his constitutional scheme. Dahlmann, therefore, returned with his own scheme a respectful, but very urgent refutation of the royal proposal. The King, however, remained unshaken. He felt that everything depended upon retaining for the new German Empire the German hereditary crown-lands of Austria, and upon thus preventing a fatal mutilation of the Fatherland. The only true means of avoiding this was the transfer of the German Imperial crown to Austria; and if she should not be contented with the simple honorary title, then even the sovereign authority in the German Empire should be granted to her. In the latter case, the King would request for himself the office of hereditary Imperial Commander-in-Chief of the German troops outside of Austria; the contingents of the Lesser and Petty States he planned to divide into six “ Imperial military dukedoms,” in each of which a King, Elector, or Grand Duke should have the command of all the contingents of the section—a plan, which, if carried out, would certainly not have increased the authority of Prussia, but rather that of the Lesser States, and consequently would least of all have promoted the interest of German Unity. Dahlmann once more pointed out to the King the necessity of making Prussia the leader of the Empire; for, as he said, Germany, in that case, without the Austrian hereditary lands would be stronger than she could be with them as a Confederation. The King, however, remained firm in his former convictions, and observed at the end of his reply that he moreover did not believe that the Sovereigns were at all inclined to offer him the Imperial crown; and if the proposal were to come from the people, without the consent of the Princes, or in direct opposition to them, such a proposal should be answered only with cannon.

This put an end, for the time at least, to all hopes of a restricted Germany, or left them to depend upon the very uncertain chance that the King would sing another tune, if the crown were actually offered to him. But Frederick William had already pledged himself to Austria, although perhaps only morally, in a letter to Metternich dated the 18th of April, in which he definitely promised to do all in his power for the transference to Austria of the hereditary Roman Imperial crown, and for himself, to claim only the office of Imperial Commander-in-Chief.

And now, in May, he sent to a number of German Princes in confidence a copy of his letter to the Prince-Consort; but when he wished to propose to the Sovereigns a discussion of its contents officially, his Ministers interposed: they were not so ready as the King to sacrifice unselfishly and magnanimously the interests of the Prussian State to the House of Lorraine. Inasmuch as in view of the approaching Prussian national assembly the King could not dispense with his Ministers, he was forced, though much to his annoyance, to give up for the present his great German project.

Elsewhere, too, the schemes for preserving Germany entire interfered directly with the longings of the people for German Unity. In Munich, King Louis I had become weary of ruling, and had abdicated in favor of his son Max II. The latter, although milder and less energetic than his father, held with equal tenacity to his sovereign prerogatives. Ilis Ministers openly pronounced, with serio-comic boisterousness, Dahlmann’s work to be a project alike dangerous to Princes and to People: in that it destroyed, on the one hand, the rights of the Governments, and on the other hand, interfered with the full development of the individual races; in short, it established in the form of a central power a despotism ruinous to all internal life of the nation.

Under the personal direction of the King a plan was then worked out, which was as directly in contrast to Dahlmann’s scheme as possible: instead of an hereditary Empire, a Directory was proposed which should hold office six years, and whose members should not be elected, but be taken in a fixed order from all the Princes of the Empire; likewise, the authority of this imperial body was reduced to a minimum, and the fullest exercise of sovereign rights reserved to the individual States. This plan would have helped the needs of the nation just as much and just as little as the Confederate Constitution of 1815. It was very aptly said that there was nothing good about it, except that it would be impossible to carry it out.

As far as Austria, the natural champion of Individual­ism, was concerned, her Government was occupied with a hundred other more vital interests than the question of a German Imperial constitution. But her wishes were being expressed by increasing agitations among her subjects. In Prague a great national movement of the Slavonic races arose who vigorously protested against any closer connection with Germany. In Bohemia and Moravia, Czechs and Germans were in open hostility, and more than forty districts refused to hold any elections for the German Parliament. In Vienna the tide of jubilation, which had risen so high in March over the tricolored banner, had begun to ebb at a rapid rate. The citizens feared lest Vienna, when once it had become part of a German Empire, should sink to the rank of a provincial city; the manufacturers heard with alarm that, as an integral part of the German Empire, they were not to be protected against their western German neighbors by any system of customs; and the artisans would not listen to those notions of the liberty of choosing one’s trade and of emigrating without paying duty, which were considered to be among the fundamental rights of the German citizen. The politicians took up the watchword: we are first Austrians and then Germans. A member of the Committee of Fifty, himself a citizen of Vienna, happening to be in the city in April, noticed with regret that many of the houses were decorated with the black and yellow flag by the side of the German colors. “ The faces of these people here,” he said, “are turned down the Danube toward the East, rather than toward the German Empire and the West.”

The Government of Austria entertained the same sentiments. The President of the Ministry, Count Ficquelmont, would have preferred to hold no elections for the Parliament at all; but he was afraid that such a course would be interpreted in Germany as indicating a desire, on the part of Austria, to withdraw from the Confederation entirely; and be was, indeed, far removed from wishing to convey any such impression. On the contrary, the whole Ministry were as determined as possible to maintain the leading position of Austria as strongly in the new Germany as in the old. That this was incompatible with the conversion of the German Confederation of States into a Federal Union with its realization of the dreams of the German people, was quite clear to all the Ministry, but they relied upon their traditional right to expect that Germany would, of course, give up whatever might seem disadvantageous to Austria.

So they proceeded in Austria with the elections; but in direct contradiction to the principles of the Preliminary Parliament, a ministerial edict of April 1st, published in the Wiener Zeitung, announced that the Government reserved for itself the right of considering ever) decree of the German National Assembly, and of refusing to recognize any that were not harmonious with the interests of Austria and with the character of a Confederation of States. Austria was well pleased when she found that Prussia could not finish her elections before the 1st of May; the two Powers then succeeded in having the opening of the Parliament postponed till the 18th. In Vienna this interval was spent in preaching, as widely as possible, the doctrines of an entire Germany and a loosely-connected Confederation of States. These efforts were crowned with marked success. The Government itself could, however, accomplish nothing further; for the loth and 26th of May brought fresh revolutions, in consequence of which the Imperial Family fled to Innsbruck and the Ministry fell again completely under the control of the Vienna street-democracy.

 

CHAPTER III. NATIONAL ASSEMBLY AND IMPERIAL REGENT.

 

We have presented some of the events of March and April very much in detail, in order to place in a clearer light the immense difficulties, which at the opening of the National Assembly were encountered by the champions of German Unity. The plan of a restricted German Confederation under the leadership of Prussia, and from which Austria was to be excluded, was rejected by the Prussian King himself, and still more decidedly by the people of South Germany. With the doctrine of keeping Germany entire, that is, of retaining both Great Powers in the Confederation, it was impossible to combine any plan of national unity, or to do more than hold to the Act of Confederation of 1815. Lastly, the Republicans, who would the most successfully have disposed of all these difficulties at one blow, had suffered quite as severe a defeat in the elections as in their attempted revolts: three-quarters of the nation voted against them.

All the fervor and enthusiasm of the period was required to keep alive for any length of time, under such circumstances, the vain hope of a successful issue. The situation must be remembered, when we are tempted to criticise and pass judgment on the first German Parliament with its countless blunders and melancholy termination. These men had the courage to take hold of a problem, which it was impossible to solve, with the conviction that upon the solution of it the salvation of the Fatherland depended. Their mistakes were forced upon them by circumstances: their aims became the fixed goal of future German effort.

Such thoughts were far from the minds of the German people and their representatives, as the Deputies, numbering about six hundred, walked in procession through the decorated streets of Frankfort, on the 18th of May, 1848, from the old Hall of the Emperors in the Romer to St. Paul’s Cathedral, the place of their sittings, amid the pealing of bells and the roaring of cannon, and accompanied by an immense crowd of shouting citizens. Solemn and earnest emotion and cheering hopes filled their hearts; they realized that the unbounded confidence of their constituents, the whole nation, followed them and would watch all the proceedings of the Assembly; and that vigorous action and unwavering firmness in all questions of the day were expected from them. The Act of the Confederate Diet of the 30th of March had, it is true, invested them with power only to act in common with the Governments in framing an Imperial Constitution; but the inscription over the Presidential chair in the Cathedral called upon them to bring back to their Fatherland its former prosperity and glory. The great majority of them felt this to be the true call of the nation, and were determined, whenever this cause demanded it, in their own name to act, to exercise authority, and to frame a constitution.

Yet this majority was for the most part neither Republican nor Revolutionary; on the contrary, children of a Revolution as they were, their most ardent wish was to establish, in place of revolutionary disorder, a solid monarchical system of government. But they saw the Fatherland threatened on all sides by internal and external dangers, and felt that, confused and disordered as were the individual Governments, the only possibility of salvation lay in preserving the moral dignity of the National Assembly; and this, then, became to them a sacred duty. Therefore they continued to hold for the time their revolutionary weapons in their hands, not, they hoped, to make a bloody use of them, but for the moral effect of preventing obstinacy and dissension. It seemed to them utterly foolish, judging from all the experience of the last generation, to think of accomplishing the union of thirty-nine different Governments, without the assistance of some such pressure as this. All of the members, except a small minority of about thirty, felt this in common, in spite of the fact that most of them were strangers to each other, that many of them were inexperienced and undecided, and that their political opinions differed so widely and were so fluctuating on particular points. Several weeks passed before definite parties were formed, and then it was months before the several groups took any decided stand on the questions at issue.

Such was the condition of things in an assembly, which has not been excelled by any ever held in Germany in intelligence or in talent, in knowledge or in eloquence, in ideal aspirations or in lofty patriotism. It was a verification of the old saying, that the science of government is the highest accomplishment of the human mind, and one that can be attained only by native genius or after a long process of discipline.

A true representative of the sentiments that moved the majority was the President of the Assembly, Heinrich von Gagern, whom they chose on the 19th of May. A tall imposing figure, a strongly-modelled face, keen eyes beneath bushy brows, and a rich, deep voice marked him at once as a nature born to rule. Unselfish and truly modest, with his heart fixed upon high aims, he was not only always ready, but able in every speech and in every act to throw into the balance the weight of his whole personality. Understanding well how to hold himself in reserve for critical moments, he acquired in the Parliament that power, which, carrying everything before it, always accompanies the presence of a strong character at one with itself. Except in this regard, he could not be called a great orator; for he possessed very little versatility: he had almost no facility in the use of language, and neither wit nor irony at his command. His instrument had only one string: an almost irresistible and effective pathos.

He himself frankly confessed, that his moral strength was much greater and more effectual than his mental gifts. He was prudent, well-informed, and in particular cases not unskilful. But his brain worked slowly; and arrived with effort at the clear comprehension of complicated matters. He was wanting in the statesmanlike faculty of seeing things in the right light and of calculating their consequences correctly. So that, although he was extremely conscientious, he was at every period of his career forced many times to change his opinions, and finally became a zealous opponent of what he had himself previously brought about. At this time, on the 19th of May, he stood in the rosy dawn of the rising German Empire,1 at the head of the first German Parliament, and briefly summed up its task in the following words: “We are here to create a Constitution for Germany, for the whole Empire. Our call to the work and the authority to proceed have their origin in the sovereignty of the People.” A long-continued storm of applause showed him that he had expressed the sentiment of the Assembly. “The Preliminary Parliament,” he then continued, ‘‘justly perceived the difficulty of securing harmonious action with the Governments, and rightly allotted to us the task of framing a Constitution. Germany longs to be united and, with the co-operation of all her members, to be governed by the will of the People. It lies also in the province of this Assembly to bring about this co-operation on the part of the Slate Governments.”

However these words may have implied a future understanding with the Sovereigns, Gagern’s speech was a renewed confirmation of the opinion that they had no actual right to take part in the work of framing the German Constitution. This was solely and alone the right of the representatives of the sovereign People. And not only this : from the very first day the conviction had been gaining ground in all sections of the Assembly, that in view of the threatening aspect of the European sky, it was of the first importance to establish at once a Provisional Central Government, which should by a strong administration preserve the Fatherland from internal and external danger, until the introduction of the Imperial Constitution.

What shape this Provisional Government should take, was a question upon which widely-different ideas were entertained. The Radicals had before their eyes the example of the French Convention of 1793, with its Committee of Safety, and thought it best in a similar way to prove the sovereignty of the National Assembly ; and by the overthrow of the Royal Governments, to achieve the foundation of the German Republic. The Assembly, however, by a large majority disclaimed these aims. They wanted above and over the individual States a constitutionally-monarchical Authority, which should have far-reaching yet definite powers, and which should act independently in details, but through the responsibility of its Ministers be dependent upon the National Assembly for its political principles.

Upon the closer consideration of such a system, several questions arose at once: Should a single person, as Regent of the Empire, or a Directory of Three be appointed to hold the supreme authority? Should these one or more regents be appointed by the National Assembly or by the ruling Princes, or by both in common? Should they be selected from the Royal Houses or from among the people? Should their functions be made very general, or restricted to matters that concerned only the Empire as such? To deliberate upon these questions the Assembly appointed on the 3rd of June, 1848, a large committee.

The proposition of a Directory composed of three members, one for Austria, one for Prussia, and the third from the other States, gained at first, by reason of its appearing most practicable, many advocates in the Confederation and in the Assembly. Gagern himself favored the plan. His former project of placing the King of Prussia at the head was abandoned, at least for the present, on account of the King's extreme unpopularity. As early as the 28th of May, in a conference with the members of the Confederate Diet from Austria, Prussia, and Bavaria (the Herren von Schmerling, von Usedom, and von Closen), and also the Deputies Bassermann and Beckerath, he had come to an agreement with them about a Directory, and had commissioned the three first-named to request their respective Governments to appoint proper candidates. Usedom and Closen were quite ready to comply. Schmeling, whose Emperor had just fled from the rebellious city of Vienna, replied: “If I only knew what and where my Government now is!”

Meanwhile the deliberations on the subject continued. It became almost certain that the following names would be proposed as those of candidates: the Archduke John of Austria, Prince William of Prussia, and Prince Charles of Bavaria (all of them uncles of their respective sovereigns); and in ease Princes should be regarded as ineligible, the names of the Ministers Wesenberg of Austria, Camphausen of Prussia, and for the third, either the Bavarian, Armansperg, or the Badener, Mathy.

On the 19th of June, the Report of the Committee, drawn up by Dahlmann, was read before the Assembly. It was the expression of the prevailing sentiment of the Majority: namely, that the Assembly possessed sovereign authority to decide in all affairs relating to the Empire, and yet, as a matter of fact, wished, as far as possible, to act harmoniously with the Princes. The Committee decided for the Directory of Three: the members were to be chosen by the Governments and confirmed by the Assembly; the Ministers of the Directory were to be responsible to the Assembly; the Directory was to have executive power in matters concerning the safety and welfare of the German Federal Union, to hold the supreme command of the army and appoint a commander-in-chief, and to represent the interests of Germany in foreign and international questions of politics and commerce; but in framing and modifying the Constitution, the Directory should have no share, and to declare war it should need the consent of the National Assembly.

This would evidently cut deep into the sovereign rights of the individual States. Yet they raised no objections. Who the ruler of Austria actually was, was as little known in Vienna as in Frankfort. In Prussia, the President of the Ministry, Camphausen, entirely occupied with internal affairs and troubles, left the Confederate interests in the hands of Baron von Arnim, who was well pleased with the project of a strong central government, in which Prussia should have a share. Perhaps some of the smaller States sighed to themselves at the thought that in the seventeen Curias of the old Confederate Diet they had been able to exercise more influence than they possibly could in the future over the three votes of a Directory, from which they were to be entirely excluded.

But a new turn of affairs took place.

Gagern had meanwhile changed his mind. In view of the terrible disorganization of Austria, the exceedingly unsettled state of things in Berlin, and the condition, to a greater or less degree anarchical, of some of the Petty States, he felt the need of an Imperial administration as strong and ready as possible, such as could hardly be expected from a many-headed Directory. Therefore he now favored the appointment of one man to be Regent of the Empire. Many of the members on both sides of the House of Assembly had already become convinced that such a Head would act more quickly and more decisively than a college of three.

Gagern hoped to win to his side at least a good share of the Majority by proposing for this office a prince, especially the popular Archduke John. lie thought the Left would favor this Prince, if he should be nominated directly by the National Assembly without any intervention on the part of the Royal Houses; but just this feature of the measure was what did not accord with the sentiment of the Majority, who were with good reason convinced that a central government, in the creation of which the Royal Houses had no voice, would from the very beginning encounter the opposition of these latter. This was just why Dahlmann wished to include in the Directory representatives of the three most powerful Houses.

Gagern saw that there was only one means left for the accomplishment of his design: to arouse in the minds of the Majority a feeling that the several German Governments, and especially the King of Prussia, were already in favor of the elevation of the Archduke. He decided to make the attempt, although the necessary steps were not entirely free from the suspicion of trickery.

On the evening of the same day, the 19th of June, upon which the Committee made their report and proposed the Directory, Gagern once more turned to the three above-mentioned members of the Confederate Diet, and told them that there were still hopes of a majority for the Triumvirate, but that the idea of a single Regent of the Empire was daily gaining ground. He said, that in that case the Archduke John seemed to be the only available candidate, and asked them what their respective Governments would probably say to this proposition, assuring them that that would influence very much the vote of the Assembly. These gentlemen replied, that they could not give him a formal answer, since they were neither prepared for such a question, nor had they received instructions upon this point.

When Gagern asked their private opinions, Schmerling, who was a clear-headed, logical thinker, expressed plainly and decidedly his determination to advocate the Directory. Usedom, a man who at all times preserved an imposing dignity, yet who with all his cleverness was unsteady in character, replied, that if the proposition were actually made, the King, from his personal reverence for the Imperial Family, would probably accept the Archduke; but that the pride of the Prussian people would be deeply wounded; and that, therefore, the Directory was to be preferred. “I am quite of the same opinion,” said Closen, “and yet, if Prussia should vote for the Archduke, Bavaria cannot possibly object to him.”

Although these remarks were quite off-hand and of no official importance, it was rumored the next day and regarded as a settled fact, that the King of Prussia would favor the nomination of the Archduke John. On the 21st, Vincke made a speech in the Assembly in this strain, with evident reference to John and to the consent of the King. A number of the Deputies from the Petty States likewise advocated the Imperial Regency: their Governments would at least have the satisfaction of knowing that they were not worse off than Prussia and Bavaria.

In the course of the day, Usedom was told that if a Directory should happen to be fixed upon, it would be composed not of Princes, but of private men, and the only means of averting this Republican result was the election of the Archduke John.

Usedom was consequently inclined himself to work for this means of salvation, when he was startled by a telegram from the Berlin Ministry : “You are to oppose every Regent, even if a Prince'’ — or in other words: Yon are to protest in the name of your Government against the election of the Archduke and to urge the acceptance of the Committee’s Report.

And these were his instructions at a time when Camphausen’s Ministry in Berlin had already been dismissed, and no new Cabinet yet formed. And under such circumstances he was to expose Prussia to an open break with the National Assembly! His courage failed, lie telegraphed back this wail of distress: “If I vote for the Archduke John, he will be Regent; if not, three private persons.”

Gagern went to him by night, and told him that the appointment of John was as good as certain, since it had been understood that the Governments could agree upon no other. It was doubly the duty of Usedom in response to this positive utterance, and in accordance with his orders, to dispel the illusion by the announcement of Prussia’s protest. But he again had the courage to be weak. Again he talked about the probable displeasure of the Prussian people at the election of the Archduke, but said not a word about the opposition of his Government. After this conversation, Gagern might well consider the consent of the Prussian King as good as signed and sealed.

Meanwhile, in the National Assembly ever since the 19th the war of words had been going on over Republic and Monarchy, over the single Head and the Triad, over the sovereignty of the People and hereditary rights, over everything promiscuously, and sometimes in hourly-varying moods. On the whole, the party of the Imperial Regency grew, and after Radowitz had declared himself in favor of it, no one any longer doubted the approval of the King of Prussia. On the 23rd, Dahlmann announced, in the name of the Committee, that they had decided to amend their Report by putting in the place of the Directory an Imperial Regent, to be nominated by the ruling Houses and confirmed by the Assembly. At this point Gagern might have regarded the abandonment of the triumvirate idea and the election of the Archduke as assured.

But this did not satisfy him. What he had proclaimed in his opening speech, the sovereignty of the People, he wished now to see realized in the nomination of the Imperial Regent by the National Assembly alone. His speech on the 24th was not the extemporaneous expression of his overflowing emotions; for on the day before Usedom had already received informal notice of what was coming. After a conversation with Max Gagern, Usedom had reported to his Government on the 23rd: “The Left demands the appointment of a President by the National Assembly; the Right insists upon a Prince; in both parties the majority favors a single Regent; Radowitz spoke today in support of this, and Gagern will do so tomorrow; perhaps the motion will come from some section or other to appoint Archduke John by acclamation.” Usedom continued, that he had told Max Gagern, that he personally still preferred the Triumvirate; but added that he had not announced the opposition of the Government to the project of a single Regent.

Thus not even the hint that the Archduke might possibly be proclaimed Regent by the National Assembly had made clear to him his duty to protest, as he had been ordered. Gagern was justified in remaining in his belief that Berlin would offer no resistance to his designs.

Even if Usedom had done otherwise, it would probably have had no effect at this stage of affairs. For, when Braun of Koslin on the 20th had proposed the King of Prussia as Regent of the Empire, the brave man had been answered only by a burst of ironical laughter from the Left, and not a single member had risen to support him. Meanwhile, the ministerial crisis continued in Berlin, the raging of the unchecked proletariat, and the democratic attitude of the popular representatives. Indeed, in Frankfort, far from any consideration of Prussia as having any power or influence, the feeling was rife among the Moderate parties, that it would be an important duty of the future Central Government to aid the distressed Government of Prussia against the assaults of the Anarchists.

Such a haughty spirit of self-confidence permeated the whole Assembly, such a contented self-sufficiency in their own high calling, that the members lost sight of the hard actualities of existence in the world outside. A proposition to get rid of the old Confederate Diet, when the Central Government should enter into office, was greeted with jubilation on all sides, in spite of the emphatic assertions of Bassermann and Weicker, that by the side of the Central Authority some legislative body was necessary to represent the individual States. Everybody was ready to take a sudden jump with both feet from the previous extreme of Individualism directly over a Federation into the new extreme of a closely-welded Union. To rush from one extreme to another is certainly human; but in this case, these men unfortunately failed to realize that the creators of the Confederate Diet held the control of all the material factors in the movement of 1815, whereas the only control held by the Deputies in the Cathedral of St. Paul in 1848 was their moral influence over the people.

. The end of the debate was fixed for the 24th of June. The rumor spread among the Deputies that Gagern—whose activity had been hitherto entirely in secret—would make a speech, and of course every one thought, in support of the Committee’s Report: that is to say, in favor of the appointment of an Imperial Regent, who should be nominated by the Princes. The last of the speakers announced was Mathy, who again in strong terms recommended the conversion of the Confederate Diet into a permanent legislative body, and warned the Assembly against too boldly grasping after parliamentary omnipotence.

Thereupon, amid the breathless suspense of the Assembly, Gagern ascended the tribune, and after a short introduction, cried, in sharp contrast to his friend Mathy: “I propose to make the bold stroke, and declare to you that we ourselves must create the Central Government.” An outburst of deafening applause from the Left immediately followed, and it was taken up by the Central parties. Gagern spoke further: “We must choose the Imperial Regent from the highest spheres; then the Royal Governments will thank us for relieving them from the embarrassment of the choice.” Hereupon the Right loudly applauded, while the Radicals grumbled their dissatisfaction. A good many imagined that Gagern would close by calling upon the Assembly to proclaim at once by acclamation the Archduke John Regent of the Empire, and we, too, have seen that this idea was not foreign to his intentions; but the attitude of the Left in regard to the elevation of a Prince, and the annoyance of the Right at his “ bold stroke,” were so evident, that Gagern did not risk making this proposition. In the main point, however, he had the majority with him. To be sure, several days of disagreeable quarrelling between the parties intervened; but on the 28th of June the Decree concerning the establishment of a provisional Central Government was passed. We will review its chief features.

The Central Government has (so the Decree was worded) :

1. Executive power in matters relating to the common safety and welfare of the German Federal Union.

2. Supreme command over the entire armed force; and power to appoint the general-officers of the same.

3. The duty of representing Germany in foreign and international matters of commerce and politics; and to this end, the appointment of ambassadors and consuls.

The Central Government is to have no share in the work of framing a constitution.

In declaring war and in making treaties with Foreign Powers, it is to act in concert with the National Assembly.

The Central Authority is to be intrusted to a Regent of the Empire, to be appointed solely by the National Assembly.

The Regent of the Empire is irresponsible; he is to exercise his power through Ministers appointed by himself and responsible to the National Assembly; none of his ordinances are valid without the counter-signature of a Minister.

Upon the entrance into power of the Provisional Cen­tral Government, the Confederate Diet ceases to exist.

The Central Government in the exercise of its executive functions shall, as far as may be practicable, act in harmony with the Plenipotentiaries of the several State Governments.

When one undertakes to pass a judgment upon the meaning and the value of this Decree, one is met at the outset by many instances of incompleteness, confusion, and ambiguity in its most important points.

The Central Government was excluded from sharing in the work of framing the Constitution. Was it also to be excluded from sharing in the legislation necessary to the execution of its own functions? And supposing the National Assembly passed any measure against the wishes of the Central Government, was the latter to be obliged to carry out the same? A law was promised concerning the responsibility of the Ministry; but how should it be until this law was passed? And according to what standard were the functions of the other officials to be regulated? Furthermore, the National Assembly would doubtless reserve for itself the right of appropriating money; how far then could the Central Government act freely in expending that money, and how far must it be limited by the stipulations of the budget, to be made by the Parliament? One may see that from what this law contained as well as from what was omitted from it, it would be equally possible to arrive at the doctrine that the Regent of the Empire should possess absolute monarchical power, or that he should be entirely dependent upon the sovereignty of the National Assembly.

The ambiguity was even more striking with regard to his relations to the individual State Governments.

It was disagreeably significant that the very first sentence concerning the authority of the Imperial Regent was worded almost exactly like the corresponding-clause in the Act of Confederation; and we have seen what far-reaching claims Prince Metternich, in 1819 and in 1832, had built upon the duty of the Confederate Diet to care for the common safety. A democratic dictatorship could just as well be founded on this clause as a royal one.

The second sentence, too, about the military, left room for the most widely-differing interpretations.

Whoever chose, might see in it a simple repetition of Article 5 of the Vienna Final Act, not at all dangerous to the independence of the individual States. But the opposite interpretation, the absorption of the Con­federate contingents into one single Imperial army, in which all the officers of high rank were to be appointed by the Imperial Regent, could not by the wording of the article be gainsaid.

The third great prerogative, the representation of Germany in international affairs, the right of appointing and receiving ambassadors, had been also exercised by the Confederate Diet, without encroaching upon a similar right on the part of the State Governments. Whether this condition of things would continue, or whether the State Governments were to lose their right of receiving embassies, the world could not determine from the third Article of the Decree. On the other hand, the dependence of the Central Government upon the National Assembly in just this very matter was emphatically asserted, whereas an experienced Parliament never meddles in Foreign Affairs, unless at the express request of the Ministry.

By way of compensation, the Imperial Regent was to be wholly independent of the State Governments; though he should listen to what they had to say, as far as might seem to him advisable.

The meaning which this Decree conveyed to the minds of the members of the Assembly has been clearly set forth in what has already been said. It was not in vain that Gagern again referred to the sovereignty of the people’s representatives as the source of all parliamentary power. It was decidedly the feeling of the Assembly that every article of the Decree should be carried out in its widest application. It did not occur to any one that the passing of a decree and its execution are not one and the same thing. With each right which they had attributed to the Central Government, they actually believed that they had raised by so much their own power above that of the individual States, and thereby strengthened the principle of German Unity. For it was understood as a matter of course, that under all circumstances the Imperial Regent remained depend­ent in his policy upon the guidance of the Parliament.

Accordingly, on the 29th of June, the Archduke John was chosen Regent of the Empire by an overwhelming majority. It was taken for granted that he would accept the dignity, although he had just taken upon himself the government of Austria in the name of the Emperor, who still remained at Innsbruck. A delegate from the National Assembly hastened to Vienna to convey to him the joyous intelligence. At the same time, the Confederate Diet raised its voice and decided, although without any instructions from the Governments, to inform the Archduke that the Princes had already agreed upon his nomination before the action of the Parliament. The Archduke was thus left free, both for the present and for the future, to choose upon whose nomination he preferred to rest his claims to the title.

When Robert Blum, the leader of the Left, animadverted on this in the National Assembly, and at the same time expressed his surprise at the prophetic power of the Confederate Diet, Gagern explained that the information had not been gained through himself; for between him and the Confederate Diet there had not been the least communication on the subject. Schmerling remarked that the Confederate Diet was already a thing of the past, and the National Assembly proceeded to the order of the day.

While awaiting the arrival of the Archduke, the members were in a state of great excitement. In the most influential circles of the Majority, speculation was rife as to how matters would stand under the new regime. It seemed to go without saying that, in case of riot or disturbance, the Imperial Ministers were to send orders directly to the local authorities without taking any notice of the State Governments, and just as directly to call out the proper troops. Some held that all fortresses must be Imperial fortresses, and all field­officers appointed by the Empire.

In the Committee on the Constitution, the question of placing the entire control of the German military in the hands of one person was discussed, and also that of depriving the State Governments of the right to send and to receive embassies. In the Committee on Military Affairs, an Austrian colonel made the motion that the Prussian regiments should henceforth take their oath of allegiance to the Archduke. Thus the longing for material power deduced from the Decree of June 28th the most far-reaching consequences. No one expected opposition to these claims at any point, nor doubted its immediate suppression, if any should occur.

As a matter of fact, however annoying the “bold stroke ” and the Decree of the 28th had been to the German Governments, they hastened to give notice at once of their unconditional acceptance of them. Even the new Prussian Ministry of Auerswald did not censure the behavior of Usedom, and wished to avoid a quarrel with the Assembly in the Cathedral of St. Paul. To be sure, they felt keenly the exclusion of Prussia from the Central Government, but hoped the best from the administration of John, and without delay gave their assent to his election; they only made the reservation, that the action of the National Assembly in this exceptional instance should not be considered as a precedent for the future.

The only States that were recalcitrant were Hanover and Bavaria. King Ernest Augustus officially declared to his Estates, that he should abdicate, if his royal prerogative were materially trenched upon; but when the motion was made in the Cathedral of St. Paul to convert Hanover into immediate territory of the Empire (Reichsland), he yielded, sent an ambassador to Frankfort to convey to the Archduke his most respectful greetings, and allowed to pass unnoticed the fact, that the ambassador, without instructions, officially gave his assent to the Decree of June 28th, as the Parliament required. Somewhat later, King Max of Bavaria also accommodated himself to the new regime., although he had said to the Prussian ambassador at the outset, that he would fight to the last drop of his blood, before he would consent to be mediatized. He now yielded unconditionally.

Meanwhile, satisfactory news came from Vienna. The Archduke had received the Deputies in the most cordial manner, and expressed at once his acceptance of the honor conferred upon him. For a moment he entertained the idea of filling both his high offices side by side; but he soon recognized the impossibility of this plan, and decided to enter upon his official duties at Frankfort at once, then to return for a few days to Vienna to the opening of the Austrian Parliament, and afterwards to devote his whole attention to his duties as Regent of the German Empire. In all that he said, he showed himself as straightforward and up­right as possible; his addresses in the Vienna dialect sounded fascinating, good-natured, and true-hearted; it was evident, that there could be no deception in this man.

Yet, after all, he was a politic and ambitious old gentleman, whose most ardent wish was to keep for himself all paths open; and, perhaps, he hoped to succeed in attaining his high aims just by assuming this modest bearing. In his manifestoes he spoke of no other right to his title than that founded on the Decree of the National Assembly; yet, at the same time, he sent a letter to Herr von Schmerling, in which he expressed his thanks to the German Governments for their confidence, and for having first laid the foundation for any really efficient action on his part. In the same way, lie put himself upon a friendly footing with the Prussian Ambassador, Count Bernstorff, by promising to act upon the suggestion of Prussia in appointing the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of War. All this was not at all in accordance with the doctrines maintained in the National Assembly; and in Berlin the enthusiasm over his friendly advances cooled down, when it was learned, that in passing through Dresden he had, in conversation with the Saxon Minister. Von der Pfordten, hinted at rumors about Prussia's desire to make new annexations. Indeed, in Berlin the people were thanking Heaven every night for having brought them through another day in tolerable security, and not a soul had any thought of making foreign conquests.

And so, shaking hands right and left, talking diplomatically with diplomats, and familiarly with the people, the Archduke came on the 11th of July to Frankfort, where he was received with great pomp by the citizens, and on the 12th was introduced into the Assembly. Here a secretary read to him the Decree of June 28th. He pledged himself to maintain it, and to see that its provisions were carried out. Amid thunder of applause, he announced that after the opening of the Parliament at Vienna he should devote himself entirely to the welfare of Germany. From the Cathedral of St. Paul he crossed over to the Hall of the Confederation, to receive the farewell greeting of the expiring Confederate Diet. It is worth our while to consider in detail what had been taking place in the Diet during this time.

When the news came, on the 10th of July, of the Archduke’s arrival in Frankfort, Herr von Schmerling assembled his colleagues to deliberate upon the proper course of action to be followed now at the close of their official existence. They were unanimously of the opinion that their activity must cease at the entrance into office of the Imperial Regent, who had been recognized by their Governments. But they realized also that, according to the laws of the Confederation, the abolition of their body could not be brought about by the National Assembly, but could only be the result of a unanimous vote of .all the members of the Diet itself; and they decided that it was not at present advisable to pass this vote, but to await the completion of a definite Imperial Constitution.

Their conduct on the 12th was consistent with these sentiments. Herr von Schmerling welcomed the Archduke, enumerated first the functions of the new Central Government, and then those of the old Confederate Diet,—we have seen that they were theoretically very nearly the same, the only essential difference consisting in the functionary : in the one case a body condemned to impotence by the requirement that its measures should be passed unanimously, and in the other, an irresponsible ruler holding all rights in his own hands,— and then transferred to the Imperial Regent the exercise of the rights and duties of the Confederate Diet. He closed by saying that the Confederate Assembly regarded its career as herewith ended.

It would not have been possible to have prepared for the Archduke a more comfortable position. Again he might choose, according to circumstances, between ad­ministering the Government with the aid of responsible Ministers as Regent elected by the Parliament, and ruling with the most absolute authority as attorney for the Confederate Diet. And even further, if the Parliament should at some future time be hostile to him, or should go to pieces, the theory of Herr von Schmerling afforded John the expedient of summoning again the Confederate Diet, which would not have ceased to exist, but would only have meanwhile remained inactive. To be sure, such a move seemed out of the question for a Government by whom the Decree of June 28th, and consequently the responsibility of the Imperial Ministry and the abolition of the Confederate Diet, had been recognized; and still more so for the Archduke, who at first in Vienna as Austrian Regent had announced to his people his election by the National Assembly, and then in Frankfort had sworn to uphold the Decree of the 28th of June.

This was also the opinion of the National Assembly, which in full consciousness of its own power held such tricks and surprises as impossible and despicable; and when a motion from its Left Centre referred to the dangers resulting from the action of the Confederate Diet, the House refused to recognize the urgency of the motion, and it was not mentioned afterward. The majority were well pleased with what they had accomplished, with their present standing, and with their expectations for the immediate future ; although nearly two months had already passed without their beginning upon the actual business in hand, the framing of an Imperial Constitution. They did not dream that, even before the commencement of this work, they had already passed the zenith of their career.

 

CHAPTER IV. COMPLICATIONS.

 

Just before the National Assembly, on the 19th of June, bewail its deliberations about a central government, Prince Windischgrütz bad put down the Slavonic rebellion in Prague by force of arms. This was the first time since March, that the military force of any Government had subdued an armed popular uprising of any considerable importance. More decisive still was another event. On the same 24th of June, on which Gagern made his “bold stroke,” the great street-fight in Paris reached its climax, when, after a struggle of three days, General Cavaignac overcame the armed masses of the people.

In this crisis, everything that had held sway there, that had raged and stormed since February, everything that had served as an example and an inspiration to the Republicans of the neighboring countries, was swept from the land at one blow. The old reactionary tendencies stood again at the helm of the French Government. This meant an ebb in the tide of revolution throughout Europe. King Max of Bavaria expressed to the Prussian Ambassador at this time, his indignation at Gagern’s bold stroke; “but,” he added, “the victory of General Cavaignac is a true source of consolation. It will bear rich fruit in Germany also.” His judgment could not have been more correct. Whoever, in Germany, had hitherto been sailing under a revolutionary breeze, would do well, at this change of wind, to guard against running his craft upon the sand.

The power of the National Assembly was founded only upon the general belief in its power. This belief was still entertained far and wide in German countries; but after the events just mentioned, who could guarantee the continuance of such a confidence? The great fountain of Revolution in Paris was sealed; and the Princes saw that the masses of the barricaders were not invincible. These masses, on the other hand, had, it is true, applauded the men of the Left, and yet had been quite as hostile to the majority of the National Assembly, as to the Governments. This state of things could not long remain hidden from the eyes of the world; and so soon as it was clearly understood, the Princes would no longer be dependent upon the good-will of the National Assembly, but the Assembly upon the good-will of the Princes.

Under these circumstances, there could be nothing more urgent for the National Assembly than to hurry on the completion of the work of framing the Constitution, before the decadence of the parliamentary sovereignty and the revival of the power of the individual Governments became too generally known and felt. It all depended upon the firm establishment of a definite Im­perial regime, while a decree of the National Assembly was still looked upon as the expression of the all­powerful and irresistible will of the nation.

But, instead of going to work immediately after the call of the Archduke upon the organization of the future Central Government, the Assembly decided, on the 3d of July, to take up first the discussion of the rights of freedom of the German citizen, or, as they were then called, the u fundamental rights of the German People.” It was a decision extraordinarily significant for the position taken by this Parliament in history. If the national consciousness had been somewhat more developed, a proper organization of the Empire would naturally have been demanded first of all, without which the theoretical rights of freedom would mean nothing to the citizens. It is clear that, with all their longing for national unity, the inmost heart of the Assembly was moved most deeply by the thought of individual independence. For the Radical Minority national unity had no attraction, unless under the form of a republic; they detested a union under such a constitution as might be expected from the Majority. The Radicals hoped now to put so much unlimited freedom into these “ fundamental rights,” that no monarchical government at all could exist consistently with them.

The Left acted quite in accordance with their principles; but the Moderate parties allowed very insufficient motives of policy to have weight in the final vote.

Up to this time, there had been in the Assembly only one marked dividing-line: that which separated the constitutionally-inclined Majority from the Republican Minority. Even when different shades of party-doctrine had led to the formation of smaller subordinate groups, the great Majority had always united when the critical moment came. Its leaders had striven to keep the Majority together so long as possible; but now, unfort­unately, a most violent rupture was occasioned, whenever, even in private conversation, the subject of a future Imperial constitution and system of government was broached. At once the quarrel arose between the advocates of a restricted Germany and of Germany entire, between the adherents of the Confederation and of a Federal Union: in short, between Prussia and Austria. On both sides, the desire to conceal the breach was strong; but no other expedient was found than the negative one of not touching, for the present, upon this delicate point. For the same reason, the Confederate Diet and the Preliminary Parliament had, three months before, referred this entire matter to the coming National Assembly; and now this Assembly set their hopes upon some interim aliquid fit in the future. The friends of Austria thought that the Vienna Cabinet would soon be able to give them better support than it could now in its present melancholy condition ; and the adherents of Prussia, on the other hand, knew that they could not at this time carry out their projects, on account of the unpopularity of the King everywhere in South Germany, and in the Cathedral of St. Paul itself.

Consequently, both parties agreed to postpone the discussion of this disputed question until after the settlement of the “fundamental rights.” There was plainly no hope of deliverance to be based upon this ; it was rather a token of helpless embarrassment. For nothing was surer, than that three months later the contest would rage quite as hotly as now. It lay in the condition of things that had been growing up for centuries and could not be ignored: whoever desired a closer unity than the Act of Confederation offered, could not hope to include two Great Powers in the same union; and viceversa, whoever wished to retain both Austria and Prussia must be satisfied with slightly changing the Confederation of 1815. Sometime or other this point must be settled and the quarrel must be fought out once for all; the longer it was put off, the more unpropitious for the career of the National Assembly.

But the underlying cause of this was that the National Assembly did not dream of an approaching decline of its power, and therefore took up with complacence the intricate subject of the “fundamental rights,” not for a moment questioning the obedience of the Governments to the commands of the Central Authority. One would suppose that the leaders of the party that wished to place the Imperial crown on the head of the King of Prussia would meanwhile have been talking the matter over with the Prussian Cabinet, with the view of coming to some agreement about the shaping of the future Constitution; or, if this were not consistent with their scruples about the sovereignty of the Parliament, it would be presumed that, at least in the forming of a Central Government, they would have reference, as much as possible, to the conditions of Prussia’s present position. But nothing of this kind was done.

To be sure, in the list of Ministers, which Gagern had made out with Schmerling before the arrival of the Archduke, Prussia was well represented: Camphausen was to have the Presidency and the Portfolio of Foreign Affairs; General von Peucker was to be at the head of the Department of War; the Deputy von Backerath, of the Finances; and Schmerling, of the Interior; the other offices were to be held by men from the smaller States. Without doubt, the two first-named offices were the most important; since in the administration of these, the relation of the Central Government to the individual States must at once take definite shape. Peucker, a small, good-natured, but not very energetic man, wished at first to assume the office only provisionally, and expressed the desire, that all the German Ministers of War might not be made subordinate to him, nor all the German military organizations over­turned, nor changed, except so far as they might perhaps be improved. Assured of this, he accepted definitely the position in the Cabinet. He soon found, however, that this assurance would not save him from very dangerous steps.

Negotiations with Camphausen took quite a different course. A Rhinelander by birth, formerly leader of the Opposition of the Estates, and afterwards President of the first March Ministry at Berlin, Ludolf Camphausen had in this latter office, with a firm hand, and in spite of the street-fight of the 18th of March, succeeded in bridging over, by the continued maintenance of authority, the rift between the old and the new regimes in Prussia.

By the successful vindication of his position he won the lasting confidence of the King; but at the same time he aroused against himself the violent anger of the democratic party both in the House and in the streets ; so that on the 20th of June his Ministry was forced to resign, and the King soon after, at the request of the Archduke, sent him, as prospective Minister of the Empire, to Frankfort.

His personal appearance was not prepossessing: his figure was tall and slender and very erect, his face thin, with large eyes and angular features, and his manner, at the first meeting, cold and reserved. He was a man of a quiet temperament, of genuine purity of character, of penetrating, one might almost say piercing understanding, and above all of immovable determination. In the cause of Germany, his heart beat as warmly as that of any man for the elevation of the Fatherland to a better and more influential position than it had held under the wretched administration of the old Confederate Diet. But to his practical mind, directed only upon what he was convinced was attainable, the Prussian-German Empire of Dahlmann seemed, under the then existing conditions, to be the dream of a doctrinaire, in view of the fact that the present Imperial Regent and several hundred members of the Parliament were Austrians, and that the other German Kings would certainly oppose the project, to say nothing of the disinclination of Frederick William, and the execrations with which his name was everywhere accompanied in South Germany.

Camphausen would be satisfied, if in the final con­stitution of the Empire, provided that the plan of a Directory of Three were adopted, Prussia should not be excluded from the Central Government, as she was under the existing provisional arrangement. This arose chiefly from his conviction, that the Central Government ought not to absorb all the vigor of the individual States: it seemed to him that the cause of German Union would be best furthered, if Prussia became the pillar upon which the other large and small blocks might rest for support.

Before he decided to accept the ministerial office, he wished to know definitely what was required of him. On the 13th of July he had a long conversation with Gagern on the subject. What a striking contrast between the two statesmen! The one an earnest and practical man, always sure of controlling himself, a master of language, everywhere resting upon the basis of the law, and everywhere careful to preserve the proper balance between Centralization and Individualism: the other a visionary, always light-hearted, somewhat awkward in expression, but eloquent in his enthusiasm, and, following the direction of the national longing, fixed upon the idea of greatness inherent in an unconditional union, to the demands of which Prussia must yield as submissively as Lippe-Schaumburg.

This doctrine Gagern now insisted upon. Everything depended, he said, upon raising the Central Government to the rank of a power above all individual States, by requiring the entire body of German troops to take the oath of allegiance to the Imperial Regent, by withdrawing from the Provincial Governments the right of treating with Foreign Powers, and by putting this latter principle at once into practice in obliging Prussia to break off its negotiations for peace with Denmark, and placing everything in the hands of the Imperial Regent. Camphausen responded that these explanations had sufficiently enlightened him. By such measures, he said, the independence of the individual States would be seriously threatened; and in the matters mentioned, the Danish armistice, the military supremacy of the Archduke, and the recall of the Prussian embassies, ho should never be able to come to an agreement with the National Assembly. He would never allow himself to become, as proposed, an agent in securing the mediatization of Prussia. Gagern then replied: “If that is the case, I. too, no longer approve of your becoming a minister.”

Gagern was, at first, quite taken aback at this unexpected opposition from the Prussian statesman. If a patriot from the Rhine, such as Camphausen, so stoutly resisted a strongly-centralized Imperial union, what then was to be expected from the men of Old Prussia in the far East? But never mind! Gagern remained convinced that, while the National Assembly was slowly deciding about the ‘fundamental rights, the Central Government must get into its hands as quickly as possible the supreme control of the military throughout Germany. Just the reverse would doubtless have been the proper course: the hastening of the work upon the Constitution in the Parliament, and the most cautious procedure on the part of the Central Government. But on the 14th of July, Gagern agreed with the Ministers concerning the steps to be taken directly after the departure of the Archduke for Vienna, where he was to attend the opening of the Austrian Parliament.

On the 15th of July, the National Assembly decreed that the Confederate Army should be doubled, by raising the proportion of recruits to two per cent of the population, and also by the abolition of all laws of exemption then in force in the individual States. It was an excellent measure in itself; but for the moment, it called forth among the people and in the Chambers of the States a burst of complaint against the Parliament.

On the 16th of July, the Minister sent a circular to the Governments, with a proclamation to the German troops, in which he spoke of the Imperial Regent as the highest military authority in Germany; and at the same time, he requested the Governments to call out on the 6th of August the troops of every garrison for a parade, to read his proclamation before them, afterwards to give the order to shout, in token of their allegiance, three times “Hurrah” for the Imperial Regent, and then to instruct the soldiers to assume the German cockade.

Thus the great command was given. The result was, as might have been expected from Camphausen’s explanations, a complete failure. For of what importance was it that the smaller States were ready to obey, if the Great Powers utterly ignored the decree? A royal proclamation from the Prussian King to the army expressed the assurance, that the troops would show their accustomed valor, whenever they might be ordered, at the command of the King, to place themselves under the leadership of the Imperial Regent; but that on the 6th of August, there was to be no parade anywhere in Prussia. In Vienna, the Minister of War, Latour, was quite beside himself; and the whole Ministerial Council was indignant at the presumption of the self-constituted authorities at Frankfort. It actually happened that the Government of the Archduke as Regent in Austria sent an urgent complaint about the matter to the Government of the Archduke as Regent of the Empire. All this was conclusive proof, that the Central Government and the Parliament possessed no means by which they could force the two Great Powers to carry out any disagreeable decrees. It was plain, that the Governments had regained the power of preventing what they disliked.

Prussia was the next to make an attempt to accom­plish something in the German cause; but it failed quite as signally as Peucker’s unfortunate circular. It was, however, of a very different and peculiar nature. The Central Government, as we have seen, was to act in executive measures, as far as possible, harmoniously with plenipotentiaries from the individual States. The Prussian Minister, Rudolf von Auerswald, who had selected Camphausen to represent Prussia, was of the characteristic opinion that these gentlemen could not well work together as a definite college, but yet might form, as it were, a diplomatic corps at the Court of the Imperial Regent.

The opinion of the King was directly opposed to that of his Minister. We shall later examine the doctrine of the King in detail; for the present, it is sufficient to say that his idea was to invest a college of all the German Kings, either by the side of or in place of the Imperial Regent, with the highest authority in Germany. We also call to mind his proposed Imperial military dukedoms, in each of which a King was to hold the military command over the inferior Princes in his section. Evidently with the intention of preparing the way for some such arrangement, the Prussian Government, in a circular dated July 17th and sent to all the German Courts, made the proposition to form of these plenipotentiaries a “ Council of State,” with the design that in all the measures established by the law of June 28th they should act in common with the Imperial Regent.

But now the main point of the proposition. This Council of State was to consist of seven members, Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony (with the Ernestine line of the Saxon House, Schwarzburg and Reuss), Würtemberg (with Baden and Hohenzollern), Hanover (with Brunswick, Oldenburg, Holstein, and the Hanse Towns), and the two Hesses taken as one (with Homburg, Nassau, and Frankfort). The position of Luxemburg, Lippe, Waldeck, and the An halts was left undetermined. The seven leading States were to decide ques­tions by a vote of the majority. As Austria and Prussia were each to possess three votes, they united were sure of constituting a majority.

In Munich and Stuttgart, as in Dresden and Hanover, there was at that time a most unpleasant suspicion, probably aroused by the influence of Austria’s diplomacy, that Prussia had conspired with the Imperial party at Frankfort for the suppression of the German Kings. No possible refutation of this suspicion could have been more effective than the proposal to grant to every King the political guardianship of a certain group of small States. And, we may add, nothing could be imagined more dangerous to the cause of German Unity than such a mediatization of the Petty by the Lesser States, a fact which had been very well understood and made use of at the beginning of the century by Napoleon and Talleyrand.

It is now well-established, that Frederick William never thought of the possibility of such results from his proposition: his projects were laid in a world of which the conditions were very different from those of the world about him. But elsewhere it was clearly recognized that ranking the smaller States in the groups of this Council of State was nothing else than the first step toward their annexation by the leaders of these groups. Yet however agreeable this project was to the Lesser States, there began to be heard, even among them, a chorus of complaints about pretended injustice, worthy of the palmiest days of the Confederate Diet.

Bavaria was angry, because she was allowed only one vote in the Council of State, whereas, as she thought, her size and power justified two ; and also, because the guardianship of no small States was given to her: so that if mediatizing should be in order, she could gain nothing by it. Saxony and Hanover, satisfied on these points, thought, however, that Austria and Prussia ought to be contented with two votes apiece instead of three, thus relinquishing the certainty of securing a majority in the Council of State. Hesse-Cassel stipulated, as a condition of its acceptance, that it should retain the leadership in its own group, instead of alternating, as might be expected, with Darmstadt; and that, moreover, Waldeck should be included in this group. Darmstadt wished first of all to ask Gagern’s views of the scheme; and he declared that the whole system was utterly impracticable.

The Imperial Ministers were of exactly the same opinion. Schmerling put an end to the discussion by the outspoken declaration, that the proposed Council of State too closely resembled the Confederate Diet to be favorably received. In fact, as he said, the plenipotentiaries were not expected to exert any influence upon the decrees of the Central Government, but only to give their advice about the ways and means of executing these decrees. The Courts kept up a correspondence for a time upon the subject; but the declaration of Schmerling practically settled the matter.

The pitiful end of this pitiful project could not but considerably increase the self-importance of the Central Government. A clear proof of this was the definite appointment of the Ministry, which took place soon after the return of the Archduke, on the 9th of August. Prince Carl von Leiningen. a half-brother of the Queen of England, was chosen President, an intelligent and restless man, always planning something new. He had shortly before, in a violent newspaper article, proclaimed to the German Princes: “Subjection or mediatization.” Indeed! if the House of Leiningen had been mediatized, why must the House of Wittelsbach be secure against it? A Hamburg lawyer, Heckscher, received the Department of Foreign Affairs, Robert von Mohl the Department of Justice, Duckwitz the Department of Commerce: all three belonged to the left wing of the Majority, and were quite ready to act on the offensive against obstinate Princes.

These appointments were received at most of the Courts with fear and dismay. In Berlin they served to increase the indignation caused by Peucker’s circular, especially as the decidedly anti-Prussian tendencies of Leiningen were already too well understood. A few days later, the Archduke, with Gagern and a numerous deputation from the Parliament, accepted an invitation of King Frederick William to take part in the festivities connected with additions to the Cathedral at Cologne. The King, for whom the city had prepared an imposing reception, embraced the Archduke and allowed Gagern to present to him the members of the deputation. He addressed to them a few friendly words on the importance of their work, and added with emphasis: “ Do not forget that there are still Princes in Germany, and that I am one of them.” Such a reminiscence of the Law of the 30th of March and the principle of concerted action produced, for the moment, a dampening effect upon their feelings; but this wore away, when on the following day the celebration passed off very pleasantly and happily, and the King at the end of the banquet brought out an enthusiastic toast to the “Builders of the Cathedral of German Unity,” the National Assembly.

During these negotiations among the Governments, the current of talk in St. Paul’s Cathedral about the Fundamental Rights rolled on its lazy waves in an unabated flood. “ What a gratification,” cried one member of the Committee on the Constitution, “to be able finally to draw up in the form of a law, what we have for thirty years been constantly longing for in vain.” With this feeling, the Committee had already incor­porated in its outline more than a hundred articles, and had far exceeded its duties as originally intended. Formerly, by the establishment of the Fundamental Rights were understood, for instance, security from arbitrary arrest, the protection of property, the free right to found societies and to hold meetings, freedom of thinking, believing, writing, and publishing one’s own personal convictions; but here, among the so-called “Fundamental Rights of the German People” was included the claim to receive a new communal constitution, a new administration of justice, a new code of criminal law, a new canon-law of the Established Church, a new system of instruction,— everything different from what had hitherto existed in the individual States. Though the Parliament naturally would not be able to work out all these laws in detail, yet it was deemed expedient to establish the main principles; and one can easily imagine how ingenious lawyers, interested local patriots, levelling Republicans, and prudent Conservatives rivalled each other in making motions for amendments and additions, for amendments to amendments, and continual points of order. There was no prospect of an end for months to come, and the more conscientiously the Parliament labored to legis­late, the more coolly the population outside regarded the toils of this once honored and flattered Assembly. It is often unavoidable, but always unfortunate, even for a Parliament, to get the reputation of being tedious and wearisome.

Yet the National Assembly was not allowed to spend its summer days undisturbed over the question of the Fundamental Rights. Sometimes the Left and sometimes the Department of Foreign Affairs occasioned interruptions, which, it is true, refreshed the spirits of the Assembly, but at the same time caused a greater loss of time and increased the hostilities between the parties.

Unanimity prevailed, however, when the subject of the peculiar position of Limburg was brought up for discussion. Limburg belonged to the German Confederation; but it was at the same time a province of Holland and was governed as such. All parties now voted for a decree, which placed the re-arrangement of these conditions among the duties of the Central Government and charged the Imperial Ministry to take the necessary steps. The weak point of the decree was simply the inability of the Ministry to compel the execution of these orders; yet it was encouraging to see the strength of the feeling, that in no Confederate country should a Foreign Power be allowed to carry out measures not in accordance with the commands of the German Central Government. Upon this point there was no difference of opinion in the Parliament.

The feelings of the parties clashed fiercely, however, when on the 25th of July, a debate upon Polish Affairs stirred the Assembly. The Prussian Government had, as we have seen, separated the Polish portion of the Province of Posen from that which contained a preponderating number of German inhabitants, and had caused the latter, as well as East and West Prussia, to be taken into the Confederation by the Confederate Diet, which was at that time the only existing common Authority; and the Preliminary Parliament had referred the question of the lawfulness of this new division of Poland to the decision of the National Assembly. It was no gratifying evidence of historical knowledge on the subject, nor of a just and national sentiment, that an excited and passionate debate of three days’ duration was required, to decide this perfectly plain and clear question. After the Decree of the Confederate Diet, those districts belonged to Germany; their inhabitants, who were for the most part of German origin, and had been shamefully maltreated by the Poles in the last insurrection, gladly hastened to become members of the German Empire. Most certainly, then, they possessed all active and passive rights in the Parliamentary elections, and their representatives had exactly the same claim to membership as the representatives from Frankfort, Munich, or Berlin.

It this was so evident that Robert Blum did not venture to make any objection openly, but confined himself to a motion, that the question be not decided until the correctness of the boundary-line drawn by Prussia between the German and Polish districts should be confirmed by commissioners of the Imperial Government. But, after making this simple motion, his speech upon the subject was extended so far as to embrace the whole range of the Polish question, dwelling upon the services of Poland in the cause of civilization and of liberty in Europe during the Middle Ages, upon the wickedness of a nation’s murder perpetrated in the Partition, and upon Germany’s sacred duty of repairing this wrong, thereby, at the same time, acting for her own interest, by establishing a sure wall of defence against the encroachments of Russia.

His most determined adversary, at this time, was Wilhelm Jordan of Berlin, a man who had shown himself to be otherwise a very zealous Democrat. Jordan was far ahead of all the parties of the times in his thorough knowledge’ of the history of Poland, and in his appreciation of the inextinguishable hatred of the Germans that prevailed among the Poles. An observation had been made to the effect that since the German inhabitants of Posen had of their own free will settled in ancient Polish territory, they should not complain if they found themselves now destined to be counted as part of a re-established Poland. To this unfitting remark Jordan aptly and forcibly retorted, that whoever wished to expel from Germany a half­million Germans was, to say the least, unconsciously guilty of high treason.

On the other side, the Radical philosopher, Arnold Ruge, declared that the new international principles, founded on peace and the liberty of nations, demanded the re-establishment of Poland by Germans, and then remembering that, two days before, Fieldmarshal Radetzky had by his great victory at Custozza annihilated all Italy's hopes of freedom, he added that the re-establishment of that nation also must be included by these international principles, and that it was Germany’s duty to hope for the ruin of the tyrants of Italy, the Tillys of modern times, the Radetzkys. Thereupon a storm of applause followed from the Left and the galleries, and a deafening call to order from the Centre and the Right, where as yet no one doubted the thoroughly German sentiment of the Austrian generals. The President finally succeeded in restoring order by the remark, that although Ruge’s speech bordered closely on treason, yet he should not call him to order, since he could not deprive him of the views he chose to take of human affairs.

Gradually the noisy disturbance ceased; but the anger of the parties, so violently excited, continued to rage. When finally the deputies from Posen were definitely admitted by the vote of a large majority, and afterwards a resolution stigmatizing the former Partition of Poland was rejected, as not being the proper business of the Assembly, the Left became unanimously convinced that the Majority in this Parliament was a band of sour reactionists and servile tools of despots. The official organs of the Left did not fail to spread, by newspaper articles, this dictum through all German lands.

This bitter feeling soon assumed an even more venomous character. Among the orders of the day for August 7th stood several propositions for the amnesty of the most recent political offenders, for the participants in the rebellions of Hecker and Struve, and also proposals to admit Hecker, who had lately been chosen deputy to the Parliament by an electoral district in Baden. At this point, then, where the subject of discussion was the very flesh and blood of the Left, the tumult and passionate excitement of the debate reached a pitch hitherto unheard-of. When the Badener Brentano cried out to the Assembly : “Will you treat the Baden champions of Liberty worse than you would a Prince of Prussia?” such an outbreak of patriotic wrath burst from the Prussian deputies that a riotous affray seemed imminent, and the Assembly had to be adjourned.

The next day, the President, after explaining the grave reasons for his action, called Brentano to order; whereupon the Left and the throng of spectators who were present made a great uproar, until the Assembly, which had usually been very indulgent in this point, ordered the galleries to be cleared. This whole proceeding was in sharp contrast to the derision which had greeted the proposal of Braun, on the 20th of June. Prussia had meanwhile, by its prohibition of the parade proposed as a token of allegiance to the Central Government, shown its independence and regained for itself, for the first time since its numerous disgraces, a due measure of respect. The debate continued two days longer. A legally just decision on the question of the validity of Hecker’s election was not easily to be reached, since there were no definite laws concerning the rights of the Assembly and its members, although it had been distinctly understood, that political refugees were to be allowed to vote. Yet the moral and political intuition of the Majority did not for a moment waver; and in spite of all the raging of the Left, the invalidity of the election and the refusal of the amnesty were decreed by a vote on the 10th of August.

From this time, the active men of the Democratic party were fully determined to sweep at the first opportunity this good-for-nothing Parliament from the face of the earth. They considered themselves much better prepared for the campaign than in April. While the Majority in June was creating an Imperial Regent, these men had held a great meeting of their own party in Frankfort, brought together by Professor Bayrhoffer of Marburg, a dapper little man with a sharp nose and a thin voice, who hitherto had never known anything of the world outside of Hegel’s Logic, and who now became, quite as exclusively, a votary of the theories of Robespierre. He preached unweariedly the union of all champions of the People for the realization of the supremacy of the People and for the destruction of the People’s enemies. It was decided to unite the countless Democratic societies into one large well-organized Association under one common direction, to keep the people in as continual a state of restlessness as possible, and in all conceivable ways to prepare for one last great blow. It was expected that in a few weeks their success would be decisive and satisfactory.

The southern portion of Baden showed its colors by the election of Hecker, which was repeated, even after the sentence of the Parliament. Close by the Swiss frontier, Struve made ready for a new irruption into Baden, without being hindered by the Swiss authorities; nor did the Baden authorities prepare to meet it. The Würtemberg Government was dismayed by several mutinies among its own troops of the line. The Bavarian Palatinate, Rhine-Hesse, and even Offenbach and Hanover, cities in the immediate neighborhood of Frank­fort, were filled with fresh revolutionary zeal and their societies became most closely bound together. These were joined by a large Thuringian association of Democrats, who kept the smaller States in a constant ferment and had already got’ complete control of several of them, such as Altenburg, Anhalt, and Reuss. On the 15th of August, a meeting of the Association at Altenburg passed a resolution that the traitorous National Assembly ought to be dissolved, the Imperial Regent nowhere recognized, and the Republic proclaimed throughout Thuringia.

In the Kingdom of Saxony, which was covered by a close network of “patriotic societies,” an especial group separated itself from the rest, who, more violent than the others, declared Robert Blum’s counsel, which had up to this point been successfully followed, to be insupportably tedious, advocating, as it did, only legal and parliamentary agitation. They preferred open and violent measures in the holy cause of the Republic, and they gradually gained the upper hand among the societies.

The working of the Democratic excitement was not less effective in the neighboring Province of Silesia. The party here, however, did not dare to express its sentiments so openly, since the commanding general, Count Brandenburg, had more than once threatened to use military force on occasion of the least disturbance.

But street-demagogism ran riot in Berlin; the windows of the ministerial residences were broken, and the members of the Moderate party in the Assembly, which was there in session, were threatened with personal ill-treatment on the passage of every measure that was disagreeable to the sovereign People. By this means, the power and influence of the Left were constantly increased.

Very naturally, then, the leading friends of the Democracy in Frankfort considered that the conditions of a possible new and great revolution were given. Yet in this matter, too, the coin had its reverse side. The more clamorously the Hotspurs of the party insisted on the necessity of striking a blow, the more decided grew the longing among the citizens for a filial restoration of quiet, it was almost no matter under what constitution. Ever since March, trade and traffic had been at a stand­still throughout Germany. No one trusted the morrow. No manufacturer nor merchant risked anything beyond a cash business. All persons of means kept tight hold of their money and avoided every unnecessary expense. The mechanics saw their customers growing fewer and the demands of their journeymen greater; the income of the manufacturers fell off through the inactivity of the factories,—all this in spite of the manifestos about the inborn rights of man and the inalienable right to employment and to remuneration.

The discontent in the cities was echoed in the country. Even under the most favorable conditions there was no longer any thought of credit. The claims and often the demoralization of the lower classes increased in the same ratio as the embarrassment of the capitalists. There lay over the whole land an oppressive sultriness that betokened an approaching storm. Everybody awaited the event, the one party wildly shouting their threats, the other cowering beneath the weight of their anxious fears. There was certainly no trace left of that unanimity of sentiment, which pervaded all classes of the people at the time of the March Revolution, and a new subversion of things would, if successful, not only overturn thrones, but would thoroughly unsettle the basis of the possession of property. We need not try to estimate the number of otherwise liberal men and forces that, for the time at least, hurried over into the reactionary camp to seek shelter from the impending storm.

Thus the situation had become complicated on all sides: numerous misunderstandings among the Governments, passionate quarrelling between the parties, and increasing inquietude among the people. It needed only a single spark to cause an explosion, and such a spark was kindled before the end of August.

We must now cast a glance at the progress which had meanwhile been made in the controversy over Schleswig-Holstein.