Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany
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Marx-only works, Engels-edited Marx volumes, collected editions, correspondence, individual letters, journalism fragments, military articles, modern translations, anthologies, catalog rows, biographies, and scholarship remain evidence/Other Voices."],"MainSections":[{"Kind":"RawSection","Title":"Full Versions","BodyHtml":"\u003cdiv class=\"dz-philo__full-version-grid\"\u003e\n \u003carticle class=\"dz-philo__full-version-card\"\u003e\n \u003cp class=\"dz-philo__full-version-provider\"\u003eProject Gutenberg\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003ch3 class=\"dz-philo__full-version-title\"\u003eProject Gutenberg eBook #32966\u003c/h3\u003e\n \u003cp class=\"dz-philo__full-version-meta\"\u003eHtmlText · Imported\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003ca class=\"dz-philo__full-version-link\" href=\"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32966\"\u003eOpen full version\u003c/a\u003e\n \u003c/article\u003e\n \u003c/div\u003e"},{"Kind":"TextSection","Title":"Core Thesis","Paragraphs":["Engels analyzes the 1848 German revolutions through class alliances, liberal hesitation, monarchy, and counterrevolutionary power."]},{"Kind":"FieldSection","Title":"Classification","Fields":[{"Label":"Alternate Titles","Value":"Germany: Revolution and Counter-Revolution"},{"Label":"Key Concepts","Value":"Friedrich Engels; Karl Marx; historical materialism; dialectics; class struggle; capitalism; socialism; communism; political economy; ideology; state; family; science; nature; religion; Manchester; Barmen"},{"Label":"Methodology","Value":"Historical analysis, political economy, social investigation, polemic, dialectical materialist reconstruction, journalism, and collaborative Marxist theory."},{"Label":"Structure","Value":"The page records an approved Engels work with visible date, coauthorship, posthumous, unfinished, essay, or transmission notes where needed."}]},{"Kind":"TextSection","Title":"Arguments","Paragraphs":["Engels analyzes the 1848 German revolutions through class alliances, liberal hesitation, monarchy, and counterrevolutionary power."]},{"Kind":"FieldSection","Title":"Influence","Fields":[{"Label":"Influenced By","Value":"Karl Marx, Hegel, Feuerbach, Moses Hess, British political economy, Manchester industrial capitalism, Chartism, and German radical criticism."},{"Label":"Influence On","Value":"Marxism, social democracy, Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, Western Marxism, socialist historiography, materialist social theory, and philosophy of science debates."}]},{"Kind":"TextSection","Title":"Significance","Paragraphs":["Included as one of the direct or coauthored Engels work pages approved for the Friedrich Engels full-process update.","The work documents Engels\u0027s role in historical materialism, political economy, socialism, class analysis, science, religion critique, family theory, and Marxist reception."]},{"Kind":"TextSection","Title":"Evidence Note","Paragraphs":["Direct or coauthored work page approved in the Friedrich Engels update. Marx-only works, Engels-edited Marx volumes, collected editions, correspondence, individual letters, journalism fragments, military articles, modern translations, anthologies, catalog rows, biographies, and scholarship remain evidence/Other Voices."]},{"Kind":"RawSection","Title":"Full Text","BodyHtml":"\u003cp class=\"dz-philo__section-copy dz-philo__full-text-source\"\u003ePublic-domain full text from \u003ca href=\"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32966\"\u003eProject Gutenberg eBook #32966\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003carticle class=\"dz-philo__full-text-body\"\u003e\r\n\u003ch1\u003eREVOLUTION AND\r\nCOUNTER-REVOLUTION\u003c/h1\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003eOR\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003ch1\u003eGERMANY IN 1848\u003c/h1\u003e\r\n\u003ch3\u003eBY\u003c/h3\u003e\r\n\u003ch1\u003eKARL MARX\u003c/h1\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eEdited by ELEANOR MARX AVELING\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003eCHICAGO\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003eCHARLES H. KERR \u0026amp; COMPANY\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003e1912\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 0%;\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_3\"\u003e[Pg 3]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eNOTE BY THE EDITOR\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe following articles are now, after forty-five\r\nyears, for the first time collected and printed in\r\nbook form. They are an invaluable pendant to\r\nMarx\u0027s work on the \u003ci\u003ecoup d\u0027état\u003c/i\u003e of Napoleon III.\r\n(\"Der Achtzehnte Brumaire des Louis Bonaparte.\")\r\nBoth works belong to the same period,\r\nand both are what Engels calls \"excellent specimens\r\nof that marvellous gift … of Marx …\r\nof apprehending clearly the character, the significance,\r\nand the necessary consequences of great\r\nhistorical events at a time when these events are\r\nactually in course of taking place, or are only\r\njust completed.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThese articles were written in 1851-1852, when\r\nMarx had been about eighteen months in England.\r\nHe was living with his wife, three young\r\nchildren, and their life-long friend, Helene Demuth,\r\nin two rooms in Dean Street, Soho, almost\r\nopposite the Royalty Theatre. For nearly ten\r\nyears they had been driven from pillar to post.\r\nWhen, in 1843, the Prussian Government suppressed\r\nthe \u003ci\u003eRhenish Gazette\u003c/i\u003e which Marx had\r\nedited, he went with his newly-married wife,\r\n\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_4\"\u003e[Pg 4]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eJenny von Westphalen, to Paris. Not long after,\r\nhis expulsion was demanded by the Prussian\r\nGovernment—it is said that Alexander von Humboldt\r\nacted as the agent of Prussia on this occasion—and\r\nM. Guizot was, of course, too polite\r\nto refuse the request. Marx was expelled, and\r\nbetook himself to Brussels. Again the Prussian\r\nGovernment requested his expulsion, and where\r\nthe French Government had complied it was not\r\nlikely the Belgian would refuse. Marx received\r\nmarching orders.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBut at this same time the French Government\r\nthat had expelled Marx had gone the way of\r\nFrench Governments, and the new Provisional\r\nGovernment through Ferdinand Flocon invited\r\nthe \"brave et loyal Marx\" to return to the country\r\nwhence \"tyranny had banished him, and\r\nwhere he, like all fighting in the sacred cause,\r\nthe cause of the fraternity of all peoples,\" would\r\nbe welcome. The invitation was accepted, and\r\nfor some months he lived in Paris. Then he returned\r\nto Germany in order to start the \u003ci\u003eNew\r\nRhenish Gazette\u003c/i\u003e in Cologne. And the \u003ci\u003eRhenish\r\nGazette\u003c/i\u003e writers had very lively times. Marx was\r\ntwice prosecuted, but as the juries would not convict,\r\nthe Prussian Government took the nearer\r\nway and suppressed the paper.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAgain Marx and his family returned to the\r\ncountry whose \"doors\" had only a few short\r\nmonths before been \"thrown open\" to him. The\r\nsky had changed—and the Government. \"We\r\nremained in Paris,\" my mother says in some biographical\r\nnotes I have found, \"a month. Here\r\n\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_5\"\u003e[Pg 5]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003ealso there was to be no resting-place for us. One\r\nfine morning the familiar figure of the sergeant\r\nof police appeared with the announcement that\r\nKarl \u0027et sa dame\u0027 must leave Paris within twenty-four\r\nhours. We were graciously told we might\r\nbe interned at Vannes in the Morbihan. Of\r\ncourse we could not accept such an exile as that,\r\nand I again gathered together my small belongings\r\nto seek a safe haven in London. Karl had\r\nhastened thither before us.\" The \"us\" were my\r\nmother, Helene Demuth, and the three little children,\r\nJenny (Madame Longuet), Laura (Madame\r\nLafargue), and Edgar, who died at the age\r\nof eight.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe haven was safe indeed. But it was storm-tossed.\r\nHundreds of refugees—all more or less\r\ndestitute—were now in London. There followed\r\nyears of horrible poverty, of bitter suffering—such\r\nsuffering as can only be known to the penniless\r\nstranger in a strange land. The misery\r\nwould have been unendurable but for the faith\r\nthat was in these men and women, and but for\r\ntheir invincible \"Humor.\" I use the German\r\nword because I know no English one that quite\r\nexpresses the same thing—such a combination of\r\nhumor and good-humor, of light-hearted courage,\r\nand high spirits.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThat readers of these articles may have some\r\nidea of the conditions under which Marx was\r\nworking, under which he wrote them and the\r\n\"Achtzehnte Brumaire,\" and was preparing his\r\nfirst great economical work, \"Zur Kritik der Politischen\r\nOeconomie\" (published in 1859), I\r\nagain quote from my mother\u0027s notes. Soon after\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_6\"\u003e[Pg 6]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nthe arrival of the family a second son was born.\r\nHe died when about two years old. Then a fifth\r\nchild, a little girl, was born. When about a year\r\nold, she too fell sick and died. \"Three days,\" writes\r\nmy mother, \"the poor child wrestled with death.\r\nShe suffered so…. Her little dead body lay in the\r\nsmall back room; we all of us\" (i.e., my parents,\r\nHelene Demuth, and the three elder children)\r\n\"went into the front room, and when night came\r\nwe made us beds on the floor, the three living\r\nchildren lying by us. And we wept for the little\r\nangel resting near us, cold and dead. The death\r\nof the dear child came in the time of our bitterest\r\npoverty. Our German friends could not help\r\nus; Engels, after vainly trying to get literary\r\nwork in London, had been obliged to go, under\r\nvery disadvantageous conditions, into his father\u0027s\r\nfirm, as a clerk, in Manchester; Ernest Jones,\r\nwho often came to see us at this time, and had\r\npromised help, could do nothing…. In the anguish\r\nof my heart I went to a French refugee\r\nwho lived near, and who had sometimes visited\r\nus. I told him our sore need. At once with the\r\nfriendliest kindness he gave me £2. With that\r\nwe paid for the little coffin in which the poor\r\nchild now sleeps peacefully. I had no cradle for\r\nher when she was born, and even the last small\r\nresting-place was long denied her.\" … \"It was\r\na terrible time,\" Liebknecht writes to me (the\r\nEditor), \"but it was grand nevertheless.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn that \"front room\" in Dean Street, the children\r\nplaying about him, Marx worked. I have\r\nheard tell how the children would pile up chairs\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_7\"\u003e[Pg 7]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nbehind him to represent a coach, to which he\r\nwas harnessed as horse, and would \"whip him\r\nup\" even as he sat at his desk writing.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eMarx had been recommended to Mr. C. A.\r\nDana,\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_1_1\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1_1\"\u003e[1]\u003c/a\u003e the managing director of the \u003ci\u003eNew York\r\nTribune\u003c/i\u003e, by Ferdinand Freiligrath, and the first\r\ncontributions sent by him to America are the\r\nseries of letters on Germany here reprinted.\r\nThey seem to have created such a sensation that\r\nbefore the series had been completed Marx was\r\nengaged as regular London correspondent. On\r\nthe 12th of March, 1852, Mr. Dana wrote: \"It\r\nmay perhaps give you pleasure to know that\r\nthey\" (i.e., the \"Germany\" letters) \"are read\r\nwith satisfaction by a considerable number of\r\npersons, and are widely reproduced.\" From this\r\ntime on, with short intervals, Marx not only sent\r\nletters regularly to the New York paper; he\r\nwrote a large number of leading articles for it.\r\n\"Mr. Marx,\" says an editorial note in 1853, \"has\r\nindeed opinions of his own, with some of which\r\nwe are far from agreeing; but those who do not\r\nread his letters neglect one of the most instructive\r\nsources of information on the great questions of\r\nEuropean politics.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eNot the least remarkable among these contributions\r\nwere those dealing with Lord Palmerston\r\nand the Russian Government. \"Urquhart\u0027s writings\r\non Russia,\" says Marx, \"had interested but\r\n\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_8\"\u003e[Pg 8]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003enot convinced me. In order to arrive at a definite\r\nopinion, I made a minute analysis of Hansard\u0027s\r\nParliamentary Debates, and of the Diplomatic\r\nBlue Books from 1807 to 1850. The first\r\nfruits of these studies was a series of articles in\r\nthe \u003ci\u003eNew York Tribune\u003c/i\u003e, in which I proved Palmerston\u0027s\r\nrelations with the Russian Government….\r\nShortly after, these studies were reprinted in\r\nthe Chartist organ edited by Ernest Jones, \u003ci\u003eThe\r\nPeople\u0027s Paper\u003c/i\u003e…. Meantime the Glasgow \u003ci\u003eSentinel\u003c/i\u003e\r\nhad reproduced one of these articles, and\r\npart of it was issued in pamphlet form by Mr.\r\nTucker, London.\"\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_2_2\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_2_2\"\u003e[2]\u003c/a\u003e And the Sheffield Foreign\r\nAffairs Committee thanked Marx for the \"great\r\npublic service rendered by the admirable \u003ci\u003eexposé\u003c/i\u003e\"\r\nin his \"Kars papers,\" published both in the \u003ci\u003eNew\r\nYork Tribune\u003c/i\u003e and the \u003ci\u003ePeople\u0027s Paper\u003c/i\u003e. A large\r\nnumber of articles on the subject were also\r\nprinted in the \u003ci\u003eFree Press\u003c/i\u003e by Marx\u0027s old friend,\r\nC. D. Collett. I hope to republish these and\r\nother articles.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAs to the \u003ci\u003eNew York Tribune\u003c/i\u003e, it was at this\r\ntime an admirably edited paper, with an immense\r\nstaff of distinguished contributors,\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_3_3\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_3_3\"\u003e[3]\u003c/a\u003e both American\r\nand European. It was a passionate anti-slavery\r\norgan, and also recognized that there\r\n\"was need for a true organization of society,\"\r\nand that \"our evils\" were \"social, not political.\"\r\nThe paper, and especially Marx\u0027s articles, were\r\nfrequently referred to in the House of Commons,\r\nnotably by John Bright.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_9\"\u003e[Pg 9]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt may also interest readers to know what\r\nMarx was paid for his articles—many of them\r\nconsiderably longer even than those here collected.\r\nHe received £1 for each contribution—not\r\nexactly brilliant remuneration.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt will be noted that the twentieth chapter,\r\npromised in the nineteenth, does not appear. It\r\nmay have been written, but was certainly not\r\nprinted. It was probably crowded out. \"I do\r\nnot know,\" wrote Mr. Dana, \"how long you intend\r\nto make the series, and under ordinary circumstances\r\nI should desire to have it prolonged\r\nas much as possible. But we have a presidential\r\nelection at hand, which will occupy our columns\r\nto a great extent…. Let me suggest to you if\r\npossible to condense your survey … into say half\r\na dozen more articles\" (eleven had then been received\r\nby Mr. Dana). \"Do not, however, close\r\nit without an exposition of the forces now remaining\r\nat work there (Germany) and active in\r\nthe preparation of the future.\" This \"exposition\"\r\nwill be found in the article which I have\r\nadded to the \"Germany\" series, on the \"Cologne\r\nCommunist Trial.\" That trial really gives a\r\ncomplete picture of the conditions of Germany\r\nunder the triumphant Counter-Revolution.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eMarx himself nowhere says the series of letters\r\nis incomplete, although he occasionally refers to\r\nthem. Thus in the letter on the Cologne trial he\r\nspeaks of the articles, and in 1853 writes: \"Those\r\nof your readers who, having read my letters on\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_10\"\u003e[Pg 10]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nthe German Revolution and Counter-Revolution\r\nwritten for the \u003ci\u003eTribune\u003c/i\u003e some two years ago, desire\r\nto have an immediate intuition of it, will do\r\nwell to inspect the picture by Mr. Hasenclever\r\nnow being exhibited in … New York … representing\r\nthe presentation of a workingmen\u0027s petition\r\nto the magistrates of Düsseldorf in 1848.\r\nWhat the writer could only analyze, the eminent\r\npainter has reproduced in its dramatic vitality.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eFinally, I would remind English readers that\r\nthese articles were written when Marx had only\r\nbeen some eighteen months in England, and that\r\nhe never had any opportunity of reading the\r\nproofs. Nevertheless, it has not seemed to me\r\nthat anything needed correction. I have therefore\r\nonly removed a few obvious printer\u0027s errors.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe date at the head of each chapter refers to\r\nthe issue of the \u003ci\u003eTribune\u003c/i\u003e in which the article appeared,\r\nthat at the end to the time of writing.\r\nI am alone responsible for the headings of the\r\nletters as published in this volume.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"head\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eEleanor Marx Aveling.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\r\n\u003cspan style=\"margin-left: 1em;\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eSydenham, April, 1896.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnotes\"\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFOOTNOTES:\u003c/h3\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_1_1\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_1_1\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[1]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e Mr. C. A. Dana was at this time still in sympathy\r\nwith Socialism. The effects of Brook Farm had\r\nnot yet worn off.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_2_2\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_2_2\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[2]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e \"Herr Vogt,\" pp. 59 and 185. London, 1860.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_3_3\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_3_3\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[3]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e Including Bruno Bauer, Bayard Taylor, Ripley,\r\nand many of the Brook Farmers. The editor was\r\nHorace Greeley.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_11\"\u003e[Pg 11]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"CONTENTS\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eCONTENTS\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"center\"\u003e\r\n\u003ctable style=\"border-spacing: 0px;padding: 4px;border-width: 0px;\" data-summary=\"ToC\"\u003e\r\n\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003ePage\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eNOTE BY THE EDITOR\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Page_3\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e3\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eI. GERMANY AT THE OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLUTION\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Page_13\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e13\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eII. THE PRUSSIAN STATE\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Page_28\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e28\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eIII. THE OTHER GERMAN STATES\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Page_44\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e44\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eIV. AUSTRIA\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Page_52\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e52\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eV. THE VIENNA INSURRECTION\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Page_62\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e62\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eVI. THE BERLIN INSURRECTION\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Page_68\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e68\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eVII. THE FRANKFORT NATIONAL ASSEMBLY\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Page_76\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e76\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eVIII. POLES, TSCHECHS, AND GERMANS\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Page_84\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e84\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eIX. PANSLAVISM; THE SCHLESWIG WAR\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Page_91\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e91\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eX. THE PARIS RISING; THE FRANKFORT ASSEMBLY\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Page_98\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e98\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eXI. THE VIENNA INSURRECTION\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Page_105\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e105\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eXII. THE STORMING OF VIENNA: THE BETRAYAL OF VIENNA\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Page_114\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e114\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eXIII. THE PRUSSIAN ASSEMBLY: THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Page_128\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e128\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eXIV. THE RESTORATION OF ORDER: DIET AND CHAMBER\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Page_136\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e136\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eXV. THE TRIUMPH OF PRUSSIA\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Page_144\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e144\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eXVI. THE ASSEMBLY AND THE GOVERNMENTS\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Page_151\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e151\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eXVII. INSURRECTION\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Page_158\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e158\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eXVIII. PETTY TRADERS\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Page_166\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e166\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eXIX. THE CLOSE OF THE INSURRECTION\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Page_174\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e174\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eXX. THE LATE TRIAL AT COLOGNE\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#Page_183\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e183\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_13\"\u003e[Pg 13]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"REVOLUTION_AND\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eREVOLUTION AND\r\nCOUNTER-REVOLUTION\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"I\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eI.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eGERMANY AT THE OUTBREAK OF THE\r\nREVOLUTION.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"head\"\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eOctober\u003c/span\u003e 25, 1851.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe first act of the revolutionary drama on\r\nthe continent of Europe has closed. The \"powers\r\nthat were\" before the hurricane of 1848 are\r\nagain the \"powers that be,\" and the more or less\r\npopular rulers of a day, provisional governors,\r\ntriumvirs, dictators, with their tail of representatives,\r\ncivil commissioners, military commissioners,\r\nprefects, judges, generals, officers, and soldiers,\r\nare thrown upon foreign shores, and\r\n\"transported beyond the seas\" to England or\r\nAmerica, there to form new governments \u003ci\u003ein partibus\r\ninfidelium\u003c/i\u003e, European committees, central\r\ncommittees, national committees, and to announce\r\ntheir advent with proclamations quite as solemn\r\nas those of any less imaginary potentates.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_14\"\u003e[Pg 14]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eA more signal defeat than that undergone by\r\nthe continental revolutionary party—or rather\r\nparties—upon all points of the line of battle, cannot\r\nbe imagined. But what of that? Has not\r\nthe struggle of the British middle classes for their\r\nsocial and political supremacy embraced forty-eight,\r\nthat of the French middle classes forty\r\nyears of unexampled struggles? And was their\r\ntriumph ever nearer than at the very moment\r\nwhen restored monarchy thought itself more\r\nfirmly settled than ever? The times of that superstition\r\nwhich attributed revolutions to the ill-will\r\nof a few agitators have long passed away. Everyone\r\nknows nowadays that wherever there is a revolutionary\r\nconvulsion, there must be some social\r\nwant in the background, which is prevented, by\r\noutworn institutions, from satisfying itself. The\r\nwant may not yet be felt as strongly, as generally,\r\nas might ensure immediate success; but every\r\nattempt at forcible repression will only bring it\r\nforth stronger and stronger, until it bursts its\r\nfetters. If, then, we have been beaten, we have\r\nnothing else to do but to begin again from the\r\nbeginning. And, fortunately, the probably very\r\nshort interval of rest which is allowed us between\r\nthe close of the first and the beginning of\r\nthe second act of the movement, gives us time\r\nfor a very necessary piece of work: the study of\r\nthe causes that necessitated both the late outbreak\r\nand its defeat; causes that are not to be\r\nsought for in the accidental efforts, talents,\r\nfaults, errors, or treacheries of some of the leaders,\r\nbut in the general social state and conditions\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_15\"\u003e[Pg 15]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nof existence of each of the convulsed nations.\r\nThat the sudden movements of February and\r\nMarch, 1848, were not the work of single individuals,\r\nbut spontaneous, irresistible manifestations\r\nof national wants and necessities, more or\r\nless clearly understood, but very distinctly felt\r\nby numerous classes in every country, is a fact\r\nrecognized everywhere; but when you inquire\r\ninto the causes of the counter-revolutionary successes,\r\nthere you are met on every hand with the\r\nready reply that it was Mr. This or Citizen That\r\nwho \"betrayed\" the people. Which reply may be\r\nvery true or not, according to circumstances, but\r\nunder no circumstances does it explain anything—not\r\neven show how it came to pass that the\r\n\"people\" allowed themselves to be thus betrayed.\r\nAnd what a poor chance stands a political party\r\nwhose entire stock-in-trade consists in a knowledge\r\nof the solitary fact that Citizen So-and-so is\r\nnot to be trusted.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe inquiry into, and the exposition of, the\r\ncauses, both of the revolutionary convulsion and\r\nits suppression, are, besides, of paramount importance\r\nfrom a historical point of view. All\r\nthese petty, personal quarrels and recriminations—all\r\nthese contradictory assertions that it was\r\nMarrast, or Ledru Rollin, or Louis Blanc, or any\r\nother member of the Provisional Government, or\r\nthe whole of them, that steered the Revolution\r\namidst the rocks upon which it foundered—of\r\nwhat interest can they be, what light can they\r\nafford, to the American or Englishman who\r\nobserved all these various movements from a dist\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_16\"\u003e[Pg 16]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eance\r\ntoo great to allow of his distinguishing any\r\nof the details of operations? No man in his senses\r\nwill ever believe that eleven men,\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_4_4\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_4_4\"\u003e[4]\u003c/a\u003e mostly of very\r\nindifferent capacity either for good or evil, were\r\nable in three months to ruin a nation of thirty-six\r\nmillions, unless those thirty-six millions saw as\r\nlittle of their way before them as the eleven did.\r\nBut how it came to pass that thirty-six millions\r\nwere at once called upon to decide for themselves\r\nwhich way to go, although partly groping in dim\r\ntwilight, and how then they got lost and their old\r\nleaders were for a moment allowed to return to\r\ntheir leadership, that is just the question.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIf, then, we try to lay before the readers of \u003ci\u003eThe\r\nTribune\u003c/i\u003e the causes which, while they necessitated\r\nthe German Revolution of 1848, led quite\r\nas inevitably to its momentary repression in 1849\r\nand 1850, we shall not be expected to give a complete\r\nhistory of events as they passed in that\r\ncountry. Later events, and the judgment of coming\r\ngenerations, will decide what portion of that\r\nconfused mass of seemingly accidental, incoherent,\r\nand incongruous facts is to form a part of\r\nthe world\u0027s history. The time for such a task\r\nhas not yet arrived; we must confine ourselves\r\nto the limits of the possible, and be satisfied, if\r\nwe can find rational causes, based upon undeniable\r\nfacts, to explain the chief events, the principal\r\nvicissitudes of that movement, and to give us a\r\nclue as to the direction which the next, and per\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_17\"\u003e[Pg 17]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003ehaps\r\nnot very distant, outbreak will impart to\r\nthe German people.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAnd firstly, what was the state of Germany at\r\nthe outbreak of the Revolution?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe composition of the different classes of the\r\npeople which form the groundwork of every political\r\norganization was, in Germany, more complicated\r\nthan in any other country. While in\r\nEngland and France feudalism was entirely destroyed,\r\nor, at least, reduced, as in the former\r\ncountry, to a few insignificant forms, by a powerful\r\nand wealthy middle class, concentrated in\r\nlarge towns, and particularly in the capital, the\r\nfeudal nobility in Germany had retained a great\r\nportion of their ancient privileges. The feudal\r\nsystem of tenure was prevalent almost everywhere.\r\nThe lords of the land had even retained\r\nthe jurisdiction over their tenants. Deprived of\r\ntheir political privileges, of the right to control\r\nthe princes, they had preserved almost all their\r\nMediæval supremacy over the peasantry of their\r\ndemesnes, as well as their exemption from taxes.\r\nFeudalism was more flourishing in some localities\r\nthan in others, but nowhere except on the\r\nleft bank of the Rhine was it entirely destroyed.\r\nThis feudal nobility, then extremely numerous\r\nand partly very wealthy, was considered, officially,\r\nthe first \"Order\" in the country. It furnished\r\nthe higher Government officials, it almost\r\nexclusively officered the army.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe bourgeoisie of Germany was by far not as\r\nwealthy and concentrated as that of France or\r\nEngland. The ancient manufactures of Germany\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_18\"\u003e[Pg 18]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nhad been destroyed by the introduction of steam,\r\nand the rapidly extending supremacy of English\r\nmanufactures; the more modern manufactures,\r\nstarted under the Napoleonic continental system,\r\nestablished in other parts of the country, did not\r\ncompensate for the loss of the old ones, nor suffice\r\nto create a manufacturing interest strong\r\nenough to force its wants upon the notice of Governments\r\njealous of every extension of non-noble\r\nwealth and power. If France carried her silk\r\nmanufactures victorious through fifty years of\r\nrevolutions and wars, Germany, during the same\r\ntime, all but lost her ancient linen trade. The\r\nmanufacturing districts, besides, were few and\r\nfar between; situated far inland, and using, mostly,\r\nforeign, Dutch, or Belgian ports for their imports\r\nand exports, they had little or no interest\r\nin common with the large seaport towns on the\r\nNorth Sea and the Baltic; they were, above all,\r\nunable to create large manufacturing and trading\r\ncentres, such as Paris and Lyons, London and\r\nManchester. The causes of this backwardness of\r\nGerman manufactures were manifold, but two\r\nwill suffice to account for it: the unfavorable geographical\r\nsituation of the country, at a distance\r\nfrom the Atlantic, which had become the great\r\nhighway for the world\u0027s trade, and the continuous\r\nwars in which Germany was involved, and\r\nwhich were fought on her soil, from the sixteenth\r\ncentury to the present day. It was this want of\r\nnumbers, and particularly of anything like concentrated\r\nnumbers, which prevented the German\r\nmiddle classes from attaining that political su\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_19\"\u003e[Pg 19]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003epremacy\r\nwhich the English bourgeoisie has enjoyed\r\never since 1688, and which the French\r\nconquered in 1789. And yet, ever since 1815,\r\nthe wealth, and with the wealth the political importance\r\nof the middle class in Germany, was\r\ncontinually growing. Governments were, although\r\nreluctantly, compelled to bow, at least to\r\nits more immediate material interests. It may\r\neven be truly said that from 1815 to 1830, and\r\nfrom 1832 to 1840, every particle of political influence,\r\nwhich, having been allowed to the middle\r\nclass in the constitutions of the smaller States,\r\nwas again wrested from them during the above\r\ntwo periods of political reaction, that every such\r\nparticle was compensated for by some more practical\r\nadvantage allowed to them. Every political\r\ndefeat of the middle class drew after it a victory\r\non the field of commercial legislation. And certainly,\r\nthe Prussian Protective Tariff of 1818,\r\nand the formation of the Zollverein,\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_5_5\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_5_5\"\u003e[5]\u003c/a\u003e were worth\r\na good deal more to the traders and manufacturers\r\nof Germany than the equivocal right of expressing\r\nin the chambers of some diminutive\r\ndukedom their want of confidence in ministers\r\nwho laughed at their votes. Thus, with grow\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_20\"\u003e[Pg 20]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eing\r\nwealth and extending trade, the bourgeoisie\r\nsoon arrived at a stage where it found the development\r\nof its most important interests checked\r\nby the political constitution of the country; by\r\nits random division among thirty-six princes\r\nwith conflicting tendencies and caprices; by the\r\nfeudal fetters upon agriculture and the trade connected\r\nwith it; by the prying superintendence to\r\nwhich an ignorant and presumptuous bureaucracy\r\nsubjected all its transactions. At the same\r\ntime the extension and consolidation of the Zollverein,\r\nthe general introduction of steam communication,\r\nthe growing competition in the home\r\ntrade, brought the commercial classes of the different\r\nStates and Provinces closer together,\r\nequalized their interests and centralized their\r\nstrength. The natural consequence was the passing\r\nof the whole mass of them into the camp of\r\nthe Liberal Opposition, and the gaining of the\r\nfirst serious struggle of the German middle class\r\nfor political power. This change may be dated\r\nfrom 1840, from the moment when the bourgeoisie\r\nof Prussia assumed the lead of the middle\r\nclass movement of Germany. We shall hereafter\r\nrevert to this Liberal Opposition movement of\r\n1840-1847.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe great mass of the nation, which neither\r\nbelonged to the nobility nor to the bourgeoisie,\r\nconsisted in the towns of the small trading and\r\nshopkeeping class and the working people, and\r\nin the country of the peasantry.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe small trading and shopkeeping class is exceedingly\r\nnumerous in Germany, in consequence\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_21\"\u003e[Pg 21]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nof the stinted development which the large capitalists\r\nand manufacturers as a class have had\r\nin that country. In the larger towns it forms\r\nalmost the majority of the inhabitants; in the\r\nsmaller ones it entirely predominates, from the\r\nabsence of wealthier competitors or influence.\r\nThis class, a most important one in every modern\r\nbody politic, and in all modern revolutions, is still\r\nmore important in Germany, where, during the\r\nrecent struggles, it generally played the decisive\r\npart. Its intermediate position between the class\r\nof larger capitalists, traders, and manufacturers,\r\nthe bourgeoisie properly so-called, and the proletarian\r\nor industrial class, determines its character.\r\nAspiring to the position of the first, the\r\nleast adverse turn of fortune hurls the individuals\r\nof this class down into the ranks of the second.\r\nIn monarchical and feudal countries the\r\ncustom of the court and aristocracy becomes necessary\r\nto its existence; the loss of this custom\r\nmight ruin a great part of it. In the smaller\r\ntowns a military garrison, a county government,\r\na court of law with its followers, form very often\r\nthe base of its prosperity; withdraw these, and\r\ndown go the shopkeepers, the tailors, the shoemakers,\r\nthe joiners. Thus eternally tossed about\r\nbetween the hope of entering the ranks of the\r\nwealthier class, and the fear of being reduced\r\nto the state of proletarians or even paupers; between\r\nthe hope of promoting their interests by\r\nconquering a share in the direction of public affairs,\r\nand the dread of rousing, by ill-timed opposition,\r\nthe ire of a Government which disposes\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_22\"\u003e[Pg 22]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nof their very existence, because it has the power\r\nof removing their best customers; possessed of\r\nsmall means, the insecurity of the possession of\r\nwhich is in the inverse ratio of the amount,—this\r\nclass is extremely vacillating in its views.\r\nHumble and crouchingly submissive under a\r\npowerful feudal or monarchical Government, it\r\nturns to the side of Liberalism when the middle\r\nclass is in the ascendant; it becomes seized with\r\nviolent democratic fits as soon as the middle class\r\nhas secured its own supremacy, but falls back\r\ninto the abject despondency of fear as soon as\r\nthe class below itself, the proletarians, attempts\r\nan independent movement. We shall by and by\r\nsee this class, in Germany, pass alternately from\r\none of these stages to the other.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe working class in Germany is, in its social\r\nand political development, as far behind that of\r\nEngland and France as the German bourgeoisie\r\nis behind the bourgeoisie of those countries. Like\r\nmaster, like man. The evolution of the conditions\r\nof existence for a numerous, strong, concentrated,\r\nand intelligent proletarian class goes\r\nhand in hand with the development of the conditions\r\nof existence for a numerous, wealthy, concentrated,\r\nand powerful middle class. The working\r\nclass movement itself never is independent,\r\nnever is of an exclusively proletarian character\r\nuntil all the different factions of the middle class,\r\nand particularly its most progressive faction, the\r\nlarge manufacturers, have conquered political\r\npower, and remodelled the State according to\r\ntheir wants. It is then that the inevitable con\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_23\"\u003e[Pg 23]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eflict\r\nbetween the employer and the employed becomes\r\nimminent, and cannot be adjourned any\r\nlonger; that the working class can no longer be\r\nput off with delusive hopes and promises never\r\nto be realized; that the great problem of the nineteenth\r\ncentury, the abolition of the proletariat,\r\nis at last brought forward fairly and in its proper\r\nlight. Now, in Germany the mass of the working\r\nclass were employed, not by those modern\r\nmanufacturing lords of which Great Britain furnishes\r\nsuch splendid specimens, but by small\r\ntradesmen, whose entire manufacturing system\r\nis a mere relic of the Middle Ages. And as there\r\nis an enormous difference between the great cotton\r\nlord and the petty cobbler or master tailor,\r\nso there is a corresponding distance from the\r\nwide-awake factory operative of modern manufacturing\r\nBabylons to the bashful journeyman\r\ntailor or cabinetmaker of a small country town,\r\nwho lives in circumstances and works after a\r\nplan very little different from those of the like\r\nsort of men some five hundred years ago. This\r\ngeneral absence of modern conditions of life, of\r\nmodern modes of industrial production, of course\r\nwas accompanied by a pretty equally general absence\r\nof modern ideas, and it is, therefore, not\r\nto be wondered at if, at the outbreak of the\r\nRevolution, a large part of the working classes\r\nshould cry out for the immediate re-establishment\r\nof guilds and Mediæval privileged trades\u0027\r\ncorporations. Yet from the manufacturing districts,\r\nwhere the modern system of production\r\npredominated, and in consequence of the facil\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_24\"\u003e[Pg 24]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eities\r\nof inter-communication and mental development\r\nafforded by the migratory life of a large\r\nnumber of the working men, a strong nucleus\r\nformed itself, whose ideas about the emancipation\r\nof their class were far clearer and more in\r\naccordance with existing facts and historical necessities;\r\nbut they were a mere minority. If the\r\nactive movement of the middle class may be dated\r\nfrom 1840, that of the working class commences\r\nits advent by the insurrections of the Silesian and\r\nBohemian factory operatives in 1844, and we\r\nshall soon have occasion to pass in review the\r\ndifferent stages through which this movement\r\npassed.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eLastly, there was the great class of the small\r\nfarmers, the peasantry, which with its appendix\r\nof farm laborers, constitutes a considerable majority\r\nof the entire nation. But this class again\r\nsub-divided itself into different fractions. There\r\nwere, firstly, the more wealthy farmers, what\r\nis called in Germany \u003ci\u003eGross\u003c/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eMittel-Bauern\u003c/i\u003e,\r\nproprietors of more or less extensive farms, and\r\neach of them commanding the services of several\r\nagricultural laborers. This class, placed between\r\nthe large untaxed feudal landowners, and the\r\nsmaller peasantry and farm laborers, for obvious\r\nreasons found in an alliance with the anti-feudal\r\nmiddle class of the towns its most natural\r\npolitical course. Then there were, secondly, the\r\nsmall freeholders, predominating in the Rhine\r\ncountry, where feudalism had succumbed before\r\nthe mighty strokes of the great French Revolution.\r\nSimilar independent small freeholders also\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_25\"\u003e[Pg 25]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nexisted here and there in other provinces, where\r\nthey had succeeded in buying off the feudal\r\ncharges formerly due upon their lands. This\r\nclass, however, was a class of freeholders by\r\nname only, their property being generally mortgaged\r\nto such an extent, and under such onerous\r\nconditions, that not the peasant, but the usurer\r\nwho had advanced the money, was the real landowner.\r\nThirdly, the feudal tenants, who could\r\nnot be easily turned out of their holdings, but who\r\nhad to pay a perpetual rent, or to perform in\r\nperpetuity a certain amount of labor in favor\r\nof the lord of the manor. Lastly, the agricultural\r\nlaborers, whose condition, in many large farming\r\nconcerns, was exactly that of the same class\r\nin England, and who in all cases lived and died\r\npoor, ill-fed, and the slaves of their employers.\r\nThese three latter classes of the agricultural population,\r\nthe small freeholders, the feudal tenants,\r\nand the agricultural laborers, never troubled\r\ntheir heads much about politics before the\r\nRevolution, but it is evident that this event must\r\nhave opened to them a new career, full of brilliant\r\nprospects. To every one of them the Revolution\r\noffered advantages, and the movement\r\nonce fairly engaged in, it was to be expected\r\nthat each, in their turn, would join it. But at\r\nthe same time it is quite as evident, and equally\r\nborne out by the history of all modern countries,\r\nthat the agricultural population, in consequence\r\nof its dispersion over a great space, and of the\r\ndifficulty of bringing about an agreement among\r\nany considerable portion of it, never can attempt\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_26\"\u003e[Pg 26]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\na successful independent movement; they require\r\nthe initiatory impulse of the more concentrated,\r\nmore enlightened, more easily moved people of\r\nthe towns.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe preceding short sketch of the most important\r\nof the classes, which in their aggregate\r\nformed the German nation at the outbreak of\r\nthe recent movements, will already be sufficient\r\nto explain a great part of the incoherence, incongruence,\r\nand apparent contradiction which\r\nprevailed in that movement. When interests so\r\nvaried, so conflicting, so strangely crossing each\r\nother, are brought into violent collision; when\r\nthese contending interests in every district, every\r\nprovince, are mixed in different proportions;\r\nwhen, above all, there is no great centre in the\r\ncountry, no London, no Paris, the decisions of\r\nwhich, by their weight, may supersede the necessity\r\nof fighting out the same quarrel over and\r\nover again in every single locality; what else\r\nis to be expected but that the contest will dissolve\r\nitself into a mass of unconnected struggles,\r\nin which an enormous quantity of blood, energy,\r\nand capital is spent, but which for all that remain\r\nwithout any decisive results?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe political dismemberment of Germany into\r\nthree dozen of more or less important principalities\r\nis equally explained by this confusion and\r\nmultiplicity of the elements which compose the\r\nnation, and which again vary in every locality.\r\nWhere there are no common interests there can\r\nbe no unity of purpose, much less of action. The\r\nGerman Confederation, it is true, was declared\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_27\"\u003e[Pg 27]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\neverlastingly indissoluble; yet the Confederation,\r\nand its organ, the Diet, never represented German\r\nunity. The very highest pitch to which centralization\r\nwas ever carried in Germany was the\r\nestablishment of the Zollverein; by this the States\r\non the North Sea were also forced into a Customs\r\nUnion of their own, Austria remaining\r\nwrapped up in her separate prohibitive tariff.\r\nGermany had the satisfaction to be, for all\r\npractical purposes divided between three independent\r\npowers only, instead of between thirty-six.\r\nOf course the paramount supremacy of the\r\nRussian Czar, as established in 1814, underwent\r\nno change on this account.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eHaving drawn these preliminary conclusions\r\nfrom our premises, we shall see, in our next, how\r\nthe aforesaid various classes of the German people\r\nwere set into movement one after the other,\r\nand what character the movement assumed on\r\nthe outbreak of the French Revolution of 1848.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eLondon\u003c/span\u003e, September, 1851.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnotes\"\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFOOTNOTES:\u003c/h3\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_4_4\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_4_4\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[4]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e The \"eleven men\" were: Dupont de l\u0027Eure, Lamartine,\r\nCrémieux, Aarago, Ledru Rollin, Garnier-Pages,\r\nMarrast, Clocon, Louis Blanc, and Albert.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_5_5\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_5_5\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[5]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e The \"Zollverein\" was the German Customs Union.\r\nIt was originally founded in 1827, and largely\r\nextended after the war of 1866. Since the unification\r\nof Germany as an \"Empire\" in 1871, the States belonging\r\nto the Zollverein have been included in the\r\nGerman Empire. The object of the Zollverein was\r\nto obtain a uniform rate of customs duties all over\r\nGermany.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_28\"\u003e[Pg 28]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"II\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eII.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eTHE PRUSSIAN STATE.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"head\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eOctober\u003c/span\u003e 28th, 1851.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe political movement of the middle class\r\nor bourgeoisie, in Germany, may be dated from\r\n1840. It had been preceded by symptoms showing\r\nthat the moneyed and industrial class of that\r\ncountry was ripening into a state which would\r\nno longer allow it to continue apathetic and passive\r\nunder the pressure of a half-feudal, half-bureaucratic\r\nMonarchism. The smaller princes\r\nof Germany, partly to insure to themselves a\r\ngreater independence against the supremacy of\r\nAustria and Prussia, or against the influence of\r\nthe nobility of their own States, partly in order\r\nto consolidate into a whole the disconnected\r\nprovinces united under their rule by the Congress\r\nof Vienna, one after the other granted constitutions\r\nof a more or less liberal character. They\r\ncould do so without any danger to themselves;\r\nfor if the Diet of the Confederation, this mere\r\npuppet of Austria and Prussia, was to encroach\r\nupon their independence as sovereigns, they knew\r\nthat in resisting its dictates they would be backed\r\nby public opinion and the Chambers; and if, on\r\nthe contrary, these Chambers grew too strong,\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_29\"\u003e[Pg 29]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nthey could readily command the power of the\r\nDiet to break down all opposition. The Bavarian,\r\nWürtemberg, Baden or Hanoverian Constitutional\r\ninstitutions could not, under such circumstances,\r\ngive rise to any serious struggle for political\r\npower, and, therefore, the great bulk of the\r\nGerman middle class kept very generally aloof\r\nfrom the petty squabbles raised in the Legislatures\r\nof the small States, well knowing that without\r\na fundamental change in the policy and constitution\r\nof the two great powers of Germany, no\r\nsecondary efforts and victories would be of any\r\navail. But, at the same time, a race of Liberal\r\nlawyers, professional oppositionists, sprung up in\r\nthese small assemblies: the Rottecks, the Welckers,\r\nthe Roemers, the Jordans, the Stüves, the\r\nEisenmanns, those great \"popular men\" (\u003ci\u003eVolksmänner\u003c/i\u003e)\r\nwho, after a more or less noisy, but always\r\nunsuccessful, opposition of twenty years,\r\nwere carried to the summit of power by the revolutionary\r\nspringtide of 1848, and who, after having\r\nthere shown their utter impotency and insignificance,\r\nwere hurled down again in a moment.\r\nThese first specimen upon German soil of the\r\ntrader in politics and opposition, by their speeches\r\nand writings made familiar to the German ear the\r\nlanguage of Constitutionalism, and by their very\r\nexistence foreboded the approach of a time when\r\nthe middle class would seize upon and restore\r\nto their proper meaning political phrases which\r\nthese talkative attorneys and professors were in\r\nthe habit of using without knowing much about\r\nthe sense originally attached to them.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_30\"\u003e[Pg 30]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eGerman literature, too, labored under the influence\r\nof the political excitement into which all\r\nEurope had been thrown by the events of 1830.\r\nA crude Constitutionalism, or a still cruder Republicanism,\r\nwere preached by almost all writers\r\nof the time. It became more and more the habit,\r\nparticularly of the inferior sorts of literati, to\r\nmake up for the want of cleverness in their productions,\r\nby political allusions which were sure\r\nto attract attention. Poetry, novels, reviews, the\r\ndrama, every literary production teemed with\r\nwhat was called \"tendency,\" that is with more\r\nor less timid exhibitions of an anti-governmental\r\nspirit. In order to complete the confusion of\r\nideas reigning after 1830 in Germany, with these\r\nelements of political opposition there were mixed\r\nup ill-digested university-recollections of German\r\nphilosophy, and misunderstood gleanings from\r\nFrench Socialism, particularly Saint-Simonism;\r\nand the clique of writers who expatiated upon\r\nthis heterogeneous conglomerate of ideas, presumptuously\r\ncalled themselves \"Young Germany,\"\r\nor \"the Modern School.\" They have\r\nsince repented their youthful sins, but not improved\r\ntheir style of writing.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eLastly, German philosophy, that most complicated,\r\nbut at the same time most sure thermometer\r\nof the development of the German mind,\r\nhad declared for the middle class, when Hegel\r\nin his \"Philosophy of Law\" pronounced Constitutional\r\nMonarchy to be the final and most perfect\r\nform of government. In other words, he proclaimed\r\nthe approaching advent of the middle\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_31\"\u003e[Pg 31]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nclasses of the country to political power. His\r\nschool, after his death, did not stop here. While\r\nthe more advanced section of his followers, on\r\none hand, subjected every religious belief to the\r\nordeal of a rigorous criticism, and shook to its\r\nfoundation the ancient fabric of Christianity, they\r\nat the same time brought forward bolder political\r\nprinciples than hitherto it had been the fate\r\nof German ears to hear expounded, and attempted\r\nto restore to glory the memory of the heroes of\r\nthe first French Revolution. The abstruse philosophical\r\nlanguage in which these ideas were\r\nclothed, if it obscured the mind of both the\r\nwriter and the reader, equally blinded the eyes\r\nof the censor, and thus it was that the \"young\r\nHegelian\" writers enjoyed a liberty of the Press\r\nunknown in every other branch of literature.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThus it was evident that public opinion was\r\nundergoing a great change in Germany. By degrees\r\nthe vast majority of those classes whose\r\neducation or position in life enabled them, under\r\nan Absolute Monarchy, to gain some political information,\r\nand to form anything like an independent\r\npolitical opinion, united into one mighty\r\nphalanx of opposition against the existing system.\r\nAnd in passing judgment upon the slowness\r\nof political development in Germany no one\r\nought to omit taking into account the difficulty\r\nof obtaining correct information upon any subject\r\nin a country where all sources of information\r\nwere under the control of the Government,\r\nwhere from the Ragged School and the Sunday\r\nSchool to the Newspaper and University nothing\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_32\"\u003e[Pg 32]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nwas said, taught, printed, or published but what\r\nhad previously obtained its approbation. Look at\r\nVienna, for instance. The people of Vienna, in\r\nindustry and manufactures, second to none perhaps\r\nin Germany; in spirit, courage, and revolutionary\r\nenergy, proving themselves far superior\r\nto all, were yet more ignorant as to their real\r\ninterests, and committed more blunders during\r\nthe Revolution than any others, and this was due\r\nin a very great measure to the almost absolute\r\nignorance with regard to the very commonest\r\npolitical subjects in which Metternich\u0027s Government\r\nhad succeeded in keeping them.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt needs no further explanation why, under\r\nsuch a system, political information was an almost\r\nexclusive monopoly of such classes of society\r\nas could afford to pay for its being smuggled\r\ninto the country, and more particularly of\r\nthose whose interests were most seriously attacked\r\nby the existing state of things, namely,\r\nthe manufacturing and commercial classes. They,\r\ntherefore, were the first to unite in a mass against\r\nthe continuance of a more or less disguised Absolutism,\r\nand from their passing into the ranks\r\nof the opposition must be dated the beginning of\r\nthe real revolutionary movement in Germany.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe oppositional pronunciamento of the German\r\nbourgeoisie may be dated from 1840, from\r\nthe death of the late King of Prussia, the last\r\nsurviving founder of the Holy Alliance of 1815.\r\nThe new King was known to be no supporter\r\nof the predominantly bureaucratic and military\r\nmonarchy of his father. What the French mid\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_33\"\u003e[Pg 33]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003edle\r\nclass had expected from the advent of Louis\r\nXVI., the German bourgeoisie hoped, in some\r\nmeasure, from Frederick William IV. of Prussia.\r\nIt was agreed upon all hands that the old system\r\nwas exploded, worn-out, and must be given up;\r\nand what had been borne in silence under the\r\nold King now was loudly proclaimed to be intolerable.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBut if Louis XVI., \"Louis le Désiré,\" had been\r\na plain, unpretending simpleton, half conscious\r\nof his own nullity, without any fixed opinions,\r\nruled principally by the habits contracted during\r\nhis education, \"Frederick William le Désiré\" was\r\nsomething quite different. While he certainly\r\nsurpassed his French original in weakness of\r\ncharacter, he was neither without pretensions nor\r\nwithout opinions. He had made himself acquainted,\r\nin an amateur sort of way, with the\r\nrudiments of most sciences, and thought himself,\r\ntherefore, learned enough to consider final his\r\njudgment upon every subject. He made sure he\r\nwas a first-rate orator, and there was certainly\r\nno commercial traveller in Berlin who could beat\r\nhim either in prolixity of pretended wit, or in\r\nfluency of elocution. And, above all, he had his\r\nopinions. He hated and despised the bureaucratic\r\nelement of the Prussian Monarchy, but only because\r\nall his sympathies were with the feudal\r\nelement. Himself one of the founders of, and\r\nchief contributors to, the \u003ci\u003eBerlin Political Weekly\r\nPaper\u003c/i\u003e, the so-called Historical School (a school\r\nliving upon the ideas of Bonald, De Maistre, and\r\nother writers of the first generation of French\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_34\"\u003e[Pg 34]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nLegitimists), he aimed at a restoration, as complete\r\nas possible, of the predominant social position\r\nof the nobility. The King, first nobleman of\r\nhis realm, surrounded in the first instance by a\r\nsplendid court of mighty vassals, princes, dukes,\r\nand counts; in the second instance, by a numerous\r\nand wealthy lower nobility; ruling according\r\nto his discretion over his loyal burgesses and\r\npeasants, and thus being himself the chief of a\r\ncomplete hierarchy of social ranks or castes, each\r\nof which was to enjoy its particular privileges,\r\nand to be separated from the others by the almost\r\ninsurmountable barrier of birth, or of a fixed,\r\ninalterable social position; the whole of these\r\ncastes, or \"estates of the realm\" balancing each\r\nother at the same time so nicely in power and influence\r\nthat a complete independence of action\r\nshould remain to the King—such was the \u003ci\u003ebeau\r\nidéal\u003c/i\u003e which Frederick William IV. undertook to\r\nrealize, and which he is again trying to realize\r\nat the present moment.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt took some time before the Prussian bourgeoisie,\r\nnot very well versed in theoretical questions,\r\nfound out the real purport of their King\u0027s\r\ntendency. But what they very soon found out\r\nwas the fact that he was bent upon things quite\r\nthe reverse of what they wanted. Hardly did the\r\nnew King find his \"gift of the gab\" unfettered\r\nby his father\u0027s death than he set about proclaiming\r\nhis intentions in speeches without number;\r\nand every speech, every act of his, went far to\r\nestrange from him the sympathies of the middle\r\nclass. He would not have cared much for that,\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_35\"\u003e[Pg 35]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nif it had not been for some stern and startling\r\nrealities which interrupted his poetic dreams.\r\nAlas, that romanticism is not very quick at accounts,\r\nand that feudalism, ever since Don Quixote,\r\nreckons without its host! Frederick William\r\nIV. partook too much of that contempt of ready\r\ncash which ever has been the noblest inheritance\r\nof the sons of the Crusaders. He found at his\r\naccession a costly, although parsimoniously arranged\r\nsystem of government, and a moderately\r\nfilled State Treasury. In two years every trace\r\nof a surplus was spent in court festivals, royal\r\nprogresses, largesses, subventions to needy, seedy,\r\nand greedy noblemen, etc., and the regular taxes\r\nwere no longer sufficient for the exigencies of\r\neither Court or Government. And thus His Majesty\r\nfound himself very soon placed between a\r\nglaring deficit on one side, and a law of 1820 on\r\nthe other, by which any new loan, or any increase\r\nof the then existing taxation was made\r\nillegal without the assent of \"the future Representation\r\nof the People.\" This representation did\r\nnot exist; the new King was less inclined than\r\neven his father to create it; and if he had been,\r\nhe knew that public opinion had wonderfully\r\nchanged since his accession.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIndeed, the middle classes, who had partly expected\r\nthat the new King would at once grant\r\na Constitution, proclaim the Liberty of the Press,\r\nTrial by Jury, etc., etc.—in short, himself take\r\nthe lead of that peaceful revolution which they\r\nwanted in order to obtain political supremacy—the\r\nmiddle classes had found out their error, and\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_36\"\u003e[Pg 36]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nhad turned ferociously against the King. In the\r\nRhine Provinces, and more or less generally all\r\nover Prussia, they were so exasperated that they,\r\nbeing short themselves of men able to represent\r\nthem in the Press, went to the length of an alliance\r\nwith the extreme philosophical party, of\r\nwhich we have spoken above. The fruit of this\r\nalliance was the \u003ci\u003eRhenish Gazette\u003c/i\u003e of Cologne,\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_6_6\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_6_6\"\u003e[6]\u003c/a\u003e\r\na paper which was suppressed after fifteen\r\nmonths\u0027 existence, but from which may be dated\r\nthe existence of the Newspaper Press in Germany.\r\nThis was in 1842.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe poor King, whose commercial difficulties\r\nwere the keenest satire upon his Mediæval propensities,\r\nvery soon found out that he could not\r\ncontinue to reign without making some slight\r\nconcession to the popular outcry for that \"Representation\r\nof the People,\" which, as the last\r\nremnant of the long-forgotten promises of 1813\r\nand 1815, had been embodied in the law of 1820.\r\n\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_37\"\u003e[Pg 37]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eHe found the least objectionable mode of satisfying\r\nthis untoward law in calling together the\r\nStanding Committees of the Provincial Diets.\r\nThe Provincial Diets had been instituted in 1823.\r\nThey consisted for every one of the eight provinces\r\nof the kingdom:—(1) Of the higher nobility,\r\nthe formerly sovereign families of the German\r\nEmpire, the heads of which were members\r\nof the Diet by birthright. (2) Of the representatives\r\nof the knights, or lower nobility. (3) Of\r\nrepresentatives of towns. (4) Of deputies of the\r\npeasantry, or small farming class. The whole\r\nwas arranged in such a manner that in every\r\nprovince the two sections of the nobility always\r\nhad a majority of the Diet. Every one of these\r\neight Provincial Diets elected a Committee, and\r\nthese eight Committees were now called to Berlin\r\nin order to form a Representative Assembly\r\nfor the purpose of voting the much-desired loan.\r\nIt was stated that the Treasury was full, and that\r\nthe loan was required, not for current wants, but\r\nfor the construction of a State railway. But the\r\nunited Committees gave the King a flat refusal,\r\ndeclaring themselves incompetent to act as the\r\nrepresentatives of the people, and called upon\r\nHis Majesty to fulfil the promise of a Representative\r\nConstitution which his father had given,\r\nwhen he wanted the aid of the people against\r\nNapoleon.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe sitting of the united Committees proved\r\nthat the spirit of opposition was no longer confined\r\nto the bourgeoisie. A part of the peasantry\r\nhad joined them, and many nobles, being them\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_38\"\u003e[Pg 38]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eselves\r\nlarge farmers on their own properties, and\r\ndealers in corn, wool, spirits, and flax, requiring\r\nthe same guarantees against absolutism, bureaucracy,\r\nand feudal restoration, had equally pronounced\r\nagainst the Government, and for a Representative\r\nConstitution. The King\u0027s plan had\r\nsignally failed; he had got no money, and had\r\nincreased the power of the opposition. The subsequent\r\nsitting of the Provincial Diets themselves\r\nwas still more unfortunate for the King. All of\r\nthem asked for reforms, for the fulfilment of the\r\npromises of 1813 and 1815, for a Constitution\r\nand a Free Press; the resolutions to this effect\r\nof some of them were rather disrespectfully\r\nworded, and the ill-humored replies of the exasperated\r\nKing made the evil still greater.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn the meantime, the financial difficulties of the\r\nGovernment went on increasing. For a time,\r\nabatements made upon the moneys appropriated\r\nfor the different public services, fraudulent transactions\r\nwith the \"Seehandlung,\" a commercial\r\nestablishment speculating and trading for account\r\nand risk of the State, and long since acting as\r\nits money-broker, had sufficed to keep up appearances;\r\nincreased issues of State paper-money had\r\nfurnished some resources; and the secret, upon\r\nthe whole, had been pretty well kept. But all\r\nthese contrivances were soon exhausted. There\r\nwas another plan tried: the establishment of a\r\nbank, the capital of which was to be furnished\r\npartly by the State and partly by private shareholders;\r\nthe chief direction to belong to the State,\r\nin such a manner as to enable the Government to\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_39\"\u003e[Pg 39]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\ndraw upon the funds of this bank to a large\r\namount, and thus to repeat the same fraudulent\r\ntransactions that would no longer do with the\r\n\"Seehandlung.\" But, as a matter of course, there\r\nwere no capitalists to be found who would hand\r\nover their money upon such conditions; the statutes\r\nof the bank had to be altered, and the\r\nproperty of the shareholders guaranteed from the\r\nencroachments of the Treasury, before any shares\r\nwere subscribed for. Thus, this plan having\r\nfailed, there remained nothing but to try a loan,\r\nif capitalists could be found who would lend\r\ntheir cash without requiring the permission and\r\nguarantee of that mysterious \"future Representation\r\nof the People.\" Rothschild was applied to,\r\nand he declared that if the loan was to be guaranteed\r\nby this \"Representation of the People,\" he\r\nwould undertake the thing at a moment\u0027s notice—if\r\nnot, he could not have anything to do with\r\nthe transaction.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThus every hope of obtaining money had vanished,\r\nand there was no possibility of escaping\r\nthe fatal \"Representation of the People.\" Rothschild\u0027s\r\nrefusal was known in autumn, 1846, and\r\nin February of the next year the King called together\r\nall the eight Provincial Diets to Berlin,\r\nforming them into one \"United Diet.\" This Diet\r\nwas to do the work required, in case of need,\r\nby the law of 1820; it was to vote loans and increased\r\ntaxes, but beyond that it was to have no\r\nrights. Its voice upon general legislation was to\r\nbe merely consultative; it was to assemble, not at\r\nfixed periods, but whenever it pleased the King;\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_40\"\u003e[Pg 40]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nit was to discuss nothing but what the Government\r\npleased to lay before it. Of course, the\r\nmembers were very little satisfied with the part\r\nthey were expected to perform. They repeated\r\nthe wishes they had enounced when they met in\r\nthe provincial assembles; the relations between\r\nthem and the Government soon became acrimonious,\r\nand when the loan, which was again stated\r\nto be required for railway constructions, was demanded\r\nfrom them, they again refused to grant it.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis vote very soon brought their sitting to a\r\nclose. The King, more and more exasperated,\r\ndismissed them with a reprimand, but still remained\r\nwithout money. And, indeed, he had\r\nevery reason to be alarmed at his position, seeing\r\nthat the Liberal League, headed by the middle\r\nclasses, comprising a large part of the lower\r\nnobility, and all the different sections of the\r\nlower orders—that this Liberal League was determined\r\nto have what it wanted. In vain the\r\nKing had declared, in the opening speech, that\r\nhe would never, never grant a Constitution in\r\nthe modern sense of the word; the Liberal League\r\ninsisted upon such a modern, anti-feudal, Representative\r\nConstitution, with all its sequels, Liberty\r\nof the Press, Trial by Jury, etc.; and before\r\nthey got it, not a farthing of money would they\r\ngrant. There was one thing evident: that things\r\ncould not go on long in this manner, and that\r\neither one of the parties must give way, or that\r\na rupture—a bloody struggle—must ensue. And\r\nthe middle classes knew that they were on the\r\neve of a revolution, and they prepared them\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_41\"\u003e[Pg 41]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eselves\r\nfor it. They sought to obtain by every\r\npossible means the support of the working class\r\nof the towns, and of the peasantry in the agricultural\r\ndistricts, and it is well known that there\r\nwas, in the latter end of 1847, hardly a single\r\nprominent political character among the bourgeoisie\r\nwho did not proclaim himself a \"Socialist,\"\r\nin order to insure to himself the sympathy\r\nof the proletarian class. We shall see these \"Socialists\"\r\nat work by and by.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis eagerness of the leading bourgeoisie to\r\nadopt, at least the outward show of Socialism,\r\nwas caused by a great change that had come over\r\nthe working classes of Germany. There had been\r\never since 1840 a fraction of German workmen,\r\nwho, travelling in France and Switzerland, had\r\nmore or less imbibed the crude Socialist or Communist\r\nnotions then current among the French\r\nworkmen. The increasing attention paid to similar\r\nideas in France ever since 1840 made Socialism\r\nand Communism fashionable in Germany\r\nalso, and as far back as 1843, all newspapers\r\nteemed with discussions of social questions. A\r\nschool of Socialists very soon formed itself in\r\nGermany, distinguished more for the obscurity\r\nthan for the novelty of its ideas; its principal efforts\r\nconsisted in the translation of French Fourierist,\r\nSaint-Simonian, and other doctrines into\r\nthe abstruse language of German philosophy.\r\nThe German Communist school, entirely different\r\nfrom this sect, was formed about the same\r\ntime.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1844, there occurred the Silesian weavers\u0027\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_42\"\u003e[Pg 42]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nriots, followed by the insurrection of the calico\r\nprinters of Prague. These riots, cruelly suppressed,\r\nriots of working men not against the Government,\r\nbut against their employers, created a\r\ndeep sensation, and gave a new stimulus to Socialist\r\nand Communist propaganda amongst the\r\nworking people. So did the bread riots during\r\nthe year of famine, 1847. In short, in the same\r\nmanner as Constitutional Opposition rallied\r\naround its banner the great bulk of the propertied\r\nclasses (with the exception of the large feudal\r\nland-holders), so the working classes of the\r\nlarger towns looked for their emancipation to\r\nthe Socialist and Communist doctrines, although,\r\nunder the then existing Press laws, they could\r\nbe made to know only very little about them.\r\nThey could not be expected to have any very\r\ndefinite ideas as to what they wanted; they only\r\nknew that the programme of the Constitutional\r\nbourgeoisie did not contain all they wanted, and\r\nthat their wants were no wise contained in the\r\nConstitutional circle of ideas.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThere was then no separate Republican party\r\nin Germany. People were either Constitutional\r\nMonarchists, or more or less clearly defined Socialists\r\nor Communists.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWith such elements the slightest collision must\r\nhave brought about a great revolution. While\r\nthe higher nobility and the older civil and military\r\nofficers were the only safe supports of the\r\nexisting system; while the lower nobility, the\r\ntrading middle classes, the universities, the\r\nschool-masters of every degree, and even part\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_43\"\u003e[Pg 43]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nof the lower ranks of the bureaucracy and military\r\nofficers were all leagued against the Government;\r\nwhile behind these there stood the dissatisfied\r\nmasses of the peasantry, and of the proletarians\r\nof the large towns, supporting, for the\r\ntime being, the Liberal Opposition, but already\r\nmuttering strange words about taking things into\r\ntheir own hands; while the bourgeoisie was ready\r\nto hurl down the Government, and the proletarians\r\nwere preparing to hurl down the bourgeoisie\r\nin its turn; this Government went on obstinately\r\nin a course which must bring about a collision.\r\nGermany was, in the beginning of 1848, on the\r\neve of a revolution, and this revolution was sure\r\nto come, even had the French Revolution of February\r\nnot hastened it.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhat the effects of this Parisian Revolution\r\nwere upon Germany we shall see in our next.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eLondon\u003c/span\u003e, September, 1851.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnotes\"\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFOOTNOTES:\u003c/h3\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_6_6\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_6_6\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[6]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e \"The Rhenish Gazette.\" This paper was published\r\nat Cologne, as the organ of the Liberal leaders,\r\nHansemann and Camphausen. Marx contributed\r\ncertain articles on the Landtag, which created so\r\ngreat a sensation that he was offered in 1842—although\r\nonly 24 years of age—the editorship of the\r\npaper. He accepted the offer, and then began his\r\nlong fight with the Prussian Government. Of course\r\nthe paper was published under the supervision of a\r\ncensor, but he, good, easy man, was hopelessly outwitted\r\nby the young firebrand. So the Government\r\nsent a second \"special\" censor from Berlin, but the\r\ndouble censorship proved unequal to the task, and\r\nin 1843 the paper was suppressed.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_44\"\u003e[Pg 44]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"III\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eIII.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eTHE OTHER GERMAN STATES.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"head\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eNovember\u003c/span\u003e 6th, 1851.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn our last we confined ourselves almost exclusively\r\nto that State which, during the years\r\n1840 to 1848, was by far the most important in\r\nthe German movement, namely, to Prussia. It\r\nis, however, time to pass a rapid glance over the\r\nother States of Germany during the same period.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAs to the petty States, they had, ever since the\r\nrevolutionary movements of 1830, completely\r\npassed under the dictatorship of the Diet, that is\r\nof Austria and Prussia. The several Constitutions,\r\nestablished as much as a means of defence\r\nagainst the dictates of the larger States, as to\r\ninsure popularity to their princely authors, and\r\nunity to heterogeneous Assemblies of Provinces,\r\nformed by the Congress of Vienna, without any\r\nleading principle whatever—these Constitutions,\r\nillusory as they were, had yet proved dangerous\r\nto the authority of the petty princes themselves\r\nduring the exciting times of 1830 and 1831. They\r\nwere all but destroyed; whatever of them was\r\nallowed to remain was less than a shadow, and it\r\nrequired the loquacious self-complacency of a\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_45\"\u003e[Pg 45]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nWelcker, a Rotteck, a Dahlmann, to imagine that\r\nany results could possibly flow from the humble\r\nopposition, mingled with degrading flattery,\r\nwhich they were allowed to show off in the impotent\r\nChambers of these petty States.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe more energetic portion of the middle class\r\nin these smaller States, very soon after 1840,\r\nabandoned all the hopes they had formerly based\r\nupon the development of Parliamentary government\r\nin these dependencies of Austria and Prussia.\r\nNo sooner had the Prussian bourgeoisie and\r\nthe classes allied to it shown a serious resolution\r\nto struggle for Parliamentary government in\r\nPrussia, than they were allowed to take the lead\r\nof the Constitutional movement over all non-Austrian\r\nGermany. It is a fact which now will\r\nnot any longer be contested, that the nucleus of\r\nthose Constitutionalists of Central Germany, who\r\nafterwards seceded from the Frankfort National\r\nAssembly, and who, from the place of their separate\r\nmeetings, were called the Gotha party,\r\nlong before 1848 contemplated a plan which,\r\nwith little modification, they in 1849 proposed to\r\nthe representatives of all Germany. They intended\r\na complete exclusion of Austria from the\r\nGerman Confederation, the establishment of a\r\nnew Confederation, with a new fundamental law,\r\nand with a Federal Parliament, of the more insignificant\r\nStates into the larger ones. All this\r\nwas to be carried out the moment Prussia entered\r\ninto the ranks of Constitutional Monarchy,\r\nestablished the Liberty of the Press, assumed a\r\npolicy independent from that of Russia and Au\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_46\"\u003e[Pg 46]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003estria,\r\nand thus enabled the Constitutionalists of\r\nthe lesser States to obtain a real control over\r\ntheir respective Governments. The inventor of\r\nthis scheme was Professor Gervinus, of Heidelberg\r\n(Baden). Thus the emancipation of the\r\nPrussian bourgeoisie was to be the signal for\r\nthat of the middle classes of Germany generally,\r\nand for an alliance, offensive and defensive of\r\nboth against Russia and Austria, for Austria\r\nwas, as we shall see presently, considered as an\r\nentirely barbarian country, of which very little\r\nwas known, and that little not to the credit of its\r\npopulation; Austria, therefore, was not considered\r\nas an essential part of Germany.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAs to the other classes of society, in the smaller\r\nStates they followed, more or less rapidly, in the\r\nwake of their equals in Prussia. The shopkeeping\r\nclass got more and more dissatisfied with\r\ntheir respective Governments, with the increase\r\nof taxation, with the curtailments of those political\r\nsham-privileges of which they used to boast\r\nwhen comparing themselves to the \"slaves of\r\ndespotism\" in Austria and Prussia; but as yet\r\nthey had nothing definite in their opposition\r\nwhich might stamp them as an independent party,\r\ndistinct from the Constitutionalism of the higher\r\nbourgeoisie. The dissatisfaction among the peasantry\r\nwas equally growing, but it is well known\r\nthat this section of the people, in quiet and peaceful\r\ntimes, will never assert its interests and assume\r\nits position as an independent class, except\r\nin countries where universal suffrage is established.\r\nThe working classes in the trades and\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_47\"\u003e[Pg 47]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nmanufactures of the towns commenced to be infected\r\nwith the \"poison\" of Socialism and Communism,\r\nbut there being few towns of any importance\r\nout of Prussia, and still fewer manufacturing\r\ndistricts, the movement of this class,\r\nowing to the want of centres of action and propaganda,\r\nwas extremely slow in the smaller\r\nStates.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBoth in Prussia and in the smaller States the\r\ndifficulty of giving vent to political opposition\r\ncreated a sort of religious opposition in the parallel\r\nmovements of German Catholicism and Free\r\nCongregationalism. History affords us numerous\r\nexamples where, in countries which enjoy the\r\nblessings of a State Church, and where political\r\ndiscussion is fettered, the profane and dangerous\r\nopposition against the worldly power is hid under\r\nthe more sanctified and apparently more disinterested\r\nstruggle against spiritual despotism.\r\nMany a Government that will not allow of any\r\nof its acts being discussed, will hesitate before\r\nit creates martyrs and excites the religious fanaticism\r\nof the masses. Thus in Germany, in 1845,\r\nin every State, either the Roman Catholic or the\r\nProtestant religion, or both, were considered part\r\nand parcel of the law of the land. In every State,\r\ntoo, the clergy of either of those denominations,\r\nor of both, formed an essential part of the\r\nbureaucratic establishment of the Government.\r\nTo attack Protestant or Catholic orthodoxy, to\r\nattack priestcraft, was then to make an underhand\r\nattack upon the Government itself. As to\r\nthe German Catholics, their very existence was an\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_48\"\u003e[Pg 48]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nattack upon the Catholic Governments of Germany,\r\nparticularly Austria and Bavaria; and as\r\nsuch it was taken by those Governments. The\r\nFree Congregationalists, Protestant Dissenters,\r\nsomewhat resembling the English and American\r\nUnitarians, openly professed their opposition to\r\nthe clerical and rigidly orthodox tendency of the\r\nKing of Prussia and his favourite Minister for\r\nthe Educational and Clerical Department, Mr.\r\nEickhorn. The two new sects, rapidly extending\r\nfor a moment, the first in Catholic, the second in\r\nProtestant countries, had no other distinction but\r\ntheir different origin; as to their tenets, they perfectly\r\nagreed upon this most important point—that\r\nall definite dogmas were nugatory. This\r\nwant of any definition was their very essence;\r\nthey pretended to build that great temple under\r\nthe roof of which all Germans might unite; they\r\nthus represented, in a religious form, another\r\npolitical idea of the day—that of German unity,\r\nand yet they could never agree among themselves.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe idea of German unity, which the above-mentioned\r\nsects sought to realize, at least, upon\r\nreligious ground, by inventing a common religion\r\nfor all Germans, manufactured expressly\r\nfor their use, habits, and taste—this idea was,\r\nindeed, very widely spread, particularly in the\r\nsmaller States. Ever since the dissolution of the\r\nGerman Empire by Napoleon, the cry for a union\r\nof all the \u003ci\u003edisjecta membra\u003c/i\u003e of the German body\r\nhad been the most general expression of discontent\r\nwith the established order of things, and\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_49\"\u003e[Pg 49]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nmost so in the smaller States, where costliness\r\nof a court, an administration, an army, in short,\r\nthe dead weight of taxation, increased in a direct\r\nratio with the smallness and impotency of the\r\nState. But what this German unity was to be\r\nwhen carried out was a question upon which\r\nparties disagreed. The bourgeoisie, which wanted\r\nno serious revolutionary convulsion, were satisfied\r\nwith what we have seen they considered\r\n\"practicable,\" namely a union of all Germany,\r\nexclusive of Austria, under the supremacy of a\r\nConstitutional Government of Prussia; and surely,\r\nwithout conjuring dangerous storms, nothing\r\nmore could, at that time, be done. The shopkeeping\r\nclass and the peasantry, as far as these latter\r\ntroubled themselves about such things, never\r\narrived at any definition of that German unity\r\nthey so loudly clamoured after; a few dreamers,\r\nmostly feudalist reactionists, hoped for the re-establishment\r\nof the German Empire; some few\r\nignorant, \u003ci\u003esoi-disant\u003c/i\u003e Radicals, admiring Swiss institutions,\r\nof which they had not yet made that\r\npractical experience which afterwards most ludicrously\r\nundeceived them, pronounced for a Federated\r\nRepublic; and it was only the most extreme\r\nparty which, at that time, dared pronounce\r\nfor a German Republic, one and indivisible.\r\nThus, German unity was in itself a question big\r\nwith disunion, discord, and, in the case of certain\r\neventualities, even civil war.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eTo resume, then; this was the state of Prussia,\r\nand the smaller States of Germany, at the end\r\nof 1847. The middle class, feeling their power,\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_50\"\u003e[Pg 50]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nand resolved not to endure much longer the fetters\r\nwith which a feudal and bureaucratic despotism\r\nenchained their commercial transactions,\r\ntheir industrial productivity, their common action\r\nas a class; a portion of the landed nobility so\r\nfar changed into producers of mere marketable\r\ncommodities, as to have the same interests and\r\nto make common cause with the middle class;\r\nthe smaller trading class, dissatisfied, grumbling\r\nat the taxes, at the impediments thrown in the\r\nway of their business, but without any definite\r\nplan for such reforms as should secure their position\r\nin the social and political body; the peasantry,\r\noppressed here by feudal exactions, there\r\nby money-lenders, usurers, and lawyers; the\r\nworking people of the towns infected with the\r\ngeneral discontent, equally hating the Government\r\nand the large industrial capitalists, and\r\ncatching the contagion of Socialist and Communist\r\nideas; in short, a heterogeneous mass of opposition,\r\nspringing from various interests, but\r\nmore or less led on by the bourgeoisie, in the\r\nfirst ranks of which again marched the bourgeoisie\r\nof Prussia, and particularly of the Rhine\r\nProvince. On the other hand, Governments disagreeing\r\nupon many points, distrustful of each\r\nother, and particularly of that of Prussia, upon\r\nwhich yet they had to rely for protection; in\r\nPrussia a Government forsaken by public opinion,\r\nforsaken by even a portion of the nobility,\r\nleaning upon an army and a bureaucracy which\r\nevery day got more infected by the ideas, and\r\nsubjected to the influence, of the oppositional\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_51\"\u003e[Pg 51]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nbourgeoisie—a Government, besides all this, penniless\r\nin the most literal meaning of the word,\r\nand which could not procure a single cent to\r\ncover its increasing deficit, but by surrendering\r\nat discretion to the opposition of the bourgeoisie.\r\nWas there ever a more splendid position for the\r\nmiddle class of any country, while it struggled\r\nfor power against the established Government?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eLondon\u003c/span\u003e, September, 1851.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_52\"\u003e[Pg 52]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"IV\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eIV.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eAUSTRIA.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"head\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eNovember\u003c/span\u003e 7th, 1851.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe have now to consider Austria; that country\r\nwhich, up to March, 1848, was sealed up to\r\nthe eyes of foreign nations almost as much as\r\nChina before the late war with England.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAs a matter of course, we can here take into\r\nconsideration nothing but German Austria. The\r\naffairs of the Polish, Hungarian, or Italian Austrians\r\ndo not belong to our subject, and as far\r\nas they, since 1848, have influenced the fate of\r\nthe German Austrians, they will have to be taken\r\ninto account hereafter.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Government of Prince Metternich turned\r\nupon two hinges; firstly, to keep every one of\r\nthe different nations subjected to the Austrian\r\nrule, in check, by all other nations similarly conditioned;\r\nsecondly, and this always has been the\r\nfundamental principle of absolute monarchies,\r\nto rely for support upon two classes, the feudal\r\nlandlords and the large stock-jobbing capitalists;\r\nand to balance, at the same time, the influence\r\nand power of either of these classes by\r\nthat of the other, so as to leave full independ\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_53\"\u003e[Pg 53]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eence\r\nof action to the Government. The landed\r\nnobility, whose entire income consisted in feudal\r\nrevenues of all sorts, could not but support a\r\nGovernment which proved their only protection\r\nagainst that down-trodden class of serfs upon\r\nwhose spoils they lived; and whenever the less\r\nwealthy portion of them, as in Galicia, in 1846,\r\nrose in opposition against the Government, Metternich\r\nin an instant let loose upon them these\r\nvery serfs, who at any rate profited by the occasion\r\nto wreak a terrible vengeance upon their\r\nmore immediate oppressors. On the other hand,\r\nthe large capitalists of the Exchange were\r\nchained to Metternich\u0027s Government by the vast\r\nshare they had in the public funds of the country.\r\nAustria, restored to her full power in 1815\r\nrestoring and maintaining in Italy Absolute Monarchy\r\never since 1820, freed from part of her\r\nliabilities by the bankruptcy of 1810, had, after\r\nthe peace, very soon re-established her credit in\r\nthe great European money markets; and in proportion\r\nas her credit grew, she had drawn\r\nagainst it. Thus all the large European money-dealers\r\nhad engaged considerable portions of\r\ntheir capital in the Austrian funds; they all of\r\nthem were interested in upholding the credit of\r\nthat country, and as Austrian public credit, in\r\norder to be upheld, ever required new loans, they\r\nwere obliged from time to time to advance new\r\ncapital in order to keep up the credit of the securities\r\nfor that which they already had advanced.\r\nThe long peace after 1815, and the apparent impossibility\r\nof a thousand years old empire, like\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_54\"\u003e[Pg 54]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nAustria, being upset, increased the credit of Metternich\u0027s\r\nGovernment in a wonderful ratio, and\r\nmade it even independent of the good will of the\r\nVienna bankers and stock-jobbers; for as long as\r\nMetternich could obtain plenty of money at\r\nFrankfort and Amsterdam, he had, of course, the\r\nsatisfaction of seeing the Austrian capitalists at\r\nhis feet. They were, besides, in every other respect\r\nat his mercy; the large profits which bankers,\r\nstock-jobbers, and Government contractors\r\nalways contrive to draw out of an absolute monarchy,\r\nwere compensated for by the almost unlimited\r\npower which the Government possessed\r\nover their persons and fortunes; and not the\r\nsmallest shadow of an opposition was, therefore,\r\nto be expected from this quarter. Thus Metternich\r\nwas sure of the support of the two most\r\npowerful and influential classes of the empire,\r\nand he possessed besides an army and a bureaucracy,\r\nwhich for all purposes of absolutism could\r\nnot be better constituted. The civil and military\r\nofficers in the Austrian service form a race of\r\ntheir own; their fathers have been in the service\r\nof the Kaiser, and so will their sons be; they belong\r\nto none of the multifarious nationalities congregated\r\nunder the wing of the double-headed\r\neagle; they are, and ever have been, removed\r\nfrom one end of the empire to the other, from\r\nPoland to Italy, from Germany to Transylvania;\r\nHungarian, Pole, German, Roumanian, Italian,\r\nCroat, every individual not stamped with \"imperial\r\nand royal authority,\" etc., bearing a separate\r\nnational character, is equally despised by\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_55\"\u003e[Pg 55]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nthem; they have no nationality, or rather, they\r\nalone make up the really Austrian nation. It is\r\nevident what a pliable, and at the same time powerful\r\ninstrument, in the hands of an intelligent\r\nand energetic chief, such a civil and military\r\nhierarchy must be.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAs to the other classes of the population, Metternich,\r\nin the true spirit of a statesman of the\r\n\u003ci\u003eancien régime\u003c/i\u003e, cared little for their support. He\r\nhad, with regard to them, but one policy: to draw\r\nas much as possible out of them in the shape of\r\ntaxation, and at the same time, to keep them\r\nquiet. The trading and manufacturing middle\r\nclass was but of slow growth in Austria. The\r\ntrade of the Danube was comparatively unimportant;\r\nthe country possessed but one port,\r\nTrieste, and the trade of the port was very limited.\r\nAs to the manufacturers, they enjoyed\r\nconsiderable protection, amounting even in most\r\ncases to the complete exclusion of all foreign\r\ncompetition; but this advantage had been granted\r\nto them principally with a view to increase their\r\ntax-paying capabilities, and was in a high degree\r\ncounterpoised by internal restrictions on manufactures,\r\nprivileges on guilds, and other feudal\r\ncorporations, which were scrupulously upheld as\r\nlong as they did not impede the purposes and\r\nviews of the Government. The petty tradesmen\r\nwere encased in the narrow bounds of these Mediæval\r\nguilds, which kept the different trades in a\r\nperpetual war of privilege against each other,\r\nand at the same time, by all but excluding individuals\r\nof the working class from the possibility\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_56\"\u003e[Pg 56]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nof raising themselves in the social scale, gave a\r\nsort of hereditary stability to the members of\r\nthose involuntary associations. Lastly, the peasant\r\nand the working man were treated as mere\r\ntaxable matter, and the only care that was taken\r\nof them was to keep them as much as possible\r\nin the same conditions of life in which they then\r\nexisted, and in which their fathers had existed\r\nbefore them. For this purpose every old, established,\r\nhereditary authority was upheld in the\r\nsame manner as that of the State; the authority\r\nof the landlord over the petty tenant farmer, that\r\nof the manufacturer over the operative, of the\r\nsmall master over the journeyman and apprentice,\r\nof the father over the son, was everywhere\r\nrigidly maintained by the Government, and every\r\nbranch of disobedience punished the same as a\r\ntransgression of the law, by that universal instrument\r\nof Austrian justice—the stick.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eFinally, to wind up into one comprehensive\r\nsystem all these attempts at creating an artificial\r\nstability, the intellectual food allowed to the nation\r\nwas selected with the minutest caution, and\r\ndealt out as sparingly as possible. Education\r\nwas everywhere in the hands of the Catholic\r\npriesthood, whose chiefs, in the same manner as\r\nthe large feudal landowners, were deeply interested\r\nin the conservation of the existing system.\r\nThe universities were organized in a manner\r\nwhich allowed them to produce nothing but special\r\nmen, that might or might not obtain great\r\nproficiency in sundry particular branches of\r\nknowledge, but which, at all events, excluded\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_57\"\u003e[Pg 57]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nthat universal liberal education which other universities\r\nare expected to impart. There was absolutely\r\nno newspaper press, except in Hungary,\r\nand the Hungarian papers were prohibited in all\r\nother parts of the monarchy. As to general literature,\r\nits range had not widened for a century;\r\nit had narrowed again after the death of\r\nJoseph II. And all around the frontier, wherever\r\nthe Austrian States touched upon a civilized\r\ncountry, a cordon of literary censors was established\r\nin connection with the cordon of customhouse\r\nofficials, preventing any foreign book or\r\nnewspaper from passing into Austria before its\r\ncontents had been twice or three times thoroughly\r\nsifted, and found pure of even the slightest\r\ncontamination of the malignant spirit of the age.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eFor about thirty years after 1815 this system\r\nworked with wonderful success. Austria remained\r\nalmost unknown to Europe, and Europe\r\nwas quite as little known in Austria. The social\r\nstate of every class of the population, and of the\r\npopulation as a whole, appeared not to have undergone\r\nthe slightest change. Whatever rancour\r\nthere might exist from class to class—and the\r\nexistence of this rancour was for Metternich a\r\nprincipal condition of government, which he even\r\nfostered by making the higher classes the instruments\r\nof all Government exactions, and thus\r\nthrowing the odium upon them—whatever hatred\r\nthe people might bear to the inferior officials of\r\nthe State, there existed, upon the whole, little or\r\nno dissatisfaction with the Central Government.\r\nThe Emperor was adored, and old Francis I.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_58\"\u003e[Pg 58]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nseemed to be borne out by facts when, doubting\r\nof the durability of this system, he complacently\r\nadded: \"And yet it will hold while I live, and\r\nMetternich.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBut there was a slow underground movement\r\ngoing on which baffled all Metternich\u0027s efforts.\r\nThe wealth and influence of the manufacturing\r\nand trading middle class increased. The introduction\r\nof machinery and steam-power in manufactures\r\nupset in Austria, as it had done everywhere\r\nelse, the old relations and vital conditions\r\nof whole classes of society; it changed serfs into\r\nfree men, small farmers into manufacturing operatives;\r\nit undermined the old feudal trades-corporations,\r\nand destroyed the means of existence\r\nof many of them. The new commercial and\r\nmanufacturing population came everywhere into\r\ncollision with the old feudal institutions. The\r\nmiddle classes, more and more induced by their\r\nbusiness to travel abroad, introduced some mythical\r\nknowledge of the civilized countries situated\r\nbeyond the Imperial line of customs; the introduction\r\nof railways finally accelerated both the\r\nindustrial and intellectual movement. There was,\r\ntoo, a dangerous part in the Austrian State establishment,\r\n\u003ci\u003eviz.\u003c/i\u003e, the Hungarian feudal Constitution,\r\nwith its parliamentary proceedings, and\r\nits struggles of the impoverished and oppositional\r\nmass of the nobility against the Government and\r\nits allies, the magnates. Presburg, the seat of\r\nthe Diet, was at the very gates of Vienna. All\r\nthe elements contributed to create among the\r\nmiddle classes of the towns a spirit, not exactly\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_59\"\u003e[Pg 59]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nof opposition, for opposition was as yet impossible,\r\nbut of discontent; a general wish for reforms,\r\nmore of an administrative than of a constitutional\r\nnature. And in the same manner as\r\nin Prussia, a portion of the bureaucracy joined\r\nthe bourgeoisie. Among this hereditary caste of\r\nofficials the traditions of Joseph II. were not forgotten;\r\nthe more educated functionaries of the\r\nGovernment, who themselves sometimes meddled\r\nwith imaginary possible reforms, by far preferred\r\nthe progressive and intellectual despotism of that\r\nEmperor to the \"paternal\" despotism of Metternich.\r\nA portion of the poorer nobility equally\r\nsided with the middle class, and as to the lower\r\nclasses of the population, who always had found\r\nplenty of grounds to complain of their superiors,\r\nif not of the Government, they in most cases\r\ncould not but adhere to the reformatory wishes\r\nof the bourgeoisie.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt was about this time, say 1843 or 1844, that\r\na particular branch of literature, agreeable to\r\nthis change, was established in Germany. A few\r\nAustrian writers, novelists, literary critics, bad\r\npoets, the whole of them of very indifferent ability,\r\nbut gifted with that peculiar industrialism\r\nproper to the Jewish race, established themselves\r\nin Leipsic and other German towns out of Austria,\r\nand there, out of the reach of Metternich,\r\npublished a number of books and pamphlets on\r\nAustrian affairs. They and their publishers made\r\n\"a roaring trade\" of it. All Germany was eager\r\nto become initiated into the secrets of the policy\r\nof European China; and the Austrians them\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_60\"\u003e[Pg 60]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eselves,\r\nwho obtained these publications by the\r\nwholesale smuggling carried on upon the Bohemian\r\nfrontier, were still more curious. Of\r\ncourse, the secrets let out in these publications\r\nwere of no great importance, and the reform\r\nplans schemed out by their well-wishing authors\r\nbore the stamp of an innocuousness almost\r\namounting to political virginity. A Constitution\r\nand a free press for Austria were things considered\r\nunattainable; administrative reforms, extension\r\nof the rights of the Provincial Diets, admission\r\nof foreign books and newspapers, and a\r\nless severe censorship—the loyal and humble desires\r\nof these good Austrians did hardly go any\r\nfarther.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAt all events the growing impossibility of preventing\r\nthe literary intercourse of Austria with\r\nthe rest of Germany, and through Germany with\r\nthe rest of the world, contributed much toward\r\nthe formation of an anti-Governmental public\r\nopinion, and brought at least some little political\r\ninformation within the reach of part of the Austrian\r\npopulation. Thus, by the end of 1847,\r\nAustria was seized, although in an inferior degree,\r\nby that political and politico-religious agitation\r\nwhich then prevailed in all Germany; and\r\nif its progress in Austria was more silent, it did,\r\nnevertheless, find revolutionary elements enough\r\nto work upon. There was the peasant, serf, or\r\nfeudal tenant, ground down into the dust by\r\nlordly or Government exactions; then the factory\r\noperative, forced by the stick of the policeman\r\nto work upon any terms the manufacturer chose\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_61\"\u003e[Pg 61]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nto grant; then the journeyman, debarred by the\r\ncorporative laws from any chance of gaining an\r\nindependence in his trade; then the merchant,\r\nstumbling at every step in business over absurd\r\nregulations; then the manufacturer, in uninterrupted\r\nconflict with trade-guilds, jealous of their\r\nprivileges, or with greedy and meddling officials;\r\nthen the school-master, the \u003ci\u003esavant\u003c/i\u003e, the better\r\neducated functionary, vainly struggling against\r\nan ignorant and presumptuous clergy, or a stupid\r\nand dictating superior. In short, there was not\r\na single class satisfied, for the small concessions\r\nGovernment was obliged now and then to make\r\nwere not made at its own expense, for the treasury\r\ncould not afford that, but at the expense of\r\nthe high aristocracy and clergy; and as to the\r\ngreat bankers, and fundholders, the late events\r\nin Italy, the increasing opposition of the Hungarian\r\nDiet, and the unwonted spirit of discontent\r\nand cry for reform, manifesting themselves all\r\nover the Empire, were not of a nature to\r\nstrengthen their faith in the solidity and solvency\r\nof the Austrian Empire.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThus Austria, too, was marching slowly but\r\nsurely toward a mighty change, when, of a sudden,\r\nan event broke out in France, which at once\r\nbrought down the impending storm, and gave\r\nthe lie to old Francis\u0027s assertion, that the building\r\nwould hold out both during his and Metternich\u0027s\r\nlifetime.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eLondon\u003c/span\u003e, September, 1851.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_62\"\u003e[Pg 62]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"V\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eV.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eTHE VIENNA INSURRECTION.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"head\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eNovember\u003c/span\u003e 12, 1851.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOn the 24th of February, 1848, Louis Philippe\r\nwas driven out of Paris, and the French Republic\r\nwas proclaimed. On the 13th of March following,\r\nthe people of Vienna broke the power of\r\nPrince Metternich, and made him flee shamefully\r\nout of the country. On the 18th of March\r\nthe people of Berlin rose in arms, and, after an\r\nobstinate struggle of eighteen hours, had the satisfaction\r\nof seeing the King surrender himself\r\ninto their hands. Simultaneous outbreaks of a\r\nmore or less violent nature, but all with the same\r\nsuccess, occurred in the capitals of the smaller\r\nStates of Germany. The German people, if they\r\nhad not accomplished their first revolution, were\r\nat least fairly launched into the revolutionary\r\ncareer.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAs to the incidents of these various insurrections,\r\nwe cannot enter here into the details of\r\nthem: what we have to explain is their character,\r\nand the position which the different classes of\r\nthe population took up with regard to them.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Revolution of Vienna may be said to have\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_63\"\u003e[Pg 63]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nbeen made by an almost unanimous population.\r\nThe bourgeoisie (with the exception of the bankers\r\nand stock-jobbers), the petty trading class,\r\nthe working people, one and all arose at once\r\nagainst a Government detested by all, a Government\r\nso universally hated, that the small minority\r\nof nobles and money lords which had supported\r\nit made itself invisible on the very first\r\nattack. The middle classes had been kept in such\r\na degree of political ignorance by Metternich\r\nthat to them the news from Paris about the reign\r\nof Anarchy, Socialism, and terror, and about impending\r\nstruggles between the class of capitalists\r\nand the class of laborers, proved quite unintelligible.\r\nThey, in their political innocence,\r\neither could attach no meaning to these news,\r\nor they believed them to be fiendish inventions of\r\nMetternich, to frighten them into obedience.\r\nThey, besides, had never seen working men acting\r\nas a class, or stand up for their own distinct\r\nclass interests. They had, from their past experience,\r\nno idea of the possibility of any differences\r\nspringing up between classes that now were so\r\nheartily united in upsetting a Government hated\r\nby all. They saw the working people agree with\r\nthemselves upon all points: a Constitution, Trial\r\nby Jury, Liberty of the Press, etc. Thus they\r\nwere, in March, 1848, at least, heart and soul\r\nwith the movement, and the movement, on the\r\nother hand, at once constituted them the (at\r\nleast in theory) predominant class of the State.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBut it is the fate of all revolutions that this\r\nunion of different classes, which in some degree\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_64\"\u003e[Pg 64]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nis always the necessary condition of any revolution,\r\ncannot subsist long. No sooner is the victory\r\ngained against the common enemy than the\r\nvictors become divided among themselves into\r\ndifferent camps, and turn their weapons against\r\neach other. It is this rapid and passionate development\r\nof class antagonism which, in old and\r\ncomplicated social organisms, makes a revolution\r\nsuch a powerful agent of social and political\r\nprogress; it is this incessantly quick upshooting\r\nof new parties succeeding each other in power,\r\nwhich, during those violent commotions, makes\r\na nation pass in five years over more ground than\r\nit would have done in a century under ordinary\r\ncircumstances.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Revolution in Vienna made the middle\r\nclass the theoretically predominant class; that is\r\nto say, the concessions wrung from the Government\r\nwere such as, once carried out practically\r\nand adhered to for a time, would inevitably have\r\nsecured the supremacy of the middle class. But\r\npractically the supremacy of that class was far\r\nfrom being established. It is true that by the\r\nestablishment of a national guard, which gave\r\narms to the bourgeoisie and petty tradesmen,\r\nthat class obtained both force and importance;\r\nit is true that by the installation of a \"Committee\r\nof Safety,\" a sort of revolutionary, irresponsible\r\nGovernment in which the bourgeoisie predominated,\r\nit was placed at the head of power. But,\r\nat the same time, the working classes were partially\r\narmed too; they and the students had borne\r\nthe brunt of the fight, as far as fight there had\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_65\"\u003e[Pg 65]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nbeen; and the students, about 4,000 strong, well-armed,\r\nand far better disciplined than the national\r\nguard, formed the nucleus, the real\r\nstrength of the revolutionary force, and were no\r\nways willing to act as a mere instrument in the\r\nhands of the Committee of Safety. Though they\r\nrecognized it, and were even its most enthusiastic\r\nsupporters, they yet formed a sort of independent\r\nand rather turbulent body, deliberating for\r\nthemselves in the \"Aula,\" keeping an intermediate\r\nposition between the bourgeoisie and the\r\nworking-classes, preventing by constant agitation\r\nthings from settling down to the old every-day\r\ntranquillity, and very often forcing their\r\nresolutions upon the Committee of Safety. The\r\nworking men, on the other hand, almost entirely\r\nthrown out of employment, had to be\r\nemployed in public works at the expense of the\r\nState, and the money for this purpose had, of\r\ncourse, to be taken out of the purse of the tax-payers\r\nor out of the chest of the city of Vienna.\r\nAll this could not but become very unpleasant\r\nto the tradesmen of Vienna. The manufactures\r\nof the city, calculated for the consumption of the\r\nrich and aristocratic courts of a large country,\r\nwere as a matter of course entirely stopped by\r\nthe Revolution, by the flight of the aristocracy\r\nand Court; trade was at a standstill, and the continuous\r\nagitation and excitement kept up by the\r\nstudents and working people was certainly not\r\nthe means to \"restore confidence,\" as the phrase\r\nwent. Thus a certain coolness very soon sprung\r\nup between the middle classes on the one side\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_66\"\u003e[Pg 66]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nand the turbulent students and working people\r\non the other; and if for a long time this coolness\r\nwas not ripened into open hostility, it was because\r\nthe Ministry, and particularly the Court,\r\nin their impatience to restore the old order of\r\nthings, constantly justified the suspicions and the\r\nturbulent activity of the more revolutionary parties,\r\nand constantly made arise, even before the\r\neyes of the middle classes, the spectre of old Metternichian\r\ndespotism. Thus on the 15th of May,\r\nand again on the 16th, there were fresh risings\r\nof all classes in Vienna, on account of the Government\r\nhaving tried to attack, or to undermine\r\nsome of the newly-conquered liberties, and on\r\neach occasion the alliance between the national\r\nguard or armed middle class, the students, and\r\nthe workingmen, was again cemented for a time.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAs to the other classes of the population, the\r\naristocracy and the money lords had disappeared,\r\nand the peasantry were busily engaged everywhere\r\nin removing, down to the very last vestiges\r\nof feudalism. Thanks to the war in Italy,\r\nand the occupation which Vienna and Hungary\r\ngave to the Court, they were left at full liberty,\r\nand succeeded in their work of liberation, in Austria,\r\nbetter than in any other part of Germany.\r\nThe Austrian Diet had very shortly after only\r\nto confirm the steps already practically taken by\r\nthe peasantry, and whatever else the Government\r\nof Prince Schwartzenberg may be enabled to restore,\r\nit will never have the power of re-establishing\r\nthe feudal servitude of the peasantry. And\r\nif Austria at the present moment is again com\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_67\"\u003e[Pg 67]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eparatively\r\ntranquil, and even strong, it is principally\r\nbecause the great majority of the people,\r\nthe peasants, have been real gainers by the Revolution,\r\nand because whatever else has been attacked\r\nby the restored Government, those palpable,\r\nsubstantial advantages, conquered by the\r\npeasantry, are as yet untouched.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eLondon\u003c/span\u003e, October, 1851.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_68\"\u003e[Pg 68]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"VI\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eVI.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eTHE BERLIN INSURRECTION.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"head\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eNovember\u003c/span\u003e 28, 1851.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe second center of revolutionary action was\r\nBerlin, and from what has been stated in the\r\nforegoing papers, it may be guessed that there\r\nthis action was far from having that unanimous\r\nsupport of almost all classes by which it was accompanied\r\nin Vienna. In Prussia, the bourgeoisie\r\nhad been already involved in actual struggles\r\nwith the Government; a rupture had been\r\nfile result of the \"United Diet\"; a bourgeois revolution\r\nwas impending, and that revolution might\r\nhave been, in its first outbreak, quite as unanimous\r\nas that of Vienna, had it not been for the\r\nParis Revolution of February. That event precipitated\r\neverything, while at the same time it\r\nwas carried out under a banner totally different\r\nfrom that under which the Prussian bourgeoisie\r\nwas preparing to defy its Government. The Revolution\r\nof February upset, in France, the very\r\nsame sort of Government which the Prussian\r\nbourgeoisie were going to set up in their own\r\ncountry. The Revolution of February announced\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_69\"\u003e[Pg 69]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nitself as a revolution of the working classes\r\nagainst the middle classes; it proclaimed the\r\ndownfall of middle-class government and the\r\nemancipation of the workingman. Now the Prussian\r\nbourgeoisie had, of late, had quite enough\r\nof working-class agitation in their own country.\r\nAfter the first terror of the Silesian riots had\r\npassed away, they had even tried to give this agitation\r\na turn in their own favor; but they always\r\nhad retained a salutary horror of revolutionary\r\nSocialism and Communism; and, therefore, when\r\nthey saw men at the head of the Government in\r\nParis whom they considered as the most dangerous\r\nenemies of property, order, religion, family,\r\nand of the other \u003ci\u003ePenates\u003c/i\u003e of the modern bourgeois,\r\nthey at once experienced a considerable\r\ncooling down of their own revolutionary ardor.\r\nThey knew that the moment must be seized, and\r\nthat, without the aid of the working masses, they\r\nwould be defeated; and yet their courage failed\r\nthem. Thus they sided with the Government in\r\nthe first partial and provincial outbreaks, tried to\r\nkeep the people quiet in Berlin, who, during five\r\ndays, met in crowds before the royal palace to\r\ndiscuss the news and ask for changes in the Government;\r\nand when at last, after the news of the\r\ndownfall of Metternich, the King made some\r\nslight concessions, the bourgeoisie considered the\r\nRevolution as completed, and went to thank His\r\nMajesty for having fulfilled all the wishes of his\r\npeople. But then followed the attack of the military\r\non the crowd, the barricades, the struggle,\r\nand the defeat of royalty. Then everything was\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_70\"\u003e[Pg 70]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nchanged; the very working classes, which it had\r\nbeen the tendency of the bourgeoisie to keep in\r\nthe background, had been pushed forward, had\r\nfought and conquered, and all at once were conscious\r\nof their strength. Restrictions of suffrage,\r\nof the liberty of the press, of the right to\r\nsit on juries, of the right of meeting—restrictions\r\nthat would have been very agreeable to the bourgeoisie\r\nbecause they would have touched upon\r\nsuch classes only as were beneath them—now\r\nwere no longer possible. The danger of a repetition\r\nof the Parisian scenes of \"anarchy\" was\r\nimminent. Before this danger all former differences\r\ndisappeared. Against the victorious workingman,\r\nalthough he had not yet uttered any specific\r\ndemands for himself, the friends and the\r\nfoes of many years united, and the alliance between\r\nthe bourgeoisie and the supporters of the\r\nover-turned system was concluded upon the very\r\nbarricades of Berlin. The necessary concessions,\r\nbut no more than was unavoidable, were to be\r\nmade, a ministry of the opposition leaders of the\r\nUnited Diet was to be formed, and in return for\r\nits services in saving the Crown, it was to have\r\nthe support of all the props of the old Government,\r\nthe feudal aristocracy, the bureaucracy, the\r\narmy. These were the conditions upon which\r\nMessrs. Camphausen and Hansemann undertook\r\nthe formation of a cabinet.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eSuch was the dread evinced by the new ministers\r\nof the aroused masses, that in their eyes\r\nevery means was good if it only tended to\r\nstrengthen the shaken foundations of authority.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_71\"\u003e[Pg 71]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nThey, poor deluded wretches, thought every danger\r\nof a restoration of the old system had passed\r\naway; and thus they made use of the whole of\r\nthe old State machinery for the purpose of restoring\r\n\"order.\" Not a single bureaucrat or military\r\nofficer was dismissed; not the slightest\r\nchange was made in the old bureaucratic system\r\nof administration. These precious constitutional\r\nand responsible ministers even restored to their\r\nposts those functionaries whom the people, in the\r\nfirst heat of revolutionary ardor, had driven away\r\non account of their former acts of bureaucratic\r\noverbearing. There was nothing altered in Prussia\r\nbut the persons of the ministers; even the ministerial\r\nstaffs in the different departments were\r\nnot touched upon, and all the constitutional\r\nplace-hunters, who had formed the chorus of the\r\nnewly-elevated rulers, and who had expected their\r\nshare of power and office, were told to wait until\r\nrestored stability allowed changes to be operated\r\nin the bureaucratic personnel which now\r\nwere not without danger.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe King, chap-fallen in the highest degree\r\nafter the insurrection of the 18th of March, very\r\nsoon found out that he was quite as necessary to\r\nthese \"liberal\" ministers as they were to him.\r\nThe throne had been spared by the insurrection;\r\nthe throne was the last existing obstacle to \"anarchy\";\r\nthe liberal middle class and its leaders,\r\nnow in the ministry, had therefore every interest\r\nto keep on excellent terms with the crown. The\r\nKing, and the reactionary camerilla that surrounded\r\nhim, were not slow in discovering this,\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_72\"\u003e[Pg 72]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nand profited by the circumstance in order to fetter\r\nthe march of the ministry even in those petty\r\nreforms that were from time to time intended.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe first care of the ministry was to give a\r\nsort of legal appearance to the recent violent\r\nchanges. The United Diet was convoked in spite\r\nof all popular opposition, in order to vote as the\r\nlegal and constitutional organ of the people a\r\nnew electoral law for the election of an Assembly,\r\nwhich was to agree with the crown upon a\r\nnew constitution. The elections were to be indirect,\r\nthe mass of voters electing a number of\r\nelectors, who then were to choose the representative.\r\nIn spite of all opposition this system of\r\ndouble elections passed. The United Diet was\r\nthen asked for a loan of twenty-five millions of\r\ndollars, opposed by the popular party, but equally\r\nagreed to.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThese acts of the ministry gave a most rapid\r\ndevelopment to the popular, or as it now called\r\nitself, the Democratic party. This party, headed\r\nby the petty trading and shopkeeping class, and\r\nuniting under its banner, in the beginning of the\r\nrevolution, the large majority of the working\r\npeople, demanded direct and universal suffrage,\r\nthe same as established in France, a single legislative\r\nassembly, and full and open recognition\r\nof the revolution of the 18th of March, as the\r\nbase of the new governmental system. The more\r\nmoderate faction would be satisfied with a thus\r\n\"democratized\" monarchy, the more advanced\r\ndemanded the ultimate establishment of the republic.\r\nBoth factions agreed in recognizing the\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_73\"\u003e[Pg 73]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nGerman National Assembly at Frankfort as the\r\nsupreme authority of the country, while the Constitutionalists\r\nand Reactionists affected a great\r\nhorror of the sovereignty of this body, which\r\nthey professed to consider as utterly revolutionary.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe independent movement of the working\r\nclasses had, by the revolution, been broken up\r\nfor a time. The immediate wants and circumstances\r\nof the movement were such as not to\r\nallow any of the specific demands of the Proletarian\r\nparty to be put in the foreground. In fact,\r\nas long as the ground was not cleared for the independent\r\naction of the working men, as long as\r\ndirect and universal suffrage was not yet established,\r\nas long as the thirty-six larger and smaller\r\nstates continued to cut up Germany into numberless\r\nmorsels, what else could the Proletarian\r\nparty do but watch the—for them all-important—movement\r\nof Paris, and struggle in common\r\nwith the petty shopkeepers for the attainment of\r\nthose rights, which would allow them to fight\r\nafterwards their own battle?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThere were only three points, then, by which\r\nthe Proletarian party in its political action essentially\r\ndistinguished itself from the petty trading\r\nclass, or properly so-called Democratic party;\r\nfirstly, in judging differently the French movement,\r\nwith regard to which the democrats attacked,\r\nand the Proletarian revolutionists defended,\r\nthe extreme party in Paris; secondly, in\r\nproclaiming the necessity of establishing a German\r\nRepublic, one and indivisible, while the very\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_74\"\u003e[Pg 74]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nextremest ultras among the democrats only dared\r\nto sigh for a Federative Republic; and thirdly, in\r\nshowing upon every occasion, that revolutionary\r\nboldness and readiness for action, in which any\r\nparty headed by, and composed principally of\r\npetty tradesmen, will always be deficient.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Proletarian, or really Revolutionary party,\r\nsucceeded only very gradually in withdrawing the\r\nmass of the working people from the influence of\r\nthe Democrats, whose tail they formed in the\r\nbeginning of the Revolution. But in due time the\r\nindecision, weakness, and cowardice of the Democratic\r\nleaders did the rest, and it may now be\r\nsaid to be one of the principal results of the last\r\nyears\u0027 convulsions, that wherever the working-class\r\nis concentrated in anything like considerable\r\nmasses, they are entirely freed from that Democratic\r\ninfluence which led them into an endless\r\nseries of blunders and misfortunes during 1848\r\nand 1849. But we had better not anticipate; the\r\nevents of these two years will give us plenty of\r\nopportunities to show the Democratic gentlemen\r\nat work.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe peasantry in Prussia, the same as in Austria,\r\nbut with less energy, feudalism pressing, upon\r\nthe whole, not quite so hardly upon them here,\r\nhad profited by the revolution to free themselves\r\nat once from all feudal shackles. But here, from\r\nthe reasons stated before, the middle classes at\r\nonce turned against them, their oldest, their most\r\nindispensable allies; the democrats, equally\r\nfrightened with the bourgeoisie, by what was\r\ncalled attacks upon private property, failed\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_75\"\u003e[Pg 75]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nequally to support them; and thus, after three\r\nmonths\u0027 emancipation, after bloody struggles and\r\nmilitary executions, particularly in Silesia, feudalism\r\nwas restored by the hands of the, until yesterday,\r\nanti-feudal bourgeoisie. There is not a\r\nmore damning fact to be brought against them\r\nthan this. Similar treason against its best allies,\r\nagainst itself, never was committed by any party\r\nin history, and whatever humiliation and chastisement\r\nmay be in store for this middle class\r\nparty, it has deserved by this one act every\r\nmorsel of it.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eOctober\u003c/span\u003e, 1851.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_76\"\u003e[Pg 76]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"VII\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eVII.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eTHE FRANKFORT NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"head\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eFebruary\u003c/span\u003e 27, 1852.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt will perhaps be in the recollection of our\r\nreaders that in the six preceding papers we followed\r\nup the revolutionary movement of Germany\r\nto the two great popular victories of March\r\n13th in Vienna, and March 18th in Berlin. We\r\nsaw, both in Austria and Prussia, the establishment\r\nof constitutional governments and the proclamation,\r\nas leading rules for all future policy, of\r\nLiberal, or middle class principles; and the only\r\ndifference observable between the two great centers\r\nof action was this, that in Prussia the liberal\r\nbourgeoisie, in the persons of two wealthy merchants,\r\nMessrs. Camphausen and Hansemann, directly\r\nseized upon the reins of power; while in\r\nAustria, where the bourgeoisie was, politically,\r\nfar less educated, the Liberal bureaucracy walked\r\ninto office, and professed to hold power in trust\r\nfor them. We have further seen, how the parties\r\nand classes of society, that were heretofore all\r\nunited in opposition to the old government, got\r\ndivided among themselves after the victory, or\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_77\"\u003e[Pg 77]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\neven during the struggle; and how that same\r\nLiberal bourgeoisie that alone profited from the\r\nvictory turned round immediately upon its allies\r\nof yesterday, assumed a hostile attitude against\r\nevery class or party of a more advanced character,\r\nand concluded an alliance with the conquered\r\nfeudal and bureaucratic interests. It was\r\nin fact, evident, even from the beginning of the\r\nrevolutionary drama, that the Liberal bourgeoisie\r\ncould not hold its ground against the vanquished,\r\nbut not destroyed, feudal and bureaucratic parties\r\nexcept by relying upon the assistance of the popular\r\nand more advanced parties; and that it\r\nequally required, against the torrent of these\r\nmore advanced masses, the assistance of the feudal\r\nnobility and of the bureaucracy. Thus, it was\r\nclear enough that the bourgeoisie in Austria and\r\nPrussia did not possess sufficient strength to\r\nmaintain their power, and to adapt the institutions\r\nof the country to their own wants and ideas.\r\nThe Liberal bourgeois ministry was only a halting-place\r\nfrom which, according to the turn circumstances\r\nmight take, the country would either\r\nhave to go on to the more advanced stage of Unitarian\r\nrepublicanism, or to relapse into the old\r\nclerico-feudal and bureaucratic \u003ci\u003erégime\u003c/i\u003e. At all\r\nevents, the real, decisive struggle was yet to\r\ncome; the events of March had only engaged the\r\ncombat.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAustria and Prussia being the two ruling\r\nstates of Germany, every decisive revolutionary\r\nvictory in Vienna or Berlin would have been decisive\r\nfor all Germany. And as far as they went,\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_78\"\u003e[Pg 78]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nthe events of March, 1848, in these two cities,\r\ndecided the turn of German affairs. It would,\r\nthen, be superfluous to recur to the movements\r\nthat occurred in the minor States; and we might,\r\nindeed, confine ourselves to the consideration of\r\nAustrian and Prussian affairs exclusively, if the\r\nexistence of these minor states had not given rise\r\nto a body which was, by its very existence, a\r\nmost striking proof of the abnormal situation of\r\nGermany and of the incompleteness of the late\r\nrevolution; a body so abnormal, so ludicrous by\r\nits very position, and yet so full of its own importance,\r\nthat history will, most likely, never afford\r\na pendant to it. This body was the so-called\r\n\u003ci\u003eGerman National Assembly\u003c/i\u003e at Frankfort-on-Main.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAfter the popular victories of Vienna and Berlin,\r\nit was a matter of course that there should\r\nbe a Representative Assembly for all Germany.\r\nThis body was consequently elected, and met at\r\nFrankfort, by the side of the old Federative Diet.\r\nThe German National Assembly was expected,\r\nby the people, to settle every matter in dispute,\r\nand to act as the highest legislative authority for\r\nthe whole of the German Confederation. But, at\r\nthe same time, the Diet which had convoked it\r\nhad in no way fixed its attributions. No one\r\nknew whether its decrees were to have force of\r\nlaw, or whether they were to be subject to the\r\nsanction of the Diet, or of the individual Governments.\r\nIn this perplexity, if the Assembly had\r\nbeen possessed of the least energy, it would have\r\nimmediately dissolved and sent home the Diet\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_79\"\u003e[Pg 79]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e—than\r\nwhich no corporate body was more unpopular\r\nin Germany—and replaced it by a Federal\r\nGovernment, chosen from among its own members.\r\nIt would have declared itself the only legal\r\nexpression of the sovereign will of the German\r\npeople, and thus have attached legal validity to\r\nevery one of its decrees. It would, above all,\r\nhave secured to itself an organized and armed\r\nforce in the country sufficient to put down any\r\nopposition on the parts of the Governments. And\r\nall this was easy, very easy, at that early period\r\nof the Revolution. But that would have been expecting\r\na great deal too much from an Assembly\r\ncomposed in its majority of Liberal attorneys and\r\n\u003ci\u003edoctrinaire\u003c/i\u003e professors, an Assembly which, while\r\nit pretended to embody the very essence of German\r\nintellect and science, was in reality nothing\r\nbut a stage where old and worn-out political\r\ncharacters exhibited their involuntary ludicrousness\r\nand their impotence of thought, as well\r\nas action, before the eyes of all Germany. THIS\r\nAssembly of old women was, from the first\r\nday of its existence, more frightened of the least\r\npopular movement than of all the reactionary\r\nplots of all the German Governments put together.\r\nIt deliberated under the eyes of the\r\nDiet, nay, it almost craved the Diet\u0027s sanction to\r\nits decrees, for its first resolutions had to be promulgated\r\nby that odious body. Instead of asserting\r\nits own sovereignty, it studiously avoided\r\nthe discussion of any such dangerous question.\r\nInstead of surrounding itself by a popular force,\r\nit passed to the order of the day over all the\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_80\"\u003e[Pg 80]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nviolent encroachments of the Governments;\r\nMayence, under its very eyes, was placed in a\r\nstate of siege, and the people there disarmed,\r\nand the National Assembly did not stir. Later\r\non it elected Archduke John of Austria Regent\r\nof Germany, and declared that all its resolutions\r\nwere to have the force of law; but then Archduke\r\nJohn was only instituted in his new dignity\r\nafter the consent of all the Governments had been\r\nobtained, and he was instituted not by the Assembly,\r\nbut by the Diet; and as to the legal force\r\nof the decrees of the Assembly, that point was\r\nnever recognized by the larger Governments, nor\r\nenforced by the Assembly itself; it therefore remained\r\nin suspense. Thus we had the strange\r\nspectacle of an Assembly pretending to be the\r\nonly legal representative of a great and sovereign\r\nnation, and yet never possessing either the\r\nwill or the force to make its claims recognized.\r\nThe debates of this body, without any practical\r\nresult, were not even of any theoretical value,\r\nreproducing, as they did, nothing but the most\r\nhackneyed commonplace themes of superannuated\r\nphilosophical and juridical schools; every\r\nsentence that was said, or rather stammered\r\nforth, in that Assembly having been printed a\r\nthousand times over, and a thousand times better,\r\nlong before.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThus the pretended new central authority of\r\nGermany left everything as it had found it. So\r\nfar from realizing the long-demanded unity of\r\nGermany, it did not dispossess the most insignificant\r\nof the princes who ruled her; it did not\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_81\"\u003e[Pg 81]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\ndraw closer the bonds of union between her separated\r\nprovinces; it never moved a single step to\r\nbreak down the customhouse barriers that separated\r\nHanover from Prussia, and Prussia from\r\nAustria; it did not even make the slightest attempt\r\nto remove the obnoxious dues that everywhere\r\nobstruct river navigation in Prussia. But\r\nthe less this Assembly did the more it blustered.\r\nIt created a German fleet—upon paper; it annexed\r\nPoland and Schleswig; it allowed German-Austria\r\nto carry on war against Italy, and yet\r\nprohibited the Italians from following up the\r\nAustrians into their safe retreat in Germany; it\r\ngave three cheers and one cheer more for the\r\nFrench republic, and it received Hungarian embassies,\r\nwhich certainly went home with far more\r\nconfused ideas about Germany than they had\r\ncome with.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis Assembly had been, in the beginning of\r\nthe Revolution, the bugbear of all German Governments.\r\nThey had counted upon a very dictatorial\r\nand revolutionary action on its part—on\r\naccount of the very want of definiteness in which\r\nit had been found necessary to leave its competency.\r\nThese Governments, therefore, got up a\r\nmost comprehensive system of intrigues in order\r\nto weaken the influence of this dreaded body; but\r\nthey proved to have more luck than wits, for this\r\nAssembly did the work of the Governments better\r\nthan they themselves could have done. The chief\r\nfeature among these intrigues was the convocation\r\nof local Legislative Assemblies, and in consequence,\r\nnot only the lesser States convoked their\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_82\"\u003e[Pg 82]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nlegislatures, but Prussia and Austria also called\r\nconstituent assemblies. In these, as in the Frankfort\r\nHouse of Representatives, the Liberal middle\r\nclass, or its allies, liberal lawyers, and bureaucrats\r\nhad the majority, and the turn affairs took\r\nin each of them was nearly the same. The only\r\ndifference is this, that the German National Assembly\r\nwas the parliament of an imaginary country,\r\nas it had declined the task of forming what\r\nnevertheless was its own first condition of existence,\r\nviz. a United Germany; that it discussed\r\nthe imaginary and never-to-be-carried-out measures\r\nof an imaginary government of its own creation,\r\nand that it passed imaginary resolutions for\r\nwhich nobody cared; while in Austria and Prussia\r\nthe constituent bodies were at least real parliaments,\r\nupsetting and creating real ministries,\r\nand forcing, for a time at least, their resolutions\r\nupon the princes with whom they had to contend.\r\nThey, too, were cowardly, and lacked enlarged\r\nviews of revolutionary resolutions; they, too, betrayed\r\nthe people, and restored power to the\r\nhands of feudal, bureaucratic, and military despotism.\r\nBut then they were at least obliged to\r\ndiscuss practical questions of immediate interest,\r\nand to live upon earth with other people,\r\nwhile the Frankfort humbugs were never happier\r\nthan when they could roam in \"the airy realms\r\nof dream,\" \u003ci\u003eim Luftreich des Traums\u003c/i\u003e. Thus\r\nthe proceedings of the Berlin and Vienna Constituents\r\nform an important part of German revolutionary\r\nhistory, while the lucubrations of the\r\nFrankfort collective tomfoolery merely interest\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_83\"\u003e[Pg 83]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nthe collector of literary and antiquarian curiosities.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe people of Germany, deeply feeling the\r\nnecessity of doing away with the obnoxious territorial\r\ndivision that scattered and annihilated the\r\ncollective force of the nation, for some time expected\r\nto find, in the Frankfort National Assembly\r\nat least, the beginning of a new era. But the\r\nchildish conduct of that set of wiseacres soon disenchanted\r\nthe national enthusiasm. The disgraceful\r\nproceedings occasioned by the armistice of\r\nMalmoe (September, 1848,) made the popular\r\nindignation burst out against a body which, it had\r\nbeen hoped, would give the nation a fair field\r\nfor action, and which, instead, carried away by\r\nunequalled cowardice, only restored to their former\r\nsolidity the foundations upon which the\r\npresent counter-revolutionary system is built.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eLondon\u003c/span\u003e, January, 1852.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_84\"\u003e[Pg 84]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"VIII\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eVIII.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003ePOLES, TSCHECHS, AND GERMANS.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"head\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eMarch\u003c/span\u003e 5th, 1852.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eFrom what has been stated in the foregoing\r\narticles, it is already evident that unless a fresh\r\nrevolution was to follow that of March, 1848,\r\nthings would inevitably return, in Germany, to\r\nwhat they were before this event. But such is\r\nthe complicated nature of the historical theme\r\nupon which we are trying to throw some light,\r\nthat subsequent events cannot be clearly understood\r\nwithout taking into account what may be\r\ncalled the foreign relations of the German Revolution.\r\nAnd these foreign relations were of the\r\nsame intricate nature as the home affairs.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe whole of the eastern half of Germany, as\r\nfar as the Elbe, Saale, and Bohemian Forest,\r\nhas, it is well known, been reconquered during\r\nthe last thousand years, from invaders of Slavonic\r\norigin. The greater part of these territories\r\nhave been Germanized, to the perfect extinction\r\nof all Slavonic nationality and language, for several\r\ncenturies past; and if we except a few totally\r\nisolated remnants, amounting in the aggre\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_85\"\u003e[Pg 85]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003egate\r\nto less than a hundred thousand souls (Kassubians\r\nin Pomerania, Wends or Sorbians in Lusatia)\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_7_7\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_7_7\"\u003e[7]\u003c/a\u003e,\r\ntheir inhabitants are, to all intents and\r\npurposes, Germans. But the case is different\r\nalong the whole of the frontier of ancient Poland,\r\nand in the countries of the Tschechian tongue, in\r\nBohemia and Moravia. Here the two nationalities\r\nare mixed up in every district, the towns being\r\ngenerally more or less German, while the\r\nSlavonic element prevails in the rural villages,\r\nwhere, however, it is also gradually disintegrated\r\nand forced back by the steady advance of German\r\ninfluence.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe reason of this state of things is this: ever\r\nsince the time of Charlemagne, the Germans have\r\ndirected their most constant and persevering efforts\r\nto the conquest, colonization, or, at least,\r\ncivilization of the east of Europe. The conquest\r\nof the feudal nobility between the Elbe and the\r\nOder, and the feudal colonies of the military orders\r\nof knights in Prussia and Livonia, only laid\r\nthe ground for a far more extensive and effective\r\nsystem of Germanization by the trading and manufacturing\r\nmiddle classes, which in Germany,\r\nas in the rest of Western Europe, rose into social\r\nand political importance since the fifteenth\r\ncentury. The Slavonians, and particularly the\r\nWestern Slavonians (Poles and Tschechs), are\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_86\"\u003e[Pg 86]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nessentially an agricultural race; trade and manufactures\r\nnever were in great favor with them.\r\nThe consequence was that, with the increase of\r\npopulation and the origin of cities in these regions,\r\nthe production of all articles of manufacture\r\nfell into the hands of German immigrants,\r\nand the exchange of these commodities against\r\nagricultural produce became the exclusive monopoly\r\nof the Jews, who, if they belong to any\r\nnationality, are in these countries certainly rather\r\nGermans than Slavonians. This has been, though\r\nin a less degree, the case in all the east of Europe.\r\nThe handicraftsman, the small shopkeeper, the\r\npetty manufacturer, is a German up to this day\r\nin Petersburg, Pesth, Jassy, and even Constantinople;\r\nwhile the money-lender, the publican, the\r\nhawker—a very important man in these thinly\r\npopulated countries—is very generally a Jew,\r\nwhose native tongue is a horribly corrupted German.\r\nThe importance of the German element in\r\nthe Slavonic frontier localities, thus rising with\r\nthe growth of towns, trade and manufactures,\r\nwas still increased when it was found necessary\r\nto import almost every element of mental culture\r\nfrom Germany; after the German merchant and\r\nhandicraftsman, the German clergyman, the German\r\nschool-master, the German \u003ci\u003esavant\u003c/i\u003e came to\r\nestablish himself upon Slavonic soil. And lastly,\r\nthe iron thread of conquering armies, or the\r\ncautious, well-premeditated grasp of diplomacy,\r\nnot only followed, but many times went ahead\r\nof the slow but sure advance of denationalization\r\nby social development. Thus, great parts of\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_87\"\u003e[Pg 87]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nWestern Prussia and Posen have been Germanized\r\nsince the first partition of Poland, by sales\r\nand grants of public domains to German colonists,\r\nby encouragements given to German capitalists\r\nfor the establishment of manufactories,\r\netc., in those neighborhoods, and very often, too,\r\nby excessively despotic measures against the Polish\r\ninhabitants of the country.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn this manner the last seventy years had entirely\r\nchanged the line of demarcation between\r\nthe German and Polish nationalities. The Revolution\r\nof 1848 calling forth at once the claim of\r\nall oppressed nations to an independent existence,\r\nand to the right of settling their own affairs for\r\nthemselves, it was quite natural that the Poles\r\nshould at once demand the restoration of their\r\ncountry within the frontiers of the old Polish\r\nRepublic before 1772. It is true, this frontier,\r\neven at that time, had become obsolete, if taken\r\nas the delimitation of German and Polish nationality;\r\nit had become more so every year since by\r\nthe progress of Germanization; but then, the\r\nGermans had proclaimed such an enthusiasm for\r\nthe restoration of Poland, that they must expect\r\nto be asked, as a first proof of the reality of their\r\nsympathies to give up \u003ci\u003etheir\u003c/i\u003e share of the plunder.\r\nOn the other hand, should whole tracts of land,\r\ninhabited chiefly by Germans, should large towns,\r\nentirely German, be given up to a people that as\r\nyet had never given any proofs of its capability\r\nof progressing beyond a state of feudalism based\r\nupon agricultural serfdom? The question was\r\nintricate enough. The only possible solution was\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_88\"\u003e[Pg 88]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nin a war with Russia. The question of delimitation\r\nbetween the different revolutionized nations\r\nwould have been made a secondary one to that\r\nof first establishing a safe frontier against the\r\ncommon enemy. The Poles, by receiving extended\r\nterritories in the east, would have become\r\nmore tractable and reasonable in the west; and\r\nRiga and Milan would have been deemed, after\r\nall, quite as important to them as Danzig and\r\nElbing. Thus the advanced party in Germany,\r\ndeeming a war with Russia necessary to keep up\r\nthe Continental movement, and considering that\r\nthe national re-establishment even of a part of\r\nPoland would inevitably lead to such a war, supported\r\nthe Poles; while the reigning middle class\r\npartly clearly foresaw its downfall from any national\r\nwar against Russia, which would have\r\ncalled more active and energetic men to the helm,\r\nand, therefore, with a feigned enthusiasm for the\r\nextension of German nationality, they declared\r\nPrussian Poland, the chief seat of Polish revolutionary\r\nagitation, to be part and parcel of the\r\nGerman Empire that was to be. The promises\r\ngiven to the Poles in the first days of excitement\r\nwere shamefully broken. Polish armaments got\r\nup with the sanction of the Government were\r\ndispersed and massacred by Prussian artillery;\r\nand as soon as the month of April, 1848, within\r\nsix weeks of the Berlin Revolution, the Polish\r\nmovement was crushed, and the old national hostility\r\nrevived between Poles and Germans. This\r\nimmense and incalculable service to the Russian\r\nautocrat was performed by the Liberal merchant-\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_89\"\u003e[Pg 89]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eministers,\r\nCamphausen and Hansemann. It must\r\nbe added that this Polish campaign was the first\r\nmeans of reorganizing and reassuring that same\r\nPrussian army, which afterward turned out the\r\nLiberal party, and crushed the movement which\r\nMessrs. Camphausen and Hansemann had taken\r\nsuch pains to bring about. \"Whereby they sinned,\r\nthereby are they punished.\" Such has been\r\nthe fate of all the upstarts of 1848 and 1849, from\r\nLedru Rolin to Changarnier, and from Camphausen\r\ndown to Haynau.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe question of nationality gave rise to another\r\nstruggle in Bohemia. This country, inhabited by\r\ntwo millions of Germans, and three millions of\r\nSlavonians of the Tschechian tongue, had great\r\nhistorical recollections, almost all connected with\r\nthe former supremacy of the Tschechs. But then\r\nthe force of this branch of the Slavonic family\r\nhad been broken ever since the wars of the Hussites\r\nin the fifteenth century. The province speaking\r\nthe Tschechian tongue was divided, one part\r\nforming the kingdom of Bohemia, another the\r\nprincipality of Moravia, a third the Carpathian\r\nhill-country of the Slovaks, being part of Hungary.\r\nThe Moravians and Slovaks had long\r\nsince lost every vestige of national feeling and\r\nvitality, although mostly preserving their language.\r\nBohemia was surrounded by thoroughly\r\nGerman countries on three sides out of four.\r\nThe German element had made great progress\r\non her own territory; even in the capital, in\r\nPrague, the two nationalities were pretty equally\r\nmatched; and everywhere capital, trade, indus\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_90\"\u003e[Pg 90]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003etry,\r\nand mental culture were in the hands of the\r\nGermans. The chief champion of the Tschechian\r\nnationality, Professor Palacky, is himself nothing\r\nbut a learned German run mad, who even now\r\ncannot speak the Tschechian language correctly\r\nand without foreign accent. But as it often happens,\r\ndying Tschechian nationality, dying according\r\nto every fact known in history for the last\r\nfour hundred years, made in 1848 a last effort\r\nto regain its former vitality—an effort whose\r\nfailure, independently of all revolutionary considerations,\r\nwas to prove that Bohemia could\r\nonly exist, henceforth, as a portion of Germany,\r\nalthough part of her inhabitants might yet, for\r\nsome centuries, continue to speak a non-German\r\nlanguage.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eLondon\u003c/span\u003e, February, 1852.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnotes\"\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFOOTNOTES:\u003c/h3\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_7_7\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_7_7\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[7]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e Lusiana, an ancient territory of Germany, north\r\nof Bohemia, to which the whole of it originally belonged.\r\nLater it belonged to Saxony, and still later,\r\nin 1815, was divided between Saxony (the northern\r\npart) and Prussia (the southern).\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_91\"\u003e[Pg 91]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"IX\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eIX.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003ePANSLAVISM—THE SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN WAR.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"head\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eMarch\u003c/span\u003e 15th, 1852.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBohemia and Croatia (another disjected member\r\nof the Slavonic family, acted upon by the\r\nHungarian, as Bohemia by the German) were the\r\nhomes of what is called on the European continent\r\n\"Panslavism.\" Neither Bohemia nor Croatia\r\nwas strong enough to exist as a nation by\r\nherself. Their respective nationalities, gradually\r\nundermined by the action of historical causes\r\nthat inevitably absorbs into a more energetic\r\nstock, could only hope to be restored to anything\r\nlike independence by an alliance with other Slavonic\r\nnations. There were twenty-two millions of\r\nPoles, forty-five millions of Russians, eight millions\r\nof Serbians and Bulgarians; why not form\r\na mighty confederation of the whole eighty millions\r\nof Slavonians, and drive back or exterminate\r\nthe intruder upon the holy Slavonic soil,\r\nthe Turk, the Hungarian, and above all the\r\nhated, but indispensable \u003ci\u003eNiemetz\u003c/i\u003e, the German?\r\nThus in the studies of a few Slavonian \u003ci\u003edilettanti\u003c/i\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_92\"\u003e[Pg 92]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nof historical science was this ludicrous, this anti-historical\r\nmovement got up, a movement which\r\nintended nothing less than to subjugate the civilized\r\nWest under the barbarian East, the town\r\nunder the country, trade, manufactures, intelligence,\r\nunder the primitive agriculture of Slavonian\r\nserfs. But behind this ludicrous theory\r\nstood the terrible reality of the \u003ci\u003eRussian Empire\u003c/i\u003e;\r\nthat empire which by every movement proclaims\r\nthe pretension of considering all Europe as the\r\ndomain of the Slavonic race, and especially of\r\nthe only energetic part of this race, of the Russians;\r\nthat empire which, with two capitals such\r\nas St. Petersburg and Moscow, has not yet found\r\nits centre of gravity, as long as the \"City of the\r\nCzar\" (Constantinople, called in Russian Tzarigrad,\r\nthe Czar\u0027s city), considered by every Russian\r\npeasant as the true metropolis of his religion\r\nand his nation, is not actually the residence of its\r\nEmperor; that empire which, for the last one\r\nhundred and fifty years, has never lost, but always\r\ngained territory by every war it has commenced.\r\nAnd well known in Central Europe are\r\nthe intrigues by which Russian policy supported\r\nthe new-fangled system of Panslavism, a system\r\nthan which none better could be invented to suit\r\nits purposes. Thus, the Bohemian and Croatian\r\nPanslavists, some intentionally, some without\r\nknowing it, worked in the direct interest of Russia;\r\nthey betrayed the revolutionary cause for the\r\nshadow of a nationality which, in the best of\r\ncases, would have shared the fate of the Polish\r\nnationality under Russian sway. It must, how\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_93\"\u003e[Pg 93]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eever,\r\nbe said for the honor of the Poles, that they\r\nnever got to be seriously entangled in these\r\nPanslavist traps, and if a few of the aristocracy\r\nturned furious Panslavists, they knew that by\r\nRussian subjugation they had less to lose than\r\nby a revolt of their own peasant serfs.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Bohemians and Croatians called, then, a\r\ngeneral Slavonic Congress at Prague, for the\r\npreparation of the universal Slavonian Alliance.\r\nThis Congress would have proved a decided failure\r\neven without the interference of the Austrian\r\nmilitary. The several Slavonic languages differ\r\nquite as much as the English, the German, and\r\nthe Swedish, and when the proceedings opened,\r\nthere was no common Slavonic tongue by which\r\nthe speakers could make themselves understood.\r\nFrench was tried, but was equally unintelligible\r\nto the majority, and the poor Slavonic enthusiasts,\r\nwhose only common feeling was a common\r\nhatred against the Germans, were at last obliged\r\nto express themselves in the hated German language,\r\nas the only one that was generally understood!\r\nBut just then another Slavonic Congress\r\nwas assembling in Prague, in the shape of\r\nGalician lancers, Croatian and Slovak grenadiers,\r\nand Bohemian gunners and cuirassiers; and this\r\nreal, armed Slavonic Congress, under the command\r\nof Windischgrätz, in less than twenty-four\r\nhours drove the founders of an imaginary Slavonian\r\nsupremacy out of the town, and dispersed\r\nthem to the winds.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Bohemian, Moravian, Dalmatian, and part\r\nof the Polish deputies (the aristocracy) to the\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_94\"\u003e[Pg 94]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nAustrian Constituent Diet, made in that Assembly\r\na systematic war upon the German element. The\r\nGermans, and part of the Poles (the impoverished\r\nnobility), were in this Assembly the chief\r\nsupporters of revolutionary progress; the mass\r\nof the Slavonic deputies, in opposing them, were\r\nnot satisfied with thus showing clearly the reactionary\r\ntendencies of their entire movement, but\r\nthey were degraded enough to tamper and conspire\r\nwith the very same Austrian Government\r\nwhich had dispersed their meeting at Prague.\r\nThey, too, were paid for this infamous conduct;\r\nafter supporting the Government during the insurrection\r\nof October, 1848, an event which finally\r\nsecured to them a majority in the Diet, this now\r\nalmost exclusively Slavonic Diet was dispersed\r\nby Austrian soldiers, the same as the Prague\r\nCongress, and the Panslavists threatened with\r\nimprisonment if they should stir again. And they\r\nhave only obtained this, that Slavonic nationality\r\nis now being everywhere undermined by Austrian\r\ncentralization, a result for which they may thank\r\ntheir own fanaticism and blindness.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIf the frontiers of Hungary and Germany had\r\nadmitted of any doubt, there would certainly have\r\nbeen another quarrel there. But, fortunately,\r\nthere was no pretext, and the interests of both\r\nnations being intimately related, they struggled\r\nagainst the same enemies, \u003ci\u003eviz.\u003c/i\u003e, the Austrian Government\r\nand the Panslavistic fanaticism. The\r\ngood understanding was not for a moment disturbed.\r\nBut the Italian Revolution entangled at\r\nleast a part of Germany in an internecine war,\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_95\"\u003e[Pg 95]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nand it must be stated here, as a proof how far\r\nthe Metternichian system had succeeded in keeping\r\nback the development of the public mind,\r\nthat during the first six months of 1848, the\r\nsame men that had in Vienna mounted the barricades,\r\nwent, full of enthusiasm, to join the army\r\nthat fought against the Italian patriots. This deplorable\r\nconfusion of ideas did not, however,\r\nlast long.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eLastly, there was the war with Denmark about\r\nSchleswig and Holstein. These countries, unquestionably\r\nGerman by nationality, language\r\nand predilection, are also from military, naval and\r\ncommercial grounds necessary to Germany. Their\r\ninhabitants have, for the last three years, struggled\r\nhard against Danish intrusion. The right\r\nof treaties, besides, was for them. The Revolution\r\nof March brought them into open collision\r\nwith the Danes, and Germany supported them.\r\nBut while in Poland, in Italy, in Bohemia, and\r\nlater on, in Hungary, military operations were\r\npushed with the utmost vigor, in this the only\r\npopular, the only, at least partially, revolutionary\r\nwar, a system of resultless marches and counter-marches\r\nwas adopted, and an interference of\r\nforeign diplomacy was submitted to, which led,\r\nafter many an heroic engagement, to a most miserable\r\nend. The German Government betrayed,\r\nduring the war, the Schleswig-Holstein revolutionary\r\narmy on every occasion, and allowed it\r\npurposely to be cut up, when dispersed or divided,\r\nby the Danes. The German corps of volunteers\r\nwere treated the same.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_96\"\u003e[Pg 96]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBut while thus the German name earned nothing\r\nbut hatred on every side, the German Constitutional\r\nand Liberal Governments rubbed their\r\nhands for joy. They had succeeded in crushing\r\nthe Polish and the Bohemian movements. They\r\nhad everywhere revived the old national animosities,\r\nwhich heretofore had prevented any common\r\nunderstanding and action between the German,\r\nthe Pole, the Italian. They had accustomed\r\nthe people to scenes of civil war and repression\r\nby the military. The Prussian army had regained\r\nits confidence in Poland, the Austrian army in\r\nPrague; and while the superabundant patriotism\r\n(\"\u003ci\u003edie Patriotische Ueberkraft\u003c/i\u003e,\" as Heine has it)\r\nof revolutionary but shortsighted youth was led\r\nin Schleswig and Lombardy, to be crushed by\r\nthe grape-shot of the enemy, the regular army,\r\nthe real instrument of action, both of Prussia\r\nand Austria, was placed in a position to regain\r\npublic favor by victories over the foreigner.\r\nBut we repeat: these armies, strengthened by the\r\nLiberals as a means of action against the more\r\nadvanced party, no sooner had recovered their\r\nself-confidence and their discipline in some degree,\r\nthan they turned themselves against the\r\nLiberals, and restored to power the men of the\r\nold system. When Radetzky, in his camp beyond\r\nthe Adige, received the first orders from the\r\n\"responsible ministers\" at Vienna, he exclaimed:\r\n\"Who are these ministers? They are not the\r\nGovernment of Austria! Austria is now nowhere\r\nbut in my camp; I and my army, we are Austria;\r\nand when we shall have beaten the Italians we\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_97\"\u003e[Pg 97]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nshall reconquer the Empire for the Emperor!\"\r\nAnd old Radetzky was right—but the imbecile\r\n\"responsible\" ministers at Vienna heeded him\r\nnot.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eLondon\u003c/span\u003e, February, 1852.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_98\"\u003e[Pg 98]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"X\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eX.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eTHE PARIS RISING—THE FRANKFORT\r\nASSEMBLY.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"head\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eMarch\u003c/span\u003e 18th, 1852.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAs early as the beginning of April, 1848, the\r\nrevolutionary torrent had found itself stemmed\r\nall over the Continent of Europe by the league\r\nwhich those classes of society that had profited\r\nby the first victory immediately formed with the\r\nvanquished. In France, the petty trading class\r\nand the Republican faction of the bourgeoisie\r\nhad combined with the Monarchist bourgeoisie\r\nagainst the proletarians; in Germany and Italy,\r\nthe victorious bourgeoisie had eagerly courted\r\nthe support of the feudal nobility, the official\r\nbureaucracy, and the army, against the mass of\r\nthe people and the petty traders. Very soon the\r\nunited Conservative and Counter-Revolutionary\r\nparties again regained the ascendant. In England,\r\nan untimely and ill-prepared popular demonstration\r\n(April 10th) turned out a complete\r\nand decisive defeat of the popular party. In\r\nFrance, two similar movements (16th April and\r\n15th May) were equally defeated. In Italy, King\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_99\"\u003e[Pg 99]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nBomba regained his authority by a single stroke\r\non the 15th May. In Germany, the different new\r\nbourgeois Governments and their respective constituent\r\nAssemblies consolidated themselves, and\r\nif the eventful 15th of May gave rise, in Vienna,\r\nto a popular victory, this was an event of merely\r\nsecondary importance, and may be considered\r\nthe last successful flash of popular energy. In\r\nHungary the movement appeared to turn into\r\nthe quiet channel of perfect legality, and the Polish\r\nmovement, as we have seen in our last, was\r\nstifled in the bud by Prussian bayonets. But as\r\nyet nothing was decided as to the eventual turn\r\nwhich things would take, and every inch of\r\nground lost by the Revolutionary parties in the\r\ndifferent countries only tended to close their\r\nranks more and more for the decisive action.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe decisive action drew near. It could be\r\nfought in France only; for France, as long as\r\nEngland took no part in the revolutionary strife,\r\nor as Germany remained divided, was, by its national\r\nindependence, civilization, and centralization,\r\nthe only country to impart the impulse of a\r\nmighty convulsion to the surrounding countries.\r\nAccordingly, when, on the 23rd of June, 1848,\r\nthe bloody struggle began in Paris, when every\r\nsucceeding telegraph or mail more clearly exposed\r\nthe fact to the eyes of Europe, that this\r\nstruggle was carried on between the mass of the\r\nworking people on the one hand, and all the\r\nother classes of the Parisian population, supported\r\nby the army, on the other; when the fighting\r\nwent on for several days with an exaspera\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_100\"\u003e[Pg 100]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003etion\r\nunequalled in the history of modern civil\r\nwarfare, but without any apparent advantage for\r\neither side—then it became evident to every one\r\nthat this was the great decisive battle which\r\nwould, if the insurrection were victorious, deluge\r\nthe whole continent with renewed revolutions,\r\nor, if it was suppressed, bring about an at least\r\nmomentary restoration of counter-revolutionary\r\nrule.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe proletarians of Paris were defeated, decimated,\r\ncrushed with such an effect that even\r\nnow they have not yet recovered from the blow.\r\nAnd immediately, all over Europe, the new and\r\nold Conservatives and Counter-Revolutionists\r\nraised their heads with an effrontery that showed\r\nhow well they understood the importance of the\r\nevent. The Press was everywhere attacked, the\r\nrights of meeting and association were interfered\r\nwith, every little event in every small provincial\r\ntown was taken profit of to disarm the people to\r\ndeclare a state of siege, to drill the troops in the\r\nnew man[oe]uvres and artifices that Cavaignac had\r\ntaught them. Besides, for the first time since\r\nFebruary, the invincibility of a popular insurrection\r\nin a large town had been proved to be a\r\ndelusion; the honor of the armies had been restored;\r\nthe troops hitherto always defeated in\r\nstreet battles of importance regained confidence\r\nin their efficiency even in this kind of struggle.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eFrom this defeat of the \u003ci\u003eouvriers\u003c/i\u003e of Paris may\r\nbe dated the first positive steps and definite plans\r\nof the old feudal bureaucratic party in Germany,\r\nto get rid even of their momentary allies, the\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_101\"\u003e[Pg 101]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nmiddle classes, and to restore Germany to the\r\nstate she was in before the events of March. The\r\narmy again was the decisive power in the State,\r\nand the army belonged not to the middle classes\r\nbut to themselves. Even in Prussia, where before\r\n1848 a considerable leaning of part of the\r\nlower grades of officers towards a Constitutional\r\nGovernment had been observed, the disorder introduced\r\ninto the army by the Revolution had\r\nbrought back those reasoning young men to their\r\nallegiance; as soon as the private soldier took a\r\nfew liberties with regard to the officers, the necessity\r\nof discipline and passive obedience became\r\nat once strikingly evident to them. The\r\nvanquished nobles and bureaucrats now began to\r\nsee their way before them; the army, more united\r\nthan ever, flushed with victory in minor insurrections\r\nand in foreign warfare, jealous of the\r\ngreat success the French soldiers had just attained—this\r\narmy had only to be kept in constant\r\npetty conflicts with the people, and the decisive\r\nmoment once at hand, it could with one great\r\nblow crush the Revolutionists, and set aside the\r\npresumptions of the middle class Parliamentarians.\r\nAnd the proper moment for such a decisive\r\nblow arrived soon enough.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe pass over the sometimes curious, but\r\nmostly tedious, parliamentary proceedings and\r\nlocal struggles that occupied, in Germany, the\r\ndifferent parties during the summer. Suffice it to\r\nsay that the supporters of the middle class interest\r\nin spite of numerous parliamentary triumphs,\r\nnot one of which led to any practical result, very\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_102\"\u003e[Pg 102]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\ngenerally felt that their position between the extreme\r\nparties became daily more untenable, and\r\nthat, therefore, they were obliged now to seek\r\nthe alliance of the reactionists, and the next day\r\nto court the favor of the more popular factions.\r\nThis constant vacillation gave the finishing stroke\r\nto their character in public opinion, and according\r\nto the turn events were taking, the contempt\r\ninto which they had sunk, profited for the movement\r\nprincipally to the bureaucrats and feudalists.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBy the beginning of autumn the relative position\r\nof the different parties had become exasperated\r\nand critical enough to make a decisive battle\r\ninevitable. The first engagements in this war between\r\nthe democratic and revolutionary masses\r\nand the army took place at Frankfort. Though a\r\nmere secondary engagement, it was the first advantage\r\nof any note the troops acquired over the\r\ninsurrection, and had a great moral effect. The\r\nfancy Government established by the Frankfort\r\nNational Assembly had been allowed by Prussia,\r\nfor very obvious reasons, to conclude an armistice\r\nwith Denmark, which not only surrendered to\r\nDanish vengeance the Germans of Schleswig, but\r\nwhich also entirely disclaimed the more or less\r\nrevolutionary principles which were generally\r\nsupposed in the Danish war. This armistice was,\r\nby a majority of two or three, rejected in the\r\nFrankfort Assembly. A sham ministerial crisis\r\nfollowed this vote, but three days later the Assembly\r\nreconsidered their vote, and were actually\r\ninduced to cancel it and acknowledge the arm\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_103\"\u003e[Pg 103]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eistice.\r\nThis disgraceful proceeding roused the\r\nindignation of the people. Barricades were\r\nerected, but already sufficient troops had been\r\ndrawn to Frankfort, and after six hours\u0027 fighting,\r\nthe insurrection was suppressed. Similar,\r\nbut less important, movements connected with\r\nthis event took place in other parts of Germany\r\n(Baden, Cologne), but were equally defeated.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis preliminary engagement gave to the\r\nCounter-Revolutionary party the one great advantage,\r\nthat now the only Government which\r\nhad entirely—at least in semblance—originated\r\nwith popular election, the Imperial Government\r\nof Frankfort, as well as the National Assembly,\r\nwas ruined in the eyes of the people. This Government\r\nand this Assembly had been obliged to\r\nappeal to the bayonets of the troops against\r\nthe manifestation of the popular will. They\r\nwere compromised, and what little regard they\r\nmight have been hitherto enabled to claim,\r\nthis repudiation of their origin, the dependency\r\nupon the anti-popular Governments and their\r\ntroops, made both the Lieutenant of the Empire,\r\nhis ministers and his deputies, henceforth to be\r\ncomplete nullities. We shall soon see how first\r\nAustria, then Prussia, and later on the smaller\r\nStates too, treated with contempt every order,\r\nevery request, every deputation they received\r\nfrom this body of impotent dreamers.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe now come to the great counter-stroke in\r\nGermany, of the French battle of June, to that\r\nevent which was as decisive for Germany as the\r\nproletarian struggle of Paris had been for\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_104\"\u003e[Pg 104]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nFrance; we mean the revolution and subsequent\r\nstorming of Vienna, October, 1848. But the importance\r\nof this battle is such, and the explanation\r\nof the different circumstances that more immediately\r\ncontributed to its issue will take up\r\nsuch a portion of \u003ci\u003eThe Tribune\u0027s\u003c/i\u003e columns, as to\r\nnecessitate its being treated in a separate letter.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eLondon\u003c/span\u003e, February, 1852.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_105\"\u003e[Pg 105]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"XI\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eXI.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eTHE VIENNA INSURRECTION.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"head\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eMarch\u003c/span\u003e 19th, 1852.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe now come to the decisive event which\r\nformed the counter-revolutionary part in Germany\r\nto the Parisian insurrection of June, and\r\nwhich, by a single blow, turned the scale in favor\r\nof the Counter-Revolutionary party,—the insurrection\r\nof October, 1848, in Vienna.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe have seen what the position of the different\r\nclasses was, in Vienna, after the victory of\r\n12th March. We have also seen how the movement\r\nof German-Austria was entangled with and\r\nimpeded by the events in the non-German provinces\r\nof Austria. It only remains for us, then,\r\nbriefly to survey the causes which led to this last\r\nand most formidable rising of German-Austria.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe high aristocracy and the stock-jobbing\r\nbourgeoisie, which had formed the principal non-official\r\nsupports of the Metternichian Government,\r\nwere enabled, even after the events of\r\nMarch, to maintain a predominating influence\r\nwith the Government, not only by the Court, the\r\narmy and the bureaucracy, but still more by the\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_106\"\u003e[Pg 106]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nhorror of \"anarchy,\" which rapidly spread among\r\nthe middle classes. They very soon ventured a\r\nfew feelers in the shape of a Press Law, a nondescript\r\nAristocratic Constitution, and an Electoral\r\nLaw based upon the old division of \"estates.\"\r\nThe so-called Constitutional ministry, consisting\r\nof half Liberal, timid, incapable bureaucrats, on\r\nthe 14th of May, even ventured a direct attack\r\nupon the revolutionary organizations of the\r\nmasses by dissolving the Central Committee of\r\nDelegates of the National Guard and Academic\r\nLegion; a body formed for the express purpose\r\nof controlling the Government, and calling out\r\nagainst it, in case of need, the popular forces.\r\nBut this act only provoked the insurrection of\r\nthe 15th May, by which the Government was\r\nforced to acknowledge the Committee, to repeal\r\nthe Constitution and the Electoral Law and to\r\ngrant the power of framing a new Fundamental\r\nLaw to a Constitutional Diet, elected by universal\r\nsuffrage. All this was confirmed on the following\r\nday by an Imperial proclamation. But the\r\nreactionary party, which also had its representatives\r\nin the ministry, soon got their \"Liberal\"\r\ncolleagues to undertake a new attack upon the\r\npopular conquests. The Academic Legion, the\r\nstronghold of the movement party, the centre of\r\ncontinuous agitation, had, on this very account,\r\nbecome obnoxious to the more moderate burghers\r\nof Vienna; on the 26th a ministerial decree dissolved\r\nit. Perhaps this blow might have succeeded,\r\nif it had been carried out by a part of\r\nthe National Guard only, but the Government,\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_107\"\u003e[Pg 107]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nnot trusting them either, brought the military\r\nforward, and at once the National Guard turned\r\nround, united with the Academic Legion, and\r\nthus frustrated the ministerial project.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn the meantime, however, the Emperor and\r\nhis Court had, on the 16th of May, left Vienna,\r\nand fled to Innspruck. Here surrounded by the\r\nbigoted Tyroleans, whose loyalty was roused\r\nagain by the danger of an invasion of their country\r\nby the Sardo-Lombardian army, supported\r\nby the vicinity of Radetzky\u0027s troops, within shell-range\r\nof whom Innspruck lay, here the Counter-Revolutionary\r\nparty found an asylum, from\r\nwhence, uncontrolled, unobserved and safe, it\r\nmight rally its scattered forces, repair and spread\r\nagain all over the country the network of its\r\nplots. Communications were reopened with Radetzky,\r\nwith Jellachich, and with Windischgrätz,\r\nas well as with the reliable men in the administrative\r\nhierarchy of the different provinces; intrigues\r\nwere set on foot with the Slavonic chiefs,\r\nand thus a real force at the disposal of the Counter-Revolutionary\r\ncamarilla was formed, while\r\nthe impotent ministers in Vienna were allowed to\r\nwear their short and feeble popularity out in continual\r\nbickerings with the revolutionary masses,\r\nand in the debates of the forthcoming Constituent\r\nAssembly. Thus the policy of leaving the\r\nmovement of the capital to itself for a time; a\r\npolicy which must have led to the omnipotence\r\nof the movement party in a centralized and homogeneous\r\ncountry like France, here in Austria, in\r\na heterogeneous political conglomerate, was one\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_108\"\u003e[Pg 108]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nof the safest means of reorganizing the strength\r\nof the reactionists.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn Vienna the middle class, persuaded that after\r\nthree successive defeats, and in the face of\r\na Constituent Assembly based upon universal suffrage,\r\nthe Court was no longer an opponent to\r\nbe dreaded, fell more and more into that weariness\r\nand apathy, and that eternal outcry for order\r\nand tranquillity, which has everywhere\r\nseized this class after violent commotions and\r\nconsequent derangement of trade. The manufactures\r\nof the Austrian capital are almost exclusively\r\nlimited to articles of luxury, for which,\r\nsince the Revolution and the flight of the Court,\r\nthere had necessarily been little demand. The\r\nshout for a return to a regular system of government,\r\nand for a return of the Court, both of\r\nwhich were expected to bring about a revival of\r\ncommercial prosperity—this shout became now\r\ngeneral among the middle classes. The meeting\r\nof the Constituent Assembly in July was hailed\r\nwith delight as the end of the revolutionary era;\r\nso was the return of the Court, which, after the\r\nvictories of Radetzky in Italy, and after the advent\r\nof the reactionary ministry of Doblhoff,\r\nconsidered itself strong enough to brave the popular\r\ntorrent, and which, at the same time, was\r\nwanted in Vienna in order to complete its intrigues\r\nwith the Slavonic majority of the Diet.\r\nWhile the Constituent Diet discussed the laws\r\non the emancipation of the peasantry from feudal\r\nbondage and forced labor for the nobility, the\r\nCourt completed a master stroke. On the 19th\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_109\"\u003e[Pg 109]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nof August the Emperor was made to review the\r\nNational Guard; the Imperial family, the courtiers,\r\nthe general officers, outbade each other in\r\nflatteries to the armed burghers, who were already\r\nintoxicated with pride at thus seeing themselves\r\npublicly acknowledged as one of the important\r\nbodies of the State; and immediately afterwards\r\na decree, signed by Herr Schwarzer,\r\nthe only popular minister in the Cabinet, was\r\npublished, withdrawing the Government aid,\r\ngiven hitherto to the workmen out of employ.\r\nThe trick succeeded; the working classes got up\r\na demonstration; the middle class National\r\nGuards declared for the decree of their minister;\r\nthey were launched upon the \"Anarchists,\" fell\r\nlike tigers on the unarmed and unresisting workpeople,\r\nand massacred a great number of them\r\non the 23rd of August. Thus the unity and\r\nstrength of the revolutionary force was broken;\r\nthe class-struggle between bourgeois and proletarian\r\nhad come in Vienna, too, to a bloody outbreak,\r\nand the counter-revolutionary camarilla\r\nsaw the day approaching on which it might strike\r\nits grand blow.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Hungarian affairs very soon offered an\r\nopportunity to proclaim openly the principles\r\nupon which it intended to act. On the 5th of\r\nOctober an Imperial decree in the \u003ci\u003eVienna Gazette\u003c/i\u003e—a\r\ndecree countersigned by none of the responsible\r\nministers for Hungary—declared the Hungarian\r\nDiet dissolved, and named the Ban Jellachich,\r\nof Croatia, civil and military governor\r\nof that country—Jellachich, the leader of South\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_110\"\u003e[Pg 110]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nSlavonian reaction, a man who was actually at\r\nwar with the lawful authorities of Hungary. At\r\nthe same time orders were given to the troops in\r\nVienna to march out and form part of the army\r\nwhich was to enforce Jellachich\u0027s authority. This,\r\nhowever, was showing the cloven foot too openly;\r\nevery man in Vienna felt that war upon Hungary\r\nwas war upon the principle of constitutional\r\ngovernment, which principle was in the\r\nvery decree trampled upon by the attempt of the\r\nemperor to make decrees with legal force, without\r\nthe countersign of a responsible minister.\r\nThe people, the Academic Legion, the National\r\nGuard of Vienna, on the 6th of October rose in\r\nmass, and resisted the departure of the troops;\r\nsome grenadiers passed over to the people; a\r\nshort struggle took place between the popular\r\nforces and the troops; the minister of war, Latour,\r\nwas massacred by the people, and in the\r\nevening the latter were victors. In the meantime,\r\nBan Jellachich, beaten at Stuhlweissenburg\r\nby Perczel, had taken refuge near Vienna on\r\nGerman-Austrian territory; the Viennese troops\r\nthat were to march to his support now took up\r\nan ostensibly hostile and defensive position\r\nagainst him; and the emperor and court had\r\nagain fled to Olmütz, on semi-Slavonic territory.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBut at Olmütz the Court found itself in very\r\ndifferent circumstances from what it had been\r\nat Innspruck. It was now in a position to open\r\nimmediately the campaign against the Revolution.\r\nIt was surrounded by the Slavonian deputies\r\nof the Constituent, who flocked in masses to\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_111\"\u003e[Pg 111]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nOlmütz, and by the Slavonian enthusiasts from\r\nall parts of the monarchy. The campaign, in\r\ntheir eyes, was to be a war of Slavonian restoration\r\nand of extermination, against the two intruders,\r\nupon what was considered Slavonian\r\nsoil, against the German and the Magyar. Windischgrätz,\r\nthe conqueror of Prague, now commander\r\nof the army that was concentrated\r\naround Vienna, became at once the hero of Slavonian\r\nnationality. And his army concentrated\r\nrapidly from all sides. From Bohemia, Moravia,\r\nStyria, Upper Austria, and Italy, marched regiment\r\nafter regiment on routes that converged at\r\nVienna, to join the troops of Jellachich and the\r\nex-garrison of the capital. Above sixty thousand\r\nmen were thus united towards the end of\r\nOctober, and soon they commenced hemming in\r\nthe imperial city on all sides, until, on the 30th\r\nof October, they were far enough advanced to\r\nventure upon the decisive attack.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn Vienna, in the meantime, confusion and\r\nhelplessness was prevalent. The middle class,\r\nas soon as the victory was gained, became again\r\npossessed of their old distrust against the \"anarchic\"\r\nworking classes; the working men, mindful\r\nof the treatment they had received, six weeks\r\nbefore, at the hands of the armed tradesmen, and\r\nof the unsteady, wavering policy of the middle\r\nclass at large, would not trust to them the defence\r\nof the city, and demanded arms and military\r\norganization for themselves. The Academic\r\nLegion, full of zeal for the struggle against imperial\r\ndespotism, were entirely incapable of un\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_112\"\u003e[Pg 112]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003ederstanding\r\nthe nature of the estrangement of\r\nthe two classes, or of otherwise comprehending\r\nthe necessities of the situation. There was confusion\r\nin the public mind, confusion in the ruling\r\ncouncils. The remnant of the German Diet\r\ndeputies, and a few Slavonians, acting the part\r\nof spies for their friends at Olmütz, besides a\r\nfew of the more revolutionary Polish deputies,\r\nsat in permanency; but instead of taking part resolutely,\r\nthey lost all their time in idle debates upon\r\nthe possibility of resisting the imperial army\r\nwithout overstepping the bounds of constitutional\r\nconventionalities. The committee of safety,\r\ncomposed of deputies from almost all the popular\r\nbodies of Vienna, although resolved to resist,\r\nwas yet dominated by a majority of burghers and\r\npetty tradesmen, who never allowed it to follow\r\nup any determined, energetic line of action. The\r\ncouncil of the Academic Legion passed heroic\r\nresolutions, but was in no way able to take the\r\nlead. The working classes, distrusted, disarmed,\r\ndisorganized, hardly emerging from the intellectual\r\nbondage of the old \u003ci\u003erégime\u003c/i\u003e, hardly awaking,\r\nnot to a knowledge, but to a mere instinct of their\r\nsocial position and proper political line of action,\r\ncould only make themselves heard by loud demonstrations,\r\nand could not be expected to be up\r\nto the difficulties of the moment. But they were\r\nready—as they ever were in Germany during the\r\nrevolution—to fight to the last, as soon as they\r\nobtained arms.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThat was the state of things in Vienna. Outside,\r\nthe reorganized Austrian army flushed with\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_113\"\u003e[Pg 113]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nthe victories of Radetzky in Italy; sixty or seventy\r\nthousand men well armed, well organized,\r\nand if not well commanded at least possessing\r\ncommanders. Inside, confusion, class division,\r\ndisorganization; a national guard part of which\r\nwas resolved not to fight at all, part irresolute,\r\nand only the smallest part ready to act; a proletarian\r\nmass, powerful by numbers but without\r\nleaders, without any political education, subject\r\nto panic as well as to fits of fury almost without\r\ncause, a prey to every false rumor spread\r\nabout, quite ready to fight, but unarmed, at least\r\nin the beginning, and incompletely armed, and\r\nbarely organized when at last they were led to\r\nbattle; a helpless Diet, discussing theoretical\r\nquibbles while the roof over their heads was almost\r\nburning; a leading committee without impulse\r\nor energy. Everything was changed from\r\nthe days of March and May, when, in the counter-revolutionary\r\ncamp, all was confusion, and\r\nwhen the only organized force was that created\r\nby the revolution. There could hardly be a doubt\r\nabout the issue of such a struggle, and whatever\r\ndoubt there might be, was settled by the events\r\nof the 30th and 31st of October, and 1st November.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eLondon\u003c/span\u003e, March, 1852.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_114\"\u003e[Pg 114]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"XII\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eXII.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eTHE STORMING OF VIENNA—THE\r\nBETRAYAL OF VIENNA.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"head\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eApril\u003c/span\u003e 9th, 1852.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhen at last the concentrated army of Windischgrätz\r\ncommenced the attack upon Vienna,\r\nthe forces that could be brought forward in defence\r\nwere exceedingly insufficient for the purpose.\r\nOf the National Guard only a portion was\r\nto be brought to the entrenchments. A Proletarian\r\nGuard, it is true, had at last been hastily\r\nformed, but owing to the lateness of the attempt\r\nto thus make available the most numerous, most\r\ndaring, and most energetic part of the population,\r\nit was too little inured to the use of arms\r\nand to the very first rudiments of discipline to\r\noffer a successful resistance. Thus the Academic\r\nLegion, three to four thousand strong, well exercised\r\nand disciplined to a certain degree, brave\r\nand enthusiastic, was, militarily speaking, the\r\nonly force which was in a state to do its work\r\nsuccessfully. But what were they, together with\r\nthe few reliable National Guards, and with the\r\nconfused mass of the armed proletarians, in opposition\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_115\"\u003e[Pg 115]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nto the far more numerous regulars of\r\nWindischgrätz, not counting even the brigand\r\nhordes of Jellachich, hordes that were, by the\r\nvery nature of their habits, very useful in a war\r\nfrom house to house, from lane to lane? And\r\nwhat but a few old, outworn, ill-mounted, and\r\nill-served pieces of ordnance had the insurgents\r\nto oppose to that numerous and well-appointed\r\nartillery, of which Windischgrätz made such an\r\nunscrupulous use?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe nearer the danger drew, the more grew\r\nthe confusion in Vienna. The Diet, up to the\r\nlast moment, could not collect sufficient energy\r\nto call in for aid the Hungarian army of Perczel,\r\nencamped a few leagues below the capital. The\r\ncommittee passed contradictory resolutions, they\r\nthemselves being, like the popular armed masses,\r\nfloated up and down with the alternately rising\r\nand receding tide of rumors and counter-rumors.\r\nThere was only one thing upon which all agreed—to\r\nrespect property; and this was done in a\r\ndegree almost ludicrous for such times. As to\r\nthe final arrangement of a plan of defence, very\r\nlittle was done. Bem, the only man present who\r\ncould have saved Vienna, if any could then in\r\nVienna, an almost unknown foreigner, a Slavonian\r\nby birth, gave up the task, overwhelmed as\r\nhe was by universal distrust. Had he persevered,\r\nhe might have been lynched as a traitor. Messenhauser,\r\nthe commander of the insurgent forces,\r\nmore of a novel-writer than even of a subaltern\r\nofficer, was totally inadequate to the task; and\r\nyet, after eight months of revolutionary strug\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_116\"\u003e[Pg 116]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003egles,\r\nthe popular party had not produced or acquired\r\na military man of more ability than he.\r\nThus the contest began. The Viennese considering\r\ntheir utterly inadequate means of defence,\r\nconsidering their utter absence of military skill\r\nand organization in the ranks, offered a most\r\nheroic resistance. In many places the order\r\ngiven by Bem, when he was in command, \"to defend\r\nthat post to the last man,\" was carried out\r\nto the letter. But force prevailed. Barricade\r\nafter barricade was swept away by the imperial\r\nartillery in the long and wide avenues which\r\nform the main streets of the suburbs; and on the\r\nevening of the second day\u0027s fighting the Croats\r\noccupied the range of houses facing the glacis\r\nof the Old Town. A feeble and disorderly attack\r\nof the Hungarian army had been utterly defeated;\r\nand during an armistice, while some parties\r\nin the Old Town capitulated, while others\r\nhesitated and spread confusion, while the remnants\r\nof the Academic Legion prepared fresh intrenchments,\r\nan entrance was made by the imperialists,\r\nand in the midst of the general disorder\r\nthe Old Town was carried.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe immediate consequences of this victory,\r\nthe brutalities and executions by martial law, the\r\nunheard-of cruelties and infamies committed by\r\nthe Slavonian hordes let loose upon Vienna, are\r\ntoo well known to be detailed here. The ulterior\r\nconsequences, the entirely new turn given to\r\nGerman affairs by the defeat of the revolution in\r\nVienna, we shall have reason to notice hereafter.\r\nThere remain two points to be considered in con\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_117\"\u003e[Pg 117]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003enection\r\nwith the storming of Vienna. The people\r\nof that capital had two allies—the Hungarians\r\nand the German people. Where were they\r\nin the hour of trial?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe have seen that the Viennese, with all the\r\ngenerosity of a newly freed people, had risen for\r\na cause which, though ultimately their own, was\r\nin the first instance, and above all, that of the\r\nHungarians. Rather than suffer the Austrian\r\ntroops to march upon Hungary, they would draw\r\ntheir first and most terrific onslaught upon themselves.\r\nAnd while they thus nobly came forward\r\nfor the support of their allies, the Hungarians,\r\nsuccessful against Jellachich, drove him upon\r\nVienna, and by their victory strengthened the\r\nforce that was to attack that town. Under these\r\ncircumstances it was the clear duty of Hungary\r\nto support, without delay, and with all disposable\r\nforces, not the Diet of Vienna, not the Committee\r\nof Safety or any other official body at Vienna,\r\nbut the \u003ci\u003eViennese\u003c/i\u003e revolution. And if Hungary\r\nshould even have forgotten that Vienna had\r\nfought the first battle of Hungary, she owed it\r\nto her own safety not to forget that Vienna was\r\nthe only outpost of Hungarian independence, and\r\nthat after the fall of Vienna nothing could meet\r\nthe advance of the imperial troops against herself.\r\nNow, we know very well all the Hungarians\r\ncan say and have said in defence of their\r\ninactivity during the blockade and storming of\r\nVienna: the insufficient state of their own force,\r\nthe refusal of the Diet or any other official body\r\nin Vienna to call them in, the necessity to keep\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_118\"\u003e[Pg 118]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\non constitutional ground, and to avoid complications\r\nwith the German central power. But the\r\nfact is, as to the insufficient state of the Hungarian\r\narmy, that in the first days after the Viennese\r\nrevolution and the arrival of Jellachich, nothing\r\nwas wanted in the shape of regular troops, as\r\nthe Austrian regulars were very far from being\r\nconcentrated; and that a courageous, unrelenting\r\nfollowing up of the first advantage over Jellachich,\r\neven with nothing but the \u003ci\u003eLand Sturm\u003c/i\u003e that\r\nhad fought at Stuhlweissenburg, would have sufficed\r\nto effect a junction with the Viennese, and\r\nto adjourn to that day six months every concentration\r\nof an Austrian army. In war, and particularly\r\nin revolutionary warfare, rapidity of\r\naction until some decided advantage is gained is\r\nthe first rule, and we have no hesitation in saying\r\nthat upon \u003ci\u003emerely military grounds\u003c/i\u003e. Perczel ought\r\nnot to have stopped until his junction with the\r\nViennese was affected. There was certainly\r\nsome risk, but who ever won a battle without\r\nrisking something? And did the people of Vienna\r\nrisk nothing when they drew upon themselves—they,\r\na population of four hundred thousand—the\r\nforces that were to march to the conquest of\r\ntwelve millions of Hungarians? The military\r\nfault committed by waiting until the Austrians\r\nhad united, and by making the feeble demonstration\r\nat Schwechat which ended, as it deserved to\r\ndo, in an inglorious defeat—this military fault\r\ncertainly incurred more risks than a resolute\r\nmarch upon Vienna against the disbanded brigands\r\nof Jellachich would have done.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_119\"\u003e[Pg 119]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBut, it is said, such an advance of the Hungarians,\r\nunless authorized by some official body,\r\nwould have been a violation of the German territory,\r\nwould have brought on complications with\r\nthe central power at Frankfort, and would have\r\nbeen, above all, an abandonment of the legal and\r\nconstitutional policy which formed the strength\r\nof the Hungarian cause. Why, the official bodies\r\nin Vienna were nonentities! Was it the Diet, was\r\nit the popular committees, who had risen for\r\nHungary, or was it the people of Vienna, and\r\nthey alone, who had taken to the musket to stand\r\nthe brunt of the first battle for Hungary\u0027s independence?\r\nIt was not this nor that official body\r\nin Vienna which it was important to uphold; all\r\nthese bodies might, and would have been, upset\r\nvery soon in the progress of the revolutionary\r\ndevelopment; but it was the ascendancy of the\r\nrevolutionary movement, the unbroken progress\r\nof popular action itself, which alone was in question,\r\nand which alone could save Hungary from\r\ninvasion. What forms this revolutionary movement\r\nafterwards might take, was the business of\r\nthe Viennese, not of the Hungarians, so long as\r\nVienna and German Austria at large continued\r\ntheir allies against the common enemy. But the\r\nquestion is, whether in this stickling of the Hungarian\r\ngovernment for some quasi-legal authorization,\r\nwe are not to see the first clear symptom\r\nof that pretence to a rather doubtful legality of\r\nproceeding, which, if it did not save Hungary,\r\nat least told very well, at a later period, before\r\nthe English middle class audiences.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_120\"\u003e[Pg 120]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAs to the pretext of possible conflicts with the\r\ncentral power of Germany at Frankfort, it is\r\nquite futile. The Frankfort authorities were \u003ci\u003ede\r\nfacto\u003c/i\u003e upset by the victory of the counter-revolution\r\nat Vienna; they would have been equally\r\nupset had the revolution there found the support\r\nnecessary to defeat its enemies. And lastly, the\r\ngreat argument that Hungary could not leave\r\nlegal and constitutional ground, may do very\r\nwell for British free-traders, but it will never be\r\ndeemed sufficient in the eyes of history. Suppose\r\nthe people of Vienna had stuck to \"legal and constitutional\r\nmeans\" on the 13th of March, and on\r\nthe 6th of October, what then of the \"legal and\r\nconstitutional\" movement, and of all the glorious\r\nbattles which, for the first time, brought Hungary\r\nto the notice of the civilized world? The very\r\nlegal and constitutional ground upon which it is\r\nasserted the Hungarians moved in 1848 and 1849\r\nwas conquered for them by the exceedingly illegal\r\nand unconstitutional rising of the people of\r\nVienna on the 13th March. It is not to our purpose\r\nhere to discuss the revolutionary history of\r\nHungary, but it may be deemed proper if we\r\nobserve that it is utterly useless to professedly\r\nuse merely legal means of resistance against an\r\nenemy who scorns such scruples; and if we add,\r\nthat had it not been for this eternal pretence of\r\nlegality which Görgey seized upon and turned\r\nagainst the Government, the devotion of Görgey\u0027s\r\narmy to its general, and the disgraceful catastrophe\r\nof Villagos, would have been impossible.\r\nAnd when, at last, to save their honor, the Hun\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_121\"\u003e[Pg 121]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003egarians\r\ncame across the Leitha, in the latter end\r\nof October, 1848, was not this quite as illegal as\r\nany immediate and resolute attack would have\r\nbeen?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe are known to harbor no unfriendly feeling\r\ntoward Hungary. We stood by her during the\r\nstruggles; we may be allowed to say that our paper,\r\nthe \u003ci\u003eNeue Rheinische Zeitung\u003c/i\u003e,\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_8_8\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_8_8\"\u003e[8]\u003c/a\u003e has done\r\nmore than any other to render the Hungarian\r\ncause popular in Germany, by explaining the nature\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_122\"\u003e[Pg 122]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nof the struggle between the Magyar and\r\nSlavonian races, and by following up the Hungarian\r\nwar in a series of articles which have had\r\npaid them the compliment of being plagiarized\r\nin almost every subsequent book upon the subject,\r\nthe works of native Hungarians and \"eyewitnesses\"\r\nnot excepted. We even now, in any\r\nfuture continental convulsion, consider Hungary\r\nas the necessary and natural ally of Germany.\r\nBut we have been severe enough upon our own\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_123\"\u003e[Pg 123]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\ncountrymen, to have a right to speak out upon\r\nour neighbors; and then we have here to record\r\nfacts with historical impartiality, and we must\r\nsay that in this particular instance, the generous\r\nbravery of the people of Vienna was not only far\r\nmore noble, but also more far-sighted than the\r\ncautious circumspection of the Hungarian Government.\r\nAnd, as a German, we may further be\r\nallowed to say, that not for all the showy victories\r\nand glorious battles of the Hungarian campaign,\r\nwould we exchange that spontaneous, single-handed\r\nrising, and heroic resistance of the\r\npeople of Vienna, our countrymen, which gave\r\nHungary the time to organize the army that\r\ncould do such great things.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe second ally of Vienna was the German\r\npeople. But they were everywhere engaged in\r\nthe same struggle as the Viennese. Frankfort,\r\nBaden, Cologne, had just been defeated and disarmed.\r\nIn Berlin and Breslau the people were\r\nat daggers-drawn with the army, and daily expected\r\nto come to blows. Thus it was in every\r\nlocal center of action. Everywhere questions\r\nwere pending that could only be settled by the\r\nforce of arms; and now it was that for the first\r\ntime were severely felt the disastrous consequences\r\nof the continuation of the old dismemberment\r\nand decentralization of Germany. The\r\ndifferent questions in every State, every province,\r\nevery town, were fundamentally the same; but\r\nthey were brought forward everywhere under\r\ndifferent shapes and pretexts, and had everywhere\r\nattained different degrees of maturity.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_124\"\u003e[Pg 124]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nThus it happened that while in every locality the\r\ndecisive gravity of the events at Vienna was felt,\r\nyet nowhere could an important blow be struck\r\nwith any hope of bringing the Viennese succor,\r\nor making a diversion in their favor; and there\r\nremained nothing to aid them but the Parliament\r\nand Central Power of Frankfort; they were appealed\r\nto on all hands; but what did they do?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Frankfort Parliament and the bastard\r\nchild it had brought to light by incestuous intercourse\r\nwith the old German Diet, the so-called\r\nCentral Power, profited by the Viennese movement\r\nto show forth their utter nullity. This contemptible\r\nAssembly, as we have seen, had long\r\nsince sacrificed its virginity, and young as it was,\r\nit was already turning grey-headed and experienced\r\nin all the artifices of painting and pseudo-diplomatic\r\nprostitution. Of the dreams and illusions\r\nof power, of German regeneration and unity,\r\nthat in the beginning had pervaded it, nothing\r\nremained but a set of Teutonic clap-trap\r\nphraseology, that was repeated on every occasion,\r\nand a firm belief of each individual member\r\nin his own importance, as well as in the credulity\r\nof the public. The original naivety was\r\ndiscarded; the representatives of the German\r\npeople had turned practical men, that is to say,\r\nthey had made it out that the less they did, and\r\nthe more they prated, the safer would be their\r\nposition as the umpires of the fate of Germany.\r\nNot that they considered their proceedings superfluous;\r\nquite the contrary. But they had found\r\nout that all really great questions, being to them\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_125\"\u003e[Pg 125]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nforbidden ground, had better be let alone, and\r\nthere, like a set of Byzantine doctors of the\r\nLower Empire, they discussed with an importance\r\nand assiduity worthy of the fate that at last\r\novertook them, theoretical dogmas long ago settled\r\nin every part of the civilized world, or microscopical\r\npractical questions which never led to\r\nany practical result. Thus, the Assembly being\r\na sort of Lancastrian School for the mutual instruction\r\nof members, and being, therefore, very\r\nimportant to themselves, they were persuaded it\r\nwas doing even more than the German people\r\nhad a right to expect, and looked upon everyone\r\nas a traitor to the country who had impudence\r\nto ask them to come to any result.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhen the Viennese insurrection broke out,\r\nthere was a host of interpellations, debates, motions,\r\nand amendments upon it, which, of course,\r\nled to nothing. The Central Power was to interfere.\r\nIt sent two commissioners, Welcker, the\r\nex-Liberal, and Mosle, to Vienna. The travels\r\nof Don Quixote and Sancho Panza form matter\r\nfor an Odyssey in comparison with the heroic\r\nfeats and wonderful adventures of those two\r\nknight-errants of German Unity. Not daring to\r\ngo to Vienna, they were bullied by Windischgrätz,\r\nwondered at by the idiot Emperor, and impudently\r\nhoaxed by the Minister Stadion. Their\r\ndespatches and reports are perhaps the only portion\r\nof the Frankfort transactions that will retain\r\na place in German literature; they are a perfect\r\nsatirical romance, ready cut and dried, and\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_126\"\u003e[Pg 126]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nan eternal monument of disgrace for the Frankfort\r\nAssembly and its Government.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe left side of the Assembly had also sent\r\ntwo commissioners to Vienna, in order to uphold\r\nits authority there—Froebel and Robert Blum.\r\nBlum, when danger drew near, judged rightly\r\nthat here the great battle of the German Revolution\r\nwas to be fought, and unhesitatingly resolved\r\nto stake his head on the issue. Froebel,\r\non the contrary, was of opinion that it was his\r\nduty to preserve himself for the important duties\r\nof his post at Frankfort. Blum was considered\r\none of the most eloquent men of the Frankfort\r\nAssembly; he certainly was the most popular.\r\nHis eloquence would not have stood the test of\r\nany experienced Parliamentary Assembly; he\r\nwas too fond of the shallow declamations of a\r\nGerman dissenting preacher, and his arguments\r\nwanted both philosophical acumen and acquaintance\r\nwith practical matters of fact. In politics\r\nhe belonged to \"Moderate Democracy,\" a rather\r\nindefinite sort of thing, cherished on account of\r\nthis very want of definiteness in its principles.\r\nBut with all this Robert Blum was by nature a\r\nthorough, though somewhat polished, plebeian,\r\nand in decisive moments his plebeian instinct and\r\nplebeian energy got the better of his indefiniteness,\r\nand, therefore, indecisive political persuasion\r\nand knowledge. In such moments he raised\r\nhimself far above the usual standard of his capacities.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThus, in Vienna, he saw at a glance that here,\r\nnot in the midst of the would-be elegant debates\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_127\"\u003e[Pg 127]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nof Frankfort, the fate of his country would have\r\nto be decided. He at once made up his mind,\r\ngave up all idea of retreat, took a command in\r\nthe revolutionary force, and behaved with extraordinary\r\ncoolness and decision. It was he who\r\nretarded for a considerable time the taking of the\r\ntown, and covered one of its sides from attack by\r\nburning the Tabor Bridge over the Danube.\r\nEverybody knows how, after the storming, he\r\nwas arrested, tried by court-martial, and shot.\r\nHe died like a hero. And the Frankfort Assembly,\r\nhorrorstruck as it was, yet took the bloody\r\ninsult with a seeming good grace. A resolution\r\nwas carried, which, by the softness and diplomatic\r\ndecency of its language, was more an insult\r\nto the grave of the murdered martyr than a\r\ndamning stain upon Austria. But it was not to\r\nbe expected that this contemptible Assembly\r\nshould resent the assassination of one of its\r\nmembers, particularly of the leader of the Left.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eLondon\u003c/span\u003e, March, 1852.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnotes\"\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFOOTNOTES:\u003c/h3\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_8_8\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_8_8\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[8]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e \"Die Neue Rheinische Zeitung\" (The New\r\nRhenish Gazette). After the March revolution, 1848,\r\nMarx returned from Paris to Germany, and settling\r\ndown—for the time being—at Cologne, founded\r\nthis paper. Although the \"Neue Rheinische Zeitung\"\r\nnever went in for propounding \"Communist\r\nschemes,\" as Mr. Dawson, e.g., says it did, it became\r\na very nightmare to the Government. Reactionaries\r\nand Liberals alike denounced the \"Gazette,\"\r\nespecially after Marx\u0027s brilliant defence of the\r\nParis Insurrection of June. The state of siege being\r\ndeclared in Cologne, the \"Gazette\" was suspended\r\nfor six weeks—only to appear with a bigger\r\nreputation and bigger circulation than before. After\r\nthe Prussian \"coup d\u0027état\" in November, the \"Gazette\"\r\npublished at the head of every issue an appeal\r\nto the people to refuse to pay taxes, and to\r\nmeet force by force. For this and certain other\r\narticles the paper was twice prosecuted. On the first\r\noccasion the accused were Marx, Engels, and Korff;\r\non the second and more important trial, they were\r\nMarx, Schapper, and Schneider. The accused were\r\ncharged with \"inciting the people to armed resistance\r\nagainst the Government and its officials.\"\r\nMarx mainly conducted the defence, and delivered\r\na brilliant speech. \"Marx refrains\" (in this speech)\r\n\"from all oratorical flourish; he goes straight to the\r\npoint, and without any peroration ends with a summary\r\nof the political situation. Anyone would think\r\nthat Marx\u0027s own personality was to deliver a political\r\nlecture to the jury. And, in fact, at the end of\r\nthe trial, one of the jurors went to Marx to thank\r\nhim, in the name of his colleagues, for the instructive\r\nlecture he had given them.\" (See Bernstein\u0027s\r\nwork, \"Ferdinand Lassalle.\") The accused were unanimously\r\nacquitted by the jury. Among the better\r\nknown of the contributors of the \"New Rhenish\r\nGazette,\" edited by Marx, were Engels, W. Wolff,\r\nWerth, Lassalle; while Freiligrath wrote for it his\r\nsplendid revolutionary poems. Perhaps one of the\r\ngrandest of these is the celebrated \"Farewell of the\r\n\u0027Rhenish Gazette\u0027,\" when on the 19th May, 1849,\r\nthe final number of the paper—suppressed by the\r\nGovernment—appeared, printed in red type.\r\n\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"poem\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"stanza\"\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\"i0\"\u003e\"When the last of crowns like glass shall break,\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\"i2\"\u003eOn the scene our sorrows have haunted,\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\"i0\"\u003eAnd the people the last dread \u0027Guilty\u0027 shall speak,\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\"i2\"\u003eBy your side ye shall find me undaunted.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\"i0\"\u003eOn Rhine or on Danube, in word and deed,\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\"i2\"\u003eYou shall witness, true to his vow,\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\"i0\"\u003eOn the wrecks of thrones, in the midst of the freed\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\"i2\"\u003eThe rebel who greets you now.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\"i0\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\"i12\"\u003e(Translated by Ernest Jones.)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_128\"\u003e[Pg 128]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"XIII\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eXIII.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eTHE PRUSSIAN ASSEMBLY—THE\r\nNATIONAL ASSEMBLY.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"head\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eApril\u003c/span\u003e 17th, 1852.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOn the 1st of November Vienna fell, and on\r\nthe 9th of the same month the dissolution of the\r\nConstituent Assembly in Berlin showed how\r\nmuch this event had at once raised the spirit and\r\nthe strength of the Counter-Revolutionary party\r\nall over Germany.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe events of the summer of 1848 in Prussia\r\nare soon told. The Constituent Assembly, or\r\nrather \"the Assembly elected for the purpose of\r\nagreeing upon a Constitution with the Crown,\"\r\nand its majority of representatives of the middle\r\nclass interest, had long since forfeited all public\r\nesteem by lending itself to all the intrigues of the\r\nCourt, from fear of the more energetic elements\r\nof the population. They had confirmed, or rather\r\nrestored, the obnoxious privileges of feudalism,\r\nand thus betrayed the liberty and the interests of\r\nthe peasantry. They had neither been able to\r\ndraw up a Constitution, nor to amend in any way\r\nthe general legislation. They had occupied themselves\r\nalmost exclusively with nice theoretical\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_129\"\u003e[Pg 129]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\ndistinctions, mere formalities, and questions of\r\nconstitutional etiquette. The Assembly, in fact,\r\nwas more a school of Parliamentary \u003ci\u003esavoir vivre\u003c/i\u003e\r\nfor its members, than a body in which the people\r\ncould take any interest. The majorities were, besides,\r\nvery nicely balanced, and almost always\r\ndecided by the wavering centers whose oscillations\r\nfrom right to left, and \u003ci\u003evice versa\u003c/i\u003e, upset, first\r\nthe ministry of Camphausen, then that of Auerswald\r\nand Hansemann. But while thus the Liberals,\r\nhere as everywhere else, let the occasion slip\r\nout of their hands, the Court reorganized its elements\r\nof strength among the nobility, and the\r\nmost uncultivated portion of the rural population,\r\nas well as in the army and the bureaucracy.\r\nAfter Hansemann\u0027s downfall, a ministry of bureaucrats\r\nand military officers, all staunch reactionists,\r\nwas formed, which, however, seemingly\r\ngave way to the demands of the Parliament; and\r\nthe Assembly acting upon the commodious principle\r\nof \"measures, not men,\" were actually\r\nduped into applauding this ministry, while they,\r\nof course, had no eyes for the concentration and\r\norganization of Counter-Revolutionary forces,\r\nwhich that same ministry carried on pretty\r\nopenly. At last, the signal being given by\r\nthe fall of Vienna, the King dismissed its ministers,\r\nand replaced them by \"men of action,\"\r\nunder the leadership of the present premier,\r\nManteuffel. Then the dreaming Assembly at\r\nonce awoke to the danger; it passed a vote of no\r\nconfidence in the Cabinet, which was at once re\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_130\"\u003e[Pg 130]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eplied\r\nto by a decree removing the Assembly from\r\nBerlin, where it might, in case of a conflict, count\r\nupon the support of the masses, to Brandenburg,\r\na petty provincial town dependent entirely upon\r\nthe Government. The Assembly, however, declared\r\nthat it could not be adjourned, removed\r\nor dissolved, except with its own consent. In\r\nthe meantime, General Wrangle entered Berlin\r\nat the head of some forty thousand troops. In\r\na meeting of the municipal magistrates and the\r\nofficers of the National Guard, it was resolved\r\nnot to offer any resistance. And now, after the\r\nAssembly and its Constituents, the Liberal bourgeoisie,\r\nhad allowed the combined reactionary\r\nparty to occupy every important position, and to\r\nwrest from their hands almost every means of\r\ndefence, began that grand comedy of \"passive\r\nand legal resistance\" which they intended to be\r\na glorious imitation of the example of Hampden,\r\nand of the first efforts of the Americans in the\r\nWar of Independence. Berlin was declared in a\r\nstate of siege, and Berlin remained tranquil; the\r\nNational Guard was dissolved by the Government,\r\nand its arms were delivered up with the\r\ngreatest punctuality. The Assembly was hunted\r\ndown during a fortnight, from one place of\r\nmeeting to another, and everywhere dispersed by\r\nthe military, and the members of the Assembly\r\nbegged of the citizens to remain tranquil. At\r\nlast the Government having declared the Assembly\r\ndissolved, it passed a resolution to declare\r\nthe levying of taxes illegal, and then its members\r\ndispersed themselves over the country to organ\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_131\"\u003e[Pg 131]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eize\r\nthe refusal of taxes. But they found that\r\nthey had been woefully mistaken in the choice of\r\ntheir means. After a few agitated weeks, followed\r\nby severe measures of the Government\r\nagainst the Opposition, everyone gave up the\r\nidea of refusing the taxes in order to please a\r\ndefunct Assembly that had not even had the courage\r\nto defend itself.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhether it was in the beginning of November,\r\n1848, already too late to try armed resistance, or\r\nwhether a part of the army, on finding serious\r\nopposition, would have turned over to the side\r\nof the Assembly, and thus decided the matter in\r\nits favor, is a question which may never be\r\nsolved. But in revolution as in war, it is always\r\nnecessary to show a strong front, and he who\r\nattacks is in the advantage; and in revolution as\r\nin war, it is of the highest necessity to stake\r\neverything on the decisive moment, whatever the\r\nodds may be. There is not a single successful\r\nrevolution in history that does not prove the truth\r\nof these axioms. Now, for the Prussian Revolution,\r\nthe decisive moment had come in November,\r\n1848; the Assembly, at the head, officially,\r\nof the whole revolutionary interest, did neither\r\nshow a strong front, for it receded at every advance\r\nof the enemy; much less did it attack, for\r\nit chose even not to defend itself; and when the\r\ndecisive moment came, when Wrangle, at the\r\nhead of forty thousand men, knocked at the gates\r\nof Berlin, instead of finding, as he and all his\r\nofficers fully expected, every street studded with\r\nbarricades, every window turned into a loop\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_132\"\u003e[Pg 132]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003ehole,\r\nhe found the gates open, and the streets\r\nobstructed only by peaceful Berliner burghers,\r\nenjoying the joke they had played upon him, by\r\ndelivering themselves up, hands and feet tied,\r\nunto the astonished soldiers. It is true, the Assembly\r\nand the people, if they had resisted,\r\nmight have been beaten; Berlin might have been\r\nbombarded, and many hundreds might have been\r\nkilled, without preventing the ultimate victory of\r\nthe Royalist party. But that was no reason why\r\nthey should surrender their arms at once. A\r\nwell-contested defeat is a fact of as much revolutionary\r\nimportance as an easily-won victory.\r\nThe defeats of Paris in June, 1848, and of Vienna\r\nin October, certainly did far more in revolutionizing\r\nthe minds of the people of these two\r\ncities than the victories of February and March.\r\nThe Assembly and the people of Berlin would,\r\nprobably, have shared the fate of the two towns\r\nabove-named; but they would have fallen gloriously,\r\nand would have left behind themselves, in\r\nthe minds of the survivors, a wish of revenge\r\nwhich in revolutionary times is one of the highest\r\nincentives to energetic and passionate action. It\r\nis a matter of course that, in every struggle, he\r\nwho takes up the gauntlet risks being beaten; but\r\nis that a reason why he should confess himself\r\nbeaten, and submit to the yoke without drawing\r\nthe sword?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn a revolution he who commands a decisive\r\nposition and surrenders it, instead of forcing the\r\nenemy to try his hands at an assault, invariably\r\ndeserves to be treated as a traitor.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_133\"\u003e[Pg 133]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe same decree of the King of Prussia which\r\ndissolved the Constituent Assembly also proclaimed\r\na new Constitution, founded upon the\r\ndraft which had been made by a Committee of\r\nthat Assembly, but enlarging in some points the\r\npowers of the Crown, and rendering doubtful in\r\nothers those of the Parliament. This Constitution\r\nestablished two Chambers, which were to meet\r\nsoon for the purpose of confirming and revising\r\nit.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe need hardly ask where the German National\r\nAssembly was during the \"legal and peaceful\"\r\nstruggle of the Prussian Constitutionalists.\r\nIt was, as usual, at Frankfort, occupied with passing\r\nvery tame resolutions against the proceedings\r\nof the Prussian Government, and admiring\r\nthe \"imposing spectacle of the passive, legal, and\r\nunanimous resistance of a whole people against\r\nbrutal force.\" The Central Government sent\r\ncommissioners to Berlin to intercede between\r\nthe Ministry and the Assembly; but they met the\r\nsame fate as their predecessors at Olmütz, and\r\nwere politely shown out. The Left of the National\r\nAssembly, \u003ci\u003ei.e.\u003c/i\u003e, the so-called Radical party,\r\nsent also their commissioners; but after having\r\nduly convinced themselves of the utter helplessness\r\nof the Berlin Assembly, and confessed their\r\nown equal helplessness, they returned to Frankfort\r\nto report progress, and to testify to the admirably\r\npeaceful conduct of the population of\r\nBerlin. Nay, more; when Herr Bassermann, one\r\nof the Central Government\u0027s commissioners, reported\r\nthat the late stringent measures of the\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_134\"\u003e[Pg 134]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nPrussian ministers were not without foundation,\r\ninasmuch as there had of late been seen loitering\r\nabout the streets of Berlin sundry, savage-looking\r\ncharacters, such as always appear previous\r\nto anarchical movements (and which ever since\r\nhave been named \"Bassermannic characters\"),\r\nthese worthy deputies of the Left and energetic\r\nrepresentatives of the revolutionary interest actually\r\narose to make oath, and testify that such\r\nwas not the case! Thus within two months the\r\ntotal impotency of the Frankfort Assembly was\r\nsignally proved. There could be no more glaring\r\nproofs that this body was totally inadequate\r\nto its task; nay, that it had not even the remotest\r\nidea of what its task really was. The fact that\r\nboth in Vienna and in Berlin the fate of the Revolution\r\nwas settled, that in both these capitals\r\nthe most important and vital questions were disposed\r\nof, without the existence of the Frankfort\r\nAssembly ever being taken the slightest notice\r\nof—this fact alone is sufficient to establish that\r\nthe body in question was a mere debating-club,\r\ncomposed of a set of dupes, who allowed the\r\nGovernments to use them as Parliamentary puppet,\r\nshown to amuse the shopkeepers and petty\r\ntradesmen of petty States and petty towns, as\r\nlong as it was considered convenient to divert the\r\nattention of these parties. How long this was\r\nconsidered convenient we shall soon see. But it is\r\na fact worthy of attention that among all the\r\n\"eminent\" men of this Assembly there was not\r\none who had the slightest apprehension of the\r\npart they were made to perform, and that even up\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_135\"\u003e[Pg 135]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nto the present day ex-members of the Frankfort\r\nClub have invariably organs of historical perception\r\nquite peculiar to themselves.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eLondon\u003c/span\u003e, March, 1852.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_136\"\u003e[Pg 136]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"XIV\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eXIV.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eTHE RESTORATION OF ORDER—DIET\r\nAND CHAMBER\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"head\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eApril\u003c/span\u003e 24th, 1852.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe first months of the year 1849 were employed\r\nby the Austrian and Prussian Governments\r\nin following up the advantages obtained\r\nin October and November, 1848. The Austrian\r\nDiet, ever since the taking of Vienna, had carried\r\non a merely nominal existence in a small\r\nMoravian country-town, named Kremsir. Here\r\nthe Slavonian deputies, who, with their constituents,\r\nhad been mainly instrumental in raising the\r\nAustrian Government from its prostration, were\r\nsingularly punished for their treachery against\r\nthe European Revolution. As soon as the Government\r\nhad recovered its strength, it treated the\r\nDiet and its Slavonian majority with the utmost\r\ncontempt, and when the first successes of the Imperial\r\narms foreboded a speedy termination of\r\nthe Hungarian War, the Diet, on the 4th of\r\nMarch, was dissolved, and the deputies dispersed\r\nby military force. Then at last the Slavonians\r\nsaw that they were duped, and then they shouted:\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_137\"\u003e[Pg 137]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\n\"Let us go to Frankfort and carry on there the\r\nopposition which we cannot pursue here!\" But\r\nit was then too late, and the very fact that they\r\nhad no other alternative than either to remain\r\nquiet or to join the impotent Frankfort Assembly,\r\nthis fact alone was sufficient to show their\r\nutter helplessness.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThus ended for the present, and most likely\r\nfor ever, the attempts of the Slavonians of Germany\r\nto recover an independent national existence.\r\nScattered remnants of numerous nations,\r\nwhose nationality and political vitality had long\r\nbeen extinguished, and who in consequence had\r\nbeen obliged, for almost a thousand years, to\r\nfollow in the wake of a mightier nation, their\r\nconqueror, the same as the Welsh in England,\r\nthe Basques in Spain, the Bas-Bretons in France,\r\nand at a more recent period the Spanish and\r\nFrench Creoles in those portions of North America\r\noccupied of late by the Anglo-American race—these\r\ndying nationalities, the Bohemians, Carinthians,\r\nDalmatians, etc., had tried to profit by\r\nthe universal confusion of 1848, in order to restore\r\ntheir political \u003ci\u003estatus quo\u003c/i\u003e of \u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eA.D. 800\u003c/span\u003e. The\r\nhistory of a thousand years ought to have shown\r\nthem that such a retrogression was impossible;\r\nthat if all the territory east of the Elbe and Saale\r\nhad at one time been occupied by kindred Slavonians,\r\nthis fact merely proved the historical tendency,\r\nand at the same time physical and intellectual\r\npower of the German nation to subdue,\r\nabsorb, and assimilate its ancient eastern neighbors;\r\nthat this tendency of absorption on the\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_138\"\u003e[Pg 138]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\npart of the Germans had always been, and still\r\nwas, one of the mightiest means by which the\r\ncivilization of Western Europe had been spread\r\nin the east of that continent; that it could only\r\ncease whenever the process of Germanization had\r\nreached the frontier of large, compact, unbroken\r\nnations, capable of an independent national life,\r\nsuch as the Hungarians, and in some degree the\r\nPoles; and that, therefore, the natural and inevitable\r\nfate of these dying nations was to allow\r\nthis process of dissolution and absorption by their\r\nstronger neighbors to complete itself. Certainly\r\nthis is no very flattering prospect for the national\r\nambition of the Panslavistic dreamers who\r\nsucceeded in agitating a portion of the Bohemian\r\nand South Slavonian people; but can they expect\r\nthat history would retrograde a thousand\r\nyears in order to please a few phthisical bodies\r\nof men, who in every part of the territory they\r\noccupy are interspersed with and surrounded by\r\nGermans, who from time almost immemorial\r\nhave had for all purposes of civilization no other\r\nlanguage but the German, and who lack the very\r\nfirst conditions of national existence, numbers and\r\ncompactness of territory? Thus, the Panslavistic\r\nrising, which everywhere in the German and\r\nHungarian Slavonic territories was the cloak for\r\nthe restoration to independence of all these numberless\r\npetty nations, everywhere clashed with\r\nthe European revolutionary movements, and the\r\nSlavonians, although pretending to fight for liberty,\r\nwere invariably (the Democratic portion\r\nof the Poles excepted) found on the side of des\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_139\"\u003e[Pg 139]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003epotism\r\nand reaction. Thus it was in Germany,\r\nthus in Hungary, thus even here and there in\r\nTurkey. Traitors to the popular cause, supporters\r\nand chief props to the Austrian Government\u0027s\r\ncabal, they placed themselves in the position of\r\noutlaws in the eyes of all revolutionary nations.\r\nAnd although nowhere the mass of the people\r\nhad a part in the petty squabbles about nationality\r\nraised by the Panslavistic leaders, for the\r\nvery reason that they were too ignorant, yet it\r\nwill never be forgotten that in Prague, in a half-German\r\ntown, crowds of Slavonian fanatics\r\ncheered and repeated the cry: \"Rather the Russian\r\nknout than German Liberty!\" After their\r\nfirst evaporated effort in 1848, and after the lesson\r\nthe Austrian Government gave them, it is\r\nnot likely that another attempt at a later opportunity\r\nwill be made. But if they should try again\r\nunder similar pretexts to ally themselves to the\r\ncounter-revolutionary force, the duty of Germany\r\nis clear. No country in a state of revolution\r\nand involved in external war can tolerate a\r\nVendée in its very heart.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAs to the Constitution proclaimed by the Emperor\r\nat the same time with the dissolution of\r\nthe Diet, there is no need to revert to it, as it\r\nnever had a practical existence, and is now done\r\naway with altogether. Absolutism has been restored\r\nin Austria to all intents and purposes ever\r\nsince the 4th March, 1849.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn Prussia, the Chambers met in February for\r\nthe ratification and revision of the new Charter\r\nproclaimed by the King. They sat for about six\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_140\"\u003e[Pg 140]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nweeks, humble and meek enough in their behavior\r\ntoward the Government, yet not quite prepared\r\nto go the lengths the King and his ministers\r\nwished them to go. Therefore, as soon as\r\na suitable occasion presented itself, they were\r\ndissolved.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThus both Austria and Prussia had for the\r\nmoment got rid of the shackles of parliamentary\r\ncontrol. The Governments now concentrated all\r\npower in themselves, and could bring that power\r\nto bear wherever is was wanted: Austria upon\r\nHungary and Italy, Prussia upon Germany. For\r\nPrussia, too, was preparing for a campaign by\r\nwhich \"order\" was to be restored in the smaller\r\nStates.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eCounter-revolution being now paramount in\r\nthe two great centres of action in Germany,—in\r\nVienna and Berlin,—there remained only the\r\nlesser States in which the struggle was still undecided,\r\nalthough the balance there, too, was\r\nleaning more and more against the revolutionary\r\ninterest. These smaller States, we have said,\r\nfound a common centre in the National Assembly\r\nat Frankfort. Now, this so-called National\r\nAssembly, although its reactionist spirit had long\r\nbeen evident, so much so that the very people of\r\nFrankfort had risen in arms against it, yet its\r\norigin was of more or less revolutionary nature;\r\nit occupied an abnormal, revolutionary position\r\nin January; its competence had never been defined,\r\nand it had at last come to the decision—which,\r\nhowever, was never recognized by the\r\nlarges States—that its resolutions had the force\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_141\"\u003e[Pg 141]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nof law. Under these circumstances, and when\r\nthe Constitutionalist-Monarchial party saw their\r\npositions turned by the recovering Absolutists, it\r\nis not to be wondered that the Liberal, monarchical\r\nbourgeoisie of almost the whole of Germany\r\nshould place their last hopes upon the majority\r\nof this Assembly, just as the petty shopkeepers\r\nin the rest, the nucleus of the Democratic party,\r\ngathered in their growing distress around the\r\nminority of that same body, which indeed formed\r\nthe last compact Parliamentary phalanx of Democracy.\r\nOn the other hand, the larger Governments,\r\nand particularly the Prussian Ministry,\r\nsaw more and more the incompatibility of such\r\nan irregular elective body with the restored monarchical\r\nsystem of Germany, and if they did not\r\nat once force its dissolution, it was only because\r\nthe time had not yet come, and because Prussia\r\nhoped first to use it for the furthering of its own\r\nambitious purposes.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn the meantime, that poor Assembly itself fell\r\ninto a greater and greater confusion. Its deputations\r\nand commissaries had been treated with the\r\nutmost contempt, both in Vienna and Berlin; one\r\nof its members, in spite of his parliamentary inviolability,\r\nhad been executed in Vienna as a\r\ncommon rebel. Its decrees were nowhere heeded;\r\nif they were noticed at all by the larger powers,\r\nit was merely by protesting notes which disputed\r\nthe authority of the Assembly to pass laws and\r\nresolutions binding upon their Governments. The\r\nRepresentative of the Assembly, the Central Executive\r\npower, was involved in diplomatic squab\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_142\"\u003e[Pg 142]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003ebles\r\nwith almost all the Cabinets of Germany,\r\nand, in spite of all their efforts, neither Assembly\r\nnor Central Government could bring Austria\r\nand Prussia to state their ultimate views, plans\r\nand demands. The Assembly, at last, commenced\r\nto see clearly, at least so far, that it had allowed\r\nall power to slip out of its hands, that it was at\r\nthe mercy of Austria and Prussia, and that if it\r\nintended making a Federal Constitution for Germany\r\nat all, it must set about the thing at once\r\nand in good earnest. And many of the vacillating\r\nmembers also saw clearly that they had been\r\negregiously duped by the Governments. But\r\nwhat were they, in their impotent position, able\r\nto do now? The only thing that could have saved\r\nthem would have been promptly and decidedly\r\nto pass over into the popular camp; but the success,\r\neven of that step, was more than doubtful;\r\nand then, where in this helpless crowd of undecided,\r\nshortsighted, self-conceited beings, who,\r\nwhen the eternal noise of contradictory rumors\r\nand diplomatic notes completely stunned them,\r\nsought their only consolation and support in the\r\neverlastingly repeated assurance that they were\r\nthe best, the greatest, the wisest men of the country,\r\nand that they alone could save Germany—where,\r\nwe say, among these poor creatures, whom\r\na single year of Parliamentary life had turned\r\ninto complete idiots, where were the men for a\r\nprompt and decisive resolution, much less for\r\nenergetic and consistent action?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAt last the Austrian Government threw off the\r\nmask. In its Constitution of the 4th of March,\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_143\"\u003e[Pg 143]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nit proclaimed Austria an indivisible monarchy,\r\nwith common finances, system of customs-duties,\r\nof military establishments, thereby effacing every\r\nbarrier and distinction between the German and\r\nnon-German provinces. This declaration was\r\nmade in the face of resolutions and articles of\r\nthe intended Federal Constitution which had been\r\nalready passed by the Frankfort Assembly. It\r\nwas the gauntlet of war thrown down to it by\r\nAustria, and the poor Assembly had no other\r\nchoice but to take it up. This it did with a deal\r\nof blustering, which Austria, in the consciousness\r\nof her power, and of the utter nothingness\r\nof the Assembly, could well afford to allow to\r\npass. And this precious representation, as it\r\nstyled itself, of the German people, in order to\r\nrevenge itself for this insult on the part of Austria,\r\nsaw nothing better before it than to throw\r\nitself, hands and feet tied, at the feet of the Prussian\r\nGovernment. Incredible as it would seem,\r\nit bent its knees before the very ministers whom\r\nit had condemned as unconstitutional and anti-popular,\r\nand whose dismissal it had in vain insisted\r\nupon. The details of this disgraceful transaction,\r\nand the tragicomical events that followed,\r\nwill form the subject of our next.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eLondon\u003c/span\u003e, April, 1852.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_144\"\u003e[Pg 144]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"XV\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eXV.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eTHE TRIUMPH OF PRUSSIA.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"head\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eJuly\u003c/span\u003e 27th, 1852.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe now come to the last chapter in the history\r\nof the German Revolution; the conflict of\r\nthe National Assembly with the Governments of\r\nthe different States, especially of Prussia; the insurrection\r\nof Southern and Western Germany,\r\nand its final overthrow by Prussia.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe have already seen the Frankfort National\r\nAssembly at work. We have seen it kicked by\r\nAustria, insulted by Prussia, disobeyed by the\r\nlesser States, duped by its own impotent Central\r\n\"Government,\" which again was the dupe of all\r\nand every prince in the country. But at last\r\nthings began to look threatening for this weak,\r\nvacillating, insipid legislative body. It was forced\r\nto come to the conclusion that \"the sublime idea\r\nof Germany unity was threatened in its realization,\"\r\nwhich meant neither more nor less than\r\nthat the Frankfort Assembly, and all it had done,\r\nand was about to do, were very likely to end in\r\nsmoke. Thus it set to work in good earnest in order\r\nto bring forth, as soon as possible, its grand\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_145\"\u003e[Pg 145]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nproduction, the \"Imperial Constitution.\" There\r\nwas, however, one difficulty. What Executive\r\nGovernment was there to be? An Executive\r\nCouncil? No; that would have been, they thought\r\nin their wisdom, making Germany a Republic.\r\nA \"president\"? That would come to the same.\r\nThus they must revive the old Imperial dignity.\r\nBut—as, of course, a prince was to be emperor—who\r\nshould it be? Certainly none of the \u003ci\u003eDii\r\nminorum gentium\u003c/i\u003e, from Reuss-Schleitz-Greitz-Lobenstein-Ebersdorf\r\nup to Bavaria; neither\r\nAustria nor Prussia would have borne that. It\r\ncould only be Austria or Prussia. But which of\r\nthe two? There is no doubt that, under otherwise\r\nfavorable circumstances, this august Assembly\r\nwould be sitting up to the present day,\r\ndiscussing this important dilemma without being\r\nable to come to a conclusion, if the Austrian Government\r\nhad not cut the Gordian knot, and saved\r\nthem the trouble.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAustria knew very well that from the moment\r\nin which she could again appear before Europe\r\nwith all her provinces subdued, as a strong and\r\ngreat European power, the very law of political\r\ngravitation would draw the remainder of Germany\r\ninto her orbit, without the help of any authority\r\nwhich an Imperial crown, conferred by\r\nthe Frankfort Assembly, could give her. Austria\r\nhad been far stronger, far freer in her movements,\r\nsince she shook off the powerless \u003ci\u003ecrown\u003c/i\u003e\r\nof the German Empire—a crown which clogged\r\nher own independent policy, while it added not\r\none iota to her strength, either within or without\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_146\"\u003e[Pg 146]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nGermany. And supposing the case that Austria\r\ncould not maintain her footing in Italy and Hungary,\r\nwhy, then she was dissolved, annihilated\r\nin Germany too, and could never pretend to reseize\r\na crown which had slipped from her hands\r\nwhile she was in the full possession of her\r\nstrength. Thus Austria at once declared against\r\nall imperialist resurrections, and plainly demanded\r\nthe restoration of the German Diet, the only\r\nCentral Government of Germany known and recognized\r\nby the treaties of 1815; and on the 4th\r\nof March, 1849, issued that Constitution which\r\nhad no other meaning than to declare Austria\r\nan indivisible, centralized, and independent monarchy,\r\ndistinct even from that Germany which\r\nthe Frankfort Assembly was to reorganize.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis open declaration of war left, indeed, the\r\nFrankfort wiseacres no other choice but to exclude\r\nAustria from Germany, and to create out\r\nof the remainder of that country a sort of lower\r\nempire, a \"little Germany,\" the rather shabby\r\nImperial mantle of which was to fall on the\r\nshoulders of His Majesty of Prussia. This, it\r\nwill be recollected, was the renewal of an old\r\nproject fostered already some six or eight years\r\nago by a party of South and Middle German\r\nLiberal \u003ci\u003edoctrinaires\u003c/i\u003e, who considered as a godsend\r\nthe degrading circumstances by which their\r\nold crotchet was now again brought forward as\r\nthe latest \"new move\" for the salvation of the\r\ncountry.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThey accordingly finished, in February and\r\nMarch, 1849, the debate on the Imperial Consti\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_147\"\u003e[Pg 147]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003etution,\r\ntogether with the Declaration of Rights\r\nand the Imperial Electoral Law; not, however,\r\nwithout being obliged to make, in a great many\r\npoints, the most contradictory concessions—now\r\nto the Conservative or rather Reactionary party—now\r\nto the more advanced factions of the Assembly.\r\nIn fact, it was evident that the leadership\r\nof the Assembly, which had formerly belonged\r\nto the Right and Right Centre (the Conservatives\r\nand Reactionists), was gradually, although\r\nslowly, passing toward the Left or\r\nDemocratic side of that body. The rather dubious\r\nposition of the Austrian deputies in an Assembly\r\nwhich had excluded their country from Germany,\r\nand in which they yet were called upon to\r\nsit and vote, favored the derangement of its\r\nequipoise; and thus, as early as the end of February,\r\nthe Left Centre and Left found themselves,\r\nby the help of the Austrian votes, very\r\ngenerally in a majority, while on other days the\r\nConservative faction of the Austrians, all of a\r\nsudden, and for the fun of the thing, voting with\r\nthe Right, threw the balance again on the other\r\nside. They intended, by these sudden \u003ci\u003esoubresauts\u003c/i\u003e,\r\nto bring the Assembly into contempt, which, however,\r\nwas quite unnecessary, the mass of the people\r\nbeing long since convinced of the utter hollowness\r\nand futility of anything coming from\r\nFrankfort. What a specimen of a Constitution,\r\nin the meantime, was framed under such jumping\r\nand counter-jumping, may easily be imagined.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Left of the Assembly—this \u003ci\u003eélite\u003c/i\u003e and pride\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_148\"\u003e[Pg 148]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nof revolutionary Germany, as it believed itself\r\nto be—was entirely intoxicated with the few\r\npaltry successes it obtained by the good-will, or\r\nrather the ill-will, of a set of Austrian politicians,\r\nacting under the instigation and for the interest\r\nof Austrian despotism. Whenever the\r\nslightest approximation to their own not very\r\nwell-defined principles had, in a hom[oe]opathically\r\ndiluted shape, obtained a sort of sanction\r\nby the Frankfort Assembly, these Democrats\r\nproclaimed that they had saved the country and\r\nthe people. These poor, weak-minded men, during\r\nthe course of their generally very obscure\r\nlives, had been so little accustomed to anything\r\nlike success, that they actually believed their\r\npaltry amendments, passed with two or three\r\nvotes majority, would change the face of Europe.\r\nThey had, from the beginning of their legislative\r\ncareer, been more imbued than any other faction\r\nof the Assembly with that incurable malady\r\n\u003ci\u003eParliamentary crétinism\u003c/i\u003e, a disorder which penetrates\r\nits unfortunate victims with the solemn\r\nconviction that the whole world, its history and\r\nfuture, are governed and determined by a majority\r\nof votes in that particular representative\r\nbody which has the honor to count them among\r\nits members, and that all and everything going\r\non outside the walls of their house—wars, revolutions,\r\nrailway-constructing, colonizing of whole\r\nnew continents, California gold discoveries, Central\r\nAmerican canals, Russian armies, and whatever\r\nelse may have some little claim to influence\r\nupon the destinies of mankind—is nothing com\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_149\"\u003e[Pg 149]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003epared\r\nwith the incommensurable events hinging\r\nupon the important question, whatever it may\r\nbe, just at that moment occupying the attention\r\nof their honorable house. Thus it was the Democratic\r\nparty of the Assembly, by effectually\r\nsmuggling a few of their nostrums into the \"Imperial\r\nConstitution,\" first became bound to support\r\nit, although in every essential point it flatly\r\ncontradicted their own oft-proclaimed principles,\r\nand at last, when this mongrel work was abandoned,\r\nand bequeathed to them by its main authors,\r\naccepted the inheritance, and held out for\r\nthis \u003ci\u003eMonarchical\u003c/i\u003e Constitution, even in opposition\r\nto everybody who \u003ci\u003ethen\u003c/i\u003e proclaimed their own \u003ci\u003eRepublican\u003c/i\u003e\r\nprinciples.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBut it must be confessed that in this the contradiction\r\nwas merely apparent. The indeterminate,\r\nself-contradictory, immature character of\r\nthe Imperial Constitution was the very image of\r\nthe immature, confused, conflicting political ideas\r\nof these Democratic gentlemen. And if their own\r\nsayings and writings—as far as they could write—were\r\nnot sufficient proof of this, their actions\r\nwould furnish such proof; for among sensible\r\npeople it is a matter of course to judge of a man,\r\nnot by his professions, but his actions; not by\r\nwhat he pretends to be, but by what he does,\r\nand what he really is; and the deeds of these\r\nheroes of German Democracy speak loud enough\r\nfor themselves, as we shall learn by and by. However,\r\nthe Imperial Constitution, with all its appendages\r\nand paraphernalia, was definitely passed,\r\nand on the 28th of March, the King of Prus\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_150\"\u003e[Pg 150]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003esia\r\nwas, by 290 votes against 248 who abstained,\r\nand 200 who were absent, elected Emperor of\r\nGermany \u003ci\u003eminus Austria\u003c/i\u003e. The historical irony\r\nwas complete; the Imperial farce executed in\r\nthe streets of astonished Berlin, three days after\r\nthe Revolution of March 18th, 1848, by Frederick\r\nWilliam IV., while in a state which elsewhere\r\nwould come under the Maine Liquor Law—this\r\ndisgusting farce, just one year afterwards, had\r\nbeen sanctioned by the pretended Representative\r\nAssembly of all Germany. That, then, was\r\nthe result of the German Revolution!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eLondon\u003c/span\u003e, July, 1852.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_151\"\u003e[Pg 151]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"XVI\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eXVI.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eTHE ASSEMBLY AND THE GOVERNMENTS.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"head\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eAugust\u003c/span\u003e 19th, 1852.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe National Assembly of Frankfort, after\r\nhaving elected the King of Prussia Emperor of\r\nGermany (\u003ci\u003eminus\u003c/i\u003e Austria), sent a deputation to\r\nBerlin to offer him the crown, and then adjourned.\r\nOn the 3rd of April, Frederick William received\r\nthe deputies. He told them that, although\r\nhe accepted the right of precedence over all the\r\nother princes of Germany, which this vote of\r\nthe people\u0027s representatives had given him, yet\r\nhe could not accept the Imperial crown as long\r\nas he was not sure that the remaining princes\r\nacknowledged his supremacy, and the Imperial\r\nConstitution conferring those rights upon him.\r\nIt would be, he added, for the Governments of\r\nGermany to see whether this Constitution was\r\nsuch as could be ratified by them. At all events,\r\nEmperor or not, he always would be found ready,\r\nhe concluded, to draw the sword against either\r\nthe external or the internal foe. We shall see\r\nhow he kept his promise in a manner rather\r\nstartling for the National Assembly.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_152\"\u003e[Pg 152]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Frankfort wiseacres, after profound diplomatic\r\ninquiry, at last came to the conclusion\r\nthat this answer amounted to a refusal of the\r\ncrown. They then (April 12th) resolved: That\r\nthe Imperial Constitution was the law of the land,\r\nand must be maintained; and not seeing their\r\nway at all before them, elected a Committee of\r\nthirty, to make proposals as to the means how\r\nthis Constitution could be carried out.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis resolution was the signal for the conflict\r\nbetween the Frankfort Assembly and the German\r\nGovernments which now broke out. The\r\nmiddle classes, and especially the smaller trading\r\nclass, had all at once declared for the new Frankfort\r\nConstitution. They could not wait any longer\r\nthe moment which was \"to close the Revolution.\"\r\nIn Austria and Prussia the Revolution had, for\r\nthe moment, been closed by the interference of\r\nthe armed power. The classes in question would\r\nhave preferred a less forcible mode of performing\r\nthat operation, but they had not had a chance;\r\nthe thing was done, and they had to make\r\nthe best of it, a resolution which they at once\r\ntook and carried out most heroically. In the\r\nsmaller States, where things had been going on\r\ncomparatively smoothly, the middle classes had\r\nlong since been thrown back into that showy, but\r\nresultless, because powerless, parliamentary agitation,\r\nwhich was most congenial to themselves.\r\nThe different States of Germany, as regarded\r\neach of them separately, appeared thus to have\r\nattained that new and definite form which was\r\nsupposed to enable them to enter henceforth the\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_153\"\u003e[Pg 153]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\npath of peaceful constitutional development.\r\nThere only remained one open question, that of\r\nthe new political organization of the German Confederacy.\r\nAnd this question, the only one which\r\nstill appeared fraught with danger, it was considered\r\na necessity to resolve at once. Hence the\r\npressure exerted upon the Frankfort Assembly\r\nby the middle classes, in order to induce it to\r\nget the Constitution ready as soon as possible;\r\nhence the resolution among the higher and lower\r\nbourgeoisie to accept and support this Constitution,\r\nwhatever it might be, in order to create a\r\nsettled state of things without delay. Thus from\r\nthe very beginning the agitation for the Imperial\r\nConstitution arose out of a reactionary feeling,\r\nand sprang up among these classes which were\r\nlong since tired of the Revolution.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBut there was another feature in it. The first\r\nand fundamental principles of the future German\r\nConstitution had been voted during the first\r\nmonths of spring and summer, 1848, a time when\r\npopular agitation was still rife. The resolutions\r\nthen passed, though completely reactionary \u003ci\u003ethen\u003c/i\u003e,\r\nnow, after the arbitrary acts of the Austrian and\r\nPrussian Governments, appeared exceedingly\r\nLiberal, and even Democratic. The standard of\r\ncomparison had changed. The Frankfort Assembly\r\ncould not, without moral suicide, strike\r\nout these once-voted provisions, and model the\r\nImperial Constitution upon those which the Austrian\r\nand Prussian Governments had dictated,\r\nsword in hand. Besides, as we have seen, the\r\nmajority in that Assembly had changed sides,\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_154\"\u003e[Pg 154]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nand the Liberal and Democratic party were rising\r\nin influence. Thus the Imperial Constitution\r\nnot only was distinguished by its apparently\r\nexclusive popular origin, but at the same time,\r\nfull of contradiction as it was, it yet was the\r\nmost Liberal Constitution in all Germany. Its\r\ngreatest fault was, that it was a mere sheet of\r\npaper, with no power to back its provisions.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eUnder these circumstances it was natural that\r\nthe so-called Democratic party, that is, the mass\r\nof the petty trading class, should cling to the Imperial\r\nConstitution. This class had always been\r\nmore forward in its demands than the Liberal-Monarchico-Constitutional\r\nbourgeoisie; it had\r\nshown a bolder front, it had very often threatened\r\narmed resistance, it was lavish in its promises\r\nto sacrifice its blood and its existence in the\r\nstruggle for freedom; but it had already given\r\nplenty of proofs that on the day of danger it was\r\nnowhere, and that it never felt more comfortable\r\nthan the day after a decisive defeat, when everything\r\nbeing lost, it had at least the consolation\r\nto know that somehow or other the matter \u003ci\u003ewas\u003c/i\u003e\r\nsettled. While, therefore, the adhesion of the\r\nlarge bankers, manufacturers, and merchants was\r\nof a more reserved character, more like a simple\r\ndemonstration in favor of the Frankfort Constitution,\r\nthe class just beneath them, our valiant\r\nDemocratic shopkeepers, came forward in grand\r\nstyle, and, as usual, proclaimed they would rather\r\nspill their last drop of blood than let the Imperial\r\nConstitution fall to the ground.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_155\"\u003e[Pg 155]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eSupported by these two parties, the bourgeois\r\nadherents of the Constitutional Royalty, and the\r\nmore or less Democratic shopkeepers, the agitation\r\nfor the immediate establishment of the Imperial\r\nConstitution gained ground rapidly, and\r\nfound its most powerful expression in the Parliaments\r\nof the several States. The Chambers\r\nof Prussia, of Hanover, of Saxony, of Baden, of\r\nWürtemberg, declared in its favor. The struggle\r\nbetween the Governments and the Frankfort\r\nAssembly assumed a threatening aspect.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Governments, however, acted rapidly.\r\nThe Prussian Chambers were dissolved, anti-constitutionally,\r\nas they had to revise and confirm\r\nthe Constitution; riots broke out at Berlin,\r\nprovoked intentionally by the Government, and\r\nthe next day, the 28th of April, the Prussian\r\nMinistry issued a circular note, in which the\r\nImperial Constitution was held up as a most anarchical\r\nand revolutionary document, which it\r\nwas for the Governments of Germany to remodel\r\nand purify. Thus Prussia denied, point-blank,\r\nthat sovereign constituent power which the wise\r\nmen at Frankfort had always boasted of, but\r\nnever established. Thus a Congress of Princes,\r\na renewal of the old Federal Diet, was called upon\r\nto sit in judgment on that Constitution which\r\nhad already been promulgated as law. And at\r\nthe same time Prussia concentrated troops at\r\nKreuznach, three days\u0027 march from Frankfort,\r\nand called upon the smaller States to follow its\r\nexample, by also dissolving their Chambers as\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_156\"\u003e[Pg 156]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nsoon as they should give their adhesion to the\r\nFrankfort Assembly. This example was speedily\r\nfollowed by Hanover and Saxony.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt was evident that a decision of the struggle\r\nby force of arms could not be avoided. The\r\nhostility of the Governments, the agitation\r\namong the people, were daily showing themselves\r\nin stronger colors. The military were\r\neverywhere worked upon by the Democratic citizens,\r\nand in the south of Germany with great\r\nsuccess. Large mass meetings were everywhere\r\nheld, passing resolutions to support the Imperial\r\nConstitution and the National Assembly, if need\r\nshould be, with force of arms. At Cologne, a\r\nmeeting of deputies of all the municipal councils\r\nof Rhenish Prussia took place for the same purpose.\r\nIn the Palatinate, at Bergen, Fulda, Nuremberg,\r\nin the Odenwald, the peasantry met by\r\nmyriads and worked themselves up into enthusiasm.\r\nAt the same time the Constituent Assembly\r\nof France dissolved, and the new elections\r\nwere prepared amid violent agitation, while on\r\nthe eastern frontier of Germany, the Hungarians\r\nhad within a month, by a succession of brilliant\r\nvictories, rolled back the tide of Austrian invasion\r\nfrom the Theiss to the Leitha, and were\r\nevery day expected to take Vienna by storm.\r\nThus, popular imagination being on all hands\r\nworked up to the highest pitch, and the aggressive\r\npolicy of the Governments defining itself\r\nmore clearly every day, a violent collision could\r\nnot be avoided, and cowardly imbecility only\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_157\"\u003e[Pg 157]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\ncould persuade itself that the struggle was to\r\ncome off peaceably. But this cowardly imbecility\r\nwas most extensively represented in the Frankfort\r\nAssembly.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eLondon\u003c/span\u003e, July, 1852.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_158\"\u003e[Pg 158]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"XVII\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eXVII.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eINSURRECTION.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"head\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eSeptember\u003c/span\u003e 18, 1852.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe inevitable conflict between the National\r\nAssembly of Frankfort and the States Governments\r\nof Germany at last broke out in open hostilities\r\nduring the first days of May, 1849. The\r\nAustrian deputies, recalled by their Government,\r\nhad already left the Assembly and returned\r\nhome, with the exception of a few members of\r\nthe Left or Democratic party. The great body\r\nof the Conservative members, aware of the turn\r\nthings were about to take, withdrew even before\r\nthey were called upon to do so by their respective\r\nGovernments. Thus, even independently of\r\nthe causes which in the foregoing letters have\r\nbeen shown to strengthen the influence of the\r\nLeft, the mere desertion of their posts by the\r\nmembers of the Right, sufficed to turn the old\r\nminority into a majority of the Assembly. The\r\nnew majority, which, at no former time, had\r\ndreamed of ever obtaining that good fortune,\r\nhad profited by their places on the opposition\r\nbenches to spout against the weakness, the indecision,\r\nthe indolence of the old majority, and of\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_159\"\u003e[Pg 159]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nits Imperial Lieutenancy. Now all at once, \u003ci\u003ethey\u003c/i\u003e\r\nwere called on to replace that old majority. \u003ci\u003eThey\u003c/i\u003e\r\nwere now to show what they could perform. Of\r\ncourse, \u003ci\u003etheir\u003c/i\u003e career was to be one of energy, determination,\r\nactivity. \u003ci\u003eThey\u003c/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eélite\u003c/i\u003e of Germany,\r\nwould soon be able to drive onwards the\r\nsenile Lieutenant of the Empire, and his vacillating\r\nministers, and in case that was impossible\r\nthey would—there could be no doubt about it—by\r\nforce of the sovereign right of the people,\r\ndepose that impotent Government, and replace\r\nit by an energetic, indefatigable Executive, who\r\nwould assure the salvation of Germany. Poor\r\nfellows! \u003ci\u003eTheir\u003c/i\u003e rule—if rule it can be named,\r\nwhere no one obeyed—was a still more ridiculous\r\naffair than even the rule of their predecessors.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe new majority declared that, in spite of all\r\nobstacles, the Imperial Constitution must be carried\r\nout, and \u003ci\u003eat once\u003c/i\u003e; that on the 15th of July\r\nensuing, the people were to elect the deputies of\r\nthe new House of Representatives, and that this\r\nHouse was to meet at Frankfort on the 15th of\r\nAugust following. Now, this was an open declaration\r\nof war against those Governments that\r\nhad not recognized the Imperial Constitution, the\r\nforemost among which were Prussia, Austria,\r\nBavaria, comprising more than three-fourths of\r\nthe German population; a declaration of war\r\nwhich was speedily accepted by them. Prussia\r\nand Bavaria, too, recalled the deputies sent from\r\ntheir territories to Frankfort, and hastened their\r\nmilitary preparations against the National As\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_160\"\u003e[Pg 160]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003esembly,\r\nwhile, on the other hand, the demonstrations\r\nof the Democratic party (out of Parliament)\r\nin favor of the Imperial Constitution and\r\nof the National Assembly, acquired a more turbulent\r\nand violent character, and the mass of the\r\nworking people, led by the men of the most extreme\r\nparty, were ready to take up arms in a\r\ncause which, if it was not their own, at least\r\ngave them a chance of somewhat approaching\r\ntheir aims by clearing Germany of its old monarchical\r\nencumbrances. Thus everywhere the\r\npeople and the Governments were at daggers\r\ndrawn upon this subject; the outbreak was inevitable;\r\nthe mine was charged, and it only\r\nwanted a spark to make it explode. The dissolution\r\nof the Chambers in Saxony, the calling in\r\nof the Landwehr (military reserve) in Prussia,\r\nthe open resistance of the Government to the\r\nImperial Constitution, were such sparks; they\r\nfell, and all at once the country was in a blaze.\r\nIn Dresden, on the 4th of May, the people victoriously\r\ntook possession of the town, and drove\r\nout the King, while all the surrounding districts\r\nsent re-inforcements to the insurgents. In Rhenish\r\nPrussia and Westphalia the Landwehr refused\r\nto march, took possession of the arsenals,\r\nand armed itself in defence of the Imperial Constitution.\r\nIn the Palatinate the people seized\r\nthe Bavarian Government officials, and the public\r\nmoneys, and instituted a Committee of Defence,\r\nwhich placed the province under the protection\r\nof the National Assembly. In Würtemberg\r\nthe people forced the King to acknowledge\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_161\"\u003e[Pg 161]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nthe Imperial Constitution, and in Baden the\r\narmy, united with the people, forced the Grand\r\nDuke to flight, and erected a Provincial Government.\r\nIn other parts of Germany the people\r\nonly awaited a decisive signal from the National\r\nAssembly to rise in arms and place themselves at\r\nits disposal.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe position of the National Assembly was far\r\nmore favorable than could have been expected\r\nafter its ignoble career. The western half of\r\nGermany had taken up arms in its behalf; the\r\nmilitary everywhere were vacillating; in the lesser\r\nStates they were undoubtedly favorable to\r\nthe movement. Austria was prostrated by the\r\nvictorious advance of the Hungarians, and Russia,\r\nthat reserve force of the German Governments,\r\nwas straining all its powers in order to\r\nsupport Austria against the Magyar armies.\r\nThere was only Prussia to subdue, and with the\r\nrevolutionary sympathies existing in that country,\r\na chance certainly existed of attaining that\r\nend. Everything then depended upon the conduct\r\nof the Assembly.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eNow, insurrection is an art quite as much as\r\nwar or any other, and subject to certain rules of\r\nproceeding, which, when neglected, will produce\r\nthe ruin of the party neglecting them. Those\r\nrules, logical deductions from the nature of the\r\nparties and the circumstances one has to deal\r\nwith in such a case, are so plain and simple that\r\nthe short experience of 1848 had made the Germans\r\npretty well acquainted with them. Firstly,\r\nnever play with insurrection unless you are fully\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_162\"\u003e[Pg 162]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nprepared to face the consequences of your play.\r\nInsurrection is a calculus with very indefinite\r\nmagnitudes, the value of which may change\r\nevery day; the forces opposed to you have all the\r\nadvantage of organization, discipline, and habitual\r\nauthority: unless you bring strong odds\r\nagainst them you are defeated and ruined. Secondly,\r\nthe insurrectionary career once entered\r\nupon, act with the greatest determination, and\r\non the offensive. The defensive is the death of\r\nevery armed rising; it is lost before it measures\r\nitself with its enemies. Surprise your antagonists\r\nwhile their forces are scattering, prepare new\r\nsuccesses, however small, but daily; keep up the\r\nmoral ascendancy which the first successful rising\r\nhas given to you; rally those vacillating elements\r\nto your side which always follow the\r\nstrongest impulse, and which always look out\r\nfor the safer side; force your enemies to a retreat\r\nbefore they can collect their strength\r\nagainst you; in the words of Danton, the greatest\r\nmaster of revolutionary policy yet known, \u003ci\u003ede\r\nl\u0027audace, de l\u0027audace, encore de l\u0027audace!\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhat, then, was the National Assembly of\r\nFrankfort to do if it would escape the certain\r\nruin which it was threatened with? First of all,\r\nto see clearly through the situation, and to convince\r\nitself that there was now no other choice\r\nthan either to submit to the Governments unconditionally,\r\nor take up the cause of the armed insurrection\r\nwithout reserve or hesitation. Secondly,\r\nto publicly recognize all the insurrections\r\nthat had already broken out, and to call the peo\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_163\"\u003e[Pg 163]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eple\r\nto take up arms everywhere in defence of the\r\nnational representation, outlawing all princes,\r\nministers and others who should dare to oppose\r\nthe sovereign people represented by its mandatories.\r\nThirdly, to at once depose the German\r\nImperial Lieutenant, to create a strong, active,\r\nunscrupulous Executive, to call insurgent troops\r\nto Frankfort for its immediate protection, thus\r\noffering at the same time a legal pretext for the\r\nspread of the insurrection, to organize into a\r\ncompact body all the forces at its disposal, and,\r\nin short, to profit quickly and unhesitatingly by\r\nevery available means for strengthening its position\r\nand impairing that of its opponents.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOf all this the virtuous Democrats in the\r\nFrankfort Assembly did just the contrary. Not\r\ncontent with letting things take the course they\r\nliked, these worthies went so far as to suppress\r\nby their opposition all insurrectionary movements\r\nwhich were preparing. Thus, for instance,\r\ndid Herr Karl Vogt at Nuremberg. They allowed\r\nthe insurrections of Saxony, of Rhenish\r\nPrussia, of Westphalia to be suppressed without\r\nany other help than a posthumous, sentimental\r\nprotest against the unfeeling violence of the\r\nPrussian Government. They kept up an underhand\r\ndiplomatic intercourse with the South German\r\ninsurrections but never gave them the support\r\nof their open acknowledgment. They knew\r\nthat the Lieutenant of the Empire sided with the\r\nGovernments, and yet they called upon \u003ci\u003ehim\u003c/i\u003e, who\r\nnever stirred, to oppose the intrigues of these\r\nGovernments. The ministers of the Empire, old\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_164\"\u003e[Pg 164]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nConservatives, ridiculed this impotent Assembly\r\nin every sitting, and they suffered it. And when\r\nWilliam Wolff,\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_9_9\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_9_9\"\u003e[9]\u003c/a\u003e a Silesian deputy, and one of\r\nthe editors of the \u003ci\u003eNew Rhenish Gazette\u003c/i\u003e, called\r\nupon them to outlaw the Lieutenant of the Empire—who\r\nwas, he justly said, nothing but the\r\nfirst and greatest traitor to the Empire, he was\r\nhooted down by the unanimous and virtuous indignation\r\nof those Democratic Revolutionists!\r\nIn short, they went on talking, protesting, proclaiming,\r\npronouncing, but never had the courage\r\nor the sense to act; while the hostile troops\r\nof the Governments drew nearer and nearer, and\r\ntheir own Executive, the Lieutenant of the Empire,\r\nwas busily plotting with the German princes\r\ntheir speedy destruction. Thus even the last\r\nvestige of consideration was lost to this contemptible\r\nAssembly; the insurgents who had\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_165\"\u003e[Pg 165]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nrisen to defend it ceased to care any more for it,\r\nand when at last it came to a shameful end, as\r\nwe shall see, it died without anybody taking any\r\nnotice of its unhonored exit.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eLondon\u003c/span\u003e, August, 1852.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnotes\"\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFOOTNOTES:\u003c/h3\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_9_9\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_9_9\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[9]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e The \"Wolff\" here alluded to is Wilhelm Wolff,\r\nthe beloved friend of Marx and Engels, who—to distinguish\r\nhim from the many other \"Wolffs\" in the\r\nmovement at this period—was known to his intimates\r\nas \"Lupus.\" It is to this Silesian peasant that\r\nMarx dedicated the first volume of \"Capital.\"\r\n\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Dedicated\u003cbr\u003e\r\nTo My Never-To-Be-Forgotten Friend\u003cbr\u003e\r\nThe Brave, True, Noble Fighter In The Van-Guard\u003cbr\u003e\r\nOf The Proletariat,\u003cbr\u003e\r\nWILHELM WOLFF.\u003c/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\r\nBorn at Tornau, June 21st, 1809. Died in exile at\r\nManchester, 9th May, 1864.\"\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_166\"\u003e[Pg 166]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"XVIII\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eXVIII.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003ePETTY TRADERS.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"head\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eOctober\u003c/span\u003e 2, 1852.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn our last we showed that the struggle between\r\nthe German Governments on the one side,\r\nand the Frankfort Parliament on the other, had\r\nultimately acquired such a degree of violence\r\nthat in the first days of May, a great portion of\r\nGermany broke out in open insurrection; first\r\nDresden, then the Bavarian Palatinate, parts of\r\nRhenish Prussia, and at last Baden.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn all cases, the \u003ci\u003ereal fighting\u003c/i\u003e body of the insurgents,\r\nthat body which first took up arms and\r\ngave battle to the troops consisted of the \u003ci\u003eworking\r\nclasses of the towns\u003c/i\u003e. A portion of the poorer\r\ncountry population, laborers and petty farmers,\r\ngenerally joined them after the outbreak of the\r\nconflict. The greater number of the young men\r\nof all classes, below the capitalist class, were to\r\nbe found, for a time at least, in the ranks of the\r\ninsurgent armies, but this rather indiscriminate\r\naggregate of young men very soon thinned as\r\nthe aspect of affairs took a somewhat serious\r\nturn. The students particularly, those \"representatives\r\nof intellect,\" as they liked to call them\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_167\"\u003e[Pg 167]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eselves,\r\nwere the first to quit their standards, unless\r\nthey were retained by the bestowal of officer\u0027s\r\nrank, for which they, of course, had very\r\nseldom any qualifications.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe working class entered upon this insurrection\r\nas they would have done upon any other\r\nwhich promised either to remove some obstacles\r\nin their progress towards political dominion and\r\nsocial revolution, or, at least, to tie the more influential\r\nbut less courageous classes of society to\r\na more decided and revolutionary course than\r\nthey had followed hitherto. The working class\r\ntook up arms with a full knowledge that this\r\nwas, in the direct bearings of the case, no quarrel\r\nof its own; but it followed up its only true\r\npolicy, to allow no class that has risen on its\r\nshoulders (as the bourgeoisie had done in 1848)\r\nto fortify its class-government, without opening,\r\nat least, a fair field to the working classes for the\r\nstruggle for its own interests, and, in any case,\r\nto bring matters to a crisis, by which either the\r\nnation was fairly and irresistibly launched in the\r\nrevolutionary career, or else the \u003ci\u003estatus quo\u003c/i\u003e before\r\nthe Revolution restored as nearly as possible,\r\nand, thereby, a new revolution rendered unavoidable.\r\nIn both cases the working classes\r\nrepresented the real and well-understood interest\r\nof the nation at large, in hastening as much\r\nas possible that revolutionary course which for\r\nthe old societies of civilized Europe has now become\r\na historical necessity, before any of them\r\ncan again aspire to a more quiet and regular development\r\nof their resources.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_168\"\u003e[Pg 168]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAs to country people that joined the insurrection,\r\nthey were principally thrown into the arms\r\nof the Revolutionary party, partly by the relatively\r\nenormous load of taxation, and partly of\r\nfeudal burdens pressing upon them.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWithout any initiative of their own, they\r\nformed the tail of the other classes engaged in\r\nthe insurrection, wavering between the working\r\nmen on the one side, and the petty trading class\r\non the other. Their own private social position,\r\nin almost every case, decided which way they\r\nturned; the agricultural laborer generally supported\r\nthe city artisan; the small farmer was apt\r\nto go hand in hand with the small shopkeeper.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis class of petty tradesmen, the great importance\r\nand influence of which we have already\r\nseveral times adverted to, may be considered as\r\nthe leading class of the insurrection of May,\r\n1849. There being, this time, none of the large\r\ntowns of Germany among the center of the\r\nmovement, the petty trading class, which in\r\nmiddling and lesser towns always predominates,\r\nfound the means of getting the direction of the\r\nmovement into its hands. We have, moreover,\r\nseen that, in this struggle for the Imperial Constitution,\r\nand for the rights of the German Parliament,\r\nthere were the interests of this peculiar\r\nclass at stake. The Provisional Governments\r\nformed in all the insurgent districts represented\r\nin the majority of each of them this section of\r\nthe people, and the length they went to may\r\ntherefore be fairly taken as the measure of what\r\nthe German petty bourgeoisie is capable of\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_169\"\u003e[Pg 169]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e—capable,\r\nas we shall see, of nothing but ruining\r\nany movement that entrusts itself to its hands.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe petty bourgeoisie, great in boasting, is\r\nvery impotent for action, and very shy in risking\r\nanything. The \u003ci\u003emesquin\u003c/i\u003e character of its commercial\r\ntransactions and its credit operations is eminently\r\napt to stamp its character with a want of\r\nenergy and enterprise; it is, then, to be expected\r\nthat similar qualities will mark its political career.\r\nAccordingly the petty bourgeoisie encouraged\r\ninsurrection by big words, and great boasting\r\nas to what it was going to do; it was eager\r\nto seize upon power as soon as the insurrection,\r\nmuch against its will, had broken out; it used\r\nthis power to no other purpose but to destroy the\r\neffects of the insurrection. Wherever an armed\r\nconflict had brought matters to a serious crisis,\r\nthere the shopkeepers stood aghast at the dangerous\r\nsituation created for them; aghast at the people\r\nwho had taken their boasting appeals to arms\r\nin earnest; aghast at the power thus thrust into\r\ntheir own hands; aghast, above all, at the consequences\r\nfor themselves, for their social positions,\r\nfor their fortunes, of the policy in which\r\nthey were forced to engage themselves. Were\r\nthey not expected to risk \"life and property,\" as\r\nthey used to say, for the cause of the insurrection?\r\nWere they not forced to take official positions\r\nin the insurrection, whereby, in the case of\r\ndefeat, they risked the loss of their capital? And\r\nin case of victory, were they not sure to be immediately\r\nturned out of office, and to see their\r\nentire policy subverted by the victorious prole\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_170\"\u003e[Pg 170]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003etarians\r\nwho formed the main body of their fighting\r\narmy? Thus placed between opposing dangers\r\nwhich surrounded them on every side, the\r\npetty bourgeoisie knew not to turn its power to\r\nany other account than to let everything take\r\nits chance, whereby, of course, there was lost\r\nwhat little chance of success there might have\r\nbeen, and thus to ruin the insurrection altogether.\r\nIts policy, or rather want of policy, everywhere\r\nwas the same, and, therefore, the insurrections of\r\nMay, 1849, in all parts of Germany, are all cut\r\nout to the same pattern.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn Dresden, the struggle was kept on for four\r\ndays in the streets of the town. The shopkeepers\r\nof Dresden, the \"communal guard,\" not only\r\ndid not fight, but in many instances favored the\r\nproceedings of the troops against the insurgents.\r\nThese again consisted almost exclusively of\r\nworking men from the surrounding manufacturing\r\ndistricts. They found an able and cool-headed\r\ncommander in the Russian refugee\r\nMichael Bakunin, who afterwards was taken\r\nprisoner, and now is confined in the dungeons\r\nof Munkacs, Hungary. The intervention of numerous\r\nPrussian troops crushed this insurrection.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn Rhenish Prussia the actual fighting was of\r\nlittle importance. All the large towns being\r\nfortresses commanded by citadels, there could be\r\nonly skirmishing on the part of the insurgents.\r\nAs soon as a sufficient number of troops had\r\nbeen drawn together, there was an end to armed\r\nopposition.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn the Palatinate and Baden, on the contrary,\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_171\"\u003e[Pg 171]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\na rich, fruitful province and an entire state fell\r\ninto the hands of the insurrection. Money, arms,\r\nsoldiers, warlike stores, everything was ready\r\nfor use. The soldiers of the regular army themselves\r\njoined the insurgents; nay, in Baden, they\r\nwere amongst the foremost of them. The insurrections\r\nin Saxony and Rhenish Prussia sacrificed\r\nthemselves in order to gain time for the\r\norganization of the South German movement.\r\nNever was there such a favorable position for a\r\nprovincial and partial insurrection as this. A\r\nrevolution was expected in Paris; the Hungarians\r\nwere at the gates of Vienna; in all the central\r\nStates of Germany, not only the people, but\r\neven the troops, were strongly in favor of the\r\ninsurrection, and only wanted an opportunity to\r\njoin it openly. And yet the movement, having\r\nonce got into the hands of the petty bourgeoisie,\r\nwas ruined from its very beginning. The petty\r\nbourgeois rulers, particularly of Baden—Herr\r\nBrentano at the head of them—never forgot\r\nthat by usurping the place and prerogatives of\r\nthe \"lawful\" sovereign, the Grand Duke, they\r\nwere committing high treason. They sat down\r\nin their ministerial armchairs with the consciousness\r\nof criminality in their hearts. What can\r\nyou expect of such cowards? They not only\r\nabandoned the insurrection to its own uncentralized,\r\nand therefore ineffective, spontaneity, they\r\nactually did everything in their power to take\r\nthe sting out of the movement, to unman, to\r\ndestroy it. And they succeeded, thanks to the\r\nzealous support of that deep class of politicians,\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_172\"\u003e[Pg 172]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nthe \"Democratic\" heroes of the petty bourgeoisie,\r\nwho actually thought they were \"saving the\r\ncountry,\" while they allowed themselves to be\r\nled by their noses by a few men of a sharper\r\ncast, such as Brentano.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAs to the fighting part of the business, never\r\nwere military operations carried on in a more\r\nslovenly, more stolid way than under the Baden\r\nGeneral-in-Chief Sigel, an ex-lieutenant of the\r\nregular army. Everything was got into confusion,\r\nevery good opportunity was lost, every precious\r\nmoment was loitered away with planning\r\ncolossal, but impracticable projects, until, when\r\nat last the talented Pole Mieroslawski, took up\r\nthe command, the army was disorganized, beaten,\r\ndispirited, badly provided for, opposed to an\r\nenemy four times more numerous, and withal, he\r\ncould do nothing more than fight, at Waghäusel,\r\na glorious though unsuccessful battle, carry out\r\na clever retreat, offer a last hopeless fight under\r\nthe walls of Rastatt, and resign. As in every insurrectionary\r\nwar where armies are mixed of\r\nwell-drilled soldiers and raw levies, there was\r\nplenty of heroism, and plenty of unsoldierlike,\r\noften unconceivable panic, in the revolutionary\r\narmy; but, imperfect as it could not but be, it\r\nhad at least the satisfaction that four times its\r\nnumber were not considered sufficient to put it\r\nto the rout, and that a hundred thousand regular\r\ntroops, in a campaign against twenty thousand\r\ninsurgents, treated them, militarily, with as\r\nmuch respect as if they had to fight the Old\r\nGuard of Napoleon.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_173\"\u003e[Pg 173]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn May the insurrection had broken out; by\r\nthe middle of July, 1849, it was entirely subdued\r\nand the first German Revolution was closed.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eLondon\u003c/span\u003e. (Undated.)\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_174\"\u003e[Pg 174]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"XIX\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eXIX.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eTHE CLOSE OF THE INSURRECTION.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"head\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eOctober\u003c/span\u003e 23, 1852.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhile the south and west of Germany was in\r\nopen insurrection, and while it took the Governments\r\nfrom the first opening of hostilities at\r\nDresden to the capitulation of Rastatt, rather\r\nmore than ten weeks, to stifle this final blazing\r\nup of the first German Revolution, the National\r\nAssembly disappeared from the political theater\r\nwithout any notice being taken of its exit.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe left this august body at Frankfort, perplexed\r\nby the insolent attacks of the Governments\r\nupon its dignity, by the impotency and\r\ntreacherous listlessness of the Central Power it\r\nhad itself created, by the risings of the petty\r\ntrading class for its defence, and of the working\r\nclass for a more revolutionary ultimate end.\r\nDesolation and despair reigned supreme among\r\nits members; events had at once assumed such a\r\ndefinite and decisive shape that in a few days the\r\nillusions of these learned legislators as to their\r\nreal power and influence were entirely broken\r\ndown. The Conservatives, at the signal given\r\nby the Governments, had already retired from\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_175\"\u003e[Pg 175]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\na body which, henceforth, could not exist any\r\nlonger, except in defiance of the constituted authorities.\r\nThe Liberals gave the matter up in\r\nutter discomfiture; they, too, threw up their commissions\r\nas representatives. Honorable gentlemen\r\ndecamped by hundreds. From eight or nine\r\nhundred members the number had dwindled\r\ndown so rapidly that now one hundred and fifty,\r\nand a few days after one hundred, were declared\r\na quorum. And even these were difficult to muster,\r\nalthough the whole of the Democratic party\r\nremained.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe course to be followed by the remnants of\r\na parliament was plain enough. They had only\r\nto take their stand openly and decidedly with the\r\ninsurrection, to give it, thereby, whatever\r\nstrength legality could confer upon it, while they\r\nthemselves at once acquired an army for their\r\nown defence. They had to summon the Central\r\nPower to stop all hostilities at once; and if, as\r\ncould be foreseen, this power neither could nor\r\nwould do so, to depose it at once and put another\r\nmore energetic Government in its place.\r\nIf insurgent troops could not be brought to\r\nFrankfort (which, in the beginning, when the\r\nState Governments were little prepared and still\r\nhesitating, might have been easily done), then\r\nthe Assembly could have adjourned at once to\r\nthe very center of the insurgent district. All this\r\ndone at once, and resolutely, not later than the\r\nmiddle or end of May, might have opened\r\nchances both for the insurrection and for the\r\nNational Assembly.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_176\"\u003e[Pg 176]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBut such a determined course was not to be\r\nexpected from the representatives of German\r\nshopocracy. These aspiring statesmen were not\r\nat all freed from their illusions. Those members\r\nwho had lost their fatal belief in the strength\r\nand inviolability of the Parliament had already\r\ntaken to their heels; the Democrats who remained,\r\nwere not so easily induced to give up\r\ndreams of power and greatness which they had\r\ncherished for a twelvemonth. True to the course\r\nthey had hitherto pursued, they shrank back from\r\ndecisive action until every chance of success, nay,\r\nevery chance to succumb, with at least the honors\r\nof war, had passed away. In order, then, to\r\ndevelop a fictitious, busy-body sort of activity,\r\nthe sheer impotency of which, coupled with its\r\nhigh pretension, could not but excite pity and\r\nridicule, they continued insinuating resolutions,\r\naddresses, and requests to an Imperial Lieutenant,\r\nwho not even noticed them; to ministers\r\nwho were in open league with the enemy. And\r\nwhen at last William Wolff, member for Striegan,\r\none of the editors of the \u003ci\u003eNew Rhenish Gazette\u003c/i\u003e,\r\nthe only really revolutionary man in the\r\nwhole Assembly, told them that if they meant\r\nwhat they said, they had better give over talking,\r\nand declare the Imperial Lieutenant, the\r\nchief traitor to the country, an outlaw at once;\r\nthen the entire compressed virtuous indignation\r\nof these parliamentary gentlemen burst out with\r\nan energy which they never found when the Government\r\nheaped insult after insult upon them.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOf course, for Wolff\u0027s proposition was the\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_177\"\u003e[Pg 177]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nfirst sensible word spoken within the walls of\r\nSt. Paul\u0027s Church; of course, for it was the very\r\nthing that was to be done, and such plain language\r\ngoing so direct to the purpose, could not\r\nbut insult a set of sentimentalists, who were resolute\r\nin nothing but irresolution, and who, too\r\ncowardly to act, had once for all made up their\r\nminds that in doing nothing, they were doing\r\nexactly what was to be done. Every word which\r\ncleared up, like lightning, the infatuated, but intentional\r\nnebulosity of their minds, every hint\r\nthat was adapted to lead them out of the labyrinth\r\nwhere they obstinated themselves to take\r\nup as lasting an abode as possible, every clear\r\nconception of matters as they actually stood,\r\nwas, of course, a crime against the majesty of\r\nthis Sovereign Assembly.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eShortly after the position of the honorable\r\ngentlemen in Frankfort became untenable, in\r\nspite of resolutions, appeals, interpellations, and\r\nproclamations, they retreated, but not into the\r\ninsurgent districts; that would have been too resolute\r\na step. They went to Stuttgart, where the\r\nWürtemberg Government kept up a sort of expectative\r\nneutrality. There, at last, they declared\r\nthe Lieutenant of the Empire to have forfeited\r\nhis power, and elected from their own\r\nbody a Regency of five. This Regency at once\r\nproceeded to pass a Militia law, which was actually\r\nin all due force sent to all the Governments\r\nof Germany.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThey, the very enemies of the Assembly, were\r\nordered to levy forces in its defence! Then there\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_178\"\u003e[Pg 178]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nwas created—on paper, of course—an army\r\nfor the defence of the National Assembly. Divisions,\r\nbrigades, regiments, batteries, everything\r\nwas regulated and ordained. Nothing was wanted\r\nbut reality, for that army, of course, was never\r\ncalled into existence.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOne last scheme offered itself to the General\r\nAssembly. The Democratic population from all\r\nparts of the country sent deputations to place itself\r\nat the disposal of the Parliament, and to\r\nurge it on to a decisive action. The people, knowing\r\nwhat the intentions of the Würtemberg Government\r\nwere, implored the National Assembly\r\nto force that Government into an open and active\r\nparticipation with their insurgent neighbors. But\r\nno. The National Assembly, in going to Stuttgart,\r\nhad delivered itself up to the tender mercies\r\nof the Würtemberg Government. The members\r\nknew it, and repressed the agitation among\r\nthe people. They thus lost the last remnant of\r\ninfluence which they might yet have retained.\r\nThey earned the contempt they deserved, and the\r\nImperial Lieutenant put a stop to the Democratic\r\nfarce by shutting up, on the 18th of June,\r\n1849, the room where the Parliament met, and\r\nby ordering the members of the Regency to leave\r\nthe country.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eNext they went to Baden, into the camp of the\r\ninsurrection; but there they were now useless.\r\nNobody noticed them. The Regency, however,\r\nin the name of the Sovereign German people,\r\ncontinued to save the country by its exertions.\r\nIt made an attempt to get recognized by foreign\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_179\"\u003e[Pg 179]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\npowers, by delivering \u003ci\u003epassports\u003c/i\u003e to anybody who\r\nwould accept of them. It issued proclamations,\r\nand sent commissioners to insurge those very\r\ndistricts of Würtemberg whose active assistance\r\nit had refused when it was yet time; of course,\r\nwithout effect. We have now under our eye an\r\noriginal report, sent to the Regency by one of\r\nthese commissioners, Herr Roesler (member for\r\nOels), the contents of which are rather characteristic.\r\nIt is dated, Stuttgart, June 30, 1849.\r\nAfter describing the adventures of half a dozen\r\nof these commissioners in a resultless search for\r\ncash, he gives a series of excuses for not having\r\nyet gone to his post, and then delivers himself of\r\na most weighty argument respecting possible differences\r\nbetween Prussia, Austria, Bavaria, and\r\nWürtemberg, with their possible consequences.\r\nAfter having fully considered this, he comes,\r\nhowever, to the conclusion that there is no more\r\nchance. Next, he proposes to establish relays of\r\ntrustworthy men for the conveyance of intelligence,\r\nand a system of espionage as to the intentions\r\nof the Würtemberg Ministry and the movements\r\nof the troops. This letter never reached\r\nits address, for when it was written the \"Regency\"\r\nhad already passed entirely into the \"foreign\r\ndepartment,\" viz., Switzerland; and while\r\npoor Herr Roesler troubled his head about the\r\nintentions of the formidable ministry of a sixth-rate\r\nkingdom, a hundred thousand Prussian,\r\nBavarian, and Hessian soldiers had already settled\r\nthe whole affair in the last battle under the\r\nwalls of Rastatt.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_180\"\u003e[Pg 180]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThus vanished the German Parliament, and\r\nwith it the first and last creation of the Revolution.\r\nIts convocation had been the first evidence\r\nthat there actually \u003ci\u003ehad been\u003c/i\u003e a revolution in January;\r\nand it existed as long as this, the first\r\nmodern German Revolution, was not yet brought\r\nto a close. Chosen under the influence of the\r\ncapitalist class by a dismembered, scattered, rural\r\npopulation, for the most part only awaking from\r\nthe dumbness of feudalism, this Parliament\r\nserved to bring in one body upon the political\r\narena all the great popular names of 1820-1848,\r\nand then to utterly ruin them. All the celebrities\r\nof middle class Liberalism were here collected.\r\nThe bourgeoisie expected wonders; it\r\nearned shame for itself and its representatives.\r\nThe industrial and commercial capitalist class\r\nwere more severely defeated in Germany than in\r\nany other country; they were first worsted,\r\nbroken, expelled from office in every individual\r\nState of Germany, and then put to rout, disgraced\r\nand hooted in the Central German Parliament.\r\nPolitical Liberalism, the rule of the\r\nbourgeoisie, be it under a Monarchical or Republican\r\nform of government, is forever impossible\r\nin Germany.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn the latter period of its existence, the German\r\nParliament served to disgrace forever that\r\nsection which had ever since March, 1848,\r\nheaded the official opposition, the Democrats\r\nrepresenting the interests of the small trading,\r\nand partially of the farming class. That class\r\nwas, in May and June, 1849, given a chance to\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_181\"\u003e[Pg 181]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nshow its means of forming a stable Government\r\nin Germany. We have seen how it failed; not\r\nso much by adverse circumstances as by the actual\r\nand continued cowardice in all trying movements\r\nthat had occurred since the outbreak of\r\nthe revolution; by showing in politics the same\r\nshortsighted, pusillanimous, wavering spirit,\r\nwhich is characteristic of its commercial operations.\r\nIn May, 1849, it had, by this course, lost\r\nthe confidence of the real fighting mass of all\r\nEuropean insurrections, the working class. But\r\nyet, it had a fair chance. The German Parliament\r\nbelonged to it, exclusively, after the Reactionists\r\nand Liberals had withdrawn. The rural\r\npopulation was in its favor. Two-thirds of the\r\narmies of the smaller States, one-third of the\r\nPrussian army, the majority of the Prussian\r\nLandwehr (reserve or militia), were ready to\r\njoin it, if it only acted resolutely, and with that\r\ncourage which is the result of a clear insight into\r\nthe state of things. But the politicians who\r\nled on this class were not more clear-sighted\r\nthan the host of petty tradesmen which followed\r\nthem. They proved even to be more infatuated,\r\nmore ardently attached to delusions voluntarily\r\nkept up, more credulous, more incapable of resolutely\r\ndealing with facts than the Liberals. Their\r\npolitical importance, too, is reduced below the\r\nfreezing-point. But not having actually carried\r\ntheir commonplace principles into execution,\r\nthey were, under \u003ci\u003every\u003c/i\u003e favorable circumstances,\r\ncapable of a momentary resurrection, when this\r\nlast hope was taken from them, just as it was\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_182\"\u003e[Pg 182]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\ntaken from their colleagues of the \"pure Democracy\"\r\nin France by the \u003ci\u003ecoup d\u0027état\u003c/i\u003e of Louis Bonaparte.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe defeat of the south-west German insurrection,\r\nand the dispersion of the German Parliament,\r\nbring the history of the first German insurrection\r\nto a close. We have now to cast a\r\nparting glance upon the victorious members of\r\nthe counter-revolutionary alliance; we shall do\r\nthis in our next letter.\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_10_10\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_10_10\"\u003e[10]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eLondon\u003c/span\u003e, September 24, 1852.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnotes\"\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFOOTNOTES:\u003c/h3\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_10_10\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_10_10\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[10]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e After repeated search I have been unable to find\r\nthe \"next letter\" referred to in the above paragraph;\r\nand, if it was ever written, there seems no\r\ndoubt it was never published.—E. M. A.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003chr style=\"width: 65%;\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_183\"\u003e[Pg 183]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003ca id=\"XX\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eXX.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eTHE LATE TRIAL AT COLOGNE.\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"head\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eDecember\u003c/span\u003e 22, 1852.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eYou will have ere this received by the European\r\npapers numerous reports of the Communist\r\nMonster Trial at Cologne, Prussia, and of its\r\nresult. But as none of the reports is anything\r\nlike a faithful statement of the facts, and as\r\nthese facts throw a glaring light upon the political\r\nmeans by which the continent of Europe\r\nis kept in bondage, I consider it necessary to revert\r\nto this trial.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Communist or Proletarian party, as well\r\nas other parties, had lost, by suppression of the\r\nrights of association and meeting, the means of\r\ngiving to itself a legal organization on the Continent.\r\nIts leaders, besides, had been exiled from\r\ntheir countries. But no political party can exist\r\nwithout an organization; and that organization\r\nwhich both the Liberal bourgeois and the Democratic\r\nshopkeeping class were enabled more or\r\nless to supply by the social station, advantages,\r\nand long-established, every-day intercourse of\r\ntheir members, the proletarian class, without\r\nsuch social station and pecuniary means, was\r\nnecessarily compelled to seek in secret associa\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_184\"\u003e[Pg 184]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003etion.\r\nHence, both in France and Germany,\r\nsprung up those numerous secret Societies which\r\nhave, ever since 1849, one after another, been\r\ndiscovered by the police, and prosecuted as conspiracies;\r\nbut if many of them were really conspiracies,\r\nformed with the actual intention of\r\nupsetting the Government for the time being,—and\r\nhe is a coward that under certain circumstances\r\nwould not conspire, just as he is a fool\r\nwho, under other circumstances, would do so;—there\r\nwere some other Societies which were\r\nformed with a wider and more elevated purpose,\r\nwhich knew that the upsetting of an existing\r\nGovernment was but a passing stage in the great\r\nimpending struggle, and which intended to keep\r\ntogether and to prepare the party, whose nucleus\r\nthey formed, for the last decisive combat\r\nwhich must, one day or another, crush forever\r\nin Europe the domination, not of mere \"tyrants,\"\r\n\"despots\" and \"usurpers,\" but of a power far\r\nsuperior, and far more formidable than theirs;\r\nthat of capital over labor.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe organization of the advanced Communist\r\nparty in Germany was of this kind. In accordance\r\nwith the principles of the \"Manifesto\"\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_11_11\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_11_11\"\u003e[11]\u003c/a\u003e\r\n(published in 1848), and with those explained\r\nin the series of articles on \"Revolution and\r\n\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_185\"\u003e[Pg 185]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eCounter-Revolution in Germany,\" published in\r\nthe \u003ci\u003eNew York Daily Tribune\u003c/i\u003e, this party never\r\nimagined itself capable of producing, at any time\r\nand at its pleasure, that revolution which was to\r\ncarry its ideas into practice. It studied the causes\r\nthat had produced the revolutionary movement in\r\n1848, and the causes that made them fail. Recognizing\r\nthe social antagonism of classes at the\r\nbottom of all political struggles, it applied itself\r\nto the study of the conditions under which one\r\nclass of society can and must be called on to represent\r\nthe whole of the interests of a nation, and\r\nthus politically to rule over it. History showed\r\nto the Communist party how, after the landed\r\naristocracy of the Middle Ages, the monied\r\npower of the first capitalists arose and seized the\r\n\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_186\"\u003e[Pg 186]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003ereins of Government; how the social influence\r\nand political rule of this financial section of capitalists\r\nwas superseded by the rising strength\r\nsince the introduction of steam, of the manufacturing\r\ncapitalists, and how at the present moment\r\ntwo more classes claim their turn of domination,\r\nthe petty trading class and the industrial\r\nworking class. The practical revolutionary experience\r\nof 1848-1849 confirmed the reasonings\r\nof theory, which led to the conclusion that the\r\nDemocracy of the petty traders must first have\r\nits turn, before the Communist working class\r\ncould hope to permanently establish itself in\r\npower and destroy that system of wage-slavery\r\nwhich keeps it under the yoke of the bourgeoisie.\r\nThus the secret organization of the Communists\r\ncould not have the direct purpose of upsetting\r\nthe present Governments of Germany. Being\r\nformed to upset not these, but the insurrectionary\r\nGovernment, which is sooner or later to follow\r\nthem, its members might, and certainly\r\nwould, individually, lend an active hand to a\r\nrevolutionary movement against the present \u003ci\u003estatus\r\nquo\u003c/i\u003e in its turn; but the preparation of such\r\na movement, otherwise than by spreading of\r\nCommunist opinions by the masses, could not be\r\nan object of the Association. So well was this\r\nfoundation of the Society understood by the\r\nmajority of its members, that when the place-hunting\r\nambition of some tried to turn it into a\r\nconspiracy for making an extempore revolution\r\nthey were speedily turned out.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eNow, according to no law upon the face of\r\nthe earth, could such an Association be called\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_187\"\u003e[Pg 187]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\na plot, a conspiracy for purposes of high treason.\r\nIf it was a conspiracy, it was one against, not\r\nthe existing Government, but its probable successor.\r\nAnd the Prussian Government was aware\r\nof it. That was the cause why the eleven defendants\r\nwere kept in solitary confinement during\r\neighteen months, spent, on the part of the\r\nauthorities, in the strangest judicial feats. Imagine,\r\nthat after eight months\u0027 detention, the\r\nprisoners were remanded for some months more,\r\n\"there being no evidence of any crime against\r\nthem!\" And when at last they were brought before\r\na jury, there was not a single overt act of\r\na treasonable nature proved against them. And\r\nyet they were convicted, and you will speedily\r\nsee how.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the emissaries of the society was arrested\r\nin May, 1851, and from documents found\r\nupon him, other arrests followed. A Prussian\r\npolice officer, a certain Stieber, was immediately\r\nordered to trace the ramifications, in London, of\r\nthe pretended plot. He succeeded in obtaining\r\nsome papers connected with the above-mentioned\r\nseceders from the society, who had, after being\r\nturned out, formed an actual conspiracy in Paris\r\nand London. These papers were obtained by a\r\ndouble crime. A man named Reuter was bribed\r\nto break open the writing-desk of the secretary\r\nof the Society, and steal the papers therefrom.\r\nBut that was nothing yet. This theft led to the\r\ndiscovery and conviction of the so-called Franco-German\r\nplot, in Paris, but it gave no clue as to\r\nthe great Communist Association. The Paris\r\nplot, we may as well here observe, was under\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_188\"\u003e[Pg 188]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nthe direction of a few ambitious imbeciles and\r\npolitical \u003ci\u003echevaliers d\u0027industrie\u003c/i\u003e in London, and of\r\na formerly convicted forger, then acting as a\r\npolice spy in Paris; their dupes made up, by\r\nrabid declamations and blood-thirsty rantings, for\r\nthe utter insignificance of their political existence.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Prussian police, then, had to look out for\r\nfresh discoveries. They established a regular office\r\nof secret police at the Prussian Embassy in\r\nLondon. A police agent, Greif by name, held his\r\nodious vocation under the title of an attaché to\r\nthe Embassy—a step which should suffice to put\r\nall Prussian embassies out of the pale of international\r\nlaw, and which even the Austrians have\r\nnot yet dared to take. Under him worked a certain\r\nFleury, a merchant in the city of London, a\r\nman of some fortune and rather respectably connected,\r\none of those low creatures who do the\r\nbasest actions from an innate inclination to infamy.\r\nAnother agent was a commercial clerk\r\nnamed Hirsch, who, however, had already been\r\ndenounced as a spy on his arrival. He introduced\r\nhimself into the society of some German\r\nCommunist refugees in London, and they, in order\r\nto obtain proofs of his real character, admitted\r\nhim for a short time. The proofs of his\r\nconnection with the police were very soon obtained,\r\nand Herr Hirsch, from that time, absented\r\nhimself. Although, however, he thus resigned\r\nall opportunities of gaining the information\r\nhe was paid to procure, he was not inactive.\r\nFrom his retreat in Kensington, where he never\r\nmet one of the Communists in question, he man\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_189\"\u003e[Pg 189]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eufactured\r\nevery week pretended reports of pretended\r\nsittings of a pretended Central Committee\r\nof that very conspiracy which the Prussian police\r\ncould not get hold of. The contents of these\r\nreports were of the most absurd nature; not a\r\nChristian name was correct, not a name correctly\r\nspelt, not a single individual made to speak\r\nas he would be likely to speak. His master,\r\nFleury, assisted him in this forgery, and it is\r\nnot yet proved that \"Attaché\" Greif can wash\r\nhis hands of these infamous proceedings. The\r\nPrussian Government, incredible to say, took\r\nthese silly fabrications for gospel truth, and you\r\nmay imagine what a confusion such depositions\r\ncreated in the evidence brought before the jury.\r\nWhen the trial came on, Herr Stieber, the already\r\nmentioned police officer, got into the witness-box,\r\nswore to all these absurdities, and, with\r\nno little self-complacency, maintained that he\r\nhad a secret agent in the very closest intimacy\r\nwith those parties in London who were considered\r\nthe prime movers in this awful conspiracy.\r\nThis secret agent was very secret indeed,\r\nfor he had hid his face for eight months in Kensington,\r\nfor fear he might actually see one of the\r\nparties whose most secret thoughts, words and\r\ndoings, he pretended to report week after week.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eMessrs. Hirsch and Fleury, however, had another\r\ninvention in store. They worked up the\r\nwhole of the reports they had made into an \"original\r\nminute book\" of the sittings of the Secret\r\nSupreme Committee, whose existence was maintained\r\nby the Prussian police; and Herr Stieber,\r\nfinding that this book wondrously agreed with\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_190\"\u003e[Pg 190]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nthe reports already received from the same parties,\r\nat once laid it before the jury, declaring\r\nupon his oath that after serious examination, and\r\naccording to his fullest conviction, that book\r\nwas genuine. It was then that most of the absurdities\r\nreported by Hirsch were made public.\r\nYou may imagine the surprise of the pretended\r\nmembers of that Secret Committee when they\r\nfound things stated of them which they never\r\nknew before. Some who were baptized William\r\nwere here christened Louis or Charles; others,\r\nat the time they were at the other end of England,\r\nwere made to have pronounced speeches in\r\nLondon; others were reported to have read letters\r\nthey never had received; they were made to\r\nhave met regularly on a Thursday, when they\r\nused to have a convivial reunion, once a week, on\r\nWednesdays; a working man, who could hardly\r\nwrite, figured as one of the takers of minutes,\r\nand signed as such; and they all of them were\r\nmade to speak in a language which, if it may be\r\nthat of Prussian police stations, was certainly not\r\nthat of a reunion in which literary men, favorably\r\nknown in their country, formed the majority.\r\nAnd, to crown the whole, a receipt was forged\r\nfor a sum of money, pretended to have been paid\r\nby the fabricators to the pretended secretary of\r\nthe fictitious Central Committee for this book;\r\nbut the existence of this pretended secretary\r\nrested merely upon a hoax that some malicious\r\nCommunist had played upon the unfortunate\r\nHirsch.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis clumsy fabrication was too scandalous an\r\naffair not to produce the contrary of its intended\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_191\"\u003e[Pg 191]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\neffect. Although the London friends of the defendants\r\nwere deprived of all means to bring the\r\nfacts of the case before the jury—although the\r\nletters they sent to the counsel for the defence\r\nwere suppressed by the post—although the documents\r\nand affidavits they succeeded in getting\r\ninto the hands of these legal gentlemen were not\r\nadmitted in evidence, yet the general indignation\r\nwas such that even the public accusers, nay, even\r\nHerr Stieber—whose oath had been given as a\r\nguarantee for the authenticity of that book—were\r\ncompelled to recognize it as a forgery.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis forgery, however, was not the only thing\r\nof the kind of which the police was guilty. Two\r\nor three more cases of the sort came out during\r\nthe trial. The documents stolen by Reuter were\r\ninterpolated by the police so as to disfigure their\r\nmeaning. A paper, containing some rabid nonsense,\r\nwas written in a handwriting imitating\r\nthat of Dr. Marx, and for a time it was pretended\r\nthat it had been written by him, until at\r\nlast the prosecution was obliged to acknowledge\r\nthe forgery. But for every police infamy that\r\nwas proved as such, there were five or six fresh\r\nones brought forward, which could not, at the\r\nmoment, be unveiled, the defence being taken by\r\nsurprise, the proofs having to be got from London,\r\nand every correspondence of the counsel\r\nfor the defence with the London Communist refugees\r\nbeing in open court treated as complicity\r\nin the alleged plot!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThat Greif and Fleury are what they are here\r\nrepresented to be has been stated by Herr Stieber\r\nhimself, in his evidence; as to Hirsch, he has be\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_192\"\u003e[Pg 192]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003efore\r\na London magistrate confessed that he\r\nforged the \"minute book,\" by order and with the\r\nassistance of Fleury, and then made his escape\r\nfrom this country in order to evade a criminal\r\nprosecution.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Government could stand few such branding\r\ndisclosures as came to light during the trial.\r\nIt had a jury—six nobles, two Government officials.\r\nThese were not the men to look closely\r\ninto the confused mass of evidence heaped before\r\nthem during six weeks, when they heard it continually\r\ndinned into their ears that the defendants\r\nwere the chiefs of a dreadful Communist\r\nconspiracy, got up in order to subvert everything\r\nsacred—property, family, religion, order, government\r\nand law! And yet, had not the Government,\r\nat the same time, brought it to the knowledge\r\nof the privileged classes, that an acquittal\r\nin this trial would be the signal for the suppression\r\nof the jury; and that it would be taken as\r\na direct political demonstration—as a proof of\r\nthe middle-class Liberal Opposition being ready\r\nto unite even with the most extreme revolutionists—the\r\nverdict would have been an acquittal.\r\nAs it was, the retroactive application of the new\r\nPrussian code enabled the Government to have\r\nseven prisoners convicted, while four merely\r\nwere acquitted, and those convicted were sentenced\r\nto imprisonment varying from three to six\r\nyears, as you have, doubtless, already stated at\r\nthe time the news reached you.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"smcap\"\u003eLondon\u003c/span\u003e, December 1, 1852.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnotes\"\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFOOTNOTES:\u003c/h3\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_11_11\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_11_11\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[11]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e \"The Manifesto.\" This is the celebrated \"Communist\r\nManifesto,\" which the Communist Congress,\r\nheld in London, November, 1847, delegated Marx\r\nand Engels to draw up. It was published in 1848\r\n(in London). The fundamental proposition of the\r\nManifesto, Engels writes in his introduction to the\r\n\"Communist Manifesto,\" translated by S. Moore,\r\nand published by W. Reeves, \"is that in every historical\r\nepoch, the prevailing mode of economic production\r\nand exchange, and the social organization\r\nnecessarily following from it, form the basis upon\r\nwhich is built up, and from which alone can be explained,\r\nthe political and intellectual history of that\r\nepoch; that consequently the whole history of mankind\r\nhas been a history of class struggles, contests\r\nbetween exploiting and exploited, ruling and oppressed\r\nclasses; that nowadays a stage has been\r\nreached where the exploited and oppressed class—the\r\nproletariat—cannot attain its emancipation …\r\nwithout at the same time, and once and for all\r\nemancipating society at large from all exploitation,\r\noppression, class distinctions, and class struggles.\"\r\nAs to this fundamental proposition of the Manifesto,\r\nit \"belongs,\" says Engels, \"wholly and solely to\r\nMarx.\" The \"Communist Manifesto\" has been translated\r\ninto well-nigh every language, and is, again\r\nto quote Engels, \"the most international production\r\nof all Socialist literature.\"\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr class=\"full\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003c/article\u003e"}],"SectionSequence":["Back Link","Work Title","Deck","Author","Period","Era","Composition","Date Note","Region","Terra Avita","Terra Avita Region","Modern Country","Original Title","Language","Primary Discipline","Secondary Discipline","Tradition","Full Versions","Core Thesis","Classification","Arguments","Influence","Significance","Evidence Note","Full Text"],"Counts":{"ContextCards":3,"GeoCards":4,"DisciplineCards":2,"Links":11,"Sections":25,"Styles":3,"Scripts":1}}