Treitschke's history of Germany in the nineteenth century

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LIBRARY I

UNIVERSITY OF I
CALIFORNIA

IRVING 1

2.05

TS
1915

HISTORY OF GERMANY IN THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY

vor?

TREITSCHKE'S HISTORY
OF GERMANY IN THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY

TRANSLATED BY EDEN 6? CEDAR PAUL

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
WILLIAM HARBUTT DAWSON

VOLUME THREE

LONDON

JARROLDS PUBLISHERS (LONDON) LIMITED
G. ALLEN 6? UNWIN, LTD., MUSEUM ST.

1917

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

VOL. III. BOOK TWO (continued].

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE GERMANIC FEDERATION,

1814-1819.

CHAPTER

VII THE BURSCHENSCHAFT (THE STUDENTS'
ASSOCIATION)

PAGE

§i. Jahn and the Gymnastic Societies 3

§2. Thuringia. Weimar and Jena - 17

§3. The Wartburg Festival - - 53

VIII. THE CONGRESS OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE

§i. Increasing Power of the Austrian Court - 77
§2. Evacuation of France. Renewal of the Quad-
ruple Alliance - - 105
§3. German Affairs at the Congress - - 119

IX. THE CARLSBAD DECREES

§i. Vacillation in Berlin. First Constitutional

Experiences in the South - 135

§2. Assassination of Kotzebue. Persecution of the

Demagogues - 168

§3. Teplitz and Carlsbad - 206

X. CHANGE OF MOOD AT THE PRUSSIAN
COURT

§i. The Carlsbad Decrees and Foreign Policy - 234
§2. Hardenberg's Design for a Constitution. Dis-
missal of Humboldt 254
§3. The first Prussian Customs-Convention - . - 276

V.

History of Germany

BOOK THREE.

AUSTRIA'S HEGEMONY AND THE INCREASE IN THE
POWER OF PRUSSIA, 1819-1830.

I. THE VIENNA CONFERENCES

§i. Final Act of the Germanic Federation - - 301

§2. Struggle Concerning the Prussian Customs-Law 335
§3. The Manuscript from South Germany. The

Hessian Constitution - - 356

II. LAST REFORMS OF HARDENBERG

§i. The National Debt Edict and the Tax Laws - 381

§2. Local Governmental Proposals - 416

§3. Reaction at Court. The Crown Prince - 435

III. TROPPAU AND LAIBACH

§i. The Revolution in the Latin Countries - 456

§2. The Congress of Troppau 479

§3. The Congress of Laibach. The Greek War of

Independence - 504

IV. ISSUE OF THE PRUSSIAN CONSTITUTIONAL

STRUGGLE

§1. Negotiations with the Roman See. Clerical

Movements - 533

§2. The Prussian Provincial Diets - - 566

APPENDIXES TO VOL. III.

V. The Burschenschaft and the Unconditionals 601

VI. History of the Burschenschaft 604

VII. Metternich and the Prussian Constitution 619

VIII. The Teplitz Convention 628

IX. Bavaria and the Carlsbad Decrees - - 632

X. Hardenberg's Plan for a Constitution 643

XI. Hardenberg concerning the Ministerial Crisis of

the year 1819 - 647

XII. Treitschke's Prefaces to the Third Volume of the

German Edition 648

XIII. The Communes' Ordinance of the Year 1820 650
XIV. Note to the History of the Prussian constitutional

Struggle - - 651

INDEX - 653

vi.

INTRODUCTION.

THE present velume of Treitschke's History covers little more
than the ten years beginning with the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle,
which was convened in 1817 by the four Powers forming the
Grand Alliance to consider the restless state of reconstituted
France and the already uncertain fate of the Bourbons. These,
years gave to Germany a period of calm after the great
storm. One State was dominant in that country of many
sovereignties at that time — Austria, as one statesman dominated
German policy both at home and abroad — Metternich, Austria's
Chancellor.

To say that is to give the key to the political events
of an unfruitful epoch of national weariness and disillusionment
In the place of the dissolved Holy Roman Empire of the
German Nation, Metternich had secured a fictive confederation
of the States, not as loose in constitution as the union which
Napoleon had destroyed, but equally powerless, and in it he
had preserved inviolate the hegemony of Austria. He had
successfully thwarted the constitutional aspirations of the time,
not by the open and straightforward method of binding the
Sovereigns and Governments — at least at the beginning — to
an attitude of flat resistance, but more astutely by uniting
them in the acceptance of a vague and shadowy promise of
concessions which might mean much or little, as each kinglet
or princeling wished, yet which he intended to mean nothing
at all.

Now all his efforts were directed towards the one task of
pressing Germany back into the morass of political obscurantism
out of which she had seemed for a moment to have rescued
herself. Understanding the conditions of this task better than
his tools and dupes, he saw that reaction would be the more
certain the more he could win over the States to a policy of
inaction. That was the secret of the calculated omission of
any reference whatever to times and seasons in the article of
the Federal Act of June 8, 1815, which dealt with the future

vii. B

History of Germany

government of Germany. He knew that the nation was tired
out, exhausted, incapable of organising resistance and still more
incapable of making resistance effective. Moreover, everywhere
material occupations were making urgent calls upon its atten-
tion ; the lost prosperity had to be retrieved, the harm done
by war and long preoccupation with military employments to be
made good, trade and industry to be rehabilitated, the decayed
towns to be rebuilt, and the waste places repaired.

It was not difficult, therefore, to draw the Governments into
the paths of reaction ; with few exceptions those which at first
were in a mood to hold back soon yielded to pressure or to
their own doubts and compunctions. The Wartburg festival
of the Burschenschajlen in October, 1817, had been made a
pretext for rebuking the exuberance of the student societies
and for warning the universities themselves that they were
under suspicion. Then in March, 1819, there was perpetrated
one of those senseless crimes which have so often soiled the
fame of good causes and obstructed the path of political advance.
This was the assassination of Kotzebue by the Jena student
Karl Sand at Mannheim. Kotzebue was a voluminous writer
of indifferent plays, who had prostituted his talents to political
espionage and was known to be in the pay of Russia, while
his murderer was a youth of highly-strung temperament and
unbalanced judgment, yet of orderly life, an ardent patriot,
and an enthusiastic " Burschenschafter." Sand appears to
have been convinced that he had a special mission to remove
this enemy of the commonwealth, and if he took the life of
the obnoxious informer he at least tried to take his own, and
mangled himself terribly in the act. He was kept alive in
prison for a long time in suffering, and as soon as his doctors
could be persuaded to certify his fitness for the scaffold he
was duly decapitated. Had the matter ended there Germany
would have been spared much shame and tribulation.

Politically, the only significance of the crime lay in the
fact that popular opinion condemned the Governments almost
as much as the murderer, and that Sand's fellow-students
applauded his act as one of patriotism. The idea that it was
part of a deeply laid conspiracy against order was busily
exploited, but without the slightest justification. To Metter-
nich, however, the crime was a godsend, for he could point
to it as a justification of the measures which had already been
taken by the reactionary Governments and use it as a whip

viii,

Introduction

wherewith to lash the laggards to heel. Even the Emperor
of Russia, who had hitherto played with Liberalism as a child
with a new toy, was now induced to abandon his complacent
attitude, and fell into line with the two other Eastern Powers.

First agreeing with Prussia upon a common basis of action
— Metternich openly boasted at this time that he carried Prussia
in his pocket — Austria called a conference of the German
Ministers at Carlsbad, at which a series of Decrees, aiming at
the repression of liberal movements and tendencies in every
form, was drawn up in August, 1819. In the following month,
on the proposal of Metternich, the Carlsbad resolutions were
duly adopted by the Federal Diet, which thereby stamped itself
finally in the eyes of the nation as the inflexible enemy of
popular liberty. It rested with the federated Governments
to accept and enforce the Decrees with modifications of their
own ; in many of the States their severity was increased, in
few was it relaxed.

Everywhere the Press was subjected to rigorous control,
and the editors of suppressed newspapers might not be employed
in journalism for five years. Books and pamphlets were placed
under an intolerant censorship. Political agitation by associa-
tion, assembly, and public speech was relentlessly suppressed.
A tribunal was set up for the trial and punishment of treason,
only to make itself ridiculous, because it proved impossible
to find traitors. So far did interference with intellectual liberty
go that it was required that in every University a Government
commissary or proctor should be appointed charged with the
duty of spying upon the teaching and opinions of the pro-
fessors, preventing the formation of student associations, and
generally keeping the educated youth of the nation in order.
These police agents do not all appear to have been proud of their
office or work, and their unpopularity at times caused them
anxiety. Carl Schurz, the high-minded German refugee who,
after the revolutionary movements of 1848, found a home and
honour in America, recalling in his " Recollections " the effect
produced in the Rhineland by the Paris revolution of July,
1830, tells how on the first news of the outbreak reaching
Bonn the Government commissary assigned to the University
there promptly quitted the town by train, leaving no word of
his destination.

From 1819 forward the intellectual atmosphere of Germany
was poisoned by the miasma of political intolerance, bigotry,

ix.

History of Germany

and dishonesty. The sycopliant, the time-server, the apostate,
and their kind flourished ; honest men hid their heads in shame
or, raising them, were smitten down by the cowardly blow of
the renegade and the informer. The country was overrun
with spies, whose business it was to smell out political dis-
affection, or incite to it. The despicable Schmalz had been
decorated by Frederick William III of Prussia several years
before for his activity in this dirty work. Now the founda-
tions were laid of the vicious system of " denunciation " which
became the dishonour of German criminal law, and which still
flourishes to-day like a green bay-tree.

Many of the noblest spirits of the time had to taste the
bitterness and gall of political persecution. Ernst Moritz Arndt,
the poet-patriot, was one of the number. " Where," asks
Treitschke, shaken for a moment out of his comfortable belief
in the doctrine that Prussian kings can do no wrong, " where
was Prussian justice when this truest of true men was com-
pelled to bury his correspondence in the cellar ? " Where,
it might be asked with greater force, was Prussian justice
when Arndt was flung into prison and for three mortal years
tortured by false accusations and fictitious indictments by
persecutors who could not convict him yet had not the decency
to set him free ? It even became a crime to criticise the
Bund. Heine, indeed, launched against it the shafts of his
mordant satire, but he did it from a citadel of freedom in
Paris. One can afford to smile at Treitschke's lament that
England, Denmark, and Holland, which were accredited to the
Bund in virtue of Hanover, Holstein, and Luxemburg respec-
tively, were in part responsible for the sins and follies of its
Diet at that time, since they were alien elements. Treitschke
could paint with strong and brilliant colours, but when it came
to the use of whitewash his mixtures were apt to be singularly
thin.

It was the misfortune of Prussia that, yielding to the over-
mastering will of Metternich, she allowed herself to become
the centre of this nefarious conspiracy against the spirit of the
German nation. When the Decrees came before the Prussian
Cabinet, Humboldt and his Liberal colleagues courageously
condemned them in a memorial to the King as an " unjusti-
fiable interference in the internal affairs of the Kingdom, a
shameful attack upon public liberties, and dishonouring to an
enlightened people." The King gave the dissentient Ministers

Introduction

the choice between submission and resignation, and they laid
down office rather than connive at political turpitude In
Prussia the Decrees were enforced with almost incredible malice.
In that way Prussia created evil traditions from which she
has not emancipated herself to the present day.

Yet here the reaction did not stop. Frederick William III
had refused to grant a constitution even after Chancellor
Hardenberg had whittled down his scheme to the utmost. Not
satisfied with this capitulation, Metternich persuaded Prussia
to join with Austria in calling upon those Sovereigns who,
loyally accepting their obligations under Article 13 of the
Federal Act of June 8, 1815, had given constitutions to their
States to undo their work. The challenge was only partly
successful, yet this act of perfidy likewise rebounded upon
Prussia as the more German of the two larger Powers. The
smaller States were indignant that Prussia, which had led the
nation to freedom from a foreign yoke, was now anxious to
lead it back into political bondage at home. They were also
apprehensive. Prussia had been built up by conquest ; the
memory of her greed at the territorial settlement was still
fresh ; and the suspicion formed and grew that the spirit of
aggression at the expense of her German neighbours was still
not extinguished in the northern Kingdom. Already had begun
amongst the States that system of cliquery and conspiracy,
of alliances and counter-alliances, which continued for nearly
half a century, until the strong hand of a statesman greater
than Metternich swept away the old divisions and made
Germany one almost against her will.

The Carlsbad Decrees continued in force for nearly twenty
years, and their spirit was the spirit which dominated the home
politics of Germany during the whole of that time and long
after. Henceforward the German Diet found little more, and
nothing more congenial, to do than to fight against the liberty
and unity of the German nation. The only earnest resistance
against this movement came from some of the smaller States,
but because behind it there was no force other than that of
reason it failed to deter or impress. And beneath all the
lashing of the tyrant's whip the well-drilled German nation was
patient and docile, accepting its beating almost thankfully as
a favour administered for its good. It was not until 1830 that
it dared seriously to murmur and not until 1848 that it dared
to threaten. What a grudge should Liberal Europe, were it

xi.

1 listorv of Germany

less generous, owe to this tractable, much-enduring people !
Nowhere else in Christendom has a like oppression been borne
with a like resignation. It was never thus that free peoples
were born and free institutions won.

The arrogance of Metternich reached a height almost
sublime when, having obtained from the Diet all that he wanted
for the present, he advised it in 1828 to adjourn indefinitely,
since there remained no longer anything for it to do. In the
hour of this triumph of reaction Austria's power in Germany
seemed to be at its zenith. Well might her Chancellor boast,
" If the Emperor doubts that he is Emperor of Germany, he
errs greatly." And yet in proportion as Austria was strong
in Germany, Germany was weak in Europe. Not in the time
of the moribund Empire did she stand lower in the council
of the nations or mean less to the life of Europe than during
these years of languor and stagnation.

Treitschke's history of the period deals with much more
than the Carlsbad Decrees, yet the spirit of the Decrees and
the laws built upon them was reflected in the entire policy
of the German Diet both in home and in foreign relations.
By a Convention of November, 1815, the four Powers forming
the Grand Alliance — Austria, Russia, Prussia, and England —
had agreed to confer at intervals upon measures tending to
the peace of Europe. The conferences of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818),
Troppau (1820), Laibach (1821), and Verona (1822), were held
in pursuance of this arrangement. In these conferences, as
in the domestic conferences of the German Sovereigns among
themselves, Austria's influence was exerted wholly on the side
of reaction. Metternich saw in the Concert of the Powers
merely a device for placing all Europe under the same system
of police surveillance which he had succeeded in imposing on
Germany. To him every stirring of national feeling and con-
sciousness was a challenge to conflict between the principles
of Order and Revolution as defined by the dominant autocracies.
In all the measures, now passive, now active, for the repression
of national movements or Liberal aspirations — in Spain and
Portugal, in Naples and Greece — Austria was the ringleader and
Prussia meekly did her bidding. Only Great Britain protested
seriously, yet not always with success, against these attempts
to buttress the crumbling ruins of a decadent and discredited
despotism.

xii.

Introduction

From this unprofitable story of Germany's political decline
and impotence under the influence of Metternich, for half a
century her evil genius and undoer, it is a relief to turn to
the brighter story of her internal development. If not startling,
this was far from uneventful. Prussia, the last of the German
States in political government, was the first in scientific adminis-
tration, and the fact must be remembered to her credit. The
genius of her rulers and statesmen for order and organisation
was proverbial, and in grappling with the many difficult problems
incidental to a time of national transition and reconstruction it
found a fruitful sphere of action. National and local taxation
was reformed in a progressive spirit ; a system of provincial
administration was created ; public education was organised on
a broad basis and on bold and enlightened principles. More-
over, the way was cleared for the new industrial and commer-
cial development which was looming ahead by the abolition of
the internal duties and excises which had acted so injuriously
in restraint of trade, and the enlarged kingdom was made a
free market, protected only against competition from without.
Prussia did more ; she set all Europe an example by so
moderating her tariff against the foreigner that from 1818
forward her fiscal system more and more approximated to Free
Trade. Reciprocal Protection continued for a time to be the
rule between the German States, but here, again, it was Prussia
which led the way to the ultimate abolition of all internal
customs barriers and the consolidation of the German States
for commercial purposes in a single customs union.

WILLIAM HARBUTT DAWSON.

xui.

VOL. III.
BOOK II. (continued).

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE GERMANIC
FEDERATION.

1814-1819.

CHAPTER VII.
THE BURSCHENSCHAFT (THE STUDENTS' ASSOCIATION).

§ I. JAHN AND THE GYMNASTIC SOCIETIES.

AT all times the thoughts of young people have been more
revolutionary than those of older ones, for the young live more
in the future than in the present, and as yet lack an adequate
understanding of the power of the persistent in the world of
history. It is, however, a sign of morbid conditions when
the chasm between the ideas of the old and those of the young
becomes too greatly widened, and when youthful enthusiasm
no longer has anything in common with the sober activities
of adult manhood. Such an internal separation began to mani-
fest itself in North Germany after the peace. The young
men who in the panoply of war had experienced at one and the
same time the dawn of their own conscious life and the dawn
of the fatherland, or who while still at school had with pal-
pitating hearts received news of the marvels of the holy war,
were still drunken with the memories of those unique days. In
spirit they continued to wage war against Gallicism and foreign
dominion, and felt as if they had been betrayed and sold to
the enemy when the prose of the quiet labours of peace resumed
its sway. How were they to understand the nature of the
economic cares which tortured the minds of their elders ? In
times of old (such was the summary philosophy of history
of the young), in the days of the national migrations and in
the days of the empire, Germany had been the master-country
of the world. Then had ensued the long centuries of power-
lessness and enslavement, of degeneration, and of subordination
to foreign influences, until at length " Liitzow's fierce and
daring hunt " stormed through the Teutonic forests, and the
consecrated hosts of martial youths restored the German nation
to itself. And what was their reward ? Instead of the unity

3

History of Germany

of the fatherland there resulted " the German hotchpotch "
(das deutsche Bunt), as Father Jahn was wont to call it ; whilst
those of the older generation, from whose necks the heroism
of the young had lifted the foreign yoke, relapsed into philis-
tinism, resuming their labours at the desk and in the workshop
as if nothing had happened.

Had not Fichte seen the truth when he prophesied
that this older generation, overwhelmed in self-seeking, must
disappear to the last man before the days of freedom and
clarity of vision could dawn for the Germans ? Was it not
the part of the young to give to their outworn elders
an example of true Germanism, and therewith an example of
all sterling human virtues ? The young alone possessed " the
completely new self " which the philosopher desired to awaken
in his nation ; they alone understood the significance of his
proud utterance, " To have character, and to be German,
are beyond question synonymous terms." Not in vain had
the orator proclaimed to the German nation, " Youth must not
laugh and make merry, but must be earnest and sublime."
Proud as Fichte himself, with erect carriage and defiant smile,
this warlike young generation passed on its way, permeated
with the consciousness of a great destiny, resolved, like the
master himself, not to adapt itself to the world, but to mould
the world in accordance with its own will. Its longing was
for action, for the action which issues from free self-determina-
tion, as extolled by Fichte ; and every flash of the critical
eyes seemed to say, " That which is to happen must be our
work ! " Never before, perhaps, had so ardent a religious
sentiment, so much moral earnestness and patriotic enthusiasm,
prevailed among the German youth ; but conjoined with this
pure idealism was from the very first a boundless conceit, a
precocious self-sufficiency in virtue, which threatened to expel
from German life its charm, its beauty, and its repose. The rough
manners of the younger generation recalled all too vividly the
master's saying, " The doctrine that we should be amiable is
the devil." When these Spartans strayed into false paths,
the aberrations of an overstrained moral egoism were apt to
prove more disastrous than the captivating folly of light-minded
youth.

Who can tell whether Fichte, had his life been prolonged,
would have endeavoured to restrain these eager youths within
the bounds of modesty, or whether the revolutionary idealist

4

would himself have become embittered by the disillusionments
of the years of peace ? He died of hospital fever in January,
1814, a victim of the war, whose significance and purpose
he had understood so grandly and so purely ; and now the
younger generation, which ever looks for leadership, passed under
the influence of other teachers, not one of whom was great
enough to control the arrogance of youth. Among Liitzow's
yagers, Jahn, the Turnvater, had proved of little account ; the
unruly blusterer was ill suited for the strict discipline of military
service. It was first during the peace negotiations that he once
more became a conspicuous figure, delighting the gamins as he
strode through the streets of Paris, cudgel in hand, continually
railing against the "lecherous Frenchmen." His long hair, which
had turned grey in a single day after the battle of Jena, hung
down uncombed upon his shoulders ; his neck was exposed,
for the servile stock and the effeminate waistcoat were equally
unsuitable for the free German ; the low-cut neckband of his
dirty coat was covered by a wide shirt-collar. With great self-
satisfaction he extolled this questionable get-up as " the genuine
Old German costume." What a scene, one day, when the
Austrians were removing the bronze horses of the Lysippus from
the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in order to send them back
to Venice ; all of a sudden the giant swordsman was to be
seen standing on the top of the arch beside the brazen figure
of Victory, making a thunderous speech to the soldiers and
with his heavy fist delivering powerful blows on the lying
mouth and boastful trumpet of the goddess. After this episode
he was known to the whole town. It delighted his heart
whenever the Parisians looked at him with angry glances, and
whispered to one another, " Le voila ! Celui-ci ! "

After his return home he reopened his gymnastic school :
" Fresh and joyful, godly, free, the gymnasts' confraternity ! "
The youth of Berlin hastened in crowds to the Turnplatz, or
open-air gymnasium, on the Hasenheide and to Colonel Pfuel's
swimming-school in the Spree. It is true that only a portion
of the students came, for the majority considered it touched
their honour that complete equality should prevail among the
gymnasts, and that they should have to use and suffer the
familiar " thou " in intercourse with " cads." Even among
the lower classes the new art at first secured few adherents,
for those who are continually engaged in physical toil do not
consider that they need special bodily training. All the more

5

History of Germany

zealously, however, did those students participate who came
from Plamann's Academy, where Jahn had once been a teacher, and
those from the various higher educational institutions attended
by members of the upper classes. These youthful Teutonisers
had perforce been unable to take part in the holy war, and
now burned with zeal to make up for lost time, and to give
proof of Germanism in their defiant spirit and vigorous muscles.
Their eyes flashed when in his wonderful alliterative phrases
Jahn drew for them a picture of the genuine gymnast :
" Virtuous and vigorous, continent and courageous, pure and
prepared, manful and truthful ! " It was not necessary to tell
them twice over that they were not to stand about like " the
lazy loafers with the vacant faces," the utterly contemptible
" pastry-cooks " (the bourgeois who from across the fosse which
surrounded the Hasenheide looked on with astonishment at the
young men's feats). " It is not swilling and gorging," said
Jahn, " but living and doing which ought to predominate in
popular festivals." How, then, did they " live and do " on
the Turnplatz, when the young fellows, all clad in jackets
of unbleached linen, with bare necks and long hair like the
master, performed their unexampled feats : hopping and the
" turnspit," the " balance " and the " see-saw," the " ape-leap,"
the " frog-leap," and the " carp-leap," feats on the trapeze, the
parallel bars, and the horizontal bar, with, to crown all, the
grand circle. Enraptured ran the gymnasts' song (TunUied) :

When for the people's old and sacred rights

Bravely the Turnermeister, Friedrich Jahn,
Strode to the field where man for freedom fights,

A warlike generation followed on.
Hey, how the youths leapt after him,

Fresh and joyful, godly, free !
Hey, how the youths sang after him :

Hurrah !

When the vacation came it was Jahn's delight to shoulder
his axe and, accompanied by a small band of devoted followers,
to undertake a long cross-country tramp in all weathers, pro-
ceeding by forced marches as far as Riigen or the Silesian
mountains. At night the grey-jackets would camp in the open
around their watch-fires, doing all this to promote godly
Germanism, and loudly then would resound the gymnasts'
tramping-song (Turnwanderlied) :

6

The Burschenschaft

Close rooms, sitting round the stove,

Make weaklings Frenchified.
The tramping life we gymnasts love

Makes us true and tried.

For food, in many cases, they had nothing but dry bread, and
rarely did they drink anything but milk or water, for the
Turnvater counted moderation among the peculiar virtues of
the German, an opinion which before his day assuredly no
mortal had ever shared. Those of sluggish intelligence must
not grumble if the hot-tempered master should endeavour to
quicken their thought-process with a box on the ear. But if
any one of them too grossly transgressed the principles of
Germanism, or if the lively crowd came across something repul-
sive, such as a French inscription, or some curled and scented
darling of fashion, some preposterous dandy, then " they let
themselves go," for the young rascals squatted in a circle round
the offending object, a'll pointing at it, loudly exclaiming in
chorus, "ugh! ugh!"

In a valiant nation all methodical physical training must
subserve warlike ends unless it is to degenerate into solemn
foolery. The gymnastic course, introduced as a part of regular
school discipline, might constitute a wholesome counterpoise
to the over-refined culture of the day, and might facilitate the
carrying out of universal military service. It was with this
end in view that years before Gneisenau had recommended
military drill for all the youth of the country, and a similar
aim, pursued in a somewhat extravagant fashion, was noW
voiced by the Breslau gymnast, Captain von Schmeling, in his
work Gymnastics and the Landwchr. But this crank Jahn,
whose buffooneries had sufficed to make him a person of note,
was unable to do even a wise thing in any other than a
foolish manner. In youth he had been inspired with hatred
for the pipe-clay-and-polish methods of the old army, and he
possessed neither the culture nor the flexibility of mind requisite
to understand the significance of the new Army Law. Since
after the peace many of the useless arts of the parade-ground
were revived, and since it was sufficiently obvious that the
elegant officers of the guard in Berlin had no more than an
extremely moderate affection for the long-haired roughs of the
Hasenheide, in Jahn's view the army had relapsed into the
condition of 1806, and after his ancient manner he stormed

7

History of Germany

against " the recruited mercenaries who were drilled upon the
parade-ground." His thoughtless pupils refrained, of course,
from asking themselves the simple question where in Prussia
these recruited mercenaries were to be found, but faithfully
followed Jahn's lead, and sang with contemptuous delight :

Why does the uhlan warrior tall
With tight -laced stays his body gall ?
Because with no support at all
His heart would in his breeches fall !

The gymnastic grounds were the breeding-places of those
party legends whereby in the popular mind was falsified the
history of the War of Liberation. It was not, they came to
believe, the arts of the men of the corporal's cane, but the
enthusiasm of the Landwehr, the Landsturm, and, above all,
of the volunteers, which had gained the victory. All the deeds
of valour which Jahn and his Liitzowers had intended to per-
form, but which unfortunately they had failed to effect, now
became real after the event in the boastful talk of his comrades
of the gymnasium. To hear these men of power was to gain
the conviction that the next time the French made an attack
a single great gymnastic feat on the part of Jahn's disciples
would suffice to pulverise the enemy. " We who are weather-
proof," said the Turnlied, " have no fear of mercenary warriors."
Just as Jahn would have nothing to do with the army,
so would he have nothing to do with the schools : his gym-
nastic grounds were to constitute a world apart, a nursery of
Germanism, inspired by his spirit alone. Though he was a
pious and honourable man, the excessive admiration which he
received from many persons of far greater gifts, turned his
head. Was it not natural that he should come to regard him-
self as the guardian angel of the German youth, when Schenken-
dorf, writing his beautiful poem " When all become unfaithful,
still faithful ever we," had testified his respect for the Turn-
vater with the dedicatory words : " Renewed fidelity to Jahn ! "
Here it could be read by all men, that, whilst others went
a whoring after idols, Jahn alone with his disciples continued
" to teach and to preach the Holy German Empire." Two
universities, Jena and Kiel, gave him a doctor's degree almost
at the same date, and with all the pomp of academic official
eloquence lavished praises on the founder of the ars tornaria,

8

The Burschen sch aft

the awakener of youth, the saviour of the German tongue,
the new Martin Luther. Friedrich Thiersch dedicated his
edition of Pindar to Jahn, and in a stirring preface showed
how gymnastics rendered the Hellenes and the Germans akin
in their devotion to all the ideal aims of the human race —
but unfortunately the figures of the early gymnasts of the
Hasenheide were far more often reminiscent of the pictures of
gladiators to be seen in the baths of Caracalla than of the
laurel-crowned victors of Olympia.

When talented professors overvalued the stalwart Priegnitz
peasant in this remarkable way, how could his youthful followers
fail to idolise him ? They all imitated him, especially his
defects, his barbarous speech, his roughness, and his uncleanli-
ness. His fondness for vigorous vernacular expressions soon
became a craze, for he was entirely lacking in the power of
self-criticism. The young gymnasts and the furious Franco-
phobes of the Berlin " German Language Society " outdid the
master's follies, instituting, under the plea of linguistic purifica-
tion, a professional hunt against all words of foreign origin,
speaking of the universities as V ernunft-turnpldtze (drill grounds
of the understanding), referring in the concert hall to the
Einklangswettstreite des Klangwerks (one-tone-wager-strifes of the
clangwork, i.e. harmonious competition of the instruments),
and so on, and thus succeeded in manufacturing an inflated
gibberish which was no less un-German and was far stupider
than that seventeenth-century lingo which was interlarded with
foreign fragments. Jahn's own manners remained just as
rude and uncouth as they had been in the heroic days of
his academic youth, when he was accustomed to throw cow-
dung in an opponent's face, and when he entrenched himself
in a cave on the declivity of the Giebichenstein in order to
hurl rocks at the Halle students who were endeavouring to
storm his position.

Young men became decivilised under the leadership of a
churl to whom art, antiquity, the whole world of the beautiful,
were closed books. In respect of courage and vigour, the new
Germanism was extravagantly endowed ; but other no less
German virtues, modesty, the scientific spirit, abstemious dili-
gence, and veneration for age and for the law, were disdained.
Moralising zealotry is agreeable to no one ; in the mouths
of immature students such zealotry seemed as tasteless as did
boasts of chastity, that chastity which is of value only when

9 c

History of Germany

it displays a discreet reticence. All judicious teachers began
to complain that their students were becoming pert and unruly,
and that the chick always wished to be cleverer than the hen
How often had foreigners been amused by the strange contra-
diction that while the Germans perhaps held a higher view of
woman's dignity than did the members of any other nation,
yet in their forms of social intercourse they displayed so little
evidence of such a sentiment ; it was first through the graces
of the new literature that some limitations were imposed in
this respect upon masculine arrogance, so that woman once
more came into her rights in German society ; but now the
unlicked Teutonic cub stretched his limbs again, growling
the while, and our young men made it a point of honour
to render themselves odious to women. Behind this renowned
Teutonist bluntness there was hidden a considerable amount
of self-deception ; the rough tone was a fashion like any other,
roughness in the Germans being often just as artificial as was
politeness in the inhabitants of other lands. Beneath the
terrorism of the Teutonist affectation of rigorous phrases and
vigorous manners there went on an atrophy of the kernel of
all that is truly German, the fine freedom of personal individu-
ality. The forced unnaturalness of this deliberate berserkerdom
served merely to show that the humane and serene virtues of
the Athenians are more akin to the German spirit than is the
unamiable harshness of the Spartans.

The most remarkable feature of the whole matter was
that this new Germanism, which in its dreams comprehended
the entire fatherland, immediately relapsed into the ancient
and ineradicable spirit of clique, so that simultaneously with
the promulgation of Germanism there began the formation of
a secluded sect with its own customs and its own peculiar
speech. Here was the gymnast's state (Turnstaat), the gym-
nast's mode of life (Turnleben], the gymnast's confession of
faith (Turnbekenntnis) , here alone did true freedom and genuine
equality flourish :

Thus fostering a kingdom free,
In rank and class all equals we.
Realm of the free ! All equals we !
Hurrah !

Rarely in the gymnasts' songs do we hear the clear tones of
frank, youthful joyousness. Most of the young poets assume

10

The Burschenschaft

a combative attitude, challenging!}', threateningly, scoldingly
making onslaught upon the enemies of the most excellent
gymnastic art : " Is the eagle derided when mocked at by
the sparrow on the dunghill ? " How foolishly did Jahn
himself cultivate this sectarian spirit. Whoever remained aloof
from the circle of initiates was a " false German," a " she
mannikin " (Siemdmilein), a " tyrant's slave," and was treated
with the grossest intolerance. In the seventh of his " laws
for gymnasts " Jahn expressly directed that every gymnast
should immediately report the discovery of anything " which
friend or foe of the turncraft may say, write, or do for
or against the said craft, in order that at the fit time and
place all such fellows may be thought of with praise or
blame ! " Thus in all innocence there gradually came into
existence a state within the state ; the harmless gymnastic
art assumed many of the more sinister characteristics of
political fanaticism, and not a few persons of timid disposi-
tion were reminded of the English roundheads by the puri-
tanism of the German longhairs, or were even fed to compare
the sanscravats of Germany with the sansculottes of revolu-
tionary France.

Adults are always partly responsible for the follies of the
young. The arrogance of the members of the younger genera-
tion would never have risen to so high a pitch had not their elders
treated the childish sport with an exaggerated measure of praise
and of blame which to us of to-day, amid the pressure of our
serious party struggles, is already becoming unintelligible. Public
life in Prussia seemed dead, and the great work of the reconstruc-
tion of the state was carried on solely within the retirement of
official workrooms. The newspapers allotted to the fatherland
a restricted and inconspicuous place on the last page beneath
the foreign news, and for weeks in succession would often find
nothing to report about the homeland beyond princely visits and
manoeuvres, or the choice celebration of an official jubilee, when
the retiring greyhead received the order of the red eagle and shed
tears of emotion at " this unquestionably rare proof of royal
favour." It was only the gymnastic grounds which provided
copy. The papers were never weary of describing " what
amazing gentleness and pious innocence, what fortitude of body
and profundity of mind, are displayed by these valiant youths,"
although most of the repose-loving readers of the journals secretly
disliked the " grey rascals." The ostentatious bustle of the

ii

History of Germany

gymnasts' tramping excursions recalled the uproarious doings of
the mediaeval flagellants. In many little towns the entire corpora-
tion would assemble at the gate to receive the gymnasts as if they
had been a victorious army ; and the first time Jahn led his
devoted followers to Breslau, half the town had turned out to
meet them, so that for many miles along the high road the
youthful heroes, dripping with sweat, and far from embellished
by their prolonged exertions, passed along between lines of gaping
burghers.

Contrasted with such " outsiders " they could not fail to
regard themselves as chosen fighters on behalf of " the good
cause." Doubtless among the older generation a few might be
found " who were not intellectual cripples," and who, like the
gymnasts themselves, vigorously waged war against foreign
manners, against the " foul and poisonous French tongue." Such
a man was Gottlieb Welcker, the philologian, who published a
pamphlet Why we must rid ourselves of French. Willemer, again,
of Frankfort, the husband of Goethe's Suleika, wrote A Word to
the Women of Germany, an onslaught upon Paris fashions. The
same idea was carried a stage further by Councillor Becker of Gotha,
who delivered a fierce attack upon " over-dressed women and the
foolish law-giver fashion," but unfortunately the sober picture
of German festal array appended to his book was a mere imitation
of the black Spanish dress of the seventeenth century. In any
case, the women of Germany would not give up their bright colours,
nor the men endeavour to do without the exchange of ideas with
French civilisation. Since the elders also remained obstinately
Francophile, the Teutonist movement was restricted to the very
young, and among these its extravagance increased day by day.
Many a father sent his son to the gymnastic ground only in order
to protect the lad from the scorn of companions. Whenever a
young man encountered another and both were wearing a dagger
attached to a steel chain displayed outside a shabby Old German
coat, the two would immediately fraternise like the members of
an invisible church, interchanging enthusiasm for their " convic-
tion." This term " conviction " had hitherto denoted a belief
acquired from without, based upon another's testimony, but now
the word gained a new emotional significance which it retains to
this day. Conviction was the voice of conscience, the genuine
ego of the German ; fidelity to conviction was the highest of all
virtues, and to change it was to betray oneself and to be false to
Germanism. Rejoicing in their common conviction, the young

12

people felt secure of the future ; and Sartorius of Giessen, nick-
named " the peasant," sang in his Turnleben :

O'er all possible affliction
Soars triumphant our conviction.
'Tis this that makes us equals true
And founds for us our kingdom new.

Yet not one of the young enthusiasts could explain the real
nature of this sacred conviction, and least of all the Turnvater
himself. Nothing could be more absurd than to accuse such
a man as Jahn of the arts of the secret conspirator, for he was
one who never felt at ease except in the midst of noise and
tumult. His loyalty to the king was beyond question ; how
often, even in later years, did he teach his young friends that
salvation for Germany was to be found in Prussia alone. The
unity of the fatherland remained his dream. He felt, and often
gave vigorous expression to his feeling, that a coalition war
followed by a blighted success did not suffice to awaken the
slumbering national pride. " Germany," he said, " needs a war
that is entirely her own affair, to arouse her nationality to the
full." In his Runic Leaves (1814), he described even more
expressively and in a yet more astonishing manner than in his
earlier work German Folkdom how the soul of the nation
decayed under the influence of particularism : " The fatherland
must awaken lofty feelings, arouse lofty ideas, be a shrine, and
become heroism. Paltriness is the grave of all that is great
and good." Like Fichte he longed for a despot who would con-
strain to Germanism. The tyrant-creator and unity-bringer is
honoured by every nation as a saviour, and all his sins are for-
given him. Yet Jahn had never given any serious thought to the
forms of German unity or to the means for its attainment, regard-
ing it as a matter of indifference whether the imperial dignity
should be hereditary in one particular house or whether it
should be allotted to the German princes in rotation, " like the
brewer's licence in many German towns."

He rarely spoke of politics to the mass of his pupils, and
many rigidly conservative young men, like the brothers Ranke,
for instance, took part in the exercises without noticing anything
amiss. But all the more did Jahn transgress by delivering
good-for-nothing orations in the circle of his intimates, railing
immoderately about men and things far beyond the scope of his

13

History of Germany

understanding, and boasting of approaching contests with unknown
enemies. What could the young hotspur Heinrich Leo think
when the Turnvater elaborately taught him that with a dagger
one should first feint at the eyes, and then, when the victim had
his arms in front of his face, should strike at the unprotected
breast ? Franz Lieber, the most talented and most deeply stirred
among the youthful enthusiasts, conscientiously entered in his
notebook " Golden Sayings from the Lips of Father Jahn,"
embellishing them at times with the wisdom of his own eighteen
years. When the master had delivered the weighty utterance :
" Word against Word, Pen against Pen, Dagger against Dagger,"
the pupil added the conclusion on his own account, " Should
they arrest me, Aha ! " — and the unmeaning vaunt sounded like
the password of a conspiracy. \Vith the expulsion of the
French, Jahn's store of political ideas was exhausted ; the public
lectures upon Germanism delivered in the year 1817, while
containing a few isolated points of value, consisted for the most
part of vain catchwords. He would have preferred that
between Germany and France there should exist an impassable
barrier, a great wilderness peopled only by the bear and the
aurochs ; but since this had unfortunately become impossible,
steps must at least be taken to break off all intercourse with
the French. " One who allows his daughter to learn French
might just as well teach her to be a whore." This sort of
thing was interspersed with violent attacks upon the secret
and inquisitorial proceedings of the law-courts, and he had a
whole dictionary of invectives against statesmen and courtiers.
His closing exclamation was : " God save the king, safeguard
Germanism, and graciously grant us the one thing we need,
a wise constitution."

His own mind was quite hazy regarding the nature of
this wise constitution, but his youthful followers did not fail
to outdo the master in foolish chatter concerning questions
beyond their comprehension. The effrontery of the gymnastic
cult, its contemptuous hatred for all that was brilliant and all
that was noble, was indeed rooted in the indelible peculiarities
of the German character. The yearning for the rude simplicity
of primitive man had always been preserved among our people,
and had often before, whenever the Teutonic blood began to
effervesce, displayed itself in the form of wild roughness ; this
was the case in the coarse writings of the sixteenth century,
and again comparatively recently in the epoch of the poetical

14

The Burschenschaft

Sturm und Drang movement. Yet even the fanaticism for
political equality of the detested Jacobins exercised an unrecog-
nised influence upon the thoughts of the gymnasts. When
Buri's Turnruj ordered idlers out of the wrestling ground with
the words , " Away from the shrine of equality, where slave
and master are equally hated," it was impossible that the young
hotheads of this evangel of equality should fail to apply the
saying forthwith in the sphere of political life. Lusty terms of
abuse directed against the " toadies, play-actors, whores, horses,
and dogs " of the dissolute courts were in common use among
the gymnasts ; and in the schoolrooms there was much pleasure
taken in an arithmetical sum propounded by a staunch Teuton-
ising teacher, " If one princely court costs 2,000,000 thalers,
what is the cost of three and thirty ? " Many of the beautiful
poems of the War of Liberation acquired fresh significance
in peace time. The popular anger to which they appealed was
involuntarily directed, now that the foreign despot had been
overthrown, against enemies at home ; and soon new songs
became current which openly glorified the struggle of the free
gymnasts against the crowns :

Crowned illusion still fights against truth,
Virtue contends ever with the devil . . .
The cradle of freedom and the coffin of oppression
Are both fashioned from the tree of gymnastics.

Thus the serene enthusiasm of our youths for the unity of the
fatherland gradually became clouded by revolutionary phrases.
Such talk involved little danger to civil order, but the upright-
ness of the rising generation was imperilled when young people
began to indulge freely in arrogant threats and to forget
that words have a meaning.

The undisciplined roughness of the gymnasts was from the
first extremely repulsive to the strict militarist sentiments of the
king. Hardenberg on the other hand, always grateful and kind-
hearted, did not forget the services Jahn had rendered during
the period of secret preparations for war, and treated his
whimsies with much consideration. But the chancellor felt
obliged to administer a friendly admonition when a man who
was having his daughters taught French complained of Jahn's
invectives. The repetition of the public lectures was prohibited,
but for the rest the Turnvater was left undisturbed, and his
work was subsidised by the national treasury. Even Altenstein

15

History of Germany

frankly recognised the value of gymnastic training and busied
himself with a plan for its introduction into the schools. Both
these statesmen were prepared to make provision for Jahn in
some such position as that of head of a farming school, but
they considered him unfitted for the post he coveted, lecturer
on the German tongue at one of the universities.1

The first serious onslaught upon the gymnastic cult came
from literary circles. Primarily in Breslau and subsequently
in many other towns gymnastic grounds had been instituted
after the Berlin model. Jahn's book upon the German gym-
nastic art, which he published in conjunction with his pupil
Eiselen, was employed everywhere as a manual of instruction.
In 1817 Steffens issued a warning against the debasing influence
of " Turnerei," first of all in The present Day and its Development,
and subsequently in Caricatures of the Most Holy and other
writings. There now ensued the great gymnastic controversy
of Breslau, one of those struggles that are literary rather than
political, in which the patriotic passion of this epoch of transi-
tion was accustomed to find vent. Steffens' criticism of the
gymnasts' vagaries was unduly harsh ; so sensitive was his
spirit that he failed to recognise how rarely a genuine Teuton
attains virile energy without a full measure of youthful rough-
ness ; moreover, he lacked the sense of humour which was
essential for the detection of the sound kernel underlying Jahn's
extravagances. But he accurately recognised the grave moral
defect of the gymnastic grounds, the hopeless arrogance of the
younger generation, nor could anyone deny the honourable
aims of the ardent orator who in the spring of 1813 had stimu-
lated the youth of Breslau by precept and example. There
were excellent men on both sides in this controversy, and
friends and brothers quarrelled about the matter. Carl von
Raumer dissented from Steffens, his brother-in-law and
companion-at-arms ; Carl's brother Friedrich and his colleague
Carl Adolf Menzel the historian joined Steffens in the attack.
Among those who rallied to the defence of the gymnastic
grounds, Harnisch the educationist and Passow the lexicographer
were conspicuous. The latter's outspoken and passionate work
on the aims of the gymnasts declared that these were " the
promotion of a gradual advance to the highest goal of humanity."
Such a purpose was nobler than to aim at developing

1 Hardenbcrg to Altenstein, December 8, 1817. Altenstcin's Reply, January
19, 1818.

16

The Burschenschaft

" mercenaries and hirelings for the bloody uses of arbitrary
power." When their elders discoursed with such profound
earnestness about the civilising influence of the horizontal bar
and the parallel bars, the younger men could no longer doubt
that they themselves were the world's axis.

Timid folk in Berlin who had long scented secret dema-
gogic purposes behind the gymnastic cult were encouraged by
Steffens' intervention to additional attacks on their own
account. Among these were Wadzeck, the senior master, a
man who had done excellent service in the field of poor relief ;
Scheerer, the author ; and the notorious Colin, the evil repute
of whose lampoon The Firebrands had persisted since the days
of the peace of Tilsit. The offensive tone of such denunciations
poisoned yet further the undisciplined sentiments of the young
men. Jahn stormed against the " viper's brood " of his opponents.
His pupils chanted rude songs of defiance, and gave the
nickname " Wadzecks " to the wooden figures at which, upon
the Hasenheide, they threw wooden javelins. More and more
did a morbid and utterly aimless political excitement come to
prevail upon the gymnastic grounds. Altenstein noted this
development with much concern. He knew that the king's
anger was daily increasing, and wrote to the chancellor to
express his anxiety, saying : "If gymnastics are so grossly
misused, we shall have to abandon the hope of greater things,
such as the constitution."1 He retained his friendly attitude
as long as possible, and no legal measures were instituted
against the gymnastic grounds until the vociferous activities
of the university students had provoked the unchaining of
reaction.

§ 2. THURINGIA. WEIMAR AND JENA.

Berlin was the birthplace of the gymnastic cult, but the
cradle of the Burschenschaft was Thuringia. Where, indeed,
could this romantic association of students have pursued its
dream-life with such confidence and self-satisfaction, so utterly
unconcerned about the hard facts of reality, as amid the easy-
going anarchy of a patriarchal little community which had
never made acquaintance with the serious aspects of national
life ? Among all the adverse influences which impeded the

1 Jahn to Schuckmann, September, 1817. Altenstein to Hardenberg, Sep-
tember 15, 1818.

17

History of Germany

advance of our people towards national greatness, perhaps the
most important was the utter absence of political history in
this central region of Germany. At one time or another in their
history, almost all the other German stocks had taken some
interest in the aims of political power ; the Thuringians, never.
German civilisation owes them inexpressible gratitude ; the
German state, nothing. Even in the most remote times they
were unable to maintain a tribal duchy. At a later date,
under the rule of the landgraves, Thuringia first acquired a
brilliant position in the spiritual life of the nation, not through
the abundance of its own talents, but through a tolerant and
sympathetic hospitality which was well suited to the central
position of the country. Frau Aventiure held her brilliant
court at Wartburg, and the knightly singers of all regions
of the empire wooed the favour of Hermann the Mild in
euphonious rhymes. But the song-loving land took small part
in the great struggles of the days of the Hohenstaufen. Later,
too, when the Wettins rose to power, Thuringia ever remained
a minor dependency ; the lozenge-crown of Saxony took the
place of the old lion of the landgraves. The political centre of
gravity of Wettin rule was in the mark of Meissen, in Kurkreis,
and in Osterland ; nor was it long before the flourishing mid-
German state was destroyed by that momentous partition which
resulted from the fratricidal struggles of the Ernestines and the
Albertines.

A glorious day of spiritual renown dawned once more on
the Thuringian mountains when the greatest of Thuringians
began his struggle for the gospel under the protection of his
pious prince, and when the acropolis of knightly minnesong
became the birthplace of the German bible. Yet even this
teeming time proved decisive for the political destruction of
the country. Few turns of destiny in German history are so
tragic as the disastrous collapse of the power of the Ernestines ;
none other of our princely houses has had to atone so painfully
for failing to seize splendid opportunities, none other has learned
so bitterly the ancient truth that the political world belongs
to those of bold resolve. Upon the death of Emperor Maxi-
milian, Elector Frederick the Wise was the chief of our princely
estate, the leader of the reform party in the Empire, and it
lay within his power to provide the nation with a German,
a Protestant emperordom ; but he refused the crown, saying :
' The crows desire a vulture." To both his successors fortune

The Burschenschaft

again offered rare favours, and again were great opportunities
renounced. At every Reichstag the people looked expectantly
towards the peacock-plumed helmets of the Ernestines. On
the occasion of the protest of Spires, and on that of the presen-
tation of the Augsburg confession, wherever there was occasion
to give testimony on behalf of God's word, they stood, indeed,
in the foreground, justifying their motto, " Straight ahead
makes a good runner." It was in their country that the first
Evangelical national church came into existence, and their name
is inseparably associated with all the great memories of Protes-
tantism. But their talents did not transcend the passive
virtues of steadfastness and fidelity. The sole resolve which
could bring salvation, the determination to fight openly against
the Spanish foreign dominion, was continually postponed from
conscientious caution and slothful dread of action, until at
length the unprecedented political incapacity of the phlegmatic
procrastinator John Frederick was lamentably overpowered by
the superior statecraft of the Hapsburgs and of his own Alber-
tine cousins.

Barely a generation after the elector Frederick's pusillani-
mous renunciation, his grandsons had personal experience of
the sharp talons of the Spanish vulture ; the electoral hat and
the old tribal lands of the Wettins were lost to the Albertines,
and as the issue of the Schmalkaldian war the predominant
power among the German Protestants secured, not the hero's laurel,
but the martyr's crown. It was indeed a pitiable spectacle, the
way in which the once glorious but humiliated dynasty, after a
weakly attempt to regain its position, flaccidly accepted its
new and humiliating situation. Devoid of all political ideas,
utterly immersed in petty-bourgeois domestic concerns, the
house divided and subdivided the remnants of its old dominion
until it sank at length to the lowest ranks of the German
estate of princes. The collateral branches of the Albertines in
Thuringia were afflicted with the same mania. New lines were
continually founded, only to disappear ; the Thuringian lands
repeatedly changed hands ; within one and a half centuries
the lordship of Romhild passed to five families in succession ;
in Ruhla, a brook running down the village street was the
boundary line between the territory of Weimar and that of
Gotha, while a Jena student in a short afternoon walk could
readily embroil himself with the police of three or four different
lords paramount.

19

History of Germany

Thus it was that, next to Swabia, Thuringia became the
favourite home of German particularism. When at length a
modern conception of the state awakened even in these petty
dominions, when Ernest Augustus of Weimar introduced the
primogeniture ordinance, when his Ernestine cousins gradually
followed this good example, and Meiningen finally took the
same course in the year 1801, the work of subdivision had
already been completed, and the particularism of this region
proved hardier than that of the south-west, because in Thuringia
it existed exclusively in the form of temporal principalities. At
the conclusion of peace the 700,000 inhabitants of the princi-
palities of Thuringia (leaving the Prussian and Hessian territories
out of consideration) were under the rule of five Saxon houses,
two Schwarzburg lines, and three families of Reuss, only two
of the last-named unfortunately being recognised by the federal
act. These nine or ten states were sovereign powers, each
completely independent of the others. Their only common
institutions were the university, supported by the five serene
Saxon Nutritors (princely patrons), and the new supreme court of
appeal of Jena. Among the people, from time to time, there
was diffused some conception of the pitiableness of these
conditions. In the neighbourhood of Roth, five miles from
Hildburghausen, the song was current :

Hildburghauser sway
To Roth makes way,
But there veers round
And goes back by rebound.

Yet, on the whole, people were happy in these distressing narrows
where princely favour and nepotism smoothed the path of life
so comfortably for every tolerably useful man ; the domestic
virtues of the devout Ernestine princes were more akin to the
populace than was the elemental figure of Bernard of Weimar,
who with the clash of his sword at one time disturbed the
monotonous idyll of this provincial history. On no occasion
not even during the febrile excitements of the year 1848, did
the Thuringians seriously contemplate the mediatisation of their
petty lords.

In Thuringia, as throughout Central Germany, there was
assembled within a narrow space an extraordinary variety
of manners and customs. The solitary Rennsteig road, on the
crest of the Thuringian forest, once the boundary between

20

The Burschenschaft

the Thuringians and the Franconians, constitutes to this day a
sharp line of tribal demarcation. To the south of this line
we have the purely South German people of the Coburg region,
speaking the Henneberg dialect which is strongly Franconian
in character ; to the north lies Thuringia proper between the
Saale and Werra rivers, and to the eastward of the Saale a
different population again, intermingled with Slav elements.
Even in the new dynastic subdivisions, originating so recently
and in so haphazard a fashion, there soon came to prevail
a tenacious particularism, harmless and philistine in character,
but strong enough to render any change difficult. All good
Meiningers rejoiced when their quarrelsome duke, Antony
Ulrich, desiring to deprive his cousins in Weimar and Gotha
of the hoped-for succession, concluded a second marriage when
over sixty years of age, and from sheer perversity procreated
eight children. Gotha and Altenburg, long united under a
single ducal coronet, maintained themselves inviolably as two
independent states, refusing even to recognise one another's
coinage ; and only to the energy of will of Charles Augustus
did it prove possible, after severe struggles, to unite the three
principalities of Weimar, Jena, and Eisenach, to constitute a
single state. The natural capital of the country, Erfurt, had
under the rule of the Mainz crozier always maintained a separate
position amid its Protestant environment ; and subsequently,
after the destruction of its university, it continued to lead
the quiet existence of a fortress and official town.

Thus the political and intellectual life of Thuringia rippled
on its way dispersed in narrow runnels. Among the larger
towns there was hardly one which had not been for a time
distinguished as the seat of a princely house, but not one of
them had risen above the pettiness of a servile parochialism.
Everywhere there existed the germs of a more abundant intel-
lectual activity, little collections and institutions of communal
activity, seven public libraries in close proximity, but nowhere
a great whole. The country was more thickly set with castles,
parks, and game-preserves than any other region in Germany.
Many of these princely seats were endeared to the people by
significant memories, as for instance the Wartburg : Friedenstein,
whose possession had been so fiercely contested ; Altenburg,
the scene of the abduction of the princes ; the fortress of
Coburg where Luther had found refuge ; and the Frohliche
Wiederkunft (Joyful Return) where John Frederick recruited

21

History of Germany

his energies in the chase, after the anxieties of his captivity
at the hands of the Spaniard. Many of the others, however,
bore witness only to the ridiculous crotchets of an idle estate
of princes, men who had nothing to do with their time and
their energies. Here one of the Giinthers of Schwarzburg had
for a joke built his wife the hunting lodge der Possen (" of
the Pranks ") in the forest hills of Hainleite ; there Christian
von Weissenfels, desiring to eternalise his Caesarian greatness,
had his portrait carved three times in gigantic relief on the
red cliffs of the vineyards in the Unstrut valley, surrounded by
Father Noah and grape-gatherers, and further had a gilded
equestrian statue of himself erected in the Freiburg market-place.

Servile pens described the charming land as God's garden
cared for by the hands of princes, but in reality the diligent
attentions of these minor sovereigns remained altogether unfruit-
ful until far on into the eighteenth century. Minds underwent
petrifaction under the long-enduring regime of rigid Lutheranism.
Isolated princes, like Ernest the Pious of Gotha, might under-
stand how to awaken a vigorous religious life : but to , the
majority of these rulers theology was nothing more than an
unspiritual pastime ; happy was the court which could number
among its princes a "serene eight-year old preacher" like
William Ernest of Weimar. Subsequently, with the growth
of secular culture, many of the sins of courtly absolutism
made their way into the country. Gross immorality was
not known among the good Ernestines, but the game of playing
at soldiers and the sale of men flourished luxuriantly, whilst
in this microcosm the all-knowing governmental zeal of the
new princely despotism frequently increased to the point of
mania. As late as in the Frederician epoch Ernest Augustus
of Weimar invented the renowned fire-plates inscribed with
cabalistic signs ; when thrown into the flames these were sup-
posed to extinguish the fire instantly, and all the communes
were forced to make adequate provision of the appliances.

It was by Charles Augustus that a freer current was first
re-established in Thuringian life. For the third time Central
Germany became the focus of our national civilisation. Once
more as in the days of Hermann the Mild a magnanimous
spirit of hospitality summoned the heroes of German poesy
from the north and from the south, and more glorious than
the old renown of the Wartburg was now the fame of the
little town on the Ilm :

22

The Burschen sch aft

O Weimar, predestined a singular fate,

Like Bethlehem art thou at once small and great !

It was indeed, as Goethe assured his princely friend, " profitable
to play the host to genius." For although the great towns
of Thuringia belonged to the nation at large, and never became
completely at home in their pigmy environment, they returned
the hospitable gift of genius to the land which had given them
so cordial a reception. In the brief blossoming time of the
university of Jena there grew up a new generation of efficient
teachers and officials. Most of the minor courts and a great
part of the nobility endeavoured, as far as their powers per-
mitted, to keep step with the new literature. How often
did Goethe drive over to see Minister Frankenberg of Gotha
in order to enjoy himself in talented society in the Gute
Schmiede at Siebeleben. At the time of the congress of Vienna,
Diking, Rost, and Wustemann were teaching at the Gotha
Gymnasium (state classical school) ; Stieler was beginning his
cartographical labours ; and shortly afterwards Perthes opened
his extensive bookselling business in the town. Moreover,
the activities of the great humanist prince (as Humboldt termed
him) permanently increased the prestige of the Ernestine house
throughout the world ; the famous but half-forgotten dynasty
reacquired the gratitude and affection of the nation, atoning
most nobly for the still painfully remembered blows of the
Schmalkaldian war.

It was however impossible for literary renown to cure the
ineradicable defects of particularism. The storms of the Napo-
leonic wars passed over the feudal constitutions of these little
territories without leaving a trace. Even Duke Augustus of
Gotha, inveterate Bonapartist as he was, did not venture to
interfere with the gentry and the nobility. The nobles were
sharply differentiated from the bourgeoisie by caste pride and
by manifold privileges, although distinguished neither by great
wealth nor by historic renown. In the Gotha Landtag the
two burgomasters played a poor part beside the proud curia
of counts, consisting of the single representative of the house
of Hohenlohe and the numerous forces of the gentry : whoever
possessed any share of land held on knight's service was a
member of the Landtag, so that on one occasion two and
twenty Wangenheims put in a simultaneous appearance. The
proverbially deplorable condition of the Thuringian military

23

History of Germany

system likewise persisted unchanged. People still loved to
recount anecdotes of the " Wasungen War " ; how in Wasungen
(the Thuringian Abdera) the soldiers of Gotha and those of
Meiningen had fought with one another, and how both the
armies had withdrawn from the important place animated rather
by discretion than by valour. But even in the serious wars
of recent years the utter ineffectiveness of particularism had
resulted in similar tragicomedies. During the Seven Years'
War, the duke of Gotha, in return for English subsidies, sent
some battalions to join the army of Ferdinand of Brunswick,
whilst his imperial contingent fought against Prussia ; in the
year 1813 part of the Weimar troops were with York's corps
Whilst other detachments were under the banner of Napoleon.
At length some degree of order was introduced into the
confusion of these slender contingents by an arbitrary decree
of the Imperator ; irreverently disregarding the distinction
between the Rudolstadt and the Sondershausen national
character, he compacted several of the smallest into an anony-
mous " Bataillon des Princes." After the war, to the popular
satisfaction, most of the troops were disbanded. Prussia would
provide for the protection of the country. The peace-loving
Thuringians preferred to regale themselves upon the glorious
sight of the cavalry guards of Gotha, swaggering about with
huge broadswords, jack-boots, and jingling spurs. The guards-
men were rough manual workers who for a moderate daily wage
engaged in the trade of arms in rotation ; when the guard
was changed the new men donned the uniforms of those
whom they relieved — horses were completely unknown to these
" cavalrymen." As a superfluous precaution, Gotha boasted
a fortress on the summit of one of the Drei Gleichen. The
four cannon of the Wachsenburg threateningly commanded the
two other Gleichen, which the new sovereign, the king of Prussia,
carelessly left unfortified.

The scanty resources of the region were nowhere sufficient
for the promotion of means of intercourse, for the yield of
the rich princely domains was mainly devoted to the upkeep
of the courts. Everyone made fun of the horrible state of the
Gotha high roads, and no one more heartily than the Prussian
customs-officials at Langensalza, for the freight wagons invariably
stuck fast or overturned in the celebrated Henningsleben hole
just before the Prussian customs-barrier, so that dues could be
collected at leisure. On the Leipzig-Frankfort road the Weimar

24

The Burschenschaft

escort inexorably collected the fees payable for this service,
although from immemorial days the wagoners had no longer
been accompanied by armed troopers. The peasants, heavily
burdened with seigneurial dues, continued to practise agriculture
after the manner of their remote ancestors ; it was only the
men of Erfurt, the gardeners of the Holy Empire, who main-
tained their ancient renown as skilled floriculturists. Every-
where the communal herdsmen continued to drive all the village
live-stock, horses, beeves, goats, and geese, in a confused medley,
to the undivided common. Industry was carried on exclusively
to satisfy the modest needs of the neighbourhood ; hardly
anything beyond the Apolda stockings and the Sonneberg
wares, the little toys produced by the home industry of the
forest villagers, made their way into the world-market. The
inhabitants conducted their modest labours in a spirit of harm-
less merriment, as fond themselves of singing as were the singing
birds invariably to be found in every cottage of this forest
region, happy if from time to time they could recreate them-
selves at the dancing place, drinking light beer or sour Naum-
burg wine. The gentle rationalism which prevailed in the
cultured towns, and of which the Gotha superintendent
Bretschneider was an able spokesman, had little affected the simple
religious sentiments of the people ; St. Boniface, the apostle
of Thuringia, was still venerated ; the picture of Luther with
the swan hung in innumerable churches ; some of the remoter
forest communes still preserved the ceremonious Old Lutheran
liturgy with its choir boys and white surplices.

Kindliness, above all, was demanded of the princes. How
greatly honoured did everyone feel when the duke of Meiningen,
on the occasion of his heir's baptism, invited the whole country
to stand sponsor, and gave the child the auspicious names
of Bernard Eric Freund. When this prince had grown up to
become an excellent petty sovereign it was his custom on his
wife's birthday to hold a popular festival in the charming
garden of Altenstein, and every man among the guests could
invite the duchess to dance with him. The obverse of this
picture was a humiliating endurance of the follies of particu-
larism. In the year 1822 the last valid representative of the
house of Gotha-Altenburg died, and his cousins were already
preparing for a new partition. But Lindenau, the minister
of state, suddenly brought forward the unquestionably idiotic
Prince Frederick and had him installed as duke, although during

25 D

History of Germany

the ceremony it was difficult for the poor invalid to sit quiet
on the throne. In this way the existence of the Gotha-
Altenburg realm was prolonged for four years while the men of
Gotha delighted in their idiot sovereign and still more in the
vexation of the disappointed neighbour courts.

The simple-minded people were nowise repelled by the
ludicrous megalomania of their amiable dynasts. In the Gotha
coat-of-arms were flaunted the escutcheons of three and twenty
dukedoms, princedoms, and counties. The Schwarzburgers had
displayed the double eagle since the days of the anti-emperor
Giinther, and even the notices in the beautiful game-preserve
of the Schwarza valley were printed in blue letters on a white
ground, to prevent the subjects forgetting their country's colours.
Just as here everything was blue-and- white, so in the territories
of the Reuss princes everything was black-red-and-yellow.
This little race of the sovereign rulers of Vogtland (Terra
Advocatorum) had also at one time stood upon the heights
of history, in the days when the two powerful Heinrichs von Plauen,
the heroes of the Teutonic Order, waged desperate warfare
against the Poles; but in the long succeeding ages its existence
had rarely been noticeable in the world. All these insignificant
dynasties, in the full enjoyment of their new sovereignty, arro-
gated to themselves equality with any king upon earth, but
in reality they held an extremely modest position among the
German princes. When one of them ventured to raise his eyes
to the daughter of a more distinguished race, he begged of
Frederick William the order of the Red Eagle " to enable me
to produce a more favourable impression at the grand-ducal
court " ; subsequently he undertook a boldly planned diplomatic
campaign through the intermediation of General Lestocq, the
common representative of the Thuringians in Berlin ; but
although the envoy did his best, his young sovereign secured
the order alone, and not the coveted alliance.1

It was a strange caprice of destiny that Charles Augustus
should be cast into this lilliputian world, where history was
reduced to the level of anecdote. How stormily had his nature
risen in revolt when in early youth he succeeded to the supreme
power ; immediately summoning Goethe and Herder ; expelling
French forms from the life of his court ; intervening with
Frederician zeal to improve the administration of justice, the

1 Frankenberg's Reports, Berlin, November 13, 1827, and subsequent dates.

26

The Burschenschaft

educational system, and agriculture ; bringing to fruition all
the germs of a freer culture which his distinguished mother,
Anna Amelia, had implanted during her long regency ; and
yet withal failing to find peace of mind. The people regarded
with astonishment the talented arrogance of the Weimar court
of the muses ; and the slanderous tongues of the German
Parnassus, of those who envied their great comrades so warm
a nest, could never tell enough stories of the fickle moods
of the young duke. Now, they related, he would pass his
nights in wild orgies or brilliant masked balls ; now would sit
in front of the wings of the Gartentheater on the Ettersburg
listening attentively to his friend's dramas ; now would ride
madly across country, or flirt with peasant wenches at a village
fair, and would then bury himself for days in succession in
the log-hut in his park, alone with the unappeasable yearnings of
his heart. At this time, the urge to all these restless activities
was not merely the natural impatience of youth, but also
the unsatisfied ambition of a vigorous man, to whom the
worst that could befall seemed comparatively trifling, but to
whom the fiction of princely dignity without power was a bitter
experience —

For what Heaven had granted by favour of birth,
He hoped to acquire by labour on earth.

Yet " with the help of Goethe and good fortune " he ultimately
learned to adapt himself to his narrow destiny, and to display
the highest energy upon this restricted stage.

For forty years the nation had honoured him as the greatest
of those who played the part of Maecenas in the new generation
That calculated cunning of mercantile dynastic policy which
bulked so largely in Lorenzo de' Medici's love of the arts, was
far from the mind of this heir of the proud and ancient
Ernestine house. When, with a sure knowledge of men, he
collected round his person the best and the greatest from among
the talented figures of German literature, he was instigated by
the pure idealism of an unceasingly receptive mind, which with
a happy understanding embraced the entire domain of human
thoughts and actions, and was influenced also by ardent enthu-
siasm for national glory. It was his ambition, as he once
expressed it in old age, " to promote the diffusion of light
and truth as widely as possible and in a manner to do justice
to the earnestness of the German national character." His

27

History of Germany

feeling lor nature, cultivated by study, led him to prize in
art that only which was ingenuous, simple, and German ; he
detested all mysticism, all elaborate artifice, even when it
assumed a beautiful vesture, as in Schiller's Bride of Messina.
But he never had the hardihood to impose leading-strings upon
genius ; German art was to find its own path, free from all
restrictions. Such too was his personal rule of life, to make
his way straight ahead, firm and vigorous in all things, even
in the aberrations of uncontrolled sensuality, a restlessly striving
spirit, grandly forgetting every unsuccessful attempt in the
immediate advance upon a new quest. None but a man of
thoroughly original character could have kept Goethe by his
side living in care-free independence for fifty years. Despite
occasional moments of estrangement, he well knew what he
owed to his friend, and regarded him with unshaken admira-
tion ; but he expressed a feeling that it was " ridiculous to
see how this man stands more and more upon his dignity,"
and he would not allow the formal circumstantiality of the aging
poet to disturb his own cheerful lack of restraint. At the
first glance, the sturdy man might well have been mistaken
for a simple huntsman, striding through the park with his
dogs at heel, cigar in mouth, wearing an old green hunting
jacket and a soldier's cap ; but his high forehead, large eyes,
and formidable Ernestine jaw, gave him a peculiar expression
of confident greatness, and whoever came into close proximity
soon realised that here was a born prince, one who maintained
himself by his own energy upon the summits of human life.
When as an old man he stayed for a time in Milan, he recalled
to the minds of the Italians the figures of their own great
princes of renaissance days and they spoke of him as il principe
uomo.

More faithful to his duty, however, than the Viscontis
and the Sforzas, he knew how to combine delight in the
beautiful with the quiet industry of the careful sovereign. No
administrative detail was beneath his attention, and never did
his little land have to suffer for the artistic tastes of the court.
His peculiar title to historic greatness rests upon his clear
recognition of the dominant tendency of two epochs, the literary
idealism of the eighteenth century and the political idealism
of the nineteenth, and upon his capacity, alone among his
contemporaries, to do full justice to both. Political understand-
ing was awakened in his mind in early youth by his tutors,

28

The Burschenschaft

first of all by Count Gortz, the zealous diplomatic assistant
of Frederick the Great, and subsequently by Wieland, the only
one among our classicists who followed the daily changes of
political life with alert participation. With the same fortunate
accuracy of judgment which enabled him to recognise the
genuine heroes of German art, in politics also the duke applied
himself to the true and the vital. When drawing up his
bold plan for the league of princes, he centred all his hopes in
Prussia ; in the year 1806 he desired to stand or fall with
Prussia. During the retreat after the battle of Jena, sitting on
a drum by the camp fire, he said calmly to his comrades :
" We have for a time been duke of Weimar and Eisenach."
It was only upon the king's express desire that he left the
army and made his peace with the Imperator. Afterwards
he was quietly at work for years preparing for the War of
Liberation.

Having again fulfilled his warrior's duty in the Netherland theatre
of war, and having later returned home profoundly disheartened by
the disillusionments of the Vienna congress, it seemed to him that
the carrying into effect of article 13 was jointly dictated by honour
and prudence. It was not that he cherished any preference
for the new liberal theories. He had absolutely no enthusiasm
for the French Revolution, since the immorality of these class
wars was repulsive to his healthy sentiment. " The oppressors,"
he said, " oppress those by whom they themselves were formerly
oppressed, and herein is to be found not even a hint of moral
action." But he understood his own age ; he knew that consti-
tutional forms were essential to it ; what could he, who had
never known fear, see to alarm him in a small Landtag ? He
hoped, perchance, that his example might enhearten some of
the more timid among the minor princes to screw their courage
to the sticking point ; but nothing was further from his clear
intelligence than the exaggerated self-conceit of particularism.
His quiet pride had not been fanned into vanity even by the
homage of the foremost poets of the day ; was it likely that
he should now be led astray by the fulsome praise of the
liberal newspapers, which extolled Weimar as the cradle at once
of German art and German freedom ? Upright and straight-
forward, it was from a sense of duty and in honourable confi-
dence that he conceded to his people what he regarded as
inevitable.

He had summoned to his ministry quite a number of

29

History of Germany

efficient men, almost an overplus of talent for a little state.
Beside Goethe's chair, which had now for years stood empty,
sat the poet's friend, old Voigt, a high-minded man of refined
culture who, like Goethe, had long regarded the foreign dominion
as an inevitable necessity, but who now, happier than his
friend, greeted the new liberty with joy. There was Fritsch,
the third of the long series of able men of affairs which this
Leipzig family of lawyers sent to the service of the Saxon
house ; he too was something of a poet, and in good repute
in the literary world. There also was the recently summoned
German-Russian man of talent, Count Edling. Finally there
was the ablest political intelligence among them all, Gersdorff
the Lusatian, who at the Vienna congress had always been
at Humboldt's side, then already advocating the idea of Prussian
hegemony, and subsequently during a long political career never
for an instant false to the belief that " Prussia has given new
birth to German nationality and is the foundation stone of a
future Germany." Upon Gersdorff 's advice, the grand duke
resolved to set about the work of inaugurating the constitution.
In April, 1816, the old estates combined with certain repre-
sentatives from the newly acquired regions of the country to
constitute a Landtag. On May 5th the new fundamental law,
drafted by Schweitzer, professor at Jena, was signed, and in
a cordially grateful speech the president of the Landtag extolled
the finest virtue of the German estate of minor princes, saying :
" We have ever found this distinguished house animated by the
princely disposition which wishes well to all, and to which
even the most lowly is of value." The liberal press rejoiced,
breaking out into contented self-praise ; if the princely friend
of Schiller and of Goethe displayed himself a pioneer in the
advance towards constitutional freedom, it was as clear as
noonday that none but those of uncultivated nature could
withstand the saving truths of constitutionalism. A year
later the first constitutional Landtag of German history sat in
one of the three castles of Dornburg which looked down from
steep cliffs, across vineyard-slopes, and terraced gardens, into
the picturesque valley of the Saale. In this rural peace, where
Goethe had so often sought the happiness of poetic solitude,
the first parliamentary idyll of particularism ran its smooth
career. With happy judgment the grand duke had steered a
middle course between the ancient feudal system and the new
representative methods, conceding special representatives to the

30

The Burschenschaft

gentry, the towns, and the rural communes ; but the thirty-one
members combined to form a single assembly, and were
considered to represent the country as a whole. The proceed-
ings were by no means free from difficulty ; step by step the
government had to contend with the officiousness and the
naive inexperience of the popular representatives. At length,
however, an understanding was secured, and since all the pro-
ceedings were private the newspapers were enabled unashamedly
to regale their readers with wonderful tales of the incredible
political sagacity of this exemplary little people, where for every
fifteen hundred grown men there was to be found a representa-
tive well furnished with statesmanlike culture. Numerous
useful reforms, which would have been impossible in the absence
of the Landtag, were now secured. In 1821, for instance,
nine and forty wonderful old taxes were replaced by an income
tax with a compulsory declaration of income, an unheard-of
innovation for Germany. Many other valuable proposals failed,
indeed, to come to fruition, because the narrow-minded timidity
of the representatives rendered them incapable of following
the liberal ideas of their prince ; and Charles Augustus was
absolutely unable to secure publicity for the proceedings of the
Landtag. Yet on the whole the country was well satisfied,
and in 1818 Hildburghausen was granted a constitution upon
the Weimar model.

Goethe alone regarded the new institutions with tacit
disfavour, and could see therein nothing more than the activities
of unauthorised busybodies — detestation of all dilettantism was
ingrained in the master's nature. When, on one occasion, he
could not avoid proposing a toast at the Landtag festival he
gave the representatives of the people a patriarchal reminder
of their family duties :

Let everyone be master in his own household,
Thus will our prince also be master in his own land.

When the Landtag asked him to furnish accounts of the eleven
thousand thalers which from year to year for a generation past
he had disbursed on behalf of art and science, the old man
resolved to give them a lesson. He dictated to his secretary
three words, " income," " expenditure," " balance," added three
figures, majestically signed his name, and sent this account to
the Landtag. Great was the wrath. On quiet reflection,

History of Germany

however, even to the worthy representatives of Neustadt, Kalten-
nordheim, and Gerstungen, a detailed examination of Goethe's
purchases of antiques and books seemed a somewhat unsuitable
undertaking, and they therefore made up their minds to an
act of constitutional self-denial which stands in glorious isolation
in the pedantic history of German parliamentary life. The
letter of the constitution was sacrificed, and the account of
the thirty years' stewardship was passed without discussion.

Under the aegis of the new freedom of the press there
now suddenly sprang to life in Weimar a great number of
political newspapers. Irresponsible journalism, of a kind that
could arise only among this cultured people, yet a power, for
with it began the momentous invasion of the professors into
German politics. Luden had founded his Nemesis while the
war was still in progress, in the first instance in order to fight
against the foreign dominion, and he now added an Allgemeines
Staatsverfassungsarchiv ; next came Oken's Isis and the
Opposition sblatt of Weimar ; next Bran undertook a continua-
tion of the old Archenholtzische Minerva; Martin, a lawyer who
had been expelled from Heildelberg, brought the Neue Rheinische
Merkur with him to Jena ; Ludwig Wieland, the son of the
poet, an able writer, published a newspaper, at first known as
the Volksfreund, which soon, to appease the terrors of the
police, dropped this dangerous name and appeared as the Patriot.
This excess of journalistic activities was pursued in two small
towns, in a purely literary atmosphere, where there was abso-
lutely nothing to recall the serious aspects of political life,
where the press could neither secure trustworthy information
regarding the internal interconnection of the events of the day,
nor yet find any firm standing-ground in either a political party
or some definite economic interest. In contented ignorance of
the world of realities, pure doctrinairism could delight
in its own " conviction," and could with an air of infallibility
deliver its professorial monologues. All these journals claimed
to. serve the nation at large as teachers, for it was the pride
of the professors that the practical unity of the German nation
was displayed in the universities alone. Since the voice of
freedom which sounded on the Ilm and on the Saale now roused
the suspicion of the courts, since, as Luden phrased it, the
entire party of reaction directed its anxious gaze towards the
heights of lovely Thuringia, the self-conceit of the academic

32

The Burschenschaft

journalists speedily underwent a notable increase, and they
believed in all seriousness that their German Athens was the
very centre of the political life of the nation. In these political
writings there was no trace of the characteristic laboriousness of
German learning. In science, all amateurish work was despised,
but anyone could sit in judgment upon statesmen if he
occasionally read the newspapers in his spare time.

Luden's Nemesis was greatly inferior to the Kieler Blatter,
despite its much wider circulation. While Dahlmann's journal
provided its readers with genuine instruction in matters of
fact, such as this unripe generation above all required, giving
thorough expositions of historical and constitutional questions,
Luden confined himself to empty generalities or superficial
critical observations concerning the petty happenings of the
day. Although Luden was not himself numbered among the
adherents of Rotteck's law of reason, but endeavoured to under-
stand the state from a historical outlook, nevertheless the entire
wisdom of the Nemesis continually circled around article 13
of the federal act, which was regarded as the sole means for
averting revolution from Germany, saying : "If you will
only keep your sacred word, O princes, if you will merely
exercise the very ordinary virtue of fidelity ! " For years
past Luden had been the favourite teacher in Jena. His
lectures on German history were, as had formerly been
those of Fichte and Schelling, the meeting-place for the
mass of the students. The amiable idealism displayed by his
whole nature, the patriotic warmth and the ease of his delivery,
secured for him a prestige among the university youth which
remained unchallenged for forty years. Those who judged the
well-meaning man solely from his books found it difficult to
understand his brilliant success as a lecturer. His historical
writings were poor in new ideas and even more lacking in evidence,
of independent investigation ; while of the arduous mental
toil which political science demands of its disciples he had
so little idea that when no more than thirty-one years of age
(in 1811) he ventured with much self-satisfaction to publish a
Handbook of Politics stuffed with harmless commonplaces.

How differently from the dull and decorous Nemesis did the
Isis set to work, the Isis, unquestionably the most remarkable
political journal of our history, an incomparable specimen of
learned folly. Though responsible for numerous extravagances,
Oken had acquired a well-deserved reputation as a natural

33

History of Germany

philosopher, but he brought to the political arena no better
equipment than a genuine patriotic enthusiasm, a few vague
democratic ideas, indefatigable pugnacity, and the childlike
illusion that a free press could heal all those wounds which
it had itself caused. " History," he exclaimed in his pre-
liminary announcement, " makes its way like a terrible giant
across streams and rocks, across loco sigilli and artificial barriers,
laughing at all devices to capture spirit and sense and to over-
throw them when captured. All things are good and everything
is permissible." His readers were to learn the sense and the
nonsense of the time, its dignity and its meanness. He did
not disdain even roughness, mendacity, and calumny, command-
ing in advance those whom he attacked to confine themselves
solely to literary weapons for their revenge. The uncere-
monious appeal readily found hearers. All the hotheads of
the learned world made assignations upon the great arena of
this " encyclopaedic journal." Beside zoological pictures and
discussions (the only valuable matter which the newspaper
contained), were to be found all kinds of university scandal
and literary polemic ; even a rancorous article from the Edin-
burgh Review attacking Goethe's Dichtung und Wahrheit was
reprinted with unconcealed pleasure ; there were also political
essays, and numerous statements of grievances and complaints
of alleged arbitrary acts on the part of the authorities. All
this was in the tone of the tap-room, in " Oken's manner "
as people soon began to phrase it — impudent, tasteless, and
full of mockery, so that almost every fresh number of the
Isis aroused new quarrels. Since the rich stock of German
superlatives proved inadequate, Oken called in the art of the
wood-engraver to his aid, having pictures of men with asses'
heads, of geese, of cannibals, of Hebraic and clerical visages, or
it might be a knout, a cudgel, or a foot raised to stamp on
something, printed beside the names of his opponents, the
result being that the political text had at times as motley
an appearance as that of the adjoining copperplate portion with
pictures of jelly-fish and cartilaginous fishes. The political
essays exhibited a fantastic radicalism simultaneously with
an ingenuous professorial arrogance. The Weimar constitution
did not deserve the name of constitution, because, of the three and
twenty indispensable fundamental rights of every true charter,
it granted one only, the freedom of the press — and because it
gave such unjust advantages to the stupid burghers and the

34

peasants as compared with the gentry and the professors !
Amid this incredible uproar, there was not to be found a single
article instructing the readers of the journal, or directing their
wills towards any definite aim. Nothing but fanatical com-
plaints against princes and diplomats ; nothing but scorn for
the hopeless lethargy of the existing generation, and the
declaration, " only from the young is anything to be expected." •

Lindner from Courland was the ablest journalist in this
circle ; he conducted the Oppositionsblatt with conspicuous skill,
and pursued politics as a serious vocation. But it was in his
articles above all that was most plainly manifested the political
folly which was henceforward to drive German liberalism from
one mistake to another — base ingratitude towards Prussia.
Partisan historians often declare that calumniation of Prussia
did not become general in the liberal camp until after the
persecution of the demagogues, but this assertion is untrue.
Immediately after the peace, when the sword of Belle Alliance
had hardly been sheathed, these pigmies began to level their
accusations at the state to which they owed their liberties, to
which they owed everything, overwhelming it with reproaches
at the very moment in which by its military law and its
customs-law it was laying the firm foundation of national unity.

In his Handbook of Politics, Luden had invariably referred
to Prussia as an awful example, and had passed judgment upon
the militarist state with the well-known conceit of freedom
characteristic of the English Hanoverians. Now his Nemesis
published poems in honour of the house of Wittelsbach, and
articles defending the Saxon policy of 1813, but for Prussia
the paper displayed nothing but blame and a vainglorious
contempt which anywhere else in the world would have
aroused general ridicule. The muses of Mark, it was proudly
asserted, have never been able to compare with the muses of
Thuringia ; now we shall see whether Prussian statesmanship
can rival that of Thuringia ! Benzenberg, the good liberal,
was pilloried as the obscurantist among German publicists, for
it was unpardonable that he should be a loyal Prussian and
that he should write with knowledge about the laws of this
state towards which the Jena professor never vouchsafed a
glance. Oken, too, a Hither Austrian from Ortenau, regarded
contempt for Prussia as the surest index of a liberal mind.
While he manifested extreme veneration for Emperor Francis,
and actually praised Count Buol's absurd speech at Frankfort

35

History of Germany

upon the occasion of the opening of the Bundestag, with
malicious gratification he threw open the columns of the Isis
to all the foes of Prussia. One day a Rhinelander would begin
a maudlin " Lament from the Rhine " on account of the number
of Protestants among the Prussian authorities of the province,
saying : " The only aim is to injure the country, to humiliate
it." The next, a good Swede from Greifswald would deplore
the Prussianisation of his Pomeranian fatherland. Then would
come complaints from certain medical practitioners in the province
of Saxony that their professional honour as men of learning was
brutally insulted because now, just as if they had been apothe-
caries or even common manual workers, they were forced to
pay the Prussian trade licence. Not even Napoleon had done
anything so atrocious as had Prussia in suppressing the Rheinische
Merkur ; when compared with this, asked the Isis, what was
the importance even of the murder of Palm ? Oken passed
judgment on the university of Bonn, whose glories were so soon
to outshine those of Jena, even before the place had been
opened, saying that everything was practically ruined in advance
by the patchy work and scrappy knowledge of the individuals
in the service of the Prussian government. But the crown
of all Prussia's offences was the army, with the obligation of
universal military service. Was it not monstrous, asked the
Nemesis, that the lieutenant should be able to earn a living
so much earlier than the youthful legal official ? Was it not
barbarous, exclaimed Oken, that in Prussia " intellectual energies
should be used as mere food for powder in the persons of
common soldiers ? "

Any reprobate who had occasion to experience the rigours
of the Prussian law could count upon the support of these
professorial journalists if only he had the wit to pose as a
political martyr. In the year 1817 Massenbach offered to sell
to the Prussian Government for the sum of 11,500 Frederic
d'ors, the manuscript of a new volume of his lying memoirs,
in the compilation of which he had illegally utilised numerous
official papers. Thereupon, with the approval of the Frankfort
senate, he was arrested, and after a careful report by General
Grolman and in pursuance of a resolution of the council of
state, was tried by court martial as an officer absent without
leave, and was condemned to confinement in a fortress for
attempted blackmail, and breach of military duty.1 In this

1 Minutes of the Council of State, July 7, 1817.
36

The Burschenschaft

offensive business, whose details were immediately published
by the chancellor, Luden's Nemesis took the side of the hero
of Prenzlau, for anyone who used such free language towards
the throne as Masserbach had done in Wiirtemberg could not
possibly be guilty of a mean action. On the other hand the
apostles of German unity severely censured the Frankfort senate
because, regardless of the sovereignty of its own state, it
had handed over a common criminal to another federal state !
Old Goethe felt he was in a topsyturvy world when his
peaceful seat of the muses became so suddenly transformed into
a noisy debating-ground and when the academic publicists were
extolled in the press as if they had been the heirs of the Dioscuri
of poetry. He feared serious consequences, and warned Luden
that the state could not dispose of a hundred thousand bayonets
to protect him ! But when the government wished to administer
a reprimand to Oken, Goethe advised the duke against this
measure, saying that such an admonition was useless in any case,
and was unsuitable for so deserving a man ; it would be better,
he continued, with sovereign contempt for the new constitution,
to leave the learned hothead out of the matter altogether, and
simply to forbid the printer to continue his " Catilinarian " under-
taking. But the stout-hearted Charles Augustus was unwilling
to take the political saturnalia of his professors so seriously. He
contented himself with occasional admonitions and seizures,
finding however fresh cause of vexation in every " nouvel
accouchement de Monsieur Oken," for the grievances of those
who were maltreated in the I sis were unending. Loudest of all
complained Privy Councillor von Kamptz of Berlin, a distin-
guished lawyer and valuable official, widely known as a fanatical
reactionary. He was numbered by Oken among the " men of
no account," but protested threateningly against Oken's " bank-
holiday tone." Anyone who knew the hard man might have
foreseen that he would not content himself with words.

•

How could the students remain quiet in this marvellously
excited little world ? The great days of the Jena university
had come to a close in the year 1803, and for long it had been
impossible for Jena to compare with the intellectual forces of
Heidelberg or Berlin ; but the glories of past days continued to
cleave to the name, and the unrestrained liberty of Jena student
life had always been renowned among the German youth. " And
in Jene live we bene " ran the old student's song. There was

37

History of Germany

no other university town in which the dominance of the students
was so complete ; as late as the seventeen-nineties they had on
one occasion trooped out to remove to Erfurt, and returned in
triumph when the alarmed authorities had yielded to all their
wishes. Contrasting strongly with courtly Leipzig, life in Jena
continued to exhibit a rough, primitive, and youthful tone, in
correspondence with the simple customs of the country. Just
as the Ziegenhain cudgel, at that time the inseparable companion
of the German student, was to be obtained in perfection only from
the Saale valley, so also the pithy Jena regulations were highly
esteemed in every students' club and duelling-place throughout
Germany ; many extremely ancient customs of the Burschen,
such as the drinking of blood-brotherhood, were continued in Jena
on into the new century. All roughness notwithstanding, an
atmosphere of idealism pervaded these noisy activities, a romantic
charm which was altogether lacking to the clumsy coarseness of
the Berlin gymnastic ground. How many a youthful Low
German, making his student's journey to the Fuchsturm and to
Leuchtenburg, had then first become conscious of the poesy
of the German highlands. With what gratitude and joyful
enthusiasm did the Jena students make first-hand acquaint-
ance with Schiller's dramas in the Weimar theatre. Under the
foreign dominion, the university flaunted its German sentiments
undismayed, so that Napoleon was once on the point of burning
" the odious nest of ideologues and chatterers."

It was inevitable that this patriotic enthusiasm should flame
up more fiercely when the young warriors now returned to the
lecture theatre, many of them decorated with the iron cross,
almost all still intoxicated with the heroic fury of the great
struggle, filled with ardent hatred of " the external and internal
oppressors of the fatherland." This was by far the best genera-
tion of students that had been known for many years, but these
young men were unfortunately too serious for the harmless fan-
tasies and the exaggerated friendships which endow student life
with its peculiar charm. The urgently necessary reform of dis-
orderly student customs could be effected only by a generation
far more mature than had hitherto been the average of students,
but in two arduous campaigns these chivalrous young men had
had such profound experiences that they were unable to settle
down once more into the modest role of the pupil ; the danger of
arrogance and conceit, which was in any case in the atmosphere
of the day, was for them almost impossible to escape. Similar

38

The Burschenschaft

tendencies to Christo-Germanic enthusiasm had once before
showed themselves at the universities, in the days of the literary
Sturm und Drang, when the young poets of the Hainbund were
devoted admirers of Klopstock's Messiah and of the heroes of
the Teutoburgerwald, and when they burned an effigy of Wieland,
the poet of sedentary life. What had then been the motive
impulse of a narrow circle was now common to thousands.

How contemptible must the corrupt club-life of the
students necessarily appear to the strict-living new generation,
hardened by campaigning. There still existed far too much of
the barbarism of the old bullying times, although the humanism of
the new literary culture had extended its refining influence even
over university customs. Intemperance and debauchery often
displayed themselves with a lack of restraint which to us of
to-day seems incredible ; gambling was practised everywhere,
even in the open street ; and the ineradicable German love of
brawling so far exceeded all reasonable measure that in the
summer of 1815 among the Jena students, three hundred and
fifty in number, there were one hundred and forty-seven duels
in a single week. The homely popular drinking songs and
travellers' songs of the tuneful days of old had almost disappeared,
and the students sang chiefly lewd ribaldry or the lachrymose
effusions of a dull sentimentalism which belonged to a far earlier
literary epoch. With the disappearance of the Rosicrucians and
other secret societies of the old century, there disappeared also
their spiritual kin, the students' orders. The associations of
students from the same province (Landsmannscha/ten) , which
had since then been revived, jealously supervised their closed
recruiting grounds, being characterised by a paltry particularist
sentiment which arrogantly rejected everything that lacked the
true parochial flavour, destroying all vigorous self-respect by
the brutal fagging system (Pennalismus) . The freshman must
not complain if an impoverished senior student should offer him
blood-brotherhood and an exchange of goods ; the freshman must
then give all that he had upon his person, his clothes, watch, and
money, in exchange for the beggarly effects of his patron. One
who graduated in such a school acquired the art of servility
towards those above and arrogance towards those below.

How often had Fichte, at first in Jena and subsequently in
Berlin, uttered vigorous protests against these disorderly prac-
tices. Among his faithful followers there was conceived as early
as the year 1811 the design of constituting a Burschenschaft or

39

History of Germany

association of German students. The philosopher approved the
undertaking ; but, knowing his men, added the thoughtful warn-
ing that the Burschen must avoid confusing what was mediaeval
with what was German, and must be careful not to value the
means, namely the association, more highly than the end, namely
the revival of German sentiment. The students of Jena now
associated themselves with these proposals of Berlin. They
knew the seriousness of the profession of arms, and desired to
control the rude lust for quarrels by the institution of courts of
honour. During the war they had fought shoulder to shoulder
as the sons of a single nation, and they therefore demanded the
complete equality of all students, with the abolition of Pennalis-
mus and of all the privileges which at many universities were
still allotted to the counts' bench. But their ultimate and highest
idea remained the unity of Germany : the power and the glory
of the fatherland were to be embodied in one vast league of youth,
which was to put an end to the existence of all the particularist
student societies.

Arndt's Vaterlandslied remained the true programme of the
Burschenschaft. Although the poet had taken no direct part
in the young people's designs, he was regarded by friend and
foe alike as the leader of the Teutonising youth. After a long
and tempestuous life of many migrations, he had at length settled
down in Bonn, and built for himself and his young wife, Schleier-
macher's sister, a cottage amid a garden on the heights close to
the Rhine, expecting " to enjoy to the full the glories of the
Siebengebirge," and in peaceful happiness to store his energies
for his professional work. It is true that he was as cordially
enthusiastic as the youngest of the students in defence of " the
golden academic freedom, the ancient and glorious chivalry of the
Teutons " ; but when one of the Heidelberg students ques-
tioned him regarding the reform of university life, he expressly
warned his young friends, in his writing concerning the German
student-state, against revolutionary excesses, saying, " It is better
to allow that which exists to prevail than to strive after unat-
tainable perfection." He had long adhered in loyal affection to
Prussia and its royal house, and it was only his old hostility
towards the Frederician age which he was unable to overcome.
Since he had long before vigorously advocated the abolition of
serfdom in his Hither Pomeranian home, his reputation among the
reactionary party had been that of a preacher of equality. This
reputation was utterly undeserved. Arndt's wishes never went

40

The Burschenschaft

beyond the ideas of his patron Stein ; he wished for an effective
subdivision of classes into a respected nobility, a free peasantry,
and a vigorous bourgeoisie ranged in guilds ; and even Harden-
berg's agrarian laws were regarded by him with a certain roman-
ticist hostility.

There was no place for political fanaticism in this open and
serene nature, in the affectionate spirit of this man who could
only find adequate expression for the exuberance of his feelings
by the heaping up of superlatives. To extol as brethren " Father
Jahn and Father Arndt " was possible solely to the uncritical
faculties of youth, and nothing but Arndt's touching modesty
induced him to permit the comparison. In reality the two men
belonged to utterly different strata of intellectual and moral
culture. Although Arndt never acquired the strict methodology
of the trained expert, he had at his command an inexhaustible
treasury of well-secured knowledge, and moved freely upon
heights of human culture to which Jahn was hardly able to lift
his eyes. He often spoke of himself as a hardy countryman, and
as a pedestrian could compete with the best of the gymnasts ;
every day in summer he might be seen taking a long swim in the
Rhine, or at work in his garden, wearing a blue overall. But he
was also at home in society, and assured there of his position ;
all glances turned towards the robust little man with the flashing
blue eyes whenever he began to speak, for the charm of his con-
versation was irresistible, its flow always natural and energetic,
its substance always brilliant and noble. So thoroughly healthy
a mind could find little satisfaction in the coarse methods of the
gymnasts. He exhorted the students that Germans ought not
to draw their examples from among the rough Spartans or Romans.
" Ask yourselves ' were they happy ? did they make others
happy ? ' "

Among the Jena professors, Fries was the students' favourite ;
these young men who were enthusiasts for the ideas of Fichte
sat guilelessly at the feet of a teacher who had always been one
of Fichte's opponents. In Jena the new doctrine of Hegel was
still considered reactionary, and Fries maintained that it had
grown, not in the garden of knowledge, but upon the dunghill
of servility. Like Luden, Fries exercised far more influence as
a teacher than as a writer. To youthful enthusiasts it was agree-
able that the good-humoured but muddle-headed philosopher
should confusedly intermingle concepts with feelings, and should
thus resolve the moral world into a " sentimental broth," as Hegel

41 E

History of Germany

expressed it in a justly severe criticism. The students were
strengthened in their subjective arrogance when, in ambiguous
words, their ingenuous professor continually declared that a man
must remain true to his conviction even if all the world were
against him. Fries's philosophy of history seemed to the young
folk especially appropriate to the time. He understood how to
compress all the wealth of history within the limits of a formal
and scanty doctrinal scheme, which has since his day been
reiterated by countless learned publicists, and among others by
Gervinus. According to this formula : in the east, human life was
dominated by religion ; in classical antiquity, by beauty ; in
the Christian world, by intuition ; but recently, since the Revolu-
tion, the development of popular rights had been the central
factor of history — a thesis which unquestionably opened the door
to all the impertinences of political dilettantism. Although it
was the honourable intention of Fries to guard the students
against passionate aberrations, he allowed himself to be moved
to many incautious utterances, and ultimately had to experience
what almost inevitably happens when the intimacy between pro-
fessors and students becomes too close ; he lost touch with his
young friends (who, after all, did not confide everything to their
teacher), and failed to notice how revolutionary a spirit was
gradually gaining the upper hand.

At the outset, the sole political idea of the Jena Burschen
was a vague patriotic sentiment. They were zealots on behalf
of an abstract Germanism, such as had formerly been extolled in
the Addresses to the German Nation, but they had absolutely no
notion of the vivid Prussian sense of the state which animated
Fichte in the evening of his days. All distinction between
Prussia, Bavaria, and Saxony was to disappear in the single con-
cept of Germanity ; and since, among all the German states, no
other possessed so firmly individualised a life as Prussia, these
youthful dreamers, who were continually talking about the glories
of the War of Liberation, nevertheless imperceptibly began to
follow the same false road as the Nemesis and the I sis, and to
overwhelm with accusations the state which almost single-handed
had conducted the war.

Among the founders of the Burschenschaft there was but one
Prussian, Massmann of Berlin, an upright young enthusiast of
exceedingly mediocre mental endowments, the most confused
intelligence among all the berserkers of Jahn's immediate circle.
All the others were Thuringians, Mecklenburgers, Courlanders,

42

The Burschenschaft

Hessians, Bavarian-Franconians, and for them, naturally, it was
easy to contemplate the disappearance of their native states in
a general Germanity. At the Prussian universities the Bursch-
enschaft struck root very slowly, making its first appearance
in Berlin. In Breslau its first adherents were the New Prussians
of Lusatia ; the Silesians were for a long time unwilling to admit
that to a genuine Teutoniser the state of Frederick the Great
could be of no more account than Biickeburg or Darmstadt. The
men of Jena, on the other hand, and the revolutionists of Giessen,
who were the earliest adherents of the Burschenschaft movement,
did not merely condemn every justified sentiment of Prussian
self-satisfaction as " un-German Prussianism," but further did
not hesitate to erase from the history of the War of Liberation
all that was Prussian, all that gave that history life and colour.
The song-book of the Burschenschaft, A. Pollen's Free Voices of
Fresh Youth, when reproducing all the beautiful war-songs which
recounted Prussia's fame, mutilated them in such a manner that
the name of Prussia did not appear in the whole collection. In
Arndt's Husarenlied, Blucher no longer swore in the poet's original
words " to teach the Frenchman the Prussian way " ; now he
was to teach "the Old German" or "the most German" way.
Moreover, the leaders of the Burschenschaft had for the most part
served among Liitzow's yagers, and had there, as members of a
" purely German volunteer force," become accustomed to regard
with contempt the Prussian army of the line, although this in
actual warfare had been so much more successful than them-
selves. The result was that these enthusiasts for Germanism
were from the first almost as hostile as the gymnasts to the most
living force of our national unity. It is easy to understand that
a childish belief in the infallible wisdom of " the people " and
a sentimental preference for republican forms were far more
prevalent among the students than among men of maturer years.
Like the majority of older liberals, the students desired repre-
sentative institutions chiefly because they considered that the
mainsprings of particularism were to be found in the cabinets
alone. It was Carl Sand's opinion that if only there existed a
constitution in every German land, there would no longer exist
Bavarians or Hanoverians, but only Germans !

Yet during these first years of the movement there was little
trace of morbid over-excitement. Pretentious, indeed, was the
aspect of the students in their extraordinary Christo-Germanic
rig-out, biretta, sombre coat, and feminine collar ; nor was their

43

History of Germany

appearance rendered more agreeable by the adoption of the new
customs of the gymnasts which soon made their way to Jena.
But beneath the rough husk was a sound kernel. Greatly
astonished were the authorities when the continuous warfare
against university discipline, a warfare which had ever been the
pride of the Landsmannschaften, now ceased of a sudden ; and
how much more refined became the whole tone of academic life
when the songs of Arndt and Schenkendorf were heard at the
drinking parties, and when a number of youthful poets, and
especially Binzer of Holstein, were continually writing new and
vigorous students' songs. Almost all the serious songs which
German students sing to-day date from this period ; even the
students' inaugural song, the Landesvater, now first acquired its
fine patriotic sense through some happy modifications. Christian
piety, though in many instances too ostentatiously displayed,
was for the majority a matter of genuine internal conviction ;
many of the young dreamers seemed as it were transfigured by
their pious delight in all the wonders which God had worked on
behalf of this nation.

A notable feature of the new Teutonism was an ineradicable
hatred for the Jews. Since the powerful excitement of the War
of Liberation brought to light all the secrets of the German
character, amid the general ferment the old and profound hos-
tility to everything Judaic once more made itself manifest.
Almost all the great thinkers of Germany, from Luther down
to Goethe, Herder, Kant, and Fichte, were united in this senti-
ment ; Lessing stood quite alone in his fondness for the Jews.
Immediately after the peace there began a violent paper-warfare
about the position of the Jews, which for five years filled the
German book-market with pamphlets on this subject, and in
which the younger generation, in especial, participated with
passionate eagerness. Since the days of Moses Mendelssohn's
valuable endeavours, a portion of the German Jewry had
laboured with considerable success to bridge the wide chasm
separating their tribe from German customs and German culture.
Many of the leading Jewish families in the great towns had by
now become thoroughly Germanised. In the Berlin synagogue,
from the beginning of the nineteenth century onwards, the
sermons were delivered in German, and in this matter Leipzig
and other towns soon followed suit. Then Israel Jacobson, the
founder of the great schools at Seesen, arranged for a worthier

44

The Burschenschaft

form of religious service, and David Friedlander warned his co-
religionists, in his Addresses of Edification, that only if they whole-
heartedly assimilated German civilisation could they expect their
demand for complete emancipation to be gratified. The mass
of the German Jews, above all in the Polish frontier provinces,
accepted these ideas of reform with extreme slowness ; they
remained devoted to huckstering and usury, immersed in the
gloomy fanaticism of the Talmudical faith, a prey to all the
defects of those who have suffered bondage for many genera-
tions. When the French entered the country there was evident
in many Jewish circles a readily comprehensible sympathy for
the nation which had been the first to grant complete equality
to the Jews, and Napoleon understood very well how to flatter
the Jewish spirit of cosmopolitanism ; the most zealous tool of
the French police in Berlin was Davidsohn-Lange, the publisher
of the well-known Tele.gr aphen.

It was only a part of the Jews, moreover, which manifested
patriotic zeal in the War of Liberation. The sons of those
cultured families in which German sentiments were already
thoroughly developed, faithfully performed their military duties ;
but many others were held aloof from the army by bodily weak-
ness and by a profoundly implanted dread of arms, while many
were also repelled by the strictly Christian spirit of the great
movement. From the Jews of West Prussia, who were but then
laboriously emerging from the Polish mire, it would have been
quite unreasonable as yet to expect German sentiments ; they
displayed such alarm at the idea of military service that upon
their urgent petition the king granted them (May 29, 1813) the
right to purchase immunity, and this privilege was utilised on
so extensive a scale that a great part of the expenses of estab-
lishing the West Prussian Landwehr was defrayed out of the
fees paid by the Jews for exemption. The only available official
list of Jewish soldiers, which includes those enrolled in the great
majority of the Prussian regiments, shows that in the year 1813
there were only 343 Jews in the army ; while in the year 1815,
when the strength of the army attained its highest figure, there
were to be found with the colours, at the most liberal estimate,
no more than 731 Jews, an extraordinarily low figure considering
the proportion of Jews to the population.1 After the war, their

1 Militar Wochenblatt, 1843, p. 348. History of the Organisation of the
Landwehr in Prussia (Supplement to the before-mentioned newspaper for the year
1858), p. 120.

45

History of Germany

number sank once more to between two and three hundred.
What was there, indeed, to attract them to the colours ? By the
law of 1812 they were excluded from commissions, and since the
king enforced this rule very strictly, during these long years of
peace there was but one Jewish officer in the army of the line,
M. Burg, for many years teacher at the school of artillery, a
thoroughly modest and efficient soldier. Of course the young
Teutonisers had no eye for the complicated historical causes which
gave all too easy an explanation of the immilitarist sentiments
of the Jews. At this time, too, the money power of certain great
Jewish firms in Vienna, Frankfort, and Berlin, began to make
itself plainly perceptible, and was often displayed with purse-
proud arrogance ; moreover, political ill-feeling was aroused
by the Rothschilds' confidential intercourse with Metternich and
Gentz. Then came the years of famine ; horrible tales, true and
false, of the cruelty of Jewish usurers ran through the land. The
ancient racial hatred revived. Sessa's comedy, Our Traffic, a
bitter satire of Jewish manners and customs, made triumphal
progress through well nigh all the theatres of Germany.

In the literary struggle which now took place there were not
infrequently displayed on the Jewish side astounding mendacity
and presumption, which served to show more clearly than all the
discourses of their opponents what serious considerations could
still be marshalled against the complete emancipation of the Jews.
Saul Ascher of Berlin mocked at the " Germanomania " of the
young generation in a number of malicious writings which
exhibited fanatical hatred for all that was German, and for Goethe
in particular. He boasted of the unbelieving Jews that it was
their destiny in world-history to replace all positive faiths by a
freer form of thought, and had the effrontery to ascribe to the
members of his race the chief credit for the victories of the
War of Liberation : " People forget that in the struggle with
France, Germany's army had the worst of it until the Jews came
to participate, nor do they remember how successfully these
armies fought in the years 1813 and 1814 as soon as the Jews from
Russia, Poland, Austria, and Prussia were enrolled in their
ranks." Another Jewish author who took the field against Ruhs
and Fries unashamedly declared, only a year after the Belgian
campaign, that at Belle Alliance alone fifty-five Jewish officers
had fallen, whereas the Prussian army in this battle had lost in
all no more than twenty-four officers. A third writer, plainly
well-intentioned, published A Friendly Word to Christians, sug-

46

The Burschenschaft

gesting good-naturedly that since the obstinate Jews would cer-
tainly not abandon their ancient customs, the best thing would
be if the Christians would for the sake of harmony change their
Sunday to the ,Sabbath. In Frankfort, Hess, a Jewish teacher,
declared that all his Christian opponents were either visionaries
or the instruments of vulgar selfishness.1

In face of such arrogance it was inevitable that unjust and
offensive expressions should be used in the other camp as well ;
nevertheless the great majority of the Christian writers main-
tained a dignified attitude. Lessing's ideas had quietly secured
currency, and no German would any longer write so cruelly about
the Jews as Fichte had formerly done. Almost all reasonable
persons started from the principle that mere residence in the
country did not per se suffice to justify a claim to the full rights
of citizenship ; they were willing to admit the Jews to equality
in the domain of civil law, but not — or at any rate not yet — to
complete equality in all other respects. However harsh this
view necessarily appeared to cultured Jews, it was unquestion-
able that the mass of their race was still in a neglected condition
which rendered complete emancipation inadvisable ; a Jew was
even found to direct to the German princes a pitiful appeal that
they should effect an improvement of the Jewish educational
system " in order to uplift my nation out of spiritual gloom."2
The Prussian law of 1812, which conceded to the Jews all civil
rights except admission to the state service, was far in advance
of the narrow-minded provisions of most of the other German
legal systems, and expressed, on the whole, what was regarded
as attainable by the liberals of that day. Even Hardenberg,
Koreffs patrpn, in general extremely favourable to the Jews,
had no desire to overstep this boundary.

Such were the sentiments expressed by the historian Riih3,
who initiated the anti- Jewish literary polemic, and both Fries
and Luden followed in his footsteps. Even the radical Opposi-
tionsblatt held the same view as the Christo-Germanic professors ;
so did Paulus, the leader of the rational Protestants, and Kliiber,
the secular liberal publicist. Among writers of note, Kotzebue
was especially friendly to the Jews, for the deadly enemy of the

1 Saul Ascher, Germanomania, Berlin, 1815, p. 67. Observations on the
Writings of Professors Runs and Fries concerning the Jews, Frankfort, 1816, p. 4.
A Friendly Word to Christians by a Jew, place of publication not stated, 1816.
M. Hess, Frank Examination of Riihs's Writing, Frankfort, 1816.

2 Patriotic Appeal of a Loyal Israelite to the Princes of Germany, Biidingen,
1816-

47

History of Germany

young Teutonisers was attracted to Saul Ascher by an inner
elective affinity ; yet even he was of opinion that Jewish culture
must be radically transformed "by a species of conversion "
before the Jews could acquire equal rights. Immediate emanci-
pation was demanded by no more than a few isolated and little
known Gentile journalists, as for instance by Lips, of Erlangen,
who desired to make the German nation more lively by an
admixture of Jewish blood.

Hatred of the Jews was so powerful and wide-spread that
even in the detestable Jewish dispute of Frankfort, wherein the
Jews were treated with manifest injustice, public opinion was
almost unanimously adverse to their side. How grossly had
the allied powers sinned against our ancient emperor's town in
conferring upon it the empty title of an untenable sovereignty.
During the days of the empire, though Frankfort had borne the
name of an imperial town, it had always been the emperor's
town, immediately subject to the monarch's commands, and it
was gloriously distinguished before all other German cities by
the vigorous communal sentiments of a wealthy, active, and cul-
tured bourgeoisie. Even now, after the wars, the Senckenberg
institute and the Stadel museum were opened, and a number of
societies for the promotion of generally useful activities set
vigorously to work. Under the supremacy of a powerful state-
authority, the beautiful place might have become the paragon
of German municipalities. But now the town and the eight and
a half districts of its domain received the complete independence
of a sovereign state. Only as far as constitutional disputes were
concerned was an arbitral right reserved for the Germanic Federa-
tion, the powers of this body being far inferior to the monarchical
authority of the emperor in old times. Moreover, with the arrival
of the troop of federal envoys a courtly element was introduced,
falsifying the straightforward civic spirit, and involving many
of the old patrician families and all the financial life of Frankfort
in the intrigues of diplomacy.

Morbid arrogance inevitably resulted from relationships so
unnatural. The bourgeoisie regarded " the fathertown " as the
capital of Germany, misusing their newly acquired sovereignty with
all the unrestraint of that social egoism which almost invariably
predominates in municipalities not subjected to the even-handed
justice of monarchical state-authority. The new constitution
of 1816 was careful to protect the established burghers against
foreign competition ; no new-comer could acquire civic rights

48

The Burschenschaft

except by the payment of 5,000 guldens or by marriage with a
Frankfort woman. The same sentiment of parochial narrowness
also led the town to deprive the Jews of the civic rights which
they had purchased from Dalberg. With formidable outcry they
at once armed in their own defence, and young Ludwig Borne
placed his incisive pen at the service of his oppressed co-
religionists. The legal question was far from being so simple as
Borne, with pettifogging impudence, maintained. From the point
of view of strict law the 440,000 guldens which the Jewish com-
munity had paid to the grand duke of Frankfort could not be
regarded as the purchase price of civic rights, but simply as a
sum paid to compound for the old tax of 22,000 guldens imposed
annually on the Jews ; and since the federal act merely guaranteed
the Jews the rights they already possessed in the states of the
Germanic Federation, little legal objection could be raised to
the step taken by the Frankfort bourgeoisie. Consequently the
claim of the Jewish community was rejected as groundless by the
arbitration court of the Berlin faculty.

When the Jews thereupon applied to the Bundestag with a
statement of grievances, the political power of the house of
Rothschild emerged for the first time from obscurity and an
unprecedented thing happened, for the Bundestag actually showed
itself more liberal than public opinion. Hardenberg, in accordance
with the old traditions of the Prussian spirit of toleration, from
the first instructed the Prussian envoy to insist that the Jews of
Frankfort were at least entitled to exercise restricted civic rights ;
and, to the astonishment of the uninitiated, Austria supported this
view, the reason being that the Hofburg could not get along with-
out the Rothschilds' money. When Metternich and Gentz visited
Frankfort in the year 1818, they devoted all their influence (as
formerly at the congress of Vienna) to the service of their wealthy
proteges. The proceedings now went forward with customary
slowness, and in the year 1824, through the instrumentality of
the Bundestag, the Frankfort Jews reacquired a portion of their
rights. They were recognised as " Israelite burghers," but
remained excluded from official positions, and acquired equality
with Gentile citizens only in matters of civil law. Even in this
last point there were certain petty restrictions. For example,
the Jews were not allowed to engage in the fruit trade ; they
might possess no more than one house each ; their community
was not allowed to celebrate more than fifteen marriages annually.
With few exceptions, the newspapers tenaciously espoused the

49

History of Germany

cause of the parochially- minded bourgeoisie of Frankfort, for
Dal berg's laws were in ill- repute as the work of the foreign
dominion, while there was a general dread lest through the
exuberant growth of Hebrew activities the federal town might
lose its German character. Luden wrote bluntly, " vox populi,
vox Dei — the voice of the people is unfavourable to the Jews."

In student circles, this mood of the day was further accen-
tuated by the romanticism of Christian enthusiasm. The students
regarded themselves as a neo-Christian knighthood, displaying
their hatred of the Jews with a crude intolerance which
strongly recalled the days of the crusades. From the first, it was
definitely resolved to exclude all non-Christians from the new
league of youth. Could this be effected, the Jewish students
would in reality be robbed of their academic civic rights, for it
was the aim of the Burschenschaft to impose its laws upon the
totality of the students, and to abolish all other associations.

As early as the summer of 1814 there was constituted in
Jena a society of arms to prepare its members by means of
knightly exercises for the military service of the fatherland. In
the following spring, the members of two Landomannschafts,
weary of the fruitless old activities, joined certain students
hitherto unattached to any organisation, and on June 12,
1815, the new Burschenschaft was inaugurated, in accordance
with the ancient custom of Jena, by a formal procession through
the market place. It was led by two divinity students from
Mecklenburg, Horn and Riemann, and by an enthusiastic pupil
of Fries, Scheidler from Gotha ; these were all fine young fellows
who had fought valiantly during the war. The first speaker,
Carl Horn, who at a later date became widely known as the
teacher of Fritz Reuter, remained until advanced in age faithful
to the enthusiasms of his youth, and died in the pious belief that
in founding the Burschenschaft he had been engaged in " the
Lord's work." The new association immediately broke with all
the evil customs of Pennalismus, and it was governed in accord-
ance with purely democratic principles by a committee and
executive officers appointed in open election ; its court of honour
reduced the practice of duelling within modest limits, and kept
a strict watch upon the morals of its members.

A year after the foundation of the Burschen^chaft all the
other students' corps in Jena had been dissolved, and the Bur-
schenschaft now seemed to have attained the goal of its desire,

The Burschenschaft

to have become a union of all the Christian German students.
In these early days there still prevailed the good tone of a cordial
patriotic enthusiasm. What an abyss separated existing custom
from the roughness of earlier days now that the Burschen sang
as their association song Arndt's vigorous verses :

To whom shall first our thanks resound ?
To God, Whose greatness wonderful
From night of long disgrace is seen
Forth-flaming in a glorious dawn,
Who humbled hath our haughty foes,
Who our strength for us renews,
And ruling sits beyond the stars
Till time becomes eternity.

For the emblem of their league and of German unity, which this
emblem was intended to symbolise, the Burschen adopted, in
accordance with Jahn's proposal, a black-red-and-gold banner.
Probably these were the colours of the uniform of Liitzow's volun-
teers, and this force had also carried a black-and-red flag
embroidered in gold. l Some members of the Burschenschaft were
indeed bold enough to maintain that in this banner were renewed
the black-and-yellow colours of the old empire, embellished by
the red of liberty, or perhaps of war (for red had once been the
war colour of the imperial armies). But the more zealous members
would hear nothing of such historical memories, and interpreted
their colours as meaning the passage from the black night of
slavery, through bloody struggles, to the golden dawn of freedom.
Thus it was that from out these students' dreams there came
into existence that tricolor, which for half a century remained
the banner of the national desire, which was to bring to Ger-
many so many hopes and so many tears, so many noble thoughts
and so many sins, until at length, like the black-blue-and-red
banner of the Italian carbonari, it became disgraced in the fury
of party struggles, and, once more like the carbonari banner, was
replaced by the colours of the national state.

The intention of the Burschenschaft to unite all the students
in a single association originated in an overstrained idealism,
for the greatest charm of such societies of young men lies, in truth,
in the intimacies of individual friendship. The invincible per-
sonal pride of the Germans would not so readily allow all to be
treated on equal terms. To aristocratic natures, the general use

1 Fuller details in Appendix V.
51

History of Germany

of the familiar " them," which the Burschenschaft enjoined, was
uncongenial. Not alone the rude debauchees of the old school,
but also many harmless pleasure-loving young men, were
bored by the precociously wise and earnest tone of the Burschen,
among whom prestige could be acquired solely by emotional elo-
quence, or perhaps, in addition, by good swordsmanship. Men of
free and individual intelligence, such as young Carl Immermann
of Halle, cared nothing for the opinion of the leaders of the Bur-
schenschaft, holding that distinguished student chiefs are very
rarely men of talent. The only resource against such opponents
was dictatorial severity, and the narrowness characteristic of
every new tendency (among young men at least) soon increased
in the Burschenschaft to the pitch of terrorism. In Jena it
proved possible for the time being to silence all differences of
opinion, and the conceit of the Burschen now became intolerable.
With important mien, the executive and the members of the
committee strode every afternoon up and down the market place,
deliberating in measured conversation the weal of the fatherland
and of the universities ; they regarded themselves as lords of
this small academic realm, all the more because most of the pro-
fessors exhibited for these youthful tyrants a quite immoderate
veneration, compounded of fear and benevolence ; even now,
the leaders of the Burschenschaft looked forward to the time
when their organisation would rule all Germany.

Patriotic orations displaying passion and enthusiasm became
more and more violent, already concluding at times with the
triumphant assertion : " Our judgment has the weight of history
itself ; it annihilates." How many old members of the Burschen-
schaft went down to their graves inspired by the happy illusion
that it was in truth their organisation which had founded the new
German empire. Half a century later, Arnold Ruge described
the long struggle for unity and freedom characteristic of modern
German history as a single great pro patria dispute between
Burschenschafts and students' corps. Indisputably, many a young
man of ability acquired his first understanding of the splendour
of the fatherland at a students' drinking party, but the political
idealism of those days was too formless to arouse a definitely
drected sentiment. To the first generation of the Burschen-
schaft there belonged, in addition to isolated liberal party-leaders
like H. von Gagern, a great many men who subsequently dis-
played ultra-conservative tendencies, as for instance Leo, Stahl,
W. Menzel, Jarke, and Hengstenberg. Voluble enthusiasm, hazy

52

The Burschenschaft

egoism, and the persistent confusion of appearance and reality,
were unfavourable to the development of political talent. On
the whole it may be said that from the Burschenschaft there
proceeded more professors and authors, whilst from the ranks
of the corps, the subsequent opponents of the Burschenschaft,
were derived more statesmen.

For the present, however, the Burschenschaft was supreme
in Jena. Its fame was disseminated through all the universities,
where it attracted new students, and at Jena the number of
students speedily became doubled. At other universities, too,
Burschenschafts were established ; in Giessen, for instance, and
in Tubingen, where as long before as 1813 a Tugendbund had
been founded to counteract academic brutality. Quite spon-
taneously there now awakened the desire to celebrate the new
community at a formal meeting of all German Burschen. In
dispersed peoples, the impulse to unity finds natural expression in
such free social relationships, extending beyond the bounds of
the individual state ; in Germany, as in Italy, congresses of men
of science, artists, and industrials were, like stormy petrels, the
forerunners of the bloody struggles for unity. Among the Ger-
mans it was the students who took the first step, and nothing
can show more plainly the inertia of political life in those days.
Long before grown men had conceived the idea of coming to an
understanding about their serious common interests, among our
youth the impulse became active to interchange their common
dreams and hopes, and through the play of the imaginative life
to rejoice in the ideal unity of the fatherland.

3. THE WARTBURG FESTIVAL.

The centenary festival of the Reformation awakened every-
where among Protestants a happy sentiment of grateful pride.
In these days even Goethe sang : " Ever in art and science shall
my voice of protest rise." The students, in especial, were affected
by this mood of the time, because their minds were still influenced
by the Christian Protestant enthusiasm of the War of Libera-
tion. When the idea of a great fraternal festival of the German
Burschen was first mooted in Jahn's circle, the Jena Burschen-
schaft resolved to postpone the day of assembly to the eighteenth
day of "the moon of victory" in the year 1817, in order to
combine the centenary festival of the Reformation with the
customary annual commemoration of the battle of Leipzig,

53

History of Germany

Arminius, Luther, Scharnhorst, all the great figures of those who
led Germanism in the struggle against foreign encroachments,
became fused into a single image in the conceptions of these
young hotheads. To the more revolutionary spirits, Luther
seemed a republican hero, a precursor of the free " conviction."
In a commemorative pamphlet by Carl Sand, which was circu-
lated among the students, the Evangelical doctrine of Christian
freedom was fantastically intertwined with modern democratic
notions. " The leading idea of our festival," wrote Sand, " is that
we are consecrated to priesthood through baptism, that we are
all free and equal. From of old there have ever been three
primal enemies of our German nationality: the Romans, monas-
ticism, and militarism." By this attitude, the universally
German character of the festival was from the first impaired. The
Catholic universities of the highlands, which in any case had as yet
no regular intercourse on the part of their students with those of
North Germany, could not receive an invitation ; the Burschen of
Freiburg had to light their fires of victory on the eighteenth of
October by themselves, on the Wartenberg near Donaueschingen.
The Austrian universities did not come into the question at all,
for they were quite aloof from the German students' customs, and,
with the exception of the Transylvanian Saxons and a few Hun-
garians, hardly any Austrians studied in Germany. Even in the
Prussian universities, the Burschenschaft had as yet secured so
few adherents that Berlin was the only one to accept the invita-
tion. The consequence was that at the festival of the national
battle the students of the two states which alone had fought at
Leipzig in the cause of freedom were almost unrepresented, and
all the extraordinary fables with which the liberals of the Rhenish
Confederate lands were accustomed to adorn the history of the
War of Liberation found free currency.

Long in advance, and with vigorous trumpeting, the press
had heralded the great day. A free assembly of Germans from
all parts, meeting solely on behalf of the fatherland, was to this
generation a phenomenon so astounding as to seem almost more
important than the world-shaking experiences of recent years.
During October i7th fifteen hundred Burschen arrived at Eise-
nach, about half of this number being from Jena, thirty from
Berlin, and the rest from Giessen, Marburg, Erlangen, Heidel-
berg, and the other universities of the minor states ; following
the custom of the gymnasts, the vigorous men of Kiel had come
the whole distance on foot. Four of the Jena professors, Fries,

54

The Burschenschaft

Oken, Schweitzer, and Kieser, were also present. As the men of
each new group entered, they were greeted at the gate with loud
hurrahs, and were then conducted to the Rautenkranz, there
before the severe members of the committee to swear to observe
the peace strictly for three days. Early on the following morn-
ing, a fine autumn day, " the sacred train " made its way
through the forest to the reformer's stronghold. The procession
was led by Scheidler, carrying the sword of the Burschen,
and ^ollowed by four vassals ; next came Count Keller, sur-
rounded by four standard guards, with the new colours of the
Burschen which the girls of Jena had shortly before embroidered
for their austere young friends ; the Burschen followed two by
two, among them a number of heroic German figures, many of
them bearded (which to the timid already sufficed to arouse
suspicion of treasonable designs). Delight shone from every eye,
for all were inspired by the happy self-forgetfulness of youth
which is still able to immerse itself in the pleasures of the moment.
It seemed to them as if to-day for the first time they had been
able truly to appreciate the glories of their fatherland.

In the banqueting-hall of the Wartburg, which the grand
duke had hospitably thrown open, God is to us a tower of strength
was first of all sung amid the rolling of kettle-drums and the blast
of trumpets. Then Riemann, of Liitzow's yagers, delivered an
inaugural address describing in emotional and exaggerated phrase-
ology the deeds of Luther and of Blucher, and going on to exhort
the Burschen by the spirits of the mighty dead " to strive for
the acquirement of every human and patriotic virtue." The
speech was not free from the current catchwords about the frus-
trated hopes of the German nation and about the one prince who
had kept his word. As a whole, it was a youthful and obscure
but thoroughly harmless outpouring of sentimentality, just as
vague and unmeaning as the new pass-word Volunto ! of which
the Burschen were so fond. Nor did the subsequent speeches of
the professors and of the other students exceed this measure, for
even Oken spoke with unusual self-restraint, warning the young
people against premature political activities.

After the midday meal, the Burschen returned to the town
and went to church, the service being also attended by the Eise-
nach Landsturm ; and after church the champions of the Berlin
and Jena gymnastic grounds displayed their arts to the astonished
Landsturmers. At nightfall there was a renewed procession
to the Wartenberg, opposite the Warsburg, this time by torchlight,

55

1 1 istory of Germany

and here were lighted a number of bonfires of victory,
greeted with patriotic speeches and songs. Hitherto the festival
had been characterised by a pleasing harmony, but now it became
manifest that there already existed within the Burschenschaft
a small party of extremists, composed of those fanatical primitive
Teutons of Jahn's school who passed by the name of " Old Ger-
mans." The Turnvater had felt that this valuable opportunity
for a senseless demonstration must on no account be lost. He
had suggested that the festival in commemoration of Luther
should be crowned by an imitation of the boldest of the reformer's
actions, and that just as Luther had once burned the papal bull
of excommunication, so now the writings of the enemies of the
good cause should be cast into the flames. Since the majority
of the festival committee, wiser than Jahn, had rejected the
proposal, Jahn had given his Berlin companions a list of the books
to be burned, and his faithful followers, led by Massmann, now
determined to carry out the master's plan on their own initiative,
a proceeding which the committee, desiring to keep the peace,
was unwilling positively to prohibit. On the Wartenberg, hardly
had the last serious song been finished by the Burschen surround-
ing the fires, and the true festival been brought to a close, when
Massmann suddenly came to the front, and in a bombastic speech
exhorted the brethren to contemplate how, in accordance with
Luther's example, sentence was to be executed in the fires of
purgatory upon the evil writings of the fatherland. Now had
arrived the sacred hour " in which all the world of Germany
can see what we desire ; can know what is to be expected from us
in the future."

Thereupon his associates brought forward several parcels of
old printed matter, each inscribed with the titles of the con-
demned books. Tossed in by a pitchfork, the works of the
traitors to their fatherland then fell into the infernal flames amid
loud hooting. The parcels contained a wonderfully mixed
society of about two dozen books in all, some good and some bad,
everything which had most recently aroused the anger of the I sis
and similar journals. There were burned the works of Wadzeck
and Scherer, and, to make a clean sweep, those " of all the other
cribbling, screaming, and speechless foes of the praiseworthy
gymnastic craft " ; copies of the Alemannia, too, found their way
to the flames, with issues " of all the other newspapers which
disgrace and dishonour the fatherland " ; then, of course, came
three writings by the detested Schmalz (while the chorus intonecl

56

The Burschenschaft

an opprobrious pun upon the author's name), and the General
Code of the Gendarmerie by Schmalz's comrade, Kamptz. Beside
the code Napoleon, Kotzebue's German History, and Ascher's
Germanomania (followed by a shout of "Woe unto the Jews"),
there was burned Haller's Restoration, the choice of this victim
being explained on the ground " the fellow does not want the
German fatherland to have a constitution " — although not one
of the Burschen had ever read this ponderous book. But even
Benzenberg and Wangenheim, liberals both, had to suffer at the
hands of these angry young men because their works had proved
incomprehensible to the Jena journalists. Finally, an Uhlan
warrior's pair of stays, a pigtail, and a corporal's cane, were
burned as " fuglemen of military pedantry, the scandal of the
serious and sacred warrior caste " ; and with three groans for
"the rascally Schmalzian crew" the judges of this modern
Fehmic court dispersed.

The farce was indescribably silly, but no worse than
many similar expressions of academic coarseness, and it demanded
serious consideration only on account of the measureless arro-
gance and Jacobin intolerance shown in the young people's offen-
sive orations. Stein spoke in very strong terms about " the
tomfoolery at the Wartburg " ; while Niebuhr, ever inclined to
the gloomiest view, wrote with much anxiety, " Liberty is quite
impossible if young people lack veneration and modesty." He
was disgusted by this " religious comedy," by the ludicrous con-
trast between the bold reformer who had risen in revolt against
the highest and most sacred authority of his time, and on the
other hand this safe passing of fiery judgment by a group of
boastful young Burschen upon a number of writings of which they
hardly knew a line ! At the students' assembly, on the follow-
ing day, the young men made use of calmer language, being at
least more reasonable than their teacher Fries, who had left them
a written discourse of an incredibly tasteless character, turgid
with mystical biblical wisdom and Saxe- Weimar arrogance of
liberty. " Return," admonished Fries, " to your own places say-
ing that you have visited the land where the German people is
free, where German thought is free . . . Here there is no stand-
ing army to burden the nation ! A little land shows you the
goal! But all the German princes made a similar promise " . . .,
and so on. Certainly Stein had good reason for censuring the
Jena professors as " drivelling metapoliticians," and Goethe
reason just as good when he invoked a curse upon all German

57 F

History of Germany

political oratory, for what could be expected from the young
when their revered teacher held up the four-and-twenty hussars
of Weimar as a glorious example for the rest of Germany ! The
same repulsive intermingling of religion and politics which was
displayed in Fries's speech, came to light once more in the after-
noon, when some of the Burschen hit upon the idea of taking
Holy Communion. Superintendent Nebe actually conceded the
point, and administered the sacrament to a number of excited
and more or less intoxicated young men — a characteristic example
of that deplorable laxity which in time of trouble has ever distin-
guished both the temporal and the spiritual authorities of the
petty states.

Notwithstanding the follies of individuals, the festival as a
whole was harmless, happy, and innocent. When in the evening
the young men had said their farewells with streaming eyes, for
most of them there remained a life-long memory, scintillating
like a May-day in youth, as Heinrich Leo assures us. They had
had a brotherly meeting with comrades from the south and from
the north ; they considered that the unity of the disintegrated
fatherland was already within their grasp ; and if only
public opinion had been sensible enough to leave these young
hotheads to themselves and to their own dreams, the good resolu-
tions which many an excellent youth formed in those hours of
excitement might have borne valuable fruit.

But amid the profound stillness which brooded over the
German north, the impudent speeches of the Burschen resounded
far too loudly. It seemed as if friend and foe had entered into
a conspiracy to increase to the pitch of mania the sentiment of
morbid self-conceit, that deadly sin of youth which corrupts its
honourable enthusiasms, as if everyone accepted the boastful
assurance of Carove, one of the Wartburg orators, who had
extolled the universities as the natural defenders of national
honour. With ludicrous earnestness the liberal newspapers
delightedly hailed this first awakening of the public life of the
nation, " this silvery sheen in our history, this blossoming of our
epoch " ; while, on the other hand, the old terror of the domes-
ticated townsman for the students who used to beat night watch-
men clothed itself in a political dress. A whole library of
writings and counter-writings illuminated the extraordinary drama
from all sides, raising this outburst of students' revelry to the level
of a European event. It was natural that the heroes of the occa-
sion should participate with justified pride in this paper- warfare.

58

The Burschenschaft

The most faithful picture of the young people's hazy enthusiasm
was given by Massmann in a long report of the festival, in which
the stilted oracular phraseology unquestionably served to show
how much that was un-German was after all concealed in the
Jahnese "strong-manhood." " Although the gloomy winter night
of serfdom," he begins, " still lowers over the hills and the streams
of the German land, nevertheless the peaks are aflame, and the
blood-red gold of dawn gathers strength." The poor young man
had now to make severe atonement for the Turnvater's folly.
Since he dreaded a prosecution and did not wish to cut too
painful a figure before the judges, he had to devote the whole
winter term to the belated perusal of all the evil books which he
had symbolically burned on the Wartenburg. Another work,
presumably by Carove, was dedicated to the writer's Rhenish
fellow-countrymen with the wish that the spiritual sun of the
Wartburg might illumine them also, might bring them strength
and consolation in their misfortune. The majority, however,
still remained tolerably quiet. A proposal to publish a political
programme was rejected with the definite declaration that the
Burschenschaft was not to intervene in politics, whilst a short
writing on the Wartburg festival by F. I. Frommann, a
member of a respected family of Jena booksellers, was thoroughly
modest, being characterised merely by a harmless youthful
enthusiasm.

Unfortunately several of the professors who had attended the
festival proved far more foolish than their pupils. In a typically
coarse newspaper report, Fries did not hesitate to express plain
approval of the fire-assize which had dealt with the writings
"of some of the Schmalzian crew." To "many who discuss
Germany wisely and unwisely," Oken, in the I sis, held up the
Wartburg gathering as a brilliant example, availing himself of all
the pictorial wealth of his goose-heads, donkey-heads, priest-
heads, and Jew-heads, in order to pour out fresh scorn upon the
authors of the burned writings, whereupon the Jena students,
in a masked procession through the market place, gave a
dramatic representation of the I sis caricatures. Finally Kieser,
who, despite his magnetic secret doctrines, was respected by
other members of the medical faculty as a man of intelligence
and learning, published a work, " dedicated to the Wartburg
spirit of the German universities," positively luxuriating in crazy
vaunts, saying that the Wartburg festival was " an event of which
Germany's peoples will still be proud when centuries have elapsed,

59

History of Germany

one of those events which, like all that is truly great, never recur
in history, an event which in its hidden womb may bear fruitful
germs, influential for centuries to come ! "

For these outbreaks of academic delusion of grandeur, the
petty sensibilities of the members of the opposing party were
largely responsible. The age was still but little accustomed to
the virulence of political struggles, and almost all the authors who
had been selected for condemnation felt that they had been seri-
ously affronted by the tomfoolery of the students. Wangenheim
alone bore the insult with good humour, saying that hitherto his
colleagues at the Bundestag had regarded him with suspicion
as a demagogue, but that since his book had been burned upon
the Wartburg they had come to greet him in a more friendly
spirit. Many of the others uttered loud complaints, and circu-
lated gloomy reports, as that the charter of the Holy Alliance
and the federal act had also been burned by the youthful traitors.
Especially infuriated was Privy Councillor Kamptz, and he
eagerly grasped the welcome chance of suppressing the
academic Jacobins once for all. What a piece of luck it was
that the ignorant young men had chosen to commit to the flames
his gendarmerie code, a collection of police regulations, to
which the editor had added hardly anything ! Sovereign
ordinances, among them some issued by Charles Augustus him-
self, had been publicly burned upon the grand-ducal soil of Saxe-
Weimar, and according to Quistorp's work upon Criminal Law it
was indisputable that the " crime of lese-majeste " had been per-
petrated. In two minatory letters to the grand duke, and subse-
quently in a pamphlet Concerning the Public Burning of Printed
Matters, Kamptz expounded these ideas, and stormily demanded
satisfaction, declaring that German soil had been desecrated,
that the century had been denied by the vandalism of dema-
gogic intolerance, and by vulgar displays on the part of the
tools of evil professors.

At the court of Vienna the only feeling was one of alarm and
anger. The news from Eisenach led Metternich for the first
time to devote serious attention to German affairs, which he had
hitherto treated with profound indifference, for he recognised with
terror that behind the fantastical activities of these young men
there lurked the deadly enemy of his system, the national idea.
He immediately declared to the Prussian envoy that the time
had arrived " to take strong measures [sevir] against this spirit of
Jacobinism," and he requested the chancellor to join with Austria

60

The Burschenschaft

in common action against the court of Weimar.1 In the first
moment of panic he even desired the immediate recall from Jena
of all the Austrian students at that university. In the Oester-
reichische Beobachter Gentz published a number of savage articles
upon the Wartburg festival, an artful compost of perspicuity and
folly. Only with trembling, he declared, could a father to-day
see his son depart to the university. Such plaints of nervous
anxiety were succeeded by a masterly refutation (based upon
an extraordinary wealth of knowledge) of the vainglorious students'
fables concerning the wonderful deeds of the volunteers.

In Berlin, the king was much more concerned than were
his ministers. Frederick William himself had never been a
student, and therefore had no personal experience of the rough
humours of student life, so that he was disgusted by the noisy
and boastful activity of the young men. In the previous spring
he had taken action against the Teutonia of Halle when Carl
Immermann had begged him for protection against the terrorism
of the Burschenschaft, and he now had inquiries made at all the
Prussian universities as to who had participated in the Wartburg
festival. The Burschen of Konigsberg were commended because
they had held aloof ; on December 7th strict commands were
issued to the minister of education that all students' associations
should immediately be suppressed and membership therein
prohibited on pain of expulsion, while the practices of the
gymnasts were to be closely supervised. " I shall not hesitate
for a moment," wrote the king, " to abolish any university in
which the spirit of undiscipline proves ineradicable." 2

Altenstein fulfilled his orders with benevolent caution. He
had not lost confidence in the good sentiments of the students ;
he praised the unaffrighted conduct of the grand duke of Weimar ;
and held firmly to the hope " that just as the Prussian universities
surpass all the others of Germany in their purposive and free-
handed equipment, so also may they continue to excel by giving
oexmple of an activity which, while vigorous, remains directed
ta right ends." 3 Hardenberg, on the other hand, eagerly
endorsed the king's views. It was not that he altogether shared
the monarch's anxieties, but the young demagogues' speeches threat-
ened to destroy his most cherished plans. The completion of the
constitution remained the ultimate goal of his policy, and this

1 Krusemark's Reports, November 12 and 22, 1817.

* Cabinet Order to Altenstein, December 7, 1817.

* Altenstein to Hardenberg, November 30, 1817; August 25, 1818.

6l

History of Germany

work could never be brought to a successful issue if a spirit of
suspicion were to become firmly established in the king's mind.
Hence he considered that all manifestations of demagogic senti-
ments must forthwith be stifled once and for all. Schleiermacher's
lectures Concerning the Doctrine o/ the State, though purely scien-
tific in character and utterly devoid of party feeling, had recently,
through the instrumentality of some scandalmonger, been made
an object of suspicion at court, and had led the king to give vent
to a few bitter observations ; Hardenberg lacked courage to open
the monarch's eyes by a straightforward word ; instructed the
minister of education to forbid the continuance of these lectures
" which, without being of any real utility, serve merely to sow
dissension " ; and cancelled his order only because even Wittgen-
stein considered it injudicious. l In the like arbitrary spirit did
the chancellor accept Metternich's proposals. Since he was in-
tending to pay an immediate visit to the Rhenish provinces, he
determined to travel by way of Weimar, and there, supported by
the Austrian envoy Count Zichy, to have a word with the grand
duke, and to hand to him monitory letters from the emperor and
the king.

Amid the general excitement, Charles Augustus alone
remained serene and equable ; in youth he himself had long
luxuriated in the effervescent spirits of the student, and did not
esteem the Burschen's boasting more seriously than it deserved.
The Deutsche Burschenzeitung which had been announced on
the Wart burg was prohibited ; a few other newspapers were
admonished ; while a criminal prosecution was instituted against
Oken, which ended in an acquittal because in the indictment he
was foolishly accused of high treason — the article in the Isis had
afforded ample ground for a prosecution for libel. A prosecution
initiated against Fries was discontinued as objectless, and it was
considered sufficient to administer a reprimand on account of his
tactless speech. For the rest, the Jena students were left
unmolested. On November 26th, through his charge d'affaires in
Berlin, Charles Augustus assured the Prussian government :
" The present excitement is general, and is a natural consequence
of events ; it may be allayed by confidence and courage, but
suspicion and forcible measures would throw Germany into con-
fusion." - He encountered the emissaries of the two great powers

1 Hardenberg to Altenstein and Wittgenstein, December jth ; Rother to
Hardenberg, December 15, 1817.

2 Edling's Instruction to Muller, charge d'affaires, November 26, 1817.

62

The Burschenschaft

with his customary cheerful candour, and promised to co-operate
in establishing a federal press-law At the grand duke's request,
Zichy now paid a visit to Jena, accompanied by Edling, in order
to examine this nidus of revolt close at hand, and since nothing
remarkable occurred the two great powers temporarily abstained
from further steps. But suspicion remained alive, and King
Frederick William expressed his disapproval in the strongest
possible terms when, in the following summer, Massmann was
appointed gymnastic teacher at Breslau. The French govern-
ment, which had long been rendered uneasy by the intrigues of
the prince of Orange and of the refugees in Belgium, also made
serious representations to the court of Weimar. Czar Alexander,
the protagonist of Christian liberalism, refused to sound the alarm
in the ears of the Germanic Federation, as Metternich wished
him to do, but was nevertheless unable wholly to master his
secret fears, and in an autograph letter he urged the grand duke
to take stringent measures against the press.1 The dread of an
approaching revolution grew ever stronger, and since the foreign
powers were all conscious of their sins against Germany they
regarded this peaceful land, in which, after all, the traces of an
uneasy movement were still few and far between, as the natural
centre of the European revolutionary party.

The fears of the cabinets had an extremely unfavourable
influence upon the students' mood, for now that all the great
powers of the continent were up in arms against them, the
Burschen considered that they had become central figures in
history. The democratic ideas which had hitherto slumbered
beneath the cloak of the Christo Germanic fantasies now came
impudently into the open, and together with Korner's songs there
was often sung the Marseillaise as Germanised by old Voss :

We come, we come ! Quake, hireling-swarm,
And take to flight or die !

No one asked to what nation this " hireling-swarm " of Rouget
de Lisle had belonged ! The revolutionary party of the " Old
Germans " became by degrees sharply distinguished from the
innocent masses of the Burschen. While these latter, weary
of the eternal political discussions, made for themselves a merry
beer- kingdom in Lichtenhain, the " quiet republican statesmen "

1 Altenstein to Hardenberg, August 1 8th and September 15th ; Report of
the Badenese envoy General von Stockhorn, Berlin, February 7, 1818.

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History of Germany

(as Arnold Ruge termed them) held formal session in their
republic of Ziegenhain, discussing in emotional orations whether
the unity of Germany could be more effectively secured by the
assassination or by the peaceful mediatisation of the princes.
A new song Thirty, or Three and Thirty, it matters little ! referred
very plainly to the former method, but there still were to be found
a few of gentler nature who desired to grant the king of Prussia
a retiring allowance of three hundred thalers per annum. Folly
began to break all bounds, and the blameless Fries had frequent
occasion to learn how the forms of intercourse practised by the
gymnasts were developing. He associated with his young friends
upon terms which permitted them to address him in the second
person singular and had therefore no reason to feel surprised
when one of his students wrote to him as follows : "I feel that in
future I shall not be writing to Councillor Fries, but to thee, my
old friend Fries, whilst thou repliest to thy faithful pupil D. Now
look here, thou fine old fellow, we are young people, and we are
having a better time of it than didst thou in thy youth."

Shortly after the Wart burg festival, an odious literary
quarrel came to add fuel to the flames. To the students, Kotzebue
had long been a thorn in the side ; they detested the insipid
lasciviousness of his plays and dreaded him as a skilled opponent.
In the Liter arische Wochenblatt, which enjoyed the special favour
of Metternich, he advocated the views of enlightened absolutism,
sang the praises of Russia with servile flattery, and attacked the
idealism of the students (as he attacked everything which sur-
passed the limits of his own sordid understanding) with so much
malice and venom that even Goethe wished him joy of the fire-
assize on the Wartburg, exclaiming :

Too long, too long, for mean ends fighting,
And with base scorn of high things writing,
Of thine own folk a mock hast made,
At hands of youth art well repaid.

But the old rascal still possessed his impudent wit and his nimble
pen. He uttered many an apt word regarding the intolerable
presumption of the students ; he had a sharp eye for their ill-
breeding ; and when, in his amusing Commendation of the Asses'
Heads, he joined issue with the I sis, he was left victor on the
field, for the dull and inflated young men were incapable of meet-
ing him with his own weapons. Kotzebue lived in Weimar as

64

The Burschenschaft

secretary to the Russian legation, and his tenure of this diplo-
matic post aroused offence, for he was a native of Weimar, he
owed his literary repute to the Germans alone, and in his Wochen-
blatt wrote freely about the affairs of the fatherland as a Ger-
man. But who could expect from such a man the fine feelings
of national pride ? It was an open secret that throughout Ger-
many there lived secret agents of the St. Petersburg police.
When Faber, the Russian councillor of state, visited Rhine-
land, Count Solms-Laubach considered it advisable to have him
shadowed by the trusty Barsch. The Russian cabinet owed its
knowledge of European affairs chiefly to the reports which Russians
of quality living in the west were accustomed to send to the
court. Kotzebue also sent occasional reports to St. Petersburg,
but he could by no means be numbered among the dangerous
spies, for his bulletins consisted exclusively of critical surveys
dealing with the most recent manifestations in German literature.
One day Kotzebue's secretary, who lived in the same house
with Lindner, the editor of the Oppositionsblatt, came to the latter
and innocently requested his assistance in deciphering certain
passages in a report written by Kotzebue in French. Lindner
immediately recognised the nature of the document, asked to be
allowed to keep it for an hour, copied the most important pas-
sages, and did not feel it dishonourable to communicate forthwith
to Luden the bulletin thus purloined. It contained nothing more
than a few extracts from the Nemesis and similar writings
(extracts which, though casual and inexact, gave the sense
correctly enough), together with some far from flattering criticisms
of Luden's authorship, such as might naturally be expected from
a political opponent — the men of Jena were certainly accus-
tomed to treat their enemies far more roughly. Luden, who was
not lacking in worldly wisdom, eagerly seized the opportunity
of exposing a dreaded opponent and at the same time clearing
himself from the suspicion of demagogic sentiments. He had
the stolen document printed ; endeavoured by paltry and not
altogether straightforward quibbling to prove that Kotzebue
had falsified the innocent words of the Nemesis ; and branded him
as a calumniator. All along the line the liberal press now
advanced to the attack upon the " Russian spy," who after all had
not spied out any secret, but had merely handed on publicly
printed writings. Blow succeeded blow ; a furious dispute began,
creditable to neither side. The courts intervened, condemning
both parties ; Lindner was exiled, and went to Alsace, where(

65

History of Germany

bewitched by the doctrines of the French, he speedily became a
liberalising Rhenish Confederate. The students, however, had
at length discovered in Kotzebue a target for the aimless but
fierce hatred with which their hearts were filled. The sensuous old
fellow in Weimar seemed to them a pattern of all the infamies,
the evil genius of the fatherland, and the Burschen sang in
threatening tones :

Still bays the friend of Kamptz and Schmalz,
Beel- and Kotzebue.

Such was the ferment in the minds of the young, while the
nation continued with childish curiosity to discuss every act of
folly on the part of the students. In the summer of 1818, as
the sequel to a dispute with the bourgeoisie quite devoid of
political bearing, the students of Gottingen marched out of the town
of the muses, declaring the Georgia Augusta university to be taboo,
and caroused for a few days in Witzenhausen, taking the oppor-
tunity of drinking destruction to the defunct institution. Such
an exodus might perhaps in old days sometimes endanger the
existence of a university ; but now, when every one of the federal
states demanded of its officials and clergy that they should have
attended the territorial university, it was merely something to
laugh at. None the less, even this child's play called into
existence a sheaf of pamphlets. Councillor Dabelow, the distin-
guished organiser of the Empire Anhaltin-Ccethien, who had been
among those to experience the tender mercies of the fire-assize
of the Wartburg, implored the exalted governments to take serious
measures against the young traitors. As it happened, this able
jurist shortly afterwards received a call to Dorpat, and now it
seemed to the students clearly proved that the czar had sur-
rounded them with spies. Another author devoted a whole book
to the description of the affair of the Gottingen exodus, adorning
his work with pictures of the students in the council of the taboo
— sinister figures which seemed to have come straight out of the
Bohemian forest from the band of Robber Moor. Soon after-
wards the students of Tubingen fought the battle of Lustnau, a
struggle round a village-tavern of which the poets of the Swabian
university still sing to-day ; next the Heidelberg Burschen were
seized with the spirit of unrest, and stormed the beerhouse of
the Great Tun. All these trifles were ceremoniously described
throughout the German press. Alike at the courts and among

66

The Burschenschaft

the people, the student acquired an incredible prestige, being here
honoured as a born tribune, there regarded with suspicion as a
professional conspirator, while Count de Serre, the French minister
of state, wrote to his friend Niebuhr, " I am sorry for your states-
men, they wage war with students ! "

The stout-hearted Charles Augustus alone retained undis-
turbed his high-spirited confidence. In July, 1818, the Jena
students, led by Heinrich von Gagern, held a torchlight proces-
sion in honour of the birth of the duke's grandson. He gave
them a banquet in the court-yard of the palace, appeared on the
balcony in a mood of youthful cheerfulness, and long continued
to watch the lively proceedings, beaming with delight. Then,
in accordance with the patriarchal custom of the Ernestines,
inviting to the prince's christening all the corporations of the
country, he included in the invitation three representatives of the
Burschenschaft ; as the Hofburg learned with intense anger, these
dangerous fellows were actually summoned to the festive board,
and were manifestly treated with distinction by the inquisi-
tive maids-of-honour. Charles Augustus had been tried in the
balance and found wanting, and in Metternich's circle he was
henceforward spoken of only as the " Old Bursche."

Meanwhile the seed scattered on the Wartburg began to
spring up. Burschenschafts after the Jena model were formed
at fourteen universities. Delegates from these met at Jena in
October, 1818. and upon the anniversary of the Wartburg festival
the Allgemeine Deutsche Burschenschaft [Universal German
Burschenschaft] was founded, as a free association of all
German students, " established upon the relationship of the German
youth to the coming unity of the German fatherland." A general
Burschenschaft of delegates from every university was to assemble
annually in the " moon of victory." The organic statutes describing
the aims of the association were quite unobjectionable, demanding
unity, liberty, and equality of all Burschen, and the Christo-
Germanic development of all their energies in the service of the
fatherland. The only alarming feature was the terrorist spirit
which desired to enforce membership upon all students, which
declared other associations to be " taboo without further con-
sideration," and which was yet unable to achieve the impossible,
for at all the universities except Jena some of the Landsmann-
schafts continued to exist in addition to the Burschenschaft. To
particularism, and to its leader, the court of Vienna, it was
natural that the very existence of this " youths' federal state,"

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History of Germany

as Fries termed it, should seem extremely dangerous, since here
for the first time in the forcibly disintegrated nation was consti-
tuted a corporation embracing the whole of Germany. So new
was the phenomenon that even Goethe anxiously asked whether
a guild could be tolerated extending throughout Germany but not
subordinated to the Bundestag.

Whilst the Burschenschaft was thus spreading more and
more widely, its internal strength and unity were already being
impaired by a confused segregation into factions. A generation
inspired with enthusiasm for Schiller's sentimental love of liberty
was from the first inclined to be receptive for the ideas of Rousseau,
and it was inevitable that after several years had been passed in
continuous and lively political discussion the demagogic party
should ultimately gain ground. The university of Giessen was the
centre of the academic revolutionary spirit. Here in the west
the doctrines of the French Revolution had long before taken
firm root ; the arbitrariness of the Bonapartist officialdom in
Darmstadt and Nassau had made the young people bitter, and
when the hour of liberation at length struck for these territories
as well, through an unkindly fate it happened that the students
at Giessen, who flocked to the colours, hardly ever came face to
face with the enemy. In exhausting marches they learned only
the prose of war. and had no experience of its inspiriting joys ;
they had much to suffer from the roughness of their Rhenish
Confederate officers who did not know how to get on with men
of education in the rank and file ; and they returned home in
low spirits, loathing the " hireling system," and with no inkling
of the loyal monarchical sentiments of the Prussian army, with
which they had never come into contact. They swore that Ger-
many had waged the war solely on account of the constitution,
and that all the blood had been shed in vain.

Peculiar to the student leagues of Giessen was a secret inter-
course with men of riper years, which in Jena was happily
unknown. At the time of the war several secret societies against
the foreign dominion had been constituted in the region of the
Lahn, but had never effected anything in particular. In 1814, in
accordance with a plan drawn up by Arndt, a German Association
was formed in Idstein, and the neighbourhood ; in the following
year the legal councillor C. Hoffmann, of Rodelheim, founded
a league which was in touch with Justus Gruner, and which
favoured Prussian hegemony.1 Some of the members of these

1 See vol. II., pp. 458, 459.

68

The Burschenschaft

associations speedily abandoned their Teutonising ideals in favour
of cosmopolitan revolutionary notions, and carried on secret cor-
respondence with the Burschen of Giessen. Among the advanced
revolutionaries were the brothers Ludwig, two of the leaders of
the Nassau opposition, Wilhelm Snell, and above all Weidig,
vice-master at Butzbach, an eloquent apostle of equality, in whose
eyes every government was sinful because God's word prescribed
the complete equality of all mankind. The influence of these
men and the stifling atmosphere of a thoroughly unhealthy state-
system soon produced an extraordinarily fanatical tone in the
student life of Giessen. An association of " Blacks " came into
existence, and endeavoured to enforce its revolutionary new code,
the Ehrenspiegel [code of honour], upon all the other students ;
the Landsmannschafts, on the other hand, played the part of
representatives of particularism, sported the Hessian cockade,
and by means of a denunciation secured the dissolution of the
Blacks' organisation. But the more zealous members of the
suppressed league continued their work in secret.

Their leaders were the brothers Follen, Adolf, Carl, and Paul,
three handsome young men of great stature, full of life and fire,
ardent republicans all, sons of a Giessen official ; they had one
sister, who subsequently became the mother of Carl Vogt. Adolf
Follen was distinguished by a fine lyrical talent, which he
corrupted by the unnatural emotionalism of his declamatory revolu-
tionary phraseology ; it was to him and to his friend Sartorius
that the gymnasts owed their most savage and impudent songs.
A more notable man was his brother Carl, a fanatical adherent of
the principles of harsh reason, essentially a barren intelligence,
but possessing rare dialectic penetration, a man of prematurely
ripe character, entirely self-satisfied, one who after the manner
of revolutionary prophets knew how to assume the appearance
of elemental profundity, impressing many of his young associates
as if he had been the Old Man of the Mountain. He was already
a demonstrator of law, and charmed the students by that pose
of absolute certainty which by inexperienced youth is so readily
accepted as a mark of genius ; every one of his words was measured,
and not one was ever withdrawn ; with remorseless logic he deduced
his conclusions from the premise of the unconditional equality
of all, shrinking from no possible consequence. The enigmatical
mixture of coldness and fanaticism in his nature, together with
the meticulous neatness of his aspect and his minatory expression,
recalled Robespierre ; but Follen was no hypocrite, and really

69

History of Germany

practised the austere moral code which he preached. Carl Pollen
liad nothing but a smile for the innocent imperial dreams of the
Burschen of Tubingen and Jena, who loved to imagine the crown
of the Hohenstaufen on the head of their William or of their
Charles Augustus ; moreover, he regarded their Gallophobia and
their Teutonomania as childish, although he carefully refrained
from parading his own cosmopolitan views, since to do this would
have deprived him of all influence. In a word, he was a Jacobin,
and it is probable that as early as the year 1818 (as the Burschen
of Jena suspected), and unquestionable that from 1820 onwards,
he was in confidential correspondence with the revolutionary
secret societies which, spread all over France, were controlled by
Lafayette's comite directeur. His leading principle was that no one
owed obedience to any law to whose authority he had not himself
voluntarily submitted, and that therefore, in accordance with the
old Rousseauist fallacy, the rule of the majority was alone
justified. " Every citizen is chief of the state, for the just state
is a perfect sphere in which neither top nor bottom exists because
every point can be and is the summit."

Thus it was that the proposal for a centralised German con-
stitution, drafted by Adolf Follen, emended by his brother Carl,
and laid before the Jena Burschentag in the autumn of 1818,
contained, apart from a few Teutonising phrases, nothing beyond
a free imitation of the fundamental law of the French republic.
All Germans were to possess absolutely equal rights ; legislation
was to be effected by the equal suffrage of all, the majority to
decide ; the one and indivisible realm was to be administered in
departments containing an equal number of inhabitants, and
named after rivers and mountains ; all officials were to be equally
paid, and must swear fealty to the popular representatives ; there
was to be one Christo-German church, and no other creed was to
be tolerated. The schools were to be solely in the rural districts,
and especially designed for instruction in agriculture and handi-
crafts ; at the head of all was to be an elected king with a Reichsrat.
It read just as if the whole thing had been penned by Saint- Just.
Far more destructive to the students than were these radical
doctrines was the influence of that base ethical system which Carl
Follen advocated with all the prophet's inspiration, a preposterous
morality which was even more shameful than the teachings of
Mariana and Suarez. The Jesuits, at any rate, had allowed that
the authority of the church was supreme, but Follen, with facile
logic, starting from the cult of personal " conviction " which

70

flourished among the students, developed a system of crude
subjectivism which simply denied any objective rule to human life.
It was bluntly declared that for the righteous man no law was
of account. What the reason recognises as true must be realised
by the moral will, at once, unconditionally, uncompromisingly,
even to the point of annihilating all those who hold different
opinions ; there cannot be any talk of a conflict of duties, for the
realisation of the reason is a moral necessity. This proposition
was known simply as " the principle," and it was on its account
that Pollen's confidants termed themselves the " Unconditional. "
To the members of this sect it seemed that anything was permis-
sible for the sake of popular freedom — lying, murder, or any other
crime — for no one had the right to withhold freedom from the
people.

Thus did the evangel of the overthrow of all moral and poli-
tical order make its first appearance in Germany, that terrible
theory which, under many different cloaks, was ever and again
to disturb the century, and which was finally to receive its
extremest development in the doctrine of the Russian nihilists. But
Follen draped his nihilism in a Christian mantle : Jesus, the
martyr of conviction, was the Unconditional' hero ; their asso-
ciation-song declared " A Christ shalt thou become ! " Just as
impudently were misused the names of the Prussian heroes, and
especially of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, by some from naive ignor-
ance, but by Follen from calculation, for the innocent Burschen
were to believe that Germany's warriors had fought for democracy.
A widely sung lay by Buri, Scharnhorst' s Prayer, was adorned by
the brothers Follen with revolutionary phrases, and was printed
under the false title Kosciuszko's Prayer. In this the general was
made to swear :

I shrink not back, and if need be through fierce and bloody fights
Will men's great cause defend, the city free of equal rights !

Carl Follen himself also hammered out verses, although his
harsh nature utterly lacked poetic gifts ; and the incredible bom-
bast, the savage and bloodthirsty rhetoric of his poems, found
many admirers among the students. His master- work was The
Great Song ; it was widely circulated by Weidig and Sand, but its
leading passages were not fully comprehensible except to initiates.
It opened with an appeal, " The Youth of Germany to the Masses
of Germany."

History of Germany

Human mass, of life's best things still cheated,
Which in vain the soul's spring yet hath greeted,

Break to pieces, ancient ice-domain !
Sink them deep in strong and proud sea-eddies,
Slave and tyrant, whose unceasing dread is

Free-state which shall glow with life again !
Babel's realm of foul and venal nations
Spues forth equal rights and freedoms, fashions

Godhood out of human labour-pain.

There follows an impudent street- ballad whose refrain " Brothers,
not thus shall it happen ! People, to arms ! " continued for many
years to resound at all mob-assemblies in Central Germany. Next
came a communion hymn of free brethren, describing " the holy
order of the martyrs of eternal freedom," its members swearing
upon the host as they grasped their unsheathed daggers, " The
equality of all citizens, the will of the people, is alone autocrat
by God's grace." They apostrophise the nation, saying :

People, seize Moloch's crew, and strangle all !

Still more definite is the New Year's hymn of free Christians, set
to a quick and lively air, which serves to reinforce the insolent
meaning of the words :

The dagger of freedom is ready in the hand !

Hurrah ! Strike it home through the throat !

Clad in purple vesture,

Adorned with crowns and garlands,

The victim stands ready by the altar of vengeance !

In this strain the poem continues, becoming ever more senseless,
ever wilder, until the concluding verse :

Down with forced labour ; down with crowns, thrones, drones, and
barons !

Charge !

Among the hundreds of young men who sang these raging
verses, few doubtless gave much thought to the words, but the poet
himself was thoroughly in earnest. He had already conceived
a plan which he repeatedly discussed with the Unconditionals.
Since a revolution was for the moment impossible, it was neces-
sary to assassinate a few traitors in order to terrify and at the
same time to stimulate the fainthearted populace. He himself

72

The Burschenschaft

would take no part in these preparatory deeds, refraining, not
from fear, but because he proposed to act as leader in the general
popular uprising. Without respite he pursued an agitation
among the people. In the petition that article 13 should be carried
into effect, in all the addresses and meetings urging the grand
duke of Hesse to fulfil the promise of a constitution, Pollen's hand
was at work. For him, the red republican, these measures could
be nothing more than means for greater ends. Schulz, his right-
hand man of Darmstadt, in a Question and Answer Booklet, openly
preached revolution to the Hessian peasants.

For a long time the Jena students refrained from sharing
the demagogic attitude of the men of Giessen ; and they also
rejected Pollen's plan for a centralised constitution, although
this proposal was favoured by a considerable minority. But by
degrees the revolutionary doctrines of the Blacks made their
way to the banks of the Saale, chiefly through the instrumen-
tality of Robert Wesselhoft, a rough and vigorous Thuringian of
autocratic temperament. Quite without the knowledge of the
bulk of the Burschen, he formed within the ranks of the Old
Germans a secret society of Unconditionals, composed of men who
looked down with contempt upon the blameless masses of the
Burschenschaft, and who kept up secret communication by trusty
messengers with those of their own way of thinking at other
universities. To this group belonged Jens Uwe Lornsen, an unruly
berserk northlander from the Frisian isles, widely known at a
later date as an advocate of the rights of Schleswig-Holstein.
Another member of the group was Heinrich Leo from the Schwarz-
burg region, small and girlishly beautiful, a born romanticist who
amid his native forests had acquired a glowing enthusiasm for
the rude and natural life of the primitive Teutons, and a profound
hatred for the rigid formalism of classical culture ; it was only
through the untamable wildness of his hot blood that for a brief
period he was impelled to take part in a modern revolutionary
movement which was utterly foreign to his temperament.

The tone of these Blacks was indescribably impudent ; they
were absolutely convinced that it was their mission to initiate
and direct the emanicipation of the enslaved peoples. A Bavarian
wit, masquerading as an enthusiastic disciple of Fries, had recently
published an open letter in which he classified the entire human
race as Burschen, she-Burschen,lj[teachers-of-Burschen, those-
destined-to-become-Burschen, and those- who-had-been-Burschen.
The satire was so aptly conceived that many of the Burschen

73 G

History of German}

themselves took the letter at its face value, and the same mistake
has been made by not a few historians of to-day. For a long
time now the Blacks had not been satisfied with such manifesta-
tions of foolish impertinence as that of Lornsen, who in the
presence of the young duke of Meiningen gave vent to three groans
for the thirty or three and thirty. With sinister composure, they
daily discussed who should first be " corpsed " in the cause of
freedom. Since Metternich was out of reach and not one of the
German princes was regarded with especial hatred, the wild talk
returned ever to Kotzebue as the first victim. In the autumn
of 1818, when it was expected that Czar Alexander was about
to pass through Jena, the leaders of the Unconditionals held a
secret conclave to consider whether the time had now come to
strike a blow against the despot ; anyone whose response to this
inquiry showed him to be untrustworthy was henceforward tacitly
excluded from the counsels of the initiates. The czar meanwhile
had passed on his way without visiting the town, and it was sub-
sequently contended that the leaders of the Blacks were aware
of the fact. This may be true, but what had happened to our
youth when approval of the cowardly practice of political assas-
sination, one so repulsive to the German sense of uprightness, had
come to be regarded as the touchstone of sound sentiments ?

The young peoples' excitement was increased by the alarm
of the official newspapers, and unfortunately also by many
indiscreet utterances on the part of their teachers. In his lectures,
as previously in his Politics, Luden advanced the incontestable
proposition that the power and the liberty of the state are priceless
moral goods, and that on occasion, therefore, other moral goods
must be sacrificed to these ; but his intellectual force was not
great enough to impress clearly upon the students' minds the
profound significance of a doctrine which may so readily be mis-
applied, and many of his greatly moved audience simply acquired
the impression, as did Carl Sand, that the end justifies the means.
Fries, too, was in a state of hopeless perplexity in face of the
awakening of demagogy, and his expressions of opinion were often
confused. Conscientiously warning the students against secret
societies, he endeavoured to gild the pill by the use of revolu-
tionary phraseology, and inveighed in such rough terms against
the police authority which insisted on " binding to hop-poles the
oaks and pines of the German forests," that his words proved
exciting rather than calmative. In a confession of faith for young
people he said : "I regard as sacred the demand for a new Ger-

74

The Burschenschaft

man law and for a vigorous republican system that will secure
the unity of Germany. I detest the way in which we are ruled
by highly well-born French apes, and in which we are instructed
by well-born Latin apes. I loathe the oppression of the people
by standing armies, by the salaries paid to the stupid and
haughty idlers who act as officers. The people is the army, and
the people is master." Even the free spirit of Arndt was not
uninfluenced by the bitterness of the epoch. The fourth volume
of his Spirit of the Age, published in the year 1818, was greatly
inferior to the earlier -volumes ; the fine emotion of the wars of
liberation was no longer adequate. The pride of the students
was necessarily strengthened when Arndt depicted for them the
Seven Years' War as an empty tale, and described the works of
our classical poetry as petty and spiritless, as the offspring of a
formless age, lacking love and lacking glory. He innocently sug-
gested that secret conspiracies were permissible only " if a foreign
nation or a malicious tyrant were endeavouring to brutalise the
entire generation to the level of dogs, monkeys, and snakes,"
and had no idea that his young readers had long before come
to consider that they themselves were ruled by such malicious
tyrants. The French and the Poles, he exclaimed, have a con-
stitution, " while our rulers wish to have us lying at their mercy
as if we had no more life in us than a lot of wooden posts " ;
while for the Prussian army he held up as an example the loose
militia organisation of the Swedish army, based on what was
known as the Indelningsverk, which in the last war had done
nothing at all. Amid such thoughtless words of incitement, the
patriotic warnings which the good man directed against " the
callow and presumptuous folly of the Germans " were completely
forgotten. Among the professors, anger concerning the disillu-
sionments of these first years of peace, gradually increased to an
inflammatory degree. In the summer of 1818, even Schleiermacher
discoursed as if a new 1806 was approaching — and this at a time
when, apart from a few isolated blunders, the Prussian government
had not as yet done anything open to reasonable criticism.

In the autumn of 1818, Carl Follen removed to Jena as demon-
strator. He was the grave-digger of the Burschenschaft, the
destroyer of the frank youthful sentiment which had prevailed in
its inception. Vainly did Fries endeavour to hold his own with
the sinister man ; in the oratorical struggles of the Philosophical
Club, the young demonstrator showed himself far in advance of
the professor, and the students withdrew more and more from

75

History of Germany

the side of the moderate elder. It is true that the number of
Pollen's immediate intimates remained very small, for the young
men's healthy feelings made it impossible for them entirely to
overcome their horror of the apostle of assassination ; his prin-
cipal disciples were his blind and devoted slave Carl Sand, and
Wit von Dorring, a dissolute adventurer, who subsequently became
a traitor. But the corrupting influence of his doctrines extended
far beyond this narrow circle. Louder and louder became the
talk of " cutting off the tyrants' heads." During the winter,
by an odious fraud (since everything was permissible to the
Unconditionals), the Blacks and their faithful followers got control
of the committee of the Burschenschaft ; then a secret society
was formed whose sworn members were, like the carbonari, divided
into lodges, and were in part unknown even to one another. Since
the outspoken Teuton has no talent for the conspirators' secret
arts, such societies could never rise above the level of a foolish
masquerade ; and yet the matter was not devoid of grave signi-
ficance when so many isolated young men played rudely and
boastfully with the thought of political crime, and were actually
receiving from Pollen the definite instruction that whoever wished
to sacrifice himself for the cause must do the liberating deed with-
out confederates. When one of the older Blacks, Wilhelm Snell,
was at this time dismissed his post, his Hessian comrades issued
to the Unconditionals an appeal for the support of their friend
" so that the brood may learn to tremble before the higher power
which will swing the sword of vengeance as strongly as now it
swings the shield of defence, as soon as sin awakens the day of
wrath."

At a later date, men who had once been members of the
Blacks' organisation considered that much mischief might have
been avoided if Pollen and one or two of his older associates had
been expelled from Germany in good time. But the governments
had no detailed information regarding these restless activities,
and contemplated them with timid concern. The handful of
demagogues continued its evil work, until the day was to
dawn in which the seed of criminal words which had been so
widely scattered was to be harvested, and in which an unhappy
wretch, dagger in hand, was to realise the doctrine of political
assassination.

CHAPTER VIII.
THE CONGRESS OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE.

§ I. INCREASING POWER OF THE AUSTRIAN COURT.

IN their treaty of alliance of November 20, 1815, the four
powers had agreed that from time to time they would, in
personal interviews, take measures to secure the peace of
Europe ; and as early as the spring of 1817 it seemed to
the court of Vienna that the right moment had arrived for
such joint deliberation. King Frederick William opposed the
idea. He foresaw that a formal assembly of the Quadruple
Alliance would cause lively agitation, at once in all the courts
which did not participate in the conference, and also in the
suspicious mind of the general public. How much simpler
it would be if he and Emperor Francis were to make their
long-promised visit to St. Petersburg, and there, without attract-
ing any attention, to discuss with the czar all that was
necessary.1 Metternich, however, held fast to his own opinion.
Czar Alexander took the same view, and meanwhile in France
a change of opinion took place which certainly rendered desirable
a new understanding among the four powers.

That which the statesmen of Prussia had prophesied at
the congress of. Paris was now being fulfilled. The occupation
of France by the troops of the allies was more and more
displaying itself as a danger to that peace of Europe which the
occupation had been intended to safeguard. It is true that
the army of occupation had already been diminished by one-
fifth ; the conduct of the troops was in perfect correspondence
with the upright good feeling which the four powers cherished
for the re-established dynasty ; the Prussians at Bar-le-Duc
and Sedan could live with their billet-hosts like children at
home. When the commander of the Prussian guard, General

1 Cabinet Councillor Albrecht to Hardenberg, May 13, 1817.

77

History of Germany

Zieten, complained regarding the dilatory provisioning of the
fortresses, Hardenberg urgently exhorted him to display forbear-
ance, saying that any dispute between the allies and the French
authorities would redound to the advantage of the ultras, and
might easily endanger the stability of the French government.1
None the less, the presence of foreign flags upon their native
soil remained a grievous affront to French pride. All parties
of the opposition clamoured against this monarchy which supported
itself with foreign bayonets ; even the ultras no longer recalled
in what moving terms in the year 1815 they had addressed
the allied monarchs, saying, "You surely will not leave the
king alone in the hands of these assassins ? " — and they rivalled
the other parties in fierce complaints against the dominion of
the foreigner.

Without the liberation of French soil, it was impossible
for Richelieu to carry through the policy of reconciliation which
he had initiated with so much prudence and self-denial ; he
desired to do his country this last service, and then, weary
of the interminable party strife, to retire. Again and again
he assailed the ambassadors' conference of the four powers
with his plaints, reminding them that in the treaty of Paris
the conquerors had themselves reserved the possibility of
shortening the period of occupation should France remain
quiet. In November, 1817, he went a step further, and at the
reopening of the Chambers announced that negotiations had
already been commenced for the evacuation of French territory.
All parties alike received the news with a storm of patriotic
delight, and everyone felt that if Richelieu proved unable to
satisfy the expectations he had awakened, the moderate govern-
ment, whose persistence the four powers desired no less keenly
than King Louis himself, would be irrecoverably ruined. In
the conference of ambassadors, the requests of Richelieu at first
found a hearing only from Pozzo di Borgo. The Corsican still
remained the confidential adviser of the Bourbons, and had so
thoroughly readopted the views of his native land that now
for the second time there were serious thoughts of offering
him a post in the French ministry. He found it far from
difficult to win the czar over to his views, the czar who was so
fond of playing the part of magnanimous protector of France.
Regardless of his allies, Alexander allowed encouraging assur-
ances to be given to Paris ; and Metternich, who at first was

1 Hardenberg to Zieten. March 22, 1816.

78

The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

far from desiring a shortening of the period of occupation,
came to consider, in the spring of 1818, that all resistance to
the withdrawal would be fruitless. On April gth he assured
the Prussian ambassador that in view of the speeches in the
Chamber, and in view of Alexander's conduct, he considered,
with grave forebodings, that a premature evacuation would,
after all, take place.1

The aspect of internal affairs in France could hardly com-
pose the mind of the timid statesman. Although the regime
of the ultras was at length at an end, party struggles
were still carried on with the old measureless fierceness,
and as yet no more than a small minority of the French
honourably recognised the legitimate foundation of the new
constitutional monarchy. " As for you," said a hotspur of the
ultras, Matthieu de Montmorency, to one of the liberals, " you
love legitimacy as much as we love the Charte ! " Count Artois
fought with all possible weapons against the circumspect policy
of his royal brother. In May, 1818, Vitrolles, one of the confi-
dants of the Pavilion Marsan, sent a third secret memorial
to the four powers imploring them to avert revolution by the
overthrow of the Richelieu ministry. Filled with blind hatred
against the moderate government, the ultras did not hesitate
on occasion to combine even with the Bonapartists and with
the Revolutionaries. Nor could the cabinet secure any support
from the middle party of the doctrinaires, notwithstanding
the fact that these had inscribed upon their banner the recon-
ciliation of hereditary right and liberty. According to the
infallible theory of the successors of Montesquieu, mistrust of
the government was to be the vitalising force of every free
state, and nothing seemed more disgraceful than the name
of " ministerial party." Among the people sinister reports
were current regarding the proposed re-establishment of
guilds, tithes, and the corvee. The purchasers of the national
domains did not feel secure in their possessions, for the
Emigres were stormily demanding the return of their family
estates, and nothing had as yet been determined regarding
compensation. There also had to be considered the sub-
terranean activities of the secret societies, and the daily increasing
charm of the Napoleonic legend. In rapid succession, three
of the faithful returned from St. Helena : O'Meara, Las Cases,
and Gourgaud. Las Cases lived for a considerable period in

1 Krusemark's Report, April 9, 1818.
79

History of Germany

Germany, and began an equivocal commerce with the Beauhar-
nais, a fact patent to all — except the Bonapartist police of
Munich. There then appeared the first volume of that litera-
ture of memoirs which was to pave the way for the return
of Napoleon, a compost of colossal lies as gigantic as the man
to whom they related. With horror France learned the terrible
stories of the nameless woes of the prisoner, who, in reality,
lacked nothing but his liberty ; of the devilish cruelty of his
custodian, Governor Hudson Lowe, a man who in truth merely
fulfilled his military duties honourably, if somewhat over-
punctillously.

Now that industry and commerce were reviving, the sacri-
fices and miseries of the war-time were speedily forgotten. The
sight of foreign bayonets recalled memories of the glories of
the imperial eagles. When contrasted with the insane osten-
tation of the returned ancient nobility, the figure of the crowned
plebeian seemed that of a democratic hero, and now people
learned, from the record of his touching conversations in the
rocky islet, how ardently he loved his France, and how it had
been his desire to give the nation its freedom had it not been
for the enmity of wicked neighbours, who again and again
forced the peaceful-minded man to take the sword in his hand.
Meanwhile Beranger had disseminated his ardent imperialist
songs among the populace, and what he had prophesied hap-
pened : in the huts of the peasantry no other history than
the Napoleonic was known, and to the masses of the nation
in northern and central France, Napoleon became the only hero
of the century. In the states of the Confederation of the
Rhine as well, the Napoleonic cult, which had so recently
passed into abeyance, was revived. In every tavern of the
German south were to be seen pictures of the Napoleonic
battles, and on more than one occasion the envoy of King
Louis had to complain to the court of Munich because
pictures and statuettes of the soldier-emperor had by an
unknown hand been distributed among the soldiers of the
Bavarian army.

Thus it came to pass that the best and most beneficent
government which France had known since the Revolution, was
threatened from every side. The four powers, which, down to
the year 1817, had dreaded above all the party rage of the
ultra-royalists, now began to regard the secret intrigues of the
revolutionaries and the war fever of the Bonapartists as

80

The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

the most dangerous enemies of the Bourbon throne. In actual
fact, the appeal for " revenge for Waterloo " was already heard.
In the same moment in which the French Chambers were
demanding from the allies the evacuation of the country, they
approved the new Army Law, and compelled the minister of
war to increase the army of the line by 50,000 men more
than he had himself demanded, making its total strength 240,000.
In addition, a great number of officers of the Empire were
reinstated, and a strong reserve army was formed, consisting
almost exclusively of Napoleonic veterans. It will readily be
understood that all these proceedings were regarded in the
Prussian army as precursors of an approaching Third Punic
War. Gneisenau, in especial, was, and remained, of the opinion
that only the complete dismissal of the Bonapartist army
would serve, to some extent, to safeguard the new order of
affairs. l

Neither in London, nor in Vienna, nor in Berlin, did any
illusions prevail as to the weakness of the Bourbon regime.
Indeed, its overthrow was anticipated even earlier than this
actually took place. The reports of Wellington, commander-
in-chief in France, were almost hopeless in tone. Nevertheless,
everyone recognised that the prestige of the legitimate dynasty
could not but be further endangered by the presence of foreign
troops. As early as May, 1818, in the absence of formal dis-
cussions of the matter, the four powers were united in the
determination to reduce the period of occupation from five
years to three, and to decide upon details at the approaching
conference of princes. The Prussian court found little difficulty
in accepting this view, since Hardenberg had from the first
considered the presence of the army of occupation a matter
of little importance. Since the king of Spain was affronted
at his exclusion, and since some of the other courts did not
conceal their ill-humour, it was decided that the name of "con-
gress" should be sedulously avoided, and those concerned spoke
only of a "Reunion" or an "Entrevue." The conference of
ambassadors at Paris explained to the powers of the second
rank (May 25th) that the Reunion took place for two purposes
alone, namely, to re-establish the strength of the Quadruple
Alliance, and, with the co-operation of the Most Christian King,
to arrange for the evacuation of France. The participation of
other sovereigns or statesmen would give the meeting the aspect

1 Gneisenau 's Remarks upon Royer's Reports from Paris, December 28, 1818.

Si

History of Germany

of a congress, and give rise to fresh anxieties. It was not
without difficulty that the discontent of the minor courts, whose
troops were also part of the army of occupation in France,
could be appeased. Aix-la-Chapelle was chosen as the place
of meeting, because this town, as Metternich said, offered such
limited resources. It had been determined that on this occasion
the work should be done quickly and seriously, and that any
opposition to the dictatorship of the four courts should be stifled
by the might of accomplished facts.1

Meanwhile the four powers had already given the Bourbon
crown a new proof of their friendly sentiments. By the second
peace of Paris, King Louis was pledged to satisfy all the foreign
private persons, communes, and corporations which had still
claims dating from Napoleonic days to present against the
crown of France. When this promise was made, no one had
any idea of what it signified. It was believed that 100,000,000
francs would cover everything, for the war burdens and war
furnishings were on principle to be left out of consideration.
What an alarm was raised when the whole extent of the
Napoleonic plunder gradually became manifest. In the summer
of 1817, in addition to debts to the extent of 180,000,000 francs
which had already been recognised and partially settled, new
demands amounting to 1,390,000,000 francs were reported. No
doubt in this sum were included a certain number of frivolous
claims. For example, the duke of Bernburg demanded the
pay for the cavalry troop which one of his ancestors had
led to join the army of Henry IV in the days of the Huguenot
wars. But the great majority of the demands, amounting to
1,000,000,000 francs at least, were legally incontestable, consist-
ing of sums which Napoleon had extorted from private persons,
for the most part in friendly or neutral countries. Most of
the accounts came from Spain, from the German minor states,
and especially from Prussia, which had suffered so severely from
the passage of the grandc armee, and which by itself was
responsible for one-fourth of the total claim. Austria and
England were comparatively little concerned in the matter,
and Russia not at all. The four powers could not fail to
recognise that complete satisfaction of all these creditors was
almost impossible. Any French cabinet which should bring
such a proposal before the Chamber would unquestionably

1 Ministerial Despatch to Krusemark, May 20 ; Arnim's Report, Munich,
June 10 ; Scholar's Report, St. Petersburg, February 7, 1818.

82

The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

succumb to the united attacks of all parties, and what was
to happen if the ultras once again came into power ?

Consequently Hardenberg, at the urgent request of the
French envoy, at length declared himself willing to accept a
compromise, to which the German courts agreed ; the only
reservation being that the reduction of the demands was not to
be pushed beyond reason, because the dissatisfaction of the
disappointed creditors, especially in the newly acquired German
territories, might give rise to serious trouble.1 Meanwhile,
however, Czar Alexander had once more displayed his mag-
nanimity at the cost of his allies, and, on his own initiative,
had promised the court of the Tuileries that the bill should
be abated. He managed to secure that the decision should be
left in the hands of the Paris conference of ambassadors, and
here Prussia found herself once more in the same unfavourable
situation as in the two peace conferences : her ambassador
was one against three, the only one who wished to stand firm
when the others desired to yield, and all that could be
secured was that the allies should not without further parley
accept the proposals of Richelieu, who offered a payment of
200,000,000 francs. Through Wellington's intermediation an
understanding was at length effected on April 25, 1818, in
virtue of which the crown of France was within one year to
pay over, in satisfaction of all still undischarged demands, the
sum of 240,800,000 francs in rentes (national bonds, each rente
being 12,040,000 francs). In the distribution of this sum,
Wellington, true to the good old English custom, immediately
claimed for his own country one-fourth of one rente of twelve
million, so that the English creditors were satisfied almost in
full, whilst the German creditors had to content themselves
with one-sixth of their demands. Thus the formal promise
of the treaty of Paris was for the most part annulled, by the
arbitrary act of England, Russia, and Austria, in opposition
to Prussia and without consulting the minor courts. The
foreign creditors of France suffered a loss of 800,000,000 francs.
The injured parties uttered loud complaints ; the liberal press
of Germany broke out into bitter reproaches against the " Holy
Alliance," which was always held responsible for the actions
of the Quadruple Alliance. Again and again had the German
nation to learn that she could expect the safeguarding of her

1 Krusemark's Report, September 27 ; Hardenberg's instruction to Kruse-
mark, November 23, 1817.

History of Germany

rights from her own strength alone, and not from the goodwill
of her allies.

The czar's magnanimity towards the Bourbons was not yet
exhausted. Richelieu had long cherished the desire that when
the occupation came to an end, there should also cease the
humiliating (and in fact unnatural) position of dependence which
France still occupied among the great powers. He hoped that
the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle would invite the crown of France
to enter the Quadruple Alliance, and thus re-establish the old
equivalence of rights among the great powers. Alexander incon-
siderately met this proposal half way. Now, as so often before,
the inclinations of his noble heart went hand in hand with
the interests of Russian policy. If the court of the Tuileries,
which was completely under the dominion of Pozzo di Borgo,
should enter the high council of Europe, the czar would in
reality control two votes, and it would merely be necessary
for him to gain over one of the three other courts, and the
majority would be in his hands, the leadership of Europe would
be secured to him. But, for this very reason, Richelieu's wishes
aroused serious anxiety in Vienna, Berlin, and London. Metter-
nich, in his first spasm of alarm, considered them altogether
unacceptable ; * the three courts regarded the approaching
congress with lively concern. They wished to keep Pozzo, at
least, far from the congress, and therefore, in the Paris confer-
ence of ambassadors, decided by three votes against the single
vote of Russia, that during the deliberations of the congress
of Aix-la-Chapelle the four ambassadors should remain in
Paris.

But now, in the policy of the czar, there suddenly became
manifest a remarkable change, and one which was at first a
riddle to the other powers. Still quite intoxicated with his
ideas of making the nations happy, the illustrious protagonist
of Christian liberalism had just returned from Poland. Not
even, the proceedings of the Warsaw diet, which had
once more proved the incurable folly of the Polish nobility,
had succeeded in shaking Alexander's cheerful confidence. At
home a new pleasure awaited him ; in April, 1818, his dearly-
loved sister-in-law, the grand duchess Charlotte, who now bore
the name of Alexandra Feodorowna, gave birth to a son,
afterwards Alexander II, the heir to the throne of the house

1 Krusemark's Report, June 20, 1818.
84

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The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

of Gottorp. Some weeks later, King Frederick William went
to greet his first grandchild. On the journey he took delight
in the frank joy displayed by his loyal East Prussians, who
now saw their king again for the first time since the painful
days of Konigsberg, and in Russia he was received with oriental
display. Banquet followed upon banquet ; the two capitals
and the wealthy boyars rivalled one another in ostentation, in
exaggerated manifestations of their loyal sentiments. Even
now, amid the intoxication of these pleasures, the czar learned,
from incontestable secret information, that the officers of his
guard, during their stay in France, had not in vain tasted
the forbidden fruits of revolutionary doctrine ; that in his own
court since 1816 there had been in existence certain secret
demagogic societies whose membership continually increased.
This was the decisive moment of the closing years of his life.
He also, the magnanimous well-wisher of the nations, whom
even the conquered French hailed as the saviour of Europe,
found himself to be surrounded in his own household by rebels
and conspirators, he was rewarded with black ingratitude by
the very liberal party which ought to have honoured him as
its protector. He was shaken to the marrow ; all the horrible
experiences of his youth, the murder of his father, and the
criminal arrogance of the unpunished assassins, recurred to his
memory.

Nor on this occasion did he venture to inflict punishment.
He carefully concealed his secret from all the world, but his
suspicions had been aroused, his proud sense of security had
been disturbed, and there was no longer a word to be heard
of the Russian constitution which in Warsaw he had so recently
announced to an astonished Europe. In youth he had been
an enthusiast for the liberal reforming ideas of Speransky, and
for the Polish plans of Czartoiyski ; now Prince Alexander
Galitzin became his confidant, a gentle, mystically-minded
enthusiast, who, after his manner, continued the penitential
sermons of Frau von Kriidener. Even more frequently than
before the czar became overwhelmed with gloom, with disgust
concerning the falsity of life. There were hours in which he
seriously thought of laying aside the crown, and of withdrawing
into a life of contemplative solitude. In the year 1819, he on
one occasion solemnly announced this intention to his brother
Nicholas, whom he designed to raise to the throne over
the head of the incapable Constantine, for Nicholas was the

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most vigorous scion of the house. But Alexander's soft nature
was unable to cling firmly to such revolutionary designs. He
remained at the helm, nor did he completely abandon the
fine dream of Christo-liberal world dominion. Often enough
the court of Vienna had still to complain of alarming relapses
on the part of Russia. But the terrible spectre of the threaten-
ing universal conflagration, which obstinately recurred in all
Mitternich's letters to Nesselrode, now seemed even to the
autocrat of all the Russias to be no longer a phantom. No
more did he smile when the Austrian minister-of-state assured
him that while France was the focus of the revolution, the
restless movement at the German universities was, in fact, a
far more serious matter, because whatever the Germans under-
took, even political crime, they carried out with conspicuous
tenacity. Alexander gradually began to regard with other
eyes the statesmen of Vienna, whom he had hitherto so pro-
foundly despised, and became convinced that only the firm
harmony of the eastern powers could possibly maintain the
peace of the world.

When he visited Germany in September, he seemed pro-
foundly altered to the eyes of his Prussian travelling companion,
General Borstell. There was no longer a word to be heard
about liberal institutions, about the reconciliation between
freedom and order. He spoke now of defending the monarchical
system and the peace of the world, in the sense of the
Holy Alliance, against the powers of the Revolution. For this
reason alone, said the czar, did he maintain a million soldiers,
in order to crush everyone who might venture to disturb his
system. He thus showed himself unable, even now, to dispense
with the accustomed boasting of imaginary figures ; but he
eagerly endeavoured to appease the plainly displayed mistrust
of the Prussian concerning the ambitious designs of Russia, and
even excused himself on account, of the peace of Tilsit and
the acquisition of Bialystock.1 In Berlin he publicly assured
his royal friend, when the latter was laying the foundation
stone of the memorial of victory upon the Kreuzberg, of his
own inalienable loyalty, and was delighted when Stagemann, in
a pompous ode, hailed him as the soul of the European league
of peace :

1 Ten Days of My Life, Memoirs of General von Borstell (Norddeutsche
Allgtmeine Zeitung, August 10, 1879, and succeeding issues).

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Thrice hail to thee, hail to the reconciler,

To the shield of the alliance ! The brows of monarchs,

Often intoxicated with laurels, are not ever

Pious guardians of the gentle olive-branch.

In Weimar, too, in Darmstadt, in Frankfort, wherever he went,
he exhorted the princes and statesmen to be on their guard
against the demagogues, and expressly reminded them of the
conservative principles of the Holy Alliance.

Meanwhile Metternich and Gentz had met Capodistrias in
Carlsbad. The little town in the forest valley of the Tepel was
then the most fashionable spa in the German speaking world,
and was praised by Gentz as " a place of the greatest value to
us." Hither there flocked year by year all the people of
fashion from the German courts, regaling themselves with the
peculiar joys of aristocratic old Austria. There was not a
single fine building in the whole valley, but instead there were
to be seen charming women and magnificent toilettes, as many
as anyone could desire ; there were concerts, banquets, and
balls galore ; and there was a cavalier's alley, where every
horseman had to pay a ducat as entrance fee. Here Metternich
played the part of host, bewitching everyone, now by his
mysterious dignity, now by an enthralling amiability, and
inviting some privileged guests, especially the Prussians, to the
neighbouring Konigswart, where he had built his hideous castle,
making it, after his manner, at once tasteless and ornate. He
anticipated no good from the conversations with Capodistrias,
numbering the Philhellene among the " twaddling " statesmen.
How great was his astonishment when he found the Greek to
be quite conservatively inclined, and when he gained the con-
viction that Alexander recognised without reserve " at least
the fundamental principle of the maintenance of order." With
satisfaction he wrote to his master what Emperor Francis was
always most willing to hear, that, after all, everything would
remain as it had been. This Russia, which so recently he
had wished to curb by forming a secret offensive and defensive
alliance with Prussia, now seemed to be voluntarily entering
the paths of the only true policy of stability.

After the unmistakable change in Russian policy, Metternich
could, in fact, hope that before long Austria would gain the
position of leader in the European alliance. He could trust

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History of Germany

firmly in the friendship of the tory cabinet, although Lord
Castlereagh had to take into account the increasing opposition
of the whigs, and therefore wished whenever possible to avoid
any formal treaty which might arouse hostility in Parliament.
In Prussia, too, the reactionary tendencies of the epoch were
already to some extent manifest. The Wartburg festival had
exercised a profound and permanent influence upon the king's
mood. It was not without anxiety that Hardenberg left the
court to pass the first months of the year 1818 at Engers
Castle on the Rhine, and to ascertain at first hand the mood
of this difficult province. It was the work of constitution-
building which was his most serious trouble. He knew that
to all the other great powers this undertaking seemed just as
sinister as the Prussian Army Law. He had no doubt about
the opinion of the court of Vienna, although Metternich had
not yet given his views open expression. From Paris, Goltz
reported, in April, 1817, and on several subsequent occasions,
how urgently Wellington and Richelieu had warned him against
the foolish venture of a Prussian constitution. Most equivocal
of all, both these statesmen held exactly the same view as
Ancillon and the reactionary party in Berlin, considering that
so complex a state as Prussia should content herself with pro-
vincial diets. Nor did Czar Alexander, even in the days when
he announced the programme of Christian liberalism, by any
means favour the establishment of a constitution in Prussia ; all
that could be learned was that he expressed himself as being
extremely anxious regarding the political trustworthiness of
the Prussian Landwehr.

Hardenberg felt how readily all these opponents might
become too strong for him, and he repeatedly, and in express
terms, exhorted the ministers in Berlin to proceed as rapidly
as possible with the work of establishing the constitution. l But
the constituent committee of the council of state could not begin
its deliberations so long as it was still without the reports of
the three ministers who had perambulated the provinces, and these
reports were not forthcoming, since Altenstein and Klewitz
were fully occupied in the inauguration of their newly con-
structed departments. Meanwhile opinions were also asked
from the provincial governments regarding the provincial diets.
Vincke, when sending in the Westphalian documents, appended
the apt remark that these papers contained a great deal of

1 Hardenberg to Klewitz, December 8, 1817 ; January 6, 1818.

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barren talk, since all that had been submitted to the govern-
ments consisted of some purely general questions. The course
which had been adopted on the advice of Klewitz was already
showing itself to be a false route. Only after a thoroughly
elaborated plan for the constitution was already in existence,
could the opinion of the notables and of the authorities be of
any practical value. Were the chancellor, instead of giving
the cue to inexperienced public opinion, to fail in courage
and to be without a plan, were he to expect advice from his
subordinates, such a course would turn things upside down
would involve the abandonment of the ancient and proud
traditions of the monarchy ; besides, should he consult his
subordinates, every new opinion would become a new source of
embarrassment. He was eaten up with impatience, complained
bitterly about the postponement of his cherished design, and
yet he had not hitherto taken his pen in hand in order to come
to a clear understanding with the monarch and with himself
regarding the fundamentals of the proposal for a constitution.
Among the friends of reform, embitterment and discouragement
rapidly increased. Vincke asked the chancellor what the nation
was likely to feel when " other rulers, who have made no
promises at all, are forging ahead of our own " Zerboni wrote
despairingly : " I go to bed every night thinking of the great
opportunity which lies open for Prussia, and awaken every
morning overwhelmed with distress at the thought that this
great opportunity is being allowed to pass unutilised"1

Hardenberg soon found himself on excellent terms with
the Rhinelanders, for his cheerful benevolence was pleasing
to all. He gained the impression that, on the whole, the two
provinces were being administered in an exemplary manner,
and that notwithstanding the widespread ill-humour there was
no serious thought of secession. It was only the ill-considered
promise of a constitution which on the Rhine, as elsewhere,
had prepared for him many an unfortunate hour. Among the
numerous deputations he received in Engers, there appeared
also Count Nesselrode, Baron von Hovel, and other delegates
from the Rhenish nobility. They handed in a detailed memorial
composed by Schlosser, the ultra-conservative convert to
Roman Catholicism, entitled, Memorial concerning Constitutional
Conditions in the Territories of Julich, Cleves, Berg, and Mark ;
and this was accompanied by petitions from the Westphalian

1 Zerboni to Klewitz, March 8, 1818.

89 H

I listory of Germany

nobility. The principles enunciated in the memorial were
excellent, and it was evident that Stein had co-operated in its
composition. The nobles were prepared to admit to representa-
tion the entire bourgeois class, instead of a few preferred towns,
and all the agricultural classes, instead of merely the territorial
nobility. But the document voiced ambiguous protests against
the " all-confusing equality of the French Revolution " ; and
contained the quite unjustified demand for the summoning of
the old estates, so that it might be possible to come to an
agreement with them concerning the innovations ! The chan-
cellor's answer was amicable but evasive, saying : " It is the
desire of our government to see the constitution proceed only
out of a thorough appreciation of earlier conditions and existing
needs."1 The difficult question how the new right was to stand
in relation to the old, was still left unsolved. At court the
nobles found a friend whose influence was soon to become
stronger : the crown prince expressed to Baron von Hovel
his peculiar satisfaction with the memorial.

Still less welcome to the chancellor than this embassy from
the nobles, which at any rate represented the class-views of a
powerful estate, was the visit of a second deputation, which
had been called together solely by a fantastical whim, and
whose formation bore lamentable witness to the immaturity
of political culture in Rhineland. Gorres had had to endure
hard times since the suppression of the Rheinische Merknr ;
the pension which Hardenberg gave him could not console him
for the idleness of a purposeless existence. He did his best
to control his hot blood, and always spoke in mild, conciliatory
terms when envoys from the Burschenschaft asked his advice.
But at length nature proved stronger than good .counsel.
Prussia, which he had once esteemed so highly, gradually
became to him an object of deadly hatred; and all those insane
desires of Rhenish particularism which threatened at once the
religious parity and the unity of the state, now seemed to
him justified. He raged against the foreign Protestant officials
as uncritically as did the masses of his fellow-countrymen, and
demanded that Rhineland should contribute her own share
to the expenses of the state, in accordance with the wishes
of her provincial Landtags. He found it abominable that the
king should order the well-merited dismissal of a teacher who
in a mixed school had roundly abused the Reformation, and

1 Hardenberg to Nesselrode, March 3, 1818.
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The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

even took part in drawing up a petition which demanded from
the crown that in future the report concerning educational
matters in the governmental district of Coblenz should be left
entirely in the hands of a Catholic. In repeated memorials
to the king and to the chancellor, he played the part of the
natural spokesman of Rhineland, although he could not fail
to know that his newspaper had never found many readers
on the Rhine. Almost unawares, his Rhenish provincial pride
led him towards clericalist views, views which were indeed
correspondent with the inner essence of his own fantastical
nature. Before long he even began to admire the decayed
caste-system of the spiritual electorates, a system which in his
youth he had visited with such well-deserved scorn, and came
to hold that in the three curiae of the Landtag of Electoral
Treves, were represented the alleged three primary castes of
the Germans, those of the teachers, the warriors, and the
manual workers.

When the inhabitants of Coblenz now determined to remind
the chancellor of the promise of a constitution, Gorres gave
the address an extraordinary turn of phrase, saying that people
petitioned for " the restoration of the liberties of the region,
and of the primeval and genuine German constitution." In
other respects the document was thoroughly modest and reason-
able, and it was signed by more than 3,000 burghers and
peasants of the neighbourhood. All that most of them expected
was that henceforward a local Landtag should from time to
time be able to give the Prussians a rap on the knuckles.
Bearing this address, Gorres waited on Hardenberg, on January
15, 1818, and behind him came a wonderful train, somewhat
resembling those masqueraders dressed as Chinese and Chaldeans
whom the mad Anacharsis Cloots once introduced to the French
National Assembly "as a deputation of the human race."
The Coblenz deputation was to typify " an assembly of the
estates in miniature " : the caste of teachers was represented
by clergymen and teachers ; that of warriors by noblemen,
Landwehr men, and judges ; that of manual workers by a Land-
rat and by several burghers and peasants. The chancellor
listened to the orator, who in moving terms sang the praises
of the old Landtags of Electoral Treves, and gave a friendly
hearing also to the Landrat who so strangely typified the
manual workers, and to the other members of the deputation.
But he did not conceal from them that his own views were

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History of Germany

far more liberal, and that the simple re-establishment of outworn
conditions was impossible. Subsequently Gcirres told the story
of this audience — of this " champ de Mai of the Franconian
tribe"— in a characteristically inept pamphlet, and the great
tribune was most flatteringly extolled by the trumpets of the
liberal press. Now, said the newspaper writers, the crown of
Prussia had given free Rhineland its Magna Charta !

Hardenberg, who knew his man, accepted the pamphlet
with thanks. At court, however, the reactionary party
seized the welcome opportunity of doing a bad turn to
the absent chancellor. The vociferous tone of the writing
was displeasing to the king, and no less displeasing were the
detestable accusations it voiced against the Prussian state,
and the repulsive Rhineland arrogance which treated the old
provinces contemptuously as semi-barbaric colonies. The crown
prince had the pamphlet returned to its author with a few
words of censure, and upon the king's orders a prosecution was
instituted. It appeared that the aldermen in the communes
of the governmental district had been circulating the address.
Two only of the communes which had been asked to do this
had refused : the burghership of Hatzenport on the Moselle,
because its inhabitants were satisfied with the existing constitu-
tion, and a place in Hunsruck, because the peasants dreaded
with good reason that the address, bringing back the old con-
stitution of Treves, might bring back with it the tithes. When
a Landrat had interfered, the government in Coblenz had called
him to order because "we do not desire to prevent subjects
bringing their views before the sovereign." Their statement
of justification declared : " We flattered ourselves with the
belief that we were acting entirely in the spirit of the liberal
sentiments of our government." 1

The king thought otherwise. He was indeed greatly moved,
for in this fermenting new province least of all did he desire
to see any infringement of the old Frederician rule which
granted the right of petition to individuals only, strictly pro-
hibiting all joint petitions. For this reason, notwithstanding
Hardenberg's urgent advice to the contrary, he administered
a sharp reproof to the Coblenz government, and replied to the
signatories to the address in an ungraciously worded cabinet
order, to the effect that he alone would decide upon the time
for the carrying out of his promise. The people of Hatzenport

1 Statement of the Coblenz Government, May 20, 1818.
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were commended for their law-abiding sentiments, and hence-
forward, for years to come, remained the butt of their fellow-
countrymen, who spoke of them as the Abderites of Rhineland.1
It was only through this proof of royal disfavour that the
foolish mummery of the Coblenz deputation acquired a signifi-
cance which would otherwise never have attached to the affair.
The whole province murmured at the king's severity,
although the constitutionalist party among the Rhinelanders
had in reality at first had but few convinced adherents.
Hardenberg immediately divined that the good-natured
monarch's anger must have been occasioned by malicious
whispers. He harboured suspicions of Ancillon and Duke Charles
of Mecklenburg, but still failed to see through the machinations
of the most cunning and dangerous of his enemies, Prince
Wittgenstein, even demanding of the last-named (in confidence)
his assistance in appeasing the ill-humour of the court. In
order to reconcile the king's mind completely, he returned to
Berlin in the beginning of April, earlier than he had intended,
leaving behind him as a parting message, A German Word from
Prussia to the Rhinelanders. This pamphlet, written by his
confidant Koreff and revised by himself, while giving the
Rhenish people certain friendly assurances, gave them also some
much-needed advice. The Rhinelanders, said the writing, must
not forget that they themselves did not raise a finger to shake
off the foreign yoke, and that it was to the Prussian state
alone that they owed their liberty, their renewed right to a
German life. The chancellor broke off his correspondence with
Gorres, because " cela mettrait du louche dans ma marche." He
wished to avoid anything which might arouse the king's sus-
picions, in order to be able all the more securely to attain
to his own principal aim, the constitution.2

The delay of the great decision was more painfully felt
every day. Warnings were sent in from all sides. The gentry
of Mark, demanded once more, as so often before, that
the new fundamental law should concord with the old system
of the estates, and they were referred by the king to the
deliberations of the council of state. The government of Merse-
burg, on the other hand, begged that at least the circle diets
should be instituted as speedily as possible ; in default of this
the arrogant claims of the old estates, who hated the people,

1 Two Cabinet Orders of March 21, 1818.

3 Hardenberg's Diary, March I, 7, and li, April 26, 1818.

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I iistory of Germany

could not possibly be withstood. Even the municipal authorities
of the capital, hitherto so peacefully disposed, got out of hand
because, when the notables had been asked their opinions, no
one had been summoned from the capital ; they sent in several
memorials drawing attention to the royal promise, only to be
told that " repeated reminders are out of place." l

Hardenberg could no longer conceal from himself that he must
now at length put his own hand to the work. But how was he
to find time and energy for constitution-building amid the
enormous pressure of affairs already too heavy for the aging
man ? Thereupon Wittgenstein, to whom unsuspiciously he
confided his troubles, helped him out with some friendly advice
(May 6th). The prince recommended the appointment of two
new ministers as secondary chiefs for the two departments for
which the chancellor himself had hitherto been directly respon-
sible, suggesting Count Lottum, a well-meaning man of trifling
political importance, for the board of general control, and Count
Christian Bernstorff, the Danish envoy in Berlin, for the ministry
of foreign affairs. Since for years Hardenberg had been on
terms of close friendship with Bernstorff, he inconsiderately
accepted the proposal, and on May 25th, wrote to the king
saying that he felt the burden of his sixty-eight years, and
further that he considered it his duty to make provision for
the daily possibility that God might summon him. He would
wish to retain the chancellorship to the end, and at the moment
was quite unprepared to suggest a successor for this post ; it
would therefore be simplest if ministers were now to be nomi-
nated for all the departments, so that when his death took
place, everything could go on without disturbance. Thereupon
followed the proposals which, he said, " I have discussed with
my faithful friend Wittgenstein." The king, who had himself
known and valued Count Bernstorff from youth upwards,
approved the suggestion, and after the Danish envoy had
recovered from his surprise, and had secured permission from
his own monarch, the change was formally completed on
September i6th, in an exceptionally gracious despatch from
the king to the chancellor.2

1 Petition from the great committee of the gentry of Electoral Mark
and Neumark, March 17 ; the king's answer, March 28 ; Report of the Men>e-
burg government, June 28 ; Address of the municipal representatives of Berlin,
January 15 ; Report of the Berlin government, February 16, 1818.

2 Hardcnberg's Diary, May 6 ; Hardenberg to the king, May 24 and 30 ;
Cabinet Order to Hardenberg. September 16, 1818.

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The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

This was a master-stroke on the part of Wittgenstein.
The sly courtier's plan, which was unquestionably directed
against the chancellor, had been so adroitly conceived that,
alike to the king and to the chancellor himself, everything
seemed to be Hardenberg's own doing. The post of minister
of foreign affairs was one of great difficulty, for at that time the
diplomatic corps of Prussia, while it numbered among its members
numerous excellent diplomats of the second rank, who almost
without exception sent in well-written reports, had only one
real statesman of the stuff to make a minister, and this
one, W. Humboldt, was impossible . Among all the great
powers he was in such ill repute that he was never able to
play any successful part in the work of the Quadruple Alliance ;
and not only was he disliked by the courts, but further he was
still estranged from Hardenberg by the old mutual mistrust,
and was unsuited for a department which henceforward, as
before, was to remain under the especial supervision of the
chancellor. Finally, in the previous autumn, he had refused
to enter the ministry, and had just renewed his refusal in a
despatch from London, in which he said that the ministers
possessed no genuine responsibility, and that such responsibility
as they did exercise was one he would be unwilling to share
with men like Schuckmann.1 In these circumstances it is easy
to understand that the king, who so often before had summoned
men from other parts of Germany to his service, would, on
this occasion also, disregard the strongly expressed sensibilities
of his native-born officials, and once again make up his mind
to employ a non-Prussian German.

Even in the Danish service, Count Bernstorff had always
remained a German. After a brief diplomatic apprenticeship
in the Berlin embassy, he had, when only twenty-seven years
of age, taken over the management of foreign affairs in Copen-
hagen, and, as the last representative of the rule of the German
nobility which had endured for so many hundred years in
Denmark, had had to experience many a sharp conflict with
the awakening national pride of the island people : the German
Bernstorffian party and the Danish national Rosenkrantzian
party were always sharply opposed. His merits did not rival
those of his grand-uncle, or of his father, the two great libera-
tors of the peasantry in Denmark ; nor was fortune favourable
to his administration. He was unable to prevent the plunder-

1 Humboldt to Hardenberg, May 29, 1818.

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History of Germany

campaign of the English against Copenhagen ; and subsequently,
when he had re-entered the diplomatic career, he did not
succeed in securing a better fate for his monarchy when the
latter, at the congress of Vienna, was sacrificed by all the
great powers. Notwithstanding this misadventure, he was
generally regarded as an honourable, courageous, and prudent
statesman. His methods in personal intercourse were dignified
and yet gentle, which was always pleasing to King Frederick
William, while he displayed a bewitching charm which
sprang from a noble heart. In the beautiful park of his
official residence in the Wilhelmsstrasse, there assembled
on summer evenings Gneisenau and Clausewitz and a cheer-
ful circle of talented people ; and as a rule his friendly
neighbours the Radziwills also dropped in, by way of the
steps which led over the party- wall between the two gardens.
In early life the minister had been introduced to literature
by his uncles, the brothers Stolberg, and had himself displayed
an amiable poetic talent ; both in art and science, indeed,
he proved a genuine connoisseur. But he possessed little
of the coarse ambition and restless activity of the born
statesman.

With him began a new generation of Prussian diplomacy.
In place of those weather-proof, hard-working politicians who
had once devoted themselves body and soul to the Great Elector
and the Great King, there now appeared more and more fre-
quently, in the piping times of peace, talented and amiable
literary dilettantes, to whom the state was no longer one and
all. Even when he took over his new office, Count Bernstorff
felt weary and relaxed, although he was not yet fifty years
of age, and shortly afterwards he became so severely afflicted
with gout, the disease of his class, that he rarely had a day's
perfect health. Of Prussia's internal affairs he knew only what
a foreign diplomat could learn, and, to his misfortune, it was
from Ancillon that he had long been accustomed to glean his
information about German politics in general. The mysterious
odour of sanctity which surrounded this learned courtier still
completely blinded the new minister; and the Badenese envoy,
General Stockhorn, was certainly on the right track when he
reported to his court that Bernstorff's appointment had been
the joint work of Ancillon and Wittgenstein. The correspon-
dence between Bernstorff and Ancillon is still for the most
part extant, and it shows very clearly that for more than

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The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

a year the new minister continued to repose every confidence in
the teachings conveyed to him by the facile pen of his mentor.
Not until it was too late, not until the end of the year 1819,
did Bernstorff acquire an independent view of German
affairs, and learn to see them with his own eyes. He then
gradually diverged from the reactionary doctrines of his
master, and showed that in temperament and sentiment
he belonged to the class of moderate conservatives. But during
the critical year and a half in which the transformation of
federal policy took place, Bernstorff remained an associate of
Ancillon.

His appointment was a victory for the reactionary party,
and, despite his own ignorance of the fact, favoured the inten-
tions of those who were secretly endeavouring to bring the
chancellor's constitutional plans to nought. For the time being,
the work of constitution-building was completely arrested. In
July, Hardenberg voyaged from Potsdam to Hamburg upon
Humphrey's new steamboat Der Kurier (this being regarded
as an unprecedented venture), and thence made his way to
the Rhine, where he was engaged for some weeks in legal affairs
and in diplomatic negotiations. The impatience of the constitu-
tionalist party increased daily. Boyen wrote to Schon in a
fury : " This love of the people for their king, which is based
upon facts, all that during centuries honourable thinkers have
explained as the aims of humanity, will now be declared untrue
by a gang of weaklings, of old women who unfortunately wear
trousers, who desire out of obsolete forms to weave a mystical
garment which they think will be so comfortable to themselves
and to their beloved families." l

Thus all the signs were favourable to the court of Vienna.
Towards the end of the previous year, Metternich, out of respect
for the sensibilities of the minor courts, had avoided inter-
vention in German federal policy ; but now the time seemed
to have arrived for a campaign against the demagogues. If
only the Quadruple Alliance could be recemented at the congress,
the German press, the universities, the gymnastic grounds, and,
if possible, the Landtags, should experience the severities of
the federal law. In order to carry on the campaign on behalf
of the existing order with spiritual weapons as well, Metternich
had recently established the Wiener Jahrbucher der Literatiir,

1 Boyen to Schon, October 26, 1818.

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1 listory of Germany

for the Oestcrrcichischc BcobacJiier was too pitiable an affair,
except from time to time when Gentz sent an essay ; whilst
Cotta, in the columns of the Allgcmeine Zeilung of Augsburg,
accepted not only the communications of the Hofburg, but
liberal articles as well. Matthiius von Collin, the brother of
the dramatist Heinrich von Collin, a harmless and insignificant
author, was entrusted with the editorship, and it is an index
of the level of Metternich's scientific culture that he asked
the most trivial of all German critics, Carl Bottinger of Dresden,
who had been immortalised by the scorn of Goethe and
Schiller under the nickname of " Magister Ubique," to serve
the new undertaking (planned in "a thoroughly learned and
genuinely cosmopolitan spirit ") as critic. The considerable
pecuniary resources of the paper unquestionably served to
secure it a few solid contributions, but it never acquired any-
literary significance, for how could living knowledge have
prospered under so dull an editorship ?

In the very first numbers, in preparation for the struggle
against the German newspapers, there appeared two essays by
Gentz upon the freedom of the press in England, the only
strictly scientific works of his later years. What a transforma-
tion since that frank circular in which, twenty years before,
he had commended a free press to the new king of Prussia.
How much more mature, experienced, and well-furnished with
knowledge did he now appear, but how cold, one-sided, sceptical,
and disingenuous in his skilful rhetoric. Now freedom of the
press was to be no more than a relative term, and it was as
safe and even safer under the censorship than under the danger
of prosecution after publication. After a masterly account of
the history of the English press, such as he alone at that day
was competent to give, he developed the leading ideas of a
doctrine which for an entire generation remained the funda-
mental error of German press legislation. He maintained that
press offences constituted a variety of offences which had
nothing in common with other infringements of law, whereas
in actual fact lese majeste, blasphemy, and similar crimes may
be equally well committed by word of mouth, by action, or
through the press, and the difference of method has no effect
on the nature of the offence. His impudent sophistry secured
support, not only on account of the fears of the cabinets, but
also because of the caste pride of the authors, who in their
vanity failed to note that Gentz only arrogated for the press

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The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

a proud position outside the common law because he desired
to subject it to exceptional laws.

Undeniably none could dispute with him the glory
of being the first of German publicists. He surpassed every
possible rival by the classical beauty of a style which was
at once profoundly elaborate and yet simple, and by the con-
centrated energy of his dialectic. But what had become of
the moral wrath and the wealth of ideas of his great years ;
what had become of that broad-minded liberalism which had
once so manfully defended the national peculiarities of the
peoples against the irrational tyranny of the world-empire ?
The solitary idea of the maintenance of the existing order
recurred again and again in all his writings with hopeless
monotony. The hoary illusion that the eternal movement of
history could now be brought to rest for ever at the beck
of the Hofburg, had dried up the creative energy of this once
fruitful spirit, and had inspired with contemptible terrors this man
who had formerly entered the lists on behalf of Europe — for
Gentz had still too keen a critical faculty not to see through
his own contradictions. He had gradually made himself quite
at home in Austria. He had broken off communication with
almost all the friends of his youth, and soon came to take
a malicious delight in defaming his old home as the land of
vain pride of intellect, and in extolling as the greatest of Ger-
man authors the fanatical Prussian renegade, Adam Miiller, a
man who stood so far below Gentz himself.

Just as Plato and his political disciples had once availed
themselves of all the wealth of the Attic tongue and the Attic
spirit to extol the brutal roughness of the Spartan state, so
Gentz now utilised the heavy armament of his Protestant
North German culture in the service of an un-German statecraft
which threatened to annihilate the freedom of our civilisa-
tion. Like his ancient prototypes, he was misled in the first
instance by a political error, inasmuch as he imagined that he
found in the Hofburg the shield and the mainstay of the con-
servative cause in Europe ; but it was also his insatiable love
of pleasure which held him prisoner in the Austrian camp.
He was one of those born virtuosi of enjoyment whose energies
can find free play only in the soft atmosphere of a refinedly
sensual existence, and who are therefore justified in tilling the
soil which corresponds to their special gifts. But how
immeasurably did he misuse this right. The colossal sums

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I listory of Germany

which he unashamedly accepted from the great courts, from the
Rothschilds, from the hospodars of Wallachia, were still insufficient
to provide for the foolish extravagance of the effeminately
fastidious man, exhausted and enervated by all conceivable
lusts of the flesh. For many years the Hofburg had merely
made use of his pen, without initiating him into all its secrets.
It was only after the congress of Vienna and the second con-
gress of Paris that he attained vis-a-vis Metternich that posi-
tion of confidence which he had formerly and falsely boasted ;
but to Emperor Francis he remained to the end a mere
foreign plebeian. He spoke of the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle
as the climax of his career ; all the courts overwhelmed
him with distinctions and gifts ; friends and foes alike
recognised in him the publicist of the European alliance.
Conscious of his own comprehensive knowledge of affairs, he
looked down with fierce contempt upon the dilettantist political
chatter of delegates, professors, and journalists. Never would
he admit that out of the views of such a multitude of persons
endowed with half knowledge there could ultimately arise a
public opinion which even in its aberrations still constitutes
a genuine power, and at times exercises as irresistible an
influence as is exercised in a theatre by the judgment of a
public also consisting of non-experts. How delighted he was
" that at length there once again exist diplomatic secrets,"
that the cabinets had determined that on this occasion the
proceedings of the congress should be concealed from the gaze
of the uninitiated more carefully than had been the case in
Vienna. By the use of compulsion, and by punishments, the
great mass of interlopers were to be deprived of all desire
to interfere in the labours of the political craftsmen. It was
with real delight that Gentz now took up that Prussian
memorial upon the press law which in the previous year Jordan
had vainly brought to Vienna, and began to modify it in the
Austrian sense ; to this master of the pen no means were
severe enough to bring the papers to silence.

As he tells us himself, even more terrible than the licence
of the press appeared to him " the greatest of all evils," the
disorder among the students (das Burschcnunwcscn] . That
touching enthusiasm for the unity of Germany which seems to
furnish excuse even for the follies of these fervent youths, was
naturally to the Austrian nothing more than one additional
ground for condemnation. There also came into operation the

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detestation of this soft and over-delicate aristocratic world for
the coarse university manners, of whose roughness extraordinary
stories were circulated in the Hofburg ; in Metternich's view,
even Arndt was no more than a dissolute toper. Finally, and
above all, Gentz was influenced by his own craven fears ; not
even the crowing of cocks and the hissing of geese, not even
the rolling of thunder, and all the other terrors with which
cruel nature affected the sensitive nerves of the Viennese court
publicist, produced in him such a vigorous disturbance as did
the sight of a bearded student. In Heidelberg, even his delight
in the beautiful landscape, almost the sole youthful sentiment
which he had still preserved in his frosted heart, was completely
destroyed, for in the streets there were to be seen " the
grotesque and repulsive figures of young men going about in
dirty Old German rig, a genuine horror to God and man, with
books under their arms, seeking the false wisdom of their evil
professors." This abomination, too, must cease; a great memorial
upon the reform of the universities was already in progress.
The congress offered a means for coming to an understanding
with the Prussian court, and then the Bundestag was to initiate
annihilating blows against the demagogues. Meanwhile the
public, in an oracular article published by the Oesteneichische
Beobachter, was expressly exhorted to display its confidence
in the wisdom of the allied monarchs, "whose every step
will be in the direction of conservation, not of destruction or
revolution."

In order to produce a compliant mood in the Bundestag,
Metternich and Gentz travelled by way of Frankfort, and
secured there from the servile petty diplomats (of whom, in
the circle of initiates, Gentz was accustomed to speak bluntly
as a " rabble ") a reception brilliant surpassing all expectations.
Metternich reported triumphantly to the emperor : " Since
coming to Frankfort I have effected a moral revolution in the
Bundestag ; it is almost incredible to what a height of moral
influence the imperial court has now attained." To his wife
he wrote in yet more boastful terms : "I have become a sort
of moral force in Germany and Europe ; I came to Frankfort
like the Messiah for the remission of sins " — and he went on
to give an assurance that the twelve days of his stay had
sufficed to bring to fruition in the Bundestag everything which
hitherto had seemed impossible of attainment. As a matter

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History of Germany

of fact, the Bundestag remained quite undisturbed in its healthy
slumbers. The envoys cheerfully continued to play their
favourite game of hide-and-seek with the production of fresh
instructions ; and of all the unfulfilled duties of the federal
assembly, one only was advanced a brief step through Metter-
nich's intervention, namely, the proceedings concerning the
federal army.

The dispute was still in progress regarding the composition
of the mixed army corps, all the middle-sized states continuing
obstinately to maintain that Electoral Hesse belonged to South
Germany ; and Wangenheim had just aroused the anger of the
two great powers by a series of snappish Notamina on the
federal military constitution, behind which plainly loomed the
idea of the German trias. When Metternich called the Wiirtem-
berg diplomat to account, the latter, in a childishly open answer
(September i6th), disclosed his most secret plans. " The federal
act," Wangenheim wrote guilelessly, " is nothing, absolutely
nothing, in default of institutions which guarantee the applica-
tion of the law and its carrying into effect " ; only a federation
within the federation could secure the complete legal equality
of all members of the federation, and could hold the purely
German states aloof from the European wars of the two great
powers. The idea that this federation could ever enter into
a conspiracy with foreign powers, and that " one-and-thirty
states in small octavo or duodecimo " could ever become united
in a plan of conquest against Prussia and Austria, was charac-
terised as " nonsensical dread of political Don Quixotes."

Metternich did not vouchsafe any answer to this innocent
correspondent, but immediately sought for an understanding
with Prussia. If only the unity of the federal army, and
therewith the Austrian supreme command of that army, should
remain secure, he was little concerned regarding the composition
of the mixed army corps. From Frankfort he went to his
beautiful estate of Johannisberg, where he had the profitable
vineyards of the old prince-abbots of Fulda most sedulously
cared for, while their banqueting halls had been restored with
repulsive baldness and lack of taste. There, on September
i/th, supported by Langenau, he held a great council with
Hardenberg, Goltz, and Wolzogen, which led to the accept-
ance of the Prussian proposals. In addition to three Austrian,
three Prussian, and one Bavarian army corps, three mixed
corps were to be formed ; an eighth for Saxony, Wiirtemberg,

1 02

The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

and Baden ; a ninth for the two Hesses, Nassau, and Thuringia ;
and a tenth for Hanover and the Low German petty states.
The Prussian chancellor was delighted beyond measure.
Though he had been a hundred times disillusioned, he still
could not abandon the phantoms of his dualistic policy, and
reported to his king that at length it was certain that, in
case of war, the whole of North Germany except Saxony would
be under Prussia's leadership.1 Yet not a single word had
been spoken regarding the bipartition of the federal army,
and, indeed, Austria was absolutely determined never to depart
from the earlier federal resolution which prescribed the nomina-
tion of one single federal commander-in-chief. In Frankfort,
meanwhile, the old disputes continued without cessation ; the
two Hesses definitely desired to enter the army corps of the
South German middle-sized states. But since the king of
Wiirtemberg subsequently took alarm at the challenging atti-
tude adopted by the hot-blooded Wiirtemberg envoy,2 and gave
only a lukewarm support to the two Hesses, the Johannisberg
agreement was at length accepted by the military committee,
and on October I2th the proposal for the " elements of the
military constitution of the Germanic Federation " was laid
before the Bundestag.

Thus at the end of two years was secured a proposal for
" the elements " — what a shameful constrast to the patriotic
unanimity of the French chambers which immediately forgot
all party quarrels when the strength of the army was in
question ! It still remained altogether doubtful if and when
the Bundestag would approve the proposal of its committee,
for there now recommenced the agreeable waste of time involved
in sending for instructions, and anyone who knew the character
of the assembly could not fail to recognise in advance that
the acceptance of the proposal unamended was inconceivable.
Yet Metternich in his insatiable vanity was bold enough to
write to the emperor saying that, at the moment of the evacua-
tion of France, Germany could enjoy the satisfaction of com-
pleting her military organisation, of securing her powers for
defence — and he received in return the monarch's thanks for
" having conducted the military affairs to the desired end."
Nine days after this commendation, he confidentially admitted

1 Hardenberg, Report to the king, Kreuznach, September 18, 1818.
* Ministerial despatch from Berstett to Berkhtim, August 29, 1818.

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History of Germany

to the chancellor (November 5th) that all the negotiations
of the Bundestag concerning military affairs had hitherto been
no more than mere preliminaries ! l

However trifling the results of his visit to Frankfort, it
had at least effected an increase in his personal prestige. He
was now generally regarded as the wise chief of German
statesmen, and even Wangenheim spoke of him as a
hero of statecraft. When Emperor Francis crossed the
Rhine, there arose in the ancient lands of the crozier a chorus
of jubilation which proved beyond possibility of doubt that the
Prussophobia of the Rhinelanders was rooted, not in liberal
but in clerical sentiments. The men of Cologne went out many
miles along the road to meet him. Francis received all this
homage with barely concealed and malicious delight, and beneath
a report from Metternich, assuring him of the imperial loyalty
of the Rhineland, he wrote with satisfaction the words " agree-
able intelligence." In the bigoted town of Aix-la-Chapelle,
wherever the Austrian showed himself he was greeted with
loud hurrahs, whilst no one paid any attention to the king
of Prussia or to the czar, and people openly declared, " The
emperor is here in his own land, but the Prussian is a
stranger." When King Frederick William took his Austrian
guest to the minster, all the clergy of the place received the
emperor at the door (the Oesterreichische Beobachter described the
fact in a shameless article), and conducted him to the grave
of Charlemagne, where a prie-dieu had been placed ready for
him, and handed to him the celebrated relics ; meanwhile the
Protestant sovereign of these priests, and his heir, stood
unregarded on one side. What a scene ! Gratitude and
veneration for this Lorrainer who had thrown the crown of
the Carlovingians into the mire, here beside the grave of the
first emperor, in the ancient coronation town in which, fourteen
years before, Francis, false to his own oath, had paid homage
to the emperordom of the usurper. What criminal contempt
was here displayed by his subjects for that noble German
prince who had lifted the foreign yoke from the necks of these
men of the western march, and who, after they had suffered
many centuries of misery, had just regained the blessings of
just German rule. Unquestionably a generation inspired by
such sentiments was not yet ripe for unity.

1 Metternich to Hardenberg, November 5, 1818.
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§ 2. EVACUATION OF FRANCE. RENEWAL OF THE QUADRUPLE

ALLIANCE.

The affairs of the congress were not to proceed entirely
without dispute, but the conflict of opinions was never acute
or dangerous, for all parties were agreed in dreading a new
eruption of the revolutionary volcano in France. It is true
that the czar had arbitrarily, and in defiance of the resolution
of the Parisian conference of ambassadors, summoned Pozzo
di Borgo to Aix-la-Chapelle, but Metternich speedily noted that
Alexander was far from being in agreement with the French
sentiments of his ambassador. The czar regarded the internal
affairs of France with profound anxiety, and would not allow
himself to be persuaded by Richelieu's asseverations. Notwith-
standing all his good wishes for the Bourbons, he would not
completely abandon the alliance of the four powers, which was
mainly directed against the revolutionary spirit in France. The
maintenance of peace and public order, the upholding of
Christian civilisation, and, should it prove necessary, a common
fight against the hydra of revolt — such was the programme
which, to Metternich's relief, he again and again developed
in unctuous speeches. Moreover, Pozzo did not take part in
the official sittings. The plenipotentiaries were : Castlereagh
and Wellington ; Metternich ; Hardenberg and Bernstorff ;
Capodistrias and Nesselrode. Gentz kept the minutes, swimming
in an ocean of delight, and he could hardly find words
sufficiently vigorous in which to describe to his confidant Pilat,
the admirable change in the czar's sentiments, the exemplary
unanimity of the cabinets, the praise that was showered on
his own pen, and the six thousand ducats which were dropped
into his bottomless pocket. Richelieu, the French plenipoten-
tiary, as yet put in an appearance in isolated sittings only, and
upon special invitation.

As early as the third day of the congress, on October ist,
an agreement was arrived at regarding the evacuation of France ;
and on October gth a convention was concluded with Richelieu,
appointing November soth as the date of withdrawal of the
army of occupation. " I have lived long enough," wrote King
Louis thankfully to his minister, " now that I have seen France
free once more." A delay of nine months was granted to the
Tuileries for the payment of the remainder of the war debt,

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History of Germany

amounting to 265,000,000 francs. Hardenberg had vainly
demanded immediate payment, on the ground that Prussia,
whose finances were completely exhausted, could hardly wait
any longer, and was always forced to sell the French national
bonds immediately on receipt, on unfavourable terms. The
three other powers rejected the proposal, because they did not
wish to irritate public opinion in France ; l and in any case
the Bourbons would have found it extremely difficult to satisfy
the Prussian demand. The two new loans, amounting in all
to 120,000,000 francs, which France had to raise for the dis-
charge of the first instalments of the debt, had caused a panic
in the business world; and while the congress was still sitting
such severe crises ensued upon the bourses, first in Paris and
then in Amsterdam, that the powers, upon Richelieu's request,
and upon the intercession of Wellington, approved two further
postponements of the date of payment, the last postponement
being until June, 1820. On both occasions Prussia raised fruit-
less objections.

Less simple was the course of the negotiations regarding
the future position of France in relation to the four powers
Richelieu's desire was that his state should be simply accepted
into the Quadruple Alliance, so that the European pentarchy
which had existed de facto during the three decades before the
Revolution should be renewed as a legally recognised order.
He repeatedly declared that the persistence of the Quadruple
Alliance could in France be regarded in no other way than
as an affront, and that it must ultimately lead to war or
revolution. It seemed for a time as if Russia would accede
to these desires. In confidential conversations, Capodistrias
spoke of the Quadruple Alliance as the four-headed Bonaparte
whose tyranny must be broken. On October 8th, the Russian
plenipotentiaries handed in a memorial which, as Bernstorff
aptly said, was unparalleled for length, obscurity, and bombast,
by anything which had previously proceeded from St. Peters-
burg.2 In apocalyptic terms it extolled the system of peace
established by Providence itself, a system which, like truth,
when once recognised and engraven in the hearts of men, can
never again lose its power. Next came a demand for the
admission of France into the Quadruple Alliance, for this body was

1 Minutes of the fifth sitting, October 3, 1818.

* Capodistrias, Memoire sur 1'alliance general, September 26/October 8 ;
Bcmstorff to Lottum, October 10, 1818.

ic6

The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

" only the centre of gravity of the general alliance, or of the
European system." But side by side with this demand were to be
found threatening and actually hostile utterances against France.
If this power should ever again become the seat of revolution,
she would by her own act withdraw from the general alliance.

This remarkable document gave a faithful picture of the
contradictory desires which since the great transformation of
the previous summer had been dominating the mobile spirit
of the czar. It was plain that the founder of the Holy Alliance
would have gladly become the recognised chief of a general
European league, and that he was nevertheless unwilling entirely
to abandon the well-tried Quadruple Alliance which held the
forces of revolution in check. On the other hand, the two
highly conservative powers, Austria and England, thought above
all of maintaining the existing fact, the Quadruple Alliance,
with perhaps the occasional support of France ; neither Metter-
nich nor Castlereagh could overcome their mistrust of Russian
ambition, and their dread of all innovation. Moreover, Lord
Liverpool dreaded fierce struggles with the whigs should his
colleagues subscribe to any formal treaty, and concealed his
anxiety behind the high-sounding exhortation, " The allies must
not forget that the general and European discussion of these
questions will take place in the English parliament." In the
bosom of his own cabinet, a voice of contradiction was already
audible. The youngest member of the ministry, George
Canning, was voicing the view that the island state should hold
aloof from continental affairs except in so far as they concerned
the interests of English trade. Prussia occupied a middle
position between the parties, and endeavoured to secure a com-
promise, for which the conditions were in fact favourable.
Unquestionably the Quadruple Alliance still had a justified
existence. It would be undesirable to dissolve it, for the condi-
tion of France was not one to inspire confidence, while in the
kingdom of the Netherlands a struggle between north and south
had already broken out which seemed to threaten the overthrow
of this artificial state-structure. On the other hand, it was
no longer reasonable to refuse the court of the Tuileries all
right to participate in the deliberations of the European powers,
now that France had fulfilled every condition imposed by the
peace. Were there no means of attaining both the desired ends,
of accepting France into the European concert of the powers, and
yet at the same time firmly re-establishing the Quadruple Alliance ?

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History of Germany

Prussia's mediation was directed towards this twofold aim,
and within a few days the two parties had drawn closer
together. On October I4th, in a new memorial, Capodistrias
proposed that in a secret protocol the four powers should con-
firm the Quadruple Alliance and should in private discuss the
question of military preparations in the event of war ensuing
against France ; but that when this had been effected, France should
be invited to join the union of the four powers, and that after
the acceptance of this invitation the union should be indicated
to the remaining states of Europe as a proof " of the unity,
of the brotherly and Christian friendship," of the monarchs.1
On these lines the elements for an understanding were already
forthcoming. Nevertheless the progress of the negotiations
was arrested for several days because the czar and the king,
upon Richelieu's urgent invitation, undertook an excursion to
Paris ; the old Bourbon monarch wished to show his nation
that the allies regarded him as a completely equal member
of the league. On the way, a review of the Prussian occupation
corps was held at Sedan, on the very field where, after the
lapse of half a century, the black eagles were once more to be
seen. At the Tuileries the czar again displayed his dramatic
talents ; he stayed but a single day, and as soon as his
Prussian friend had gone to the theatre he had a long and
ceremonious conversation with King Louis, during which there
was no lack of emotional phrases and benevolent wishes. But
he would not give the king any binding assurances, and when
he returned to Aix-la-Chapelle, on October 3ist, he found the
statesmen in a mood which boded no good to France.

The supplementary elections to the French chambers had
not led to the return of a single ultra-royalist, whereas even
in the strongholds of the legitimist party, in Brittany and La
Vendee, acknowledged democrats like Lafayette and Manuel
had been elected. In addition, there had arrived disquieting
intelligence from the Paris bourse. To everyone, the future
of France seemed more uncertain than ever, and in a memorial
dated November ist Metternich insisted with much emphasis
that France was still far from being in a similar situation
with the other powers. No one would threaten a peaceful
and constitutional France : but this state was the issue of
revolution and was torn by faction ; it was the duty of the

1 Memoire sur 1'application des trait6s de 1815 aux circonstances actuelles,
October 14, 1818.

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The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

four powers to keep it under observation, lest it should relapse
into revolutionary spasms, " a duty which does not exist in
relation to any other state " ; consequently France could not
enter into a formal alliance, especially since there did not
exist any casus fcederis, and could merely be asked to partici-
date in the deliberations of the four powers. This view gained
the upper hand, although Russia raised certain objections,
relating rather to form than to substance ; l and thereupon, in a
note couched in flattering terms, and sent to Richelieu under
pate November 4th, the Most Christian King was invited hence-
forward to join in the deliberations of the other powers. On
November I2th, the French minister-of-state forwarded a reply
expressing the lively gratitude of his king for this new proof
of confidence and friendship, and promising that France would
adhere to the union of the powers " with that integrity which
is characteristic of the country."

On November I5th the now united five powers signed a protocol
giving formal expression to the accession of France to the
system of universal peace, and pledging themselves that from
time to time, by common agreement, they would hold personal
interviews for the joint discussion of their affairs. At these
meetings, should the interests of other powers come up for
consideration, such matters must be discussed only upon the
formal demand, and with the co-operation, of the states con-
cerned. This protocol was communicated to all the European
courts, accompanied by a declaration (also dated November
I5th), which was a master- work of Gentz's style, but whose
brilliancy of form could hardly conceal the exiguity of the
content. " The purpose of this union," ran the document,
"is as simple as it is beneficent and grand. In its firm and
quiet progress, it strives for nothing less than the maintenance
of peace, designing to guarantee all the negotiations upon which
peace is founded and by which it is strengthened. The
sovereigns formally recognise that their duty towards God
and towards the nations over which they rule, commands them
to set before the world, as far as lies within their powers, an
example of justice, harmony, and moderation."

Thus France was ostensibly accepted into the alliance of

1 Minutes of the twenty-second sitting, November 4. Metternich's Apercu de
la situation, November I, 1818. The document printed in Metternich's posthumous
papers III, p. 161, is only the first draft of this memorial, which was subsequently
much elaborated.

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History of Germany

the four powers, and, in order to announce the new friendship
ceremoniously, Pozzo di Borgo, with the approval of the czar,
was made a peer of France. The good Richelieu, whose chival-
rous conduct at the congress had given general satisfaction,
could enjoy the pleasure of finding that the ignorant press
extolled him, not merely for having liberated French soil, but
also for having renewed the European pentarchy. In reality,
France had secured nothing more than a comparatively worthless
manifestation of diplomatic courtesy. The Bourbons could
henceforward expect that their plenipotentiaries would be
summoned to the meetings of the four allies, but no treaty
had been signed, and the name Quintuple Alliance was
purposely avoided. On the other hand, the representatives
of the four powers met in a confidential sitting on the very
November I5th on which they sent the declaration to the
European courts, and declared in a secret protocol that the
alliance first formed in Chaumont, and renewed in Paris for
an indefinite period, persisted without alteration ; but in
order to avoid alarming France and the other states, the con-
tinuance of the Quadruple Alliance was to be kept secret. The
four powers were pledged henceforward to furnish one another
mutually with immediate military help, each supplying a
minimum force of 60,000 men, in case a revolution should break
out in France, or should there be a Bonapartist revival, or
should in any other way a danger of war become manifest.
They reserved the right of discussing the measures, if need be,
in special meetings (reunions sped ales) which " might obviate
the disastrous consequences of a new revolution in France." *

In the same sitting, the secret military committee of the
four powers, which sat under the presidency of Wellington,
handed in its plan for the disposition of the allied military
forces. According to this " military protocol," as soon as
the four powers had decided that a casus fcederis et belli existed,
within two months the English were to assemble at Brussels,
the Prussians at Cologne, the Austrians at Stuttgart, and,
within three months, the Russians at Mainz. Of the Belgian
fortresses, England occupied the western, Ostend, Ypres, and
some of the places on the Scheldt ; Prussia the fortresses of
the Meuse and the Sambre, Namur, Charleroi, Marienburg, and
others. It was suggested that the minor German contingents
should once more be distributed, as they had been in the year

1 Secret protocol drawn up at the thirty-third sitting, November 15, 1818.

no

The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

1815, among the different armies, in accordance with geographical
position, since no federal army as yet existed. This protocol
was approved, and then Wellington, upon Prussia's urgent
representations, had still to secure the assent of the king of
the Netherlands.1

When all this had been done, it still seemed insufficient
to the Prussian generals. They were under no illusions regard-
ing the inefficiency of the celebrated " buffer state " of the
Netherlands which, in accordance with the intentions of the
congress of Vienna, was to receive the first shock of the French
army. They were well informed regarding the lamentable
condition of the Netherland army, and knew that this army
would not suffice to guard even one-half of those fifty fortresses
and forts which Wellington had just had built on the Belgian
frontier with the aid of the French war indemnities. It was
consequently the intention of Prussia, as the state next endan-
gered, to station on the lower Rhine a permanent observation
corps, which in case of need could make its way into Belgium,
even before the declaration of war. In order to discuss further
details with the Netherland court, General Muffling was sent
from Aix-la-Chapelle to Brussels ; but King William absolutely
refused to assent to any such limitation of his sovereignty.
For years past the Orange ruler, who owed his throne to the
armies of the allies, had plainly manifested his preference for
France and his hatred for Prussia. He was out of humour because
King Frederick William had not paid him a visit from Aix,
and still more because Prussia, as provided for in the treaties,
claimed the supreme command in the federal fortress of Luxem-
burg ; and when the Prussian negotiator now drew attention
to the unaccommodating humour of the Belgians, the court
of Brussels was profoundly affronted. King William would
not hear a word regarding the daily increasing anger of the
Catholic Belgians against the Dutch heretics, and was
strengthened in his blind arrogance by the English envoy
Lord Clancarty, who could not sufficiently admire this artificial
kingdom, this masterpiece of English statesmanship. In the
view of the high tory, affairs in Belgium were in an admirable
condition, and with English modesty he advised the Berlin
court that Prussia would do well to follow the good example
which the Dutch had given in Belgium, and to rule her new

1 Protocol Militaire of November 15 ; Bernstorff to Lottum, November 9 ;
Wolzogen's Memorial, October 17 ; Boyen's Memorial, November 15, 1818.

Ill

History of Germany

provinces in the same exemplary manner ; if this were done,
there would no longer be anything to fear for Prussian Rhine-
land ! To intelligences of this level it was impossible for
Muffling to prove how important Prussia's friendly and neigh-
bourly proposal might become for the preservation of the
Netherlands. He spent the entire winter in fruitless negotia-
tions, and returned home in the spring with nothing effected.

Consequently the allies of Aix-la-Chappelle had not been
able to carry all their plans to a successful issue. But the
most important point had been secured ; the Quadruple Alliance
remained established, more firmly and more harmoniously
established than ever before. France, on the other hand,
still continued under the police supervision of the four powers,
although, nominally at least, the Parisian conference of ambas-
sadors was now dissolved.1 At any moment, whenever party
struggles in France became threatening, the council of four
could assemble, and could immediately proceed to armed inter-
vention in accordance with its preconcerted plan. Richelieu
received no more than the confidential information that the
Quadruple Alliance was not dissolved, and was careful to avoid
disclosing news which would have been so painful to French
self-conceit. He had absolutely no idea of the seriousness, or
of the comprehensive character, of the preventive measures
which had been envisaged ; and just as little had he any
inkling of the changed sentiments of Czar Alexander, to whom
he manifested all possible gratitude. Enthralled with delight,
he wrote concerning the Russian monarch, " people ought to
kiss his footsteps " ; he was not aware that it was precisely
this benefactor of France who had first proposed to the allies
the constitution of a military committee, and who, in the
negotiations concerning military affairs, had, next to the Prussians,
displayed himself the most zealous negotiator on behalf of the
improvement of the military system of the coalition.

How many humiliations had proud France been forced
to endure at this congress. Even after the French minister
had been summoned to regular co-operation, the sittings of the
Quadruple Alliance were not discontinued. Of the forty-seven
sittings of the congress, fifteen, nearly a third, took place with-
out Richelieu's participation. On the anniversary of the battle
of Leipzig, the allies held a brilliant festival, attendance at
which the French minister and his suite were able to avoid

1 Minute of the forty-seventh sitting. November 22, 1818.
112

The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

only by taking a sudden journey. What an extraordinary
role was subsequently played by the due d'Angouleme when
he made a brief visit to Aix incognito, in order to return the
visit paid in Paris by the two monarchs. The unworthy posi-
tion occupied by France in the high council of Europe was the
natural consequence of the sins of the hundred days ; who
could take it amiss of the four powers if they did everything
they possibly could to avert a new breach of the world's peace,
since to this exhausted age peace seemed the greatest of all
good things ? But it was impossible that a great nation should
permanently submit to such derogatory treatment.

In the course of these negotiations there was disclosed the
ultimate goal which the czar had in view in all the mysterious
transformations of his policy. In addition to the persistence
of the Quadruple Alliance, whose efficiency he desired to limit
to the handling of warlike eventualities, Alexander also wished
to bring about the conclusion of a general European treaty of
guarantee. He owed this idea to a bombastic memorial by
Ancillon, a private undertaking which the servile scribbler had
presumably handed to the czar while the latter was passing
through Berlin on his way to Aix-la-Chapelle. In this docu-
ment, Ancillon extols the Holy Alliance, " this treaty which
would alone suffice to endow the present epoch with immor-
tality." And he goes on with his customary prolixity to
describe how the two epochs of the balance of power and the
revolutionary world-empire had at length been succeeded by
the fortunate epoch inaugurated by " the at once simple
and sublime idea of the European family." In order to
realise this idea, the five great powers must combine to provide
all the states of Europe with a guarantee for their existing
possessions against any forcible disturbance ; and, assembling
from time to time in congresses held at regular intervals, must
peacefully decree the necessary changes in the status quo.
" What is to be effected," added Bernstorff in further explana-
tion, "is to endow the translucent soul of the Holy Alliance
with a material body, or to wed this immaterial psyche with
the truly fertilising spirit of love and justice."

Thus was the phantasmagoria of perpetual peace, which
now dominated the mind of the exhausted world, to be mate-
rialised under the joint protectorate of the great powers ; and in
the regular meetings of the five monarchs the concert of Europe
was to secure a permanent centralised authority. Europe was

History of Germany

to assume the form of a federal state, to acquire a constitution
which was incompatible with the justified independence of the
individual states. To this questionable proposal Ancillon
added a second which was manifestly impossible of acceptance,
one which simply invalidated the system of the joint guarantee
of peace, and which threatened to degrade the European pro-
tectorate to the level of a tool of reactionary party politics.
The memorial demanded that the great powers should mutually
pledge one another to maintain everywhere legitimate sove-
reignty, interpreting this proposition to mean that the altera-
tion of the constitution by the sovereign could never be a
cause for the intervention of the great powers, but that such
intervention could properly be determined by a revolution,
or by any danger threatening legitimate sovereignty. Conse-
quently the great peace alliance would not have as its duty
to guarantee rights and peace against everyone, but simply
to defend the thrones against the peoples. This was a sinister
proposal which was adopted only too eagerly by the policy of
Metternich. l

For the moment so complete a triumph of the reactionary
party was still impossible. Austria and Prussia, indeed, were
prepared to engage in a mutual guarantee for the preservation
of the European status quo, for to a world so greatly desirous
of peace all means for maintaining the existing order of affairs
were welcome, while Metternich secretly hoped that the general
guarantee would impose restraint upon the two ambitious
powers which he himself most dreaded, the czar and the
Prussian army. Castlereagh, however, vetoed the proposal.
He could not venture to lay before Parliament a treaty involv-
ing such extensive commitments ; the plan was tantamount
to the consolidation of the Holy Alliance, and therefore
could not fail to redound to the advantage of its initiator,
who to the Briton already seemed much too powerful.
Moreover, to the policy of the island kingdom, the regular
congresses were far from acceptable ; the English would agree
only to occasional meetings, dictated by circumstances as they
might arise. Castlereagh held firmly to this view, and since
the two German powers were also forced to admit that the
firm Quadruple Alliance, with its clearly defined and easily
comprehensible obligations, would secure European peace far

1 Ancillon, Memoire sur la Grande Alliance. Bernstorff to Lottum, November
t. 1818.

114

The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

more effectively than the nebulous Holy Alliance, the discussion
of the treaty of guarantee was temporarily postponed. Yet
the czar continued to cherish the hope that the tenuous psyche
of his favourite plan would some day acquire a material body.
In a circular to his envoys, he once more reminded them of
the principles of the Holy Alliance, and in taking his depar-
ture he expressly declared that he was prepared to join in any
treaty of guarantee which any one of the four powers might still
be prepared to propose, upon the basis of Ancillon's memorial.1
In many other matters the old opposition between English
policy and Russian was once more conspicuously displayed.
Since the slave trade to the coast of Brazil still continued,
England demanded the right for her warships to search all
vessels suspected of being engaged in the slave trade. To
Russia, however, and to all the other powers, this demand
seemed quite immoderate, and Castlereagh had to be satisfied
when the three monarchs agreed to write autograph letters
to the king of Portugal, exhorting him to abolish the abomin-
able traffic.2 On the other hand, Russia and Prussia were
unable to carry through a proposal for common action against
the Barbary corsairs, because England did not desire to see
any Russian warships in the Mediterranean. Equally fruitless
was an appeal for help from the court of Madrid. The old
well-wishers of the Spanish Bourbons, Russia and France,
desired that England should undertake to mediate between
the king and his insurgent subjects in South America, and
should if possible induce the United States to abstain from
recognising the new Creole republics. Wellington, however,
rejected this proposal. He recognised that King Ferdinand
did not desire honourable mediation, but simply the re-establish-
ment of his rule in South America ; and in the end even
this tory government, however little it understood of economic
questions, could not completely abandon the traditions of
British commercial policy. Through the revolt of the South
American provinces, England had gained a profitable field of
trade, and it was impossible that she could desire the reunion
of the colonies with the Spanish motherland.3

1 Bernstorff to Lottum, November 5 and 23, 1818.

2 King Frederick William to the king of Portugal, November 7 ; Bernstorff to
Lottum, October 29 and November 9, 1818.

3 Minute of the eighteenth sitting, October 23 ; Bernstorff to Lottum,
November 19, 1818.

"5

History of Germany

Despite such misunderstandings, which were inevitable in
view of the complexity of European interests, the congress of
Aix was unquestionably the most harmonious in modern history ;
the general need for peace and the dread of revolution held
the powers firmly together. Moreover, this was in truth a
European congress, although the name was avoided. Proudly
and securely did the mighty warship of the Quadruple Alliance
sail through the waters of the time with the French sloop in
tow. Wellington, who now received a marshal's baton from
Prussia and Austria as well, and thus held the highest military
dignity in all the notable European armies with the solitary
exception of the French, also became generalissimo of allied
Europe. The monarchs were firmly convinced that their
guardianship was a blessing for Europe. Unhesitatingly they
dragged every European question before their forum, although
they had just assured the states of the second rank that the
co-operation of the four was directed only to the unravelling of
French affairs ; and if it ever happened that any disputed
question remained unsettled by their exertions, it was not
because they regarded the matter as beyond their competence,
but simply because they could not agree among themselves.

Since it was the czar's desire to give the European union
the character of a great Christian family in the sense of the
Holy Alliance, the congress frequently issued its instructions
to the minor states in the form of paternal autograph letters
from the three monarchs. Just as the king of Portugal was,
in such a letter, admonished to abolish the slave trade, so
was the king of Sweden ordered to fulfil his duties towards
Denmark. King Frederick William earnestly reminded his
northern neighbour of the " bonds of Christian fraternity which
exist between all princes and their peoples." But the new
house of the Bernadottes felt extremely insecure as yet in this
legitimate society of states. For a long time, and always in
vain, Charles John had been touting at the Bavarian and other
courts in order to secure a consort for the heir to the Swedish
throne, and was well aware that the monarchs in Aix-la-Chapelle
had just provided an endowment fund for the advantage of
the expelled Vasas. For this reason, he hastened to adapt
himself to the monarchs' wishes, and at length, after severe
struggles, was able to secure that the Norwegian Storthing
should, as was proper, take over a portion of the debts of the
former Danish united state. He found it hard indeed to force

116

The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

himself to this step. On one occasion he even endeavoured
to protest against the tyranny of the Quadruple Alliance, and
on January 7, 1819, wrote to Emperor Francis with Gascon
prolixity : "In truth, Sire, I have to ask whether we should
not find reason to lament the abyss of misfortune into which
the nations and the governments of the second and the third
rank would fall, if force should rise superior to the sacred
principles of reason and justice, should believe itself competent
to override international law, and even to constitute itself at
will into a court for the settlement of international disputes,
and if in this way a system should come into existence
harmonising so ill with those principles of political liberalism
for which so much blood has been spilled, and which six years
ago united us all against the conqueror who had designed to
institute a sovereign supreme power, and to rule over a com-
pletely enslaved world." In Metternich's dry opinion, however,
these were void discussions ; and since the four powers as
guarantors of the peace of Kiel demanded only what was right,
the Swedish ruler had to give way.1 Still less ceremony was
displayed towards the prince of Monaco ; Richelieu was commis-
sioned in the name of the Grand Alliance to exhort this useless
petty despot in express terms to adopt a Christian course of
life.2

Thus there prevailed everywhere the dictatorship of the
great powers, considerate in form, and as yet just and peaceful
in its aims, but none the less a dictatorship which was burden-
some to all who were not copartners. Without deigning to
ask the minor cabinets their opinion on the matter, the con-
gress resolved to institute a new order of precedence for diplo-
macy, ranging down through the scale from ambassador, through
envoy and minister-resident, to charge d'affaires ; and this
prescription was accepted without demur by all the courts.
The treatment of the imprisoned Imperator was also considered,
and here the ministers of the czar took the harshest views
of all. They rejected any idea of consideration for " the
individual in whom the force of the Revolution was embodied " ;
they declared the prisoner's grievances to be " equally false
and childish " (and this was the truth) ; they unconditionally

1 King Frederick William to the king of Sweden, November 14, 1818 ; King
Charles XIV John to Emperor Francis, January 7, 1819 ; Krusemark's Report,
Vienna, February, 1819.

2 Minutes of the forty-second sitting, November 21, 1818.

117

History of Germany

approved all Hudson Lowe's measures, and demanded the expul-
sion of the Napoleonides from dangerous places, and especially
from Rome, where " these individuals " could do nothing but
harm.1 The other powers were unwilling to go as far as
this, and all that was done was to renew the old agreement
for strict police supervision of the dangerous family. Finally,
the inevitable question of the Jews appeared upon the stage.
Russia commended a memorial by a Christian priest which
expressed itself in favour of complete emancipation ; but since
the czar was by no means inclined to realise these philan-
thropic principles in his own empire, no understanding was
arrived at.

Taking it all in all, Metternich could regard this congress
as a great success. No doubt now existed, the czar had been
converted, and even if at times he went his own way, he
no longer manifested any liberal inclinations. It was only
Capodistrias who still remained suspect to the Hofburg, and
when after the congress he visited Italy he was closely watched
by the Austrian police. Richelieu, on taking his departure,
had given consolatory assurances, and had even promised a
change in the electoral law. Metternich hoped for the best,
for, like most of his contemporaries, he greatly overestimated
the significance of electoral laws. But the French minister
was unable to carry out his word. His own colleague, Decazes,
opposed him. A ministerial crisis resulted. Towards Christ-
mas, a few weeks after his successes at Aix-la-Chapelle,
Richelieu resigned, and Decazes formed a new cabinet which
endeavoured to secure a more friendly understanding with
the liberal parties. After the first alarm had subsided, Metter-
nich soon accommodated himself to the altered situation, for
the new minister must also know that he stood beneath the
sword of the Quadruple Alliance, and that he must not go
too far to meet the independents. The Quadruple Alliance,
however, was further strengthened by the news from Paris.
Czar Alexander, who received the first intelligence of the change
when he was in Vienna on his way back to Russia, immediately
hastened in a fury to visit Emperor Francis, declared that
his regiments would instantly be placed upon a war footing,
and he could not be appeased without considerable difficulty.2

1 Russian Memorial concerning Buonaparte (Minutes of the thirty-first sitting,
November 13, 1818).

* Krusemark's Report, Vienna, December 26, 1818.

It*

The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

Upon Hardenberg's advice, the four powers agreed in the deter-
mination to avoid all direct or indirect intervention in the
internal affairs of France, but on the other hand resolved to
secure their own alliance all the more firmly, for this alliance
offered the only dam against the raging torrent which was once
more overwhelming the minds of the French.1 In such a situa-
tion, the raising of the revolutionary standard was improbable.
Gentz announced with delight to his friends : " The repose
of the world is assured throughout a prolonged future." In
the Oesierreichische Beobachter he pulverised with arrogant scorn
Archbishop de Pradt's writing upon the congress of Aix-la-
Chapelle, which was certainly an extremely shallow production
from the pen of the verbose liberal. When the independents,
writing in the Paris Minerve, made fun of the disunion among
the great powers, he replied (January, 1819) in threatening
terms, with an announcement which to the great public seemed
like thunder from a clear sky, declaring that, whatever people
might say, the Quadruple Alliance, in so far as it was directed
against the Revolution, was still in existence !

§ 3. GERMAN AFFAIRS AT THE CONGRESS.

Among the many disputed questions which in a few weeks
of arduous work were decided by the congress, there were
naturally numbered many German affairs. Many of these fell
by rights within the competence of the tribunal of the
Quadruple Alliance, because they arose out of the European
treaties and conventions of the years of war, but many of the
others came before the congress only on account of the incur-
ably unpatriotic sentiments of the German petty princes.
Prussia, and also Austria (forced to follow Prussia's lead), loyally
maintained the independence of the Germanic Federation, allow-
ing to the Quadruple Alliance intervention in German disputes
only when such intervention was legally unavoidable on the
ground of the treaties and conventions. At the opening of
the congress, an agent of Electoral Hesse appeared, to hand
to the three monarchs autograph letters from the elector, and
to communicate by word of mouth to the two other great
powers that his sovereign was thinking of taking the title of
King of the Catti, and humbly begging for the recognition of

1 Ministerial Despatch to Krusemark, March 6, 1818.
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History of Germany

Europe. In Cassel the elector had already begun the construc-
tion of a " Cattenburg," which was to serve the new " Catten "
crown as a seat of government, but had carefully concealed
from his unhappy subjects the cost of these gigantic and never
completed building operations. Simultaneously arrived an
acrimonious protest from Darmstadt to the effect that if the
elector should acquire a royal title, his cousin would claim
the like dignity. The powers bluntly rejected the demand,
on the ground that " the petition of his highness is not justi-
fied by any sufficient reason." The profoundly mortified
Hessian ruler considered that it would be disgraceful to follow
the example of the reasonable Charles Frederick of Baden,
and to exchange for the title of grand duke that of elector
which had now become utterly meaningless. He retained the
old name, and since the Germans knew nothing about the
unsuccessful suggestion to assume the Catten crown, there were
plenty of good-natured people who greatly admired the elector
because he displayed such touching piety for the venerable
memories of the Holy Empire.1

The blunt form of refusal was due to Prussian influence,
for King Frederick William felt that his personal honour was
affected by the elector's misgovernment. During the war,
the Hessian ruler had by treaty reacquired his land as a gift
from the four powers ; the allies had not demanded any formal
pledges, but had taken it as a matter of course that he
would not absolutely tread the principles of international law
under foot. Then came the scandalous cheating of the pur-
chasers of the Westphalian domains ! The king's feeling was
that he had given a guarantee for a swindler ; whilst on his
way to Aix, passing through Hanau, he had been besieged
with petitions by ill-used peasants, and in Aix further state-
ments of grievances were sent in. Bernstorff reported on the
matter to the congress. He declared that this disgraceful
traffic with the domains was a European scandal, and demanded
that Electoral Hesse, " in accordance with the good example
of Prussia," should recognise as legally valid all the acts of
the Westphalian government which had been conducted in due
legal form. Finally he proposed that first of all the four
monarchs should remind the elector of his breach of
faith ; should this prove fruitless, Prussia and Austria

1 Private Minute regarding Electoral Hesse. October 1 1 ; Hardenberg's
Instructions to von Hinlein, Prussian envoy in Cassel, October 14, 1818.

120

The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

must take common action at the Bundestag. Since England
and Russia agreed, Austria could not offer any opposition.
King Frederick William sent a sharply-worded letter to the
elector : " We are taking action," he said, " only in virtue
of a duty which imperiously imposes itself upon our con-
sciences." Emperor Francis wrote in similar terms. Never-
theless it still remained extremely doubtful whether at the
Bundestag Austria would, after all, take up the matter in
earnest, and it was quite certain that the elector could be
brought to reason in no other way than by force.1 Prussia
had just received fresh proof of the incredible presumption of
the German minor princes. By the Vienna treaties, the crown
of Prussia was obliged to cede sixty-nine thousand " souls "
from the former department of the Saar, to Oldenburg, Strelitz,
Coburg, Homburg, and Pappenheim ; at the same time the four
powers had promised their good offices to these five dynasties
to facilitate an exchange of a strip of land on the left
bank of the Rhine, or any other compensation which circum-
stances might permit. Strelitz and Pappenheim had been
reasonable enough to come to terms with Prussia upon the
receipt of money and domains ; but Oldenburg, Coburg, and
Homburg had not been able to renounce the idea of enlarging
their realms, and had in fact received three shreds of the Saar
territory, with the number of souls provided for in the treaties.
Thus there now came to be numbered among the ornaments
in the Germanic Federation's well-stocked museum of political
freaks, the double realms of Oldenburg-Birkenfeld, Coburg-
Lichtenberg, and Homburg-Meisenheim, three state-structures
as wonderful as any that could have been constructed by the
imagination of a lunatic. But the terms of the treaty had
been scrupulously fulfilled, and no reconsideration was possible,
for in the whole of Germany there no longer existed a frag-
ment of masterless land. Nevertheless the three demanded
of the congress of Aix that the Quadruple Alliance should
induce the king of Prussia to resume possession of their remote
Saar territories, and give them in exchange certain more con-
veniently situated Prussian areas. Oldenburg asked for a good
slice of Prussian Westphalia ; Homburg, for a strip of land
near Wetzlar ; Coburg, for a part of County Henneberg ; while the
widowed husband of the English princass Charlotte, Prince Leopold

1 Minute of the thirty-second sitting, November 14. King Frederick William
to Elector William, November 14. Instructions to Hanlein, November 20.

121 K

History of Germany

of Coburg, one of those talented Germans who can change
their nationality as one changes a cloak, requested Lord Castle-
reagh to see to it that England should espouse the just cause
of his " poor brother." Even for the long-suffering endurance
of Hardenberg, this demand was too much. In an angry
memorial he expressed his annoyance, saying that really Prussia
had already been partitioned more than enough, and was far
from being in a position " to allow her frontiers to be modified
and gnawed at as the caprice and convenience of her neigh-
bours may suggest " : moreover, as was well known to the allies,
the king had " conscientious objections " to any separation
from loyal subjects. Of course the demand of the three was
rejected, and the house of Coburg had yet to suffer much
affliction from the twenty thousand souls of the Saar territory
of Lichtenberg. *

In the interim, urgent complaints had also come in from
the mediatised, and Bernstorff had now to learn how much it
signified that Metternich had had the principal article of the
German federal act inserted into the final act of the congress
of Vienna. The two German great powers were not able
entirely to forbid the Quadruple Alliance to intervene in this
German dispute which was so closely connected with the
European treaties, but nevertheless they were able to restrict
such intervention within the smallest possible limits. It was
resolved that the Quadruple Alliance should first exhort the
courts of Wiirtemberg, Baden, and the two Hesses (whose con-
duct had been particularly unjust), to behave in an honourable
manner towards the mediatised, whilst further details were
to be left to the Bundestag. The house of Thurn and Taxis,
which had a strong desire to become sovereign once more,
was also referred to the Bundestag.2

There still had to be considered that unfortunate dynast
who, like the landgrave of Homburg, had been criminally for-
gotten by the congress of Vienna, the count von Bentinck, lord
of the free manor of Kniphausen. Quite recently, by favour
of the two great powers, Homburg had been granted a vote
in the Bundestag, but the Kniphausener had been less success-
ful. Oldenburg illegally occupied his territory, and shut him

1 Hardenberg's Memorial concerning article 50 of the final act of the Vienna
congress. Minutes of the twenty-seventh sitting, May 9, 1818.

2 Instructions to the Prussian envoys in Stuttgart and Carlsruhe, etc., Novem-
ber 21 ; Hardenberg to the princess of Thurn and Taxis, November 15, 1818.

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The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

out of his castle, whereupon he sent in a furious protest against
the offender, signing it as immediatus Imperil dynasta, and
raised a turmoil that was worthy of a greater cause. Undoubt-
edly this was a question concerning Europe at large, since
the appurtenance of Kniphausen to the Germanic Federation
was not yet settled. For hundreds of years the free manor
had been an immediate of the empire, although without Reichs-
standschajt (the rights of an estate of the empire), and its ships
sailed under a special flag ; subsequently for a time it had
been incorporated in the Napoleonic empire, but it had never
been subordinated to any German state, and the pugnacious
little lord deserved some consideration because in the fight
against the French he had valiantly displayed his glowing
courage. And yet a new German federal state, of somewhat
less than one square mile [German] in extent, seemed a dubious
acquisition ; even the admirers of the beautiful manifoldedness
of German national life had to admit that a German people
required for the development of its national peculiarities at
least as much space as was occupied by Liechtenstein with
its three and a half square miles. Consequently the powers
resolved that Prussia and Russia should mediate between Olden-
burg and Kniphausen, and should if possible induce the count
to accept an exchange.1 But Kniphausen's will was stronger
than were the wishes of Europe. After working hard for
eight years, the mediators secured a treaty by which the federal
law was enriched with a new marvel. Henceforward Knip-
hausen was " a peculiar land " under the protection of the
Germanic Federation, a semi-sovereign state with its own flag,
but subordinated to the suzerainty of the duke of Oldenburg,
precisely as in former days it had been subordinated to the
empire. Naturally this compromise immediately gave rise to
fresh quarrels ; the peculiar land displayed a quite peculiar
contentiousness vis-a-vis the Oldenburg overlord, and under
the delighted gaze of all the experts in international law there
soon came into existence the great Bentinck legal dispute, a
masterly tangle of juristic controversies which thrived ever
more vigorously in the profound obscurity of the Bundestag,
and which for nearly thirty years again and again disturbed
the Frankfort assembly with its disorderly commotions, until
at length in the year 1854, by a new treaty, the realm of

1 Instructions of Count von Bentinck to Councillor Mosle, Vienna, April 5
1815. Bernstorff's Report (forty-first sitting, November 20, 1818).

123

History of Germany

the Bentincks was united with Oldenburg, and the flag of Knip-
hausen disappeared from the seas.

The dispute between Bavaria and Baden also came to a
temporary close in Aix-la-Chapelle. The relationship between
the two neighbours had become so greatly embittered that
the grand duke dreaded a coup de main, and begged the four
powers to deny the Bavarian troops returning from France
the right to pass through his land. The powers rejoined that
he had no occasion for anxiety, and expressly exhorted the
court of Munich to maintain the strictest discipline among the
soldiers who were on their way through Baden.1 Even earlier,
Berstett had appealed to the Quadruple Alliance to exercise
the powers it possessed in accordance with the treaties for the
settlement of the territorial question and the question of the
succession ; and had declared himself ready to accept certain
compensations. He was then invited to Aix, and was simul-
taneously asked to send a plenipotentiary to the territorial
commission in Frankfort. The powers were agreed, as Bern-
storff wrote, to " bring the detestable and vexatious affair
to a speedy conclusion," if only Baden would propound accept-
able conditions.* Berstett hastened to Aix, and declared that
his sovereign was ready, in exchange for the Austrian enclave
of Geroldseck, to cede to Bavaria the little administrative
district of Steinfeld in the Tauber valley ; and further to cede
to the court of Munich a military road to the Bavarian Palati-
nate, and to settle the long-standing debt of one and a third
million florins. At first the Russian ministers regarded these
offers as inadequate ; Czar Alexander was still wavering
between his two quarrelsome brothers-in-law, but Berstett
exercised his influence with the czar in personal conversation,
even bursting into tears, and since Baron von Stein, who was
paying a short visit to Aix as a guest, also vigorously advo-
cated the cause of Baden with the czar, after a few days
Russia came over to the legal view which for a long time
Hardenberg had considered to be the correct one. The Austrian
statesmen maintained their non-committal attitude, declaring
in advance that they would agree to anything which the allies
could still secure in favour of Bavaria, and in the decisive
sitting they allowed themselves to be outvoted.

1 Hardenberg to Berstett, October 15 ; to Rechberg, October 15, 1818.

2 Bernstorff to Lottum, October 19 ; Hardenberg and Nesselrode to Berstett,
October 17, 1818.

124

The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

Since Prussia and Russia were thus united, and Austria
did not offer any open opposition, Lord Castlereagh joined
the side of the majority. He did this unwillingly, and in
his memorial he plainly manifested his ancient hostility towards
Russia. The grand duke, he wrote, has appealed to the mag-
nanimity of the powers, and has thus entrenched himself in
the position which is always the most formidable one for a
weak state. But Castlereagh admitted that, as far as the
legal issue was concerned, he had himself become doubtful,
and could no longer understand why, in Vienna and in Paris,
the powers had assumed the right of promising the court of
Munich the reversion of the Palatinate. The result was that,
on November 2oth, the Quadruple Alliance resolved to accept
Baden's proposals, to cancel all previous conversations regarding
the reversion of the Palatinate and of Breisgau, and also to
recognise the right of the Hochbergs to the succession ; should
Bavaria refuse to accept this decision, the Badenese offer need
no longer hold good, and nevertheless the above resolution would
come into force. At the same time the monarchs, following
the patriarchal custom of this congress, sent fraternal letters
to the king of Bavaria, exhorting him to display a yielding
disposition. King Frederick William did not content himself,
as did the two monarchs, with the use of general terms, but,
after his conscientious manner, once more explained to the
king of Bavaria that Prussia had never recognised the secret
articles regarding the reversion of the Palatinate.1

Baden had been saved, and just as the French were
grateful to the czar as their patron, so also, and with equal
reason, did the Badenese extol the Russian monarch as the
protector of their land. In actual fact, Czar Alexander had
done nothing more for the Badanese state than had King
Frederick William, but with dramatic talent he had understood
how at the right moment to deal the decisive blow, and after
the congress he did not renounce the opportunity of enjoying
in Baden the fruits of his activities. In Frankfort he forbade
the Badenese envoy to arrange for any striking demonstrations,
but he would not prohibit " whatever might be the outcome
of the free exuberance of people's hearts." This exuberance

1 Berstett to Capodistrias, October 28 ; Capodistrias' Reply, October 29 ;
Russian Memorial, November 10 ; Private Minute regarding Baden, November 20 ;
Castlereagh's Memorial, November 20 ; King Frederick William to King Max
Joseph, November 18, 1818.

History of Germany

of the Badenese hearts was manifested so abundantly, with the
display of so much devotion, that the czar had hardly ever
had such an experience even among his own Russians. In
every town there were triumphal arches and white-robed maidens ;
everywhere there were garlands with the inscription " To the
saviour of Baden " ; whilst in Carlsruhe at night there were
general illuminations, though Alexander thought it advisable
to remain indoors.1 Such was the national pride of the South
Germans, three years after Belle Alliance. In the patriotic
journals there was not to be found a single writer to tell this
generation how far it was still from being a nation ; the anger
of the press was directed solely against Austria and Prussia,
which were still held responsible for every evil. Why had
they allowed foreign powers to interfere in this way in German
affairs ? And yet the arbitral decision of the congress of
Aix-la-Chapelle was nothing more than the inevitable conse-
quence of the behaviour of the Rhenish Confederate states in
the year 1813. Because it was not until after the victory,
acting singly, and as sovereign European powers, that these states
had, by treaties of accession, joined the Quadruple Alliance,
now the Bavario-Badenese dispute was by strict legal right
subjected to the decision of the Quadruple Alliance.

The wrath of the court of Munich was manifested no less
passionately than the joy of the Badenese. Vainly did Emperor
Francis, on the return journey, endeavour to appease his father-
in-law ; vainly did Metternich and Capodistrias offer to throw
into the bargain an additional fragment of Badenese land.2
The Wittelsbach ruler rejected everything; and Crown Prince
Louis, like the king of Sweden, complained of the return of
the Napoleonic tyranny, but his anger remained without effect.
The plenipotentiaries of the Quadruple Alliance in the Frank-
fort territorial commission had already received definite
instructions to carry out the resolutions of the congress of
Aix-la-Chapelle. When the stumbling-block had finally been
removed, the work went forward speedily, and on July 20, 1819,
the four powers signed the Frankfort territorial agreement, an
incredibly laborious work, which after an epoch of wars, secured
the territorial delimitation of the German states for long years
to come. The court of Bavaria did, indeed, accept the adminis-

1 Berkheim's Report, Frankfort, November 24 ; Varnhagen's Report, Carls-
ruhe, November 27, 1818.

2 Krusemark's Reports, December 26 and 30, 1818,

126

The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

trative district of Steinfeld, but entered a protest formally
maintaining its extinct hereditary claims to Sponheim and its
imaginary right of reversion to the Palatinate, returning to
the matter on every possible occasion, so that at a much later
date Count Bernstorff had occasion to sigh concerning "cette
eternelle affaire de Sponheim." Still, the matter had been irre-
vocably decided.

In all these resolutions there was a plain manifestation
of the honourable intention to maintain peace throughout
Europe by securing the right. Nevertheless, the liberal press
of Germany and France was not altogether wrong in recounting
strange fables regarding the reactionary designs of the Aix
assembly. In the confidential interviews between the monarchs
and the statesmen there is no doubt that the first plans were
discussed for the campaign against the German reform party.
Foreigners were disgusted at the febrile condition of affairs
in Germany ; the entire structure of the Viennese treaties
reposed upon the political nullity of this nation ; and the idea
of German unity, even when it found expression only in
the foolish mouths of hot-headed students, was universally
obnoxious. All foreigners agreed with Gentz in considering
that while " the reaction of 1813 " had indeed in France brought
the revolutionary movement to a momentary stand-still, in
other states, and especially in Germany, it had first awakened
these elemental forces. General approval was expressed of a
Memorial concerning the Present State of Affairs in Germany,
which the czar communicated to the congress. Its author,
Stourdza by name, a gentle and melancholy young Wallachian,
had recently sent Alexander a fantastical work glorifying the
Greek church, and had subsequently visited some of the German
universities. The timid man had been alarmed by the out-
spokenness of our academic life ; he believed that throughout
Germany a convulsive condition of unrest prevailed, and that
he cculd detect among the students the existence of a revolu-
tionary movement directly aiming at a unified state; and in
the name of religion and morality he demanded severe measures
against the universities. These " Gothic vestiges," these states
within the state, were to be deprived of their ancient charters,
the students were to be treated as minors, and were to be
forced to follow a fixed curriculum of studies ; since unfortunately
the freedom of the press could not be completely suppressed,

127

History of Germany

at least the bad books and newspapers must be removed from
the hands of youth. This well-intentioned and extremely
unimportant essay secured, though not perhaps in all points,
the approval of the czar and of the Austrian statesmen, but
the Prussians held that the youthful enthusiast resembled a
blind man discoursing about colours.

Now, however, the private memorial was suddenly published
by a Parisian firm, probably through the fault of Hardenberg's
unsavoury entourage, and a storm broke forth in the uni-
versities louder and more savage than had a year before been
the chorus of rage against Kotzebue. Here was the third
semi-Russian to attack the German students ! Krug, the
Leipzig philosopher, took up his ready-writing pen, and entered
the ranks as a literary opponent ; the Burschenschaft of Jena
resolved to chastise the Wallachian, and that he might not be
able to take refuge behind considerations of caste they had
him challenged by two young counts who were members of
their association. Stourdza refused to accept the challenge,
on the ground that his essay was an official memorial, and he
hastened to quit the inhospitable soil of Germany. This
terrorist conduct on the part of the students, which, after all,
was not discordant with ancient customs, aroused fresh alarms
at the courts ; Gentz henceforward firmly believed that in Jena
there existed a secret Fehmic corporation which despatched
its assassins all over Germany. To the general misfortune,
Kotzebue threw fresh fuel into the flames when he gave people
definitely to understand that Stourdza's memorial expressed the
czar's personal views. Henceforward all the students were
under the illusion that the German reaction was engineered
from St. Petersburg ; their hatred against Russia no longer
knew any bounds, and the trivial jester of Weimar, to whom the
Jena folk ascribed a powerful influence in Muscovite policy,
was abused and threatened to such a degree that he determined
to migrate to Mannheim.

There was absolutely no ground for the young men's sus-
picions. At the congress, Alexander had carefully avoided
making any proposals in matters of German federal policy, and
did no more than Richelieu and Wellington had done in
casually expressing his anxiety regarding the German revolution.
Since his sudden conversion, the leadership of the Quadruple
Alliance had really been transferred to the Hofburg, although
the prudent Austrian statesmen gladly allowed the czar to

128

The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

continue from time to time to play the role of leader before
the world. In Germany, as in Europe, Metternich was the
head of the reaction, and while still in Aix, did everything
he could to detach Prussia from liberalism. In friendly conver-
sations he pointed out to the chancellor how threateningly the
spirit of pretentious knowledge and reckless criticism was gain-
ing the upper hand among the Prussian officials ; while the
arrogance of the students and the lack of discipline of the
press were also serious dangers. Hardenberg discussed these
matters with Bernstorff and Altenstein, who were summoned
to Aix, and since neither of them could deny that all was
not as it should be, Hardenberg promised his Austrian friend
that the crown would take steps to deal with the evils.1

Less fortunate was a half-hearted attempt on the part of
Metternich to thwart the Prussian customs reform before it
had passed into operation. The urgent economic grounds which
had led to the inauguration of the new customs-law completely
escaped the attention of the Austrian statesman. His ignorance
of all economic questions was positively astounding, and he
never realised this defect himself, for in accordance with the
old traditions of the Hofburg these purely bourgeois matters
were quite beneath the dignity of an Austrian nobleman. Even
Gentz, who years before had had an intimate knowledge of
financial matters, had in the course of his one-sided diplomatic
activities in Vienna gradually lost his sound understanding
of the problems of political economy. Just as during the
Napoleonic days he had sent forth to the world preposterous
sophisms regarding the national debt of Great Britain because
the English alliance harmonised with Austrian interests, so now
he wrote equally perverse essays regarding the flourishing condi-
tion of Austrian finance. Since Austria could not take part
in a German customs-union, he condemned all plans aiming
at the formation of such a union as cobwebs of the brain, as
childish attempts " to change the moon into a sun." No one in
the Hofburg had any inkling of the national significance of the
Prussian customs-law. But Metternich dreaded everything
which could favour the unity of Prussia, and scented revolu-
tionary designs behind a reform which proceeded from the
suspect privy-councillors of Berlin. Moreover, he honestly
regarded his state as an exemplary one. This loose association
of semi-independent crown-lands, and the churchyard repose

1 Hardenberg's Diary, January n, 1819.
129

History of Germany

which brooded over the chaos, harmonised with his own
inclinations, and it delighted him to perceive to what an extent
the patriarchal happiness of the peoples of Austria aroused the
envy of most of the courts. The Austrian provincial tolls,
which separated the crown-lands of the monarchy one from
another, seemed to him all the more admirable because he was
completely ignorant of the details of these wise institutions.
For these reasons he gave Count Bernstorff a fatherly warning
about the confusions which customs reform would evoke, remind-
ing him of the failure of Joseph II's attempts at centralisation,
describing in eloquent terms the advantages of the Austrian
internal tolls, and expressing the good-natured opinion that
for Prussia also provincial tolls would be best ; in this way
the state could be preserved from having to undertake trouble-
some negotiations with the neighbour states.1 Bernstorff -and
Hardenberg, however, deliberately rejected all such advice.

As far as the chancellor was concerned, Metternich's reiterated
friendly warnings against carrying out the work of constitution-
building fell also upon barren soil. The Austrian statesman
speedily perceived that Hardenberg was pursuing his constitu-
tional plans in earnest. All the more zealously, therefore, did
Metternich endeavour to secure the king's favour. Frederick
William had hitherto regarded him with tacit mistrust. He
could not forget that Metternich had betrayed the Prussian state
in the matter of Saxony, and the German nation in the matter
of Alsace. Here in Aix, for the first time, he vouchsafed the
suspect a confidential approach. The king obscurely recognised
what a sinister spirit was at work among the German youth, and
since he was unable to grasp the extent of the danger, he desired
to secure trustworthy information and a firm prop of support.
He could get no help from his Russian friend, for the czar
was in a similar position of indefinite anxiety. The aging
chancellor displayed a distressing picture of physical and moral
decay. At the congress, Hardenberg played a subordinate part,
leaving the conduct of affairs for the most part to Bernstorff, and
the king noted with profound displeasure how Hanel the sleep-
walker practised her arts before the high council of Europe, and
how Koreff the thaumaturge took part in political audiences with

1 In the year 1828, after the conclusion of the Prusso-Hessian customs-union,
when Metternich advanced these views to the envoy von Maltzahn, Count Bern-
storff remarked that precisely the same views had been urged upon him by the
Austrian chancellor during the congress of Aix. (Maltzahn's Report, Vienna,
April 14, 1838.)

The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

all the bumptiousness of the Jewish parvenu. It was only
Metternich who seemed firm, vigorous, and self-sufficient ; he alone
knew what he wanted. His demeanour expressed the conscious-
ness that he ruled the quietest, the best-secured state in Europe.
He delighted now to repeat Talleyrand's saying : " Austria is the
supreme head of Europe ; so long as it continues to exist, it will
enforce moderation upon the rabble." In the previous year,
out of deference for the German crowns, he had wished to
allow the constitutional movement free play. Now there was
no longer any idea of such a step ; since the Wartburg festival,
the German Jacobins had dropped the mask, and it was necessary
to declare open war against them.

In repeated conversations he continued to assure the king
that in his own sacred conviction the revolutionary party had
its acropolis in Prussia ; the revolutionary conspiracy ramified
throughout the highest circles of the army and the officialdom ;
the fate of the world now lay in the king's hands ; the disturb-
ance would inevitably spread all over Europe if the government
of Prussia should follow the example of the petty courts and con-
cede to the Prussian people a "demagogic constitution" after
the Bavarian manner. He could not fail to perceive that his
words made a certain impression, but to his emperor he com-
plained of Frederick William's lamentable weakness, for the
common sense of the king made it impossible for him instantly
to accept all the illusions which were the outcome of the Austrian
dread of bogies. Meanwhile Metternich also endeavoured to win
over to his views Councillor Albrecht, a loyal hard-working ultra-
conservative official, and called in to his aid the most trust-
worthy of his Prussian friends, Wittgenstein. From Aix, on
November I4th, he sent the prince two great memorials " concern-
ing the situation of the Prussian states." The design was that, at
the right moment, both these documents should be laid by
Wittgenstein before the king, but for form's sake they were
confidentially communicated to Hardenberg as well. From
Aix-la-Chapelle, said the Austrian statesman subsequently, people
will some day date the salvation of the Prussian monarchy !

Amid all the work of Metternich's pen, the memorial upon
the Prussian constitution displays most plainly his lamentable
poverty of ideas, for it was only by his diplomatic cunning, by
the favour of fortune, and by the timidity of the other courts, that
for an entire generation this man was enabled to deceive the world
regarding his essential nonentity. He had not the remotest

History of Germany

understanding of the fundamental difference between the political
tasks imposed upon a national state like Prussia and upon a
jumble of peoples like Austria. With the true-heartedness of an
anxious friend who could never divorce his destiny from that
of Prussia, he explained to the king that the internal situation
of the two German great powers was substantially the same ;
both monarchies consisted of " disparate provinces." That this
was not the case, that Prussia had long possessed a centralised
administration, was quite unknown to the Hofburg. The Austrian
court could conceive of a powerful state in no other form than that
of loosely associated hereditary dominions, and Emperor Francis
was never tired of enunciating his favourite principle, " the con-
stitution of a monarchy out of different bodies can serve only to
strengthen it."

In Metternich's view, " the Austrian kingdom would be even
more suited than the Prussian for a purely representative system,
were it not that the difference among the peoples of Austria, in
respect of language and customs, is too great." But how could
that thrive in Prussia which it would be impossible to carry out
in Austria? The introduction of a "central representation"
in Prussia would consequently be " pure revolution," it would
undermine the military power of the state, and lead to the destruc-
tion of the realm. Owing to the representative system, dangerous
dissensions had already arisen between Belgium and Holland, which
were so much better adapted for a joint life than were the Prus-
sian provinces ! For these reasons the king would do well to
content himself with provincial diets (a piece of advice which
had unquestionably been prearranged with Wittgenstein), and
these diets should receive no more than the right of petition, the
right of stating grievances, and the right of assessing direct taxes.
Only in the extreme case, since a public promise had been
made, some day in the future a centralised deputation might be
summoned from these provincial diets, three representatives from
each province, so that there should be a united Landtag of twenty-
one members — a worthy counterpart to that exiguous Reichsrat
which, shortly before, Metternich had recommended for his own
Austria. " And yet," he added significantly, here unquestionably
expressing his true opinion, " would not this comparatively
restricted plan lead also to revolution ? It would be well for
your majesty to ponder this question deeply before coming to
a decision."

In the detailed application of his proposals, this counsellor

The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

displayed an ignorance of constitutional law which would cer-
tainly have served to ensure the failure of any youthful Prussian
barrister in the examination for an assistant judgeship. He knew
nothing about the new provincial subdivision of the Prussian
state, nor yet about its earlier historical constituents, and it was
manifest that he must have regarded even the study of the map
as inappropriate to his station. It was for this reason that he
constructed out of his own imagination seven Prussian provinces,
among which the Mark of Brandenburg included Pomerania, and
the duchy of Westphalia included Berg. In matters of provincial
administration, he summed up his wisdom in a single sentence,
" Every province has an upper and a lower administrative
authority." Still more remarkable was the novelty of the
political considerations upon which his proposals were based.
Even the rigid conservatives of the old school in Berlin did not
conceal from themselves that there was only one manifest objec-
tion to the system of provincial diets, namely, that eight or ten
provincial Landtags, in the absence of the counterpoise of a
national assembly, should they become too powerful, might readily
endanger the unity of the state, and especially that of the army
(indeed, the Poles had already for a long time been clamouring
for a provincial army for the grand duchy of Posen). But
Metternich put forward the incredible view that a Prussian
national assembly would dissolve the army into " seven separate
heaps of people." A second memorial recommended the dissolution
of the Burschenschaft, the complete suppression of the gymnastic
cult (this " ulcer," as Gentz was in the habit of calling it), and,
finally, at the Bundestag, common measures on the part of the two
great powers for the control of the press.

Extensive as were the weak points of the constitutional
memorial, its composition was none the less a clever move in the
diplomatic game. Metternich knew how much stress the king
laid upon the technical efficiency of the army, and therefore again
and again in his work solemnly repeated a warning which,
unfortunately, was not devoid of foundation, saying that the
liberal party detested a standing army, and would not rest until
the Prussian Reichstag had transformed the army into a national
militia. He hoped that his words would not miss their mark.
Hardenberg was under the delusion that he could follow Metter-
nich's policy for a certain distance, and then abandon it when it
seemed good to him. He was willing to agree to everything the
Hofburg wanted, to adopt strong measures against the gymnasts,

133

History of Germany

the students, the press, and even the Prussian officials. But
there was one thing which they should not touch, his work for
the constitution. The old statesman had absolutely no idea
that, in the views of many of the Viennese, he himself had long
before been thrown on to the scrap-heap, while others regarded
him with suspicion as the chief of the Prussian Jacobins. Should
he now help to raise the sluices and let out the pent-up waters
of reaction, the resulting torrent might very readily sweep him
and his constitutional plans away with the rest.

134

CHAPTER IX.
THE CARLSBAD DECREES.

§ I. VACILLATION IN BERLIN. FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL
EXPERIENCES IN THE SOUTH.

AT the opening of the momentous year 1819, the Hofburg was
firmly resolved to wage a war of annihilation against the consti-
tutional movement ; as Metternich wrote to his wife, " this
terrible czar Alexander " no longer stood in the way. In view
of the inertia of the Bundestag and of the incredible complexity
of German interests, it was still extremely doubtful whether the
constitutional movement would succeed in carrying with it the
Prussian state and the petty courts. The liberals had done their
best to further the plans of their enemies ; the nation had become
affected with one of those febrile paroxysms of bilious vexation
and indiscrimate criticism, which recur from time to time,
and always to the disadvantage of the healthy development of
our state. Extraordinary rumours ran to and fro, and found
universal belief, even before any of the liberals had been
touched. The press devoted itself to sinister descriptions of the
hopeless slavery of Germany, and was never weary of painting
the devil of reaction on the wall, painting him so vividly that his
figure really seemed alive.

Out of every trifle the petty arts of the critics constructed
new material for fanatical accusations. When two Prussian
lieutenants, losing their tempers, treated some Landwehr men
with a certain violence, and when the trifling excess of zeal was
subsequently visited with appropriate punishment by a court-
martial, the I sis screamed : " What a disgrace ! If it were not
that a better world beckons us in the west, who would hesitate
any longer, who would not be proud to follow Cato's example? "
Anyone who entered into any relationships with the government
was regarded as a traitor. At Christmas, 1818, Steffens was
summoned to Berlin by the chancellor, in profound secrecy, and

135

History of Germany

was there confidentially asked if he knew anything regarding
political intrigues on the gymnastic grounds. As an honourable
man, he made answer that his attacks had related only to the
moral aberrations of the gymnasts, to their arrogance, to their
rough ways, but that he had no reason to believe that they were
engaged in political conspiracies. Yet hardly had his visit to the
chancellor become known, when he was overwhelmed with fierce
reproaches by the gymnasts, and, without being allowed to utter
a word in his defence, he was excluded from the circles of the
patriots ; during the rest of his life he was unable to cleanse him-
self fully from the stain of this unjust suspicion, and was never
again on satisfactory terms even with his old friend Schleiermacher.
Thus a gloomy, groundless, and aimless mistrust came to divide
the nation and the throne, which had so recently and so chival-
rously joined in a holy war. The fresh wind of a new war might
readily have dispersed the clouds of ill-feeling, but in the thick
atmosphere of these weary times of peace, the sense of moroseness
increased day by day.

Meanwhile the chancellor had already taken the first step
to fulfil the promise which in Aix-la-Chapelle he had given to
his false Austrian friend. On January n, 1819, Hardenberg,
surprised the ministry of state by the despatch of a royal
cabinet order, a comprehensive document, which expounded the
monarch's benevolent intentions, but also his serious anxieties,
in nineteen folio pages. Hitherto, the king declared, he had
always reposed upon the admirably proved loyalty and self-
sacrifice of his nation ; but now his duty as ruler made it incum-
bent upon him " to take vigorous measures " against the spirit of
unrest which had been awakened by the prolonged political
tension of the years of war, which still continued to operate,
and which still displayed its monstrous dissatisfaction in " the
passionate pursuit of indefinite aims."

The order went on to describe how personal quarrels and
party disputes had gained the upper hand among the officials,
how disdainful cavilling at the public services had become con-
tinually commoner, and was even accompanied with infringement
of the duty of official secrecy (a well- justified reproof, for every-
one knew that many of the newspaper articles describing the
crimes of the Prussian state with passionate exaggeration were
penned by Prussian officials). " The ministry knows," continued
the king, " that it is my intention to give a suitable representa-
tive constitution " ; but it was an essential accessory " that the

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administration should be respected." Nor was the ministry itself
entirely above reproach. The ministerial council met too rarely,
the conduct of affairs was becoming slack, " in essential points
a ministry must be unanimous." Thence the order passed to
consider the fallacious tendencies of public education, whereby
young men were admitted to participation in public life too early.
" All that had hitherto been no more than the mischievous tricks
of young people, now received the stamp of an endeavour to
intervene in public affairs." Consequently the king demanded
closer supervision of educational matters, and more careful choice
of professors for the universities ; instruction in gymnastics must
be associated with the schools, and strictly limited to exercises
that would harden the body. In conclusion, the monarch alluded
to the press in measured and quiet terms, saying : "It is
extremely undesirable that a zeal for the improvement of the
country should be confounded with a fondness for mere innova-
tion, and should become a prey to a revolutionary tendency " ;
in view of the many excesses on the part of the newspapers and of
the improbability of a federal press law, a Prussian press law
seemed indispensable. The king awaited suggestions from the
ministers concerning all these questions, and also concerning the
proposal for a proclamation to the nation ; each individual
minister was to submit his views in writing. On the same day,
Altenstein, as president of the council of state, received orders
that the proceedings of this high authority, which was now engaged
in discussing the new tax laws, must be safeguarded against party
feeling and personal quarrels, lest " degeneration of things good
in themselves, should ensue." l

This was the first occasion on which the king had demanded
from his ministers their views concerning the general internal
situation ; unquestionably he took this step with the excellent
intention of averting from his nation a forcible reaction. None
of the evils to which he called attention could be entirely denied ;
none of the remedial measures he indicated could be absolutely
rejected. The long-designed reform of the ancient press legisla-
tion could no longer be postponed ; the association of the gym-
nastic grounds with the schools offered the safest and mildest
means of moderating the arrogance of the gymnasts ; an open
address from the monarch to his officials might diminish many of
the aberrations of the critical spirit of the North Germans. If

1 Cabinet Order to the ministry of state, January n ; to Altenstein, January
II, 1819.

History of Germany

the ministers honestly desired to appease the excessive anxiety
manifested in certain sentences of the cabinet order, the demand
of the king and of the chancellor must be met on their part by
definite, reasonable, and practical proposals. A speedy decision
was all the more necessary because some of them were aware how
far the thoughts expressed in the cabinet order fell short of the
secret designs of the court of Vienna. But how could the avowed
enemies, Boyen and Schuckmann, Klewitz and Billow, come to a
speedy agreement upon this important issue ?

Since the partial change of ministry in November, 1817, the
ministers had almost completely ceased to co-operate as col-
leagues. As the chancellor's deafness made it impossible for
him to act as president in the ministerial council, each minister
was accustomed to deal independently with the affairs of his
own department and, in case of need, to ask Hardenberg to
decide. Not one of them was prepared to deal with an enquiry
so comprehensive as that now made by the king. Their opinions
were sent to the ministry of state very slowly, the last not being
handed in until May.1 Not one of these memorials displayed
any morbid anxiety ; even Count Bernstorff, who expressed him-
self more anxiously than the others, modestly admitted that
as yet he knew little of Prussian questions. Most of the ministers
considered that the picture which the cabinet order presented of
internal affairs was altogether too gloomy ; they expressed their
confidence in the good sense of the people and of the officials,
and advised against a public proclamation, which could not fail
to have a depressing effect. Even the rigidly conservative
Schuckmann considered that the best means of tranquillising
public opinion would be to hasten the work of establishing the
constitution. The most liberal spirit of all was displayed by the
minister of war. " What," he asked with soldierly frankness,
" would Frederick the Great have thought if he had paid atten-
tion to the table-talk of his most faithful generals ? " He
demanded a press law without a censorship, with punishments for
offences after they had been committed, declaring : " Should
Prussia proceed with the legislation which since the year 1806 has
developed among us in accordance with your majesty's command,
should we endeavour to avoid all needless delay in the com-
pletion of this legislation, then every upright man can wager his

1 Opinion from Schuckmann. January 20 ; Bernstorff, beginning of February ;
Boyen, February 12 ; Klewitz, February ; Altenstein, March i ; Lottum, March 4 ;
Biilow, March 5 ; Beyme, undated ; Kircheisen, May 2, 1819.

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The Carlsbad Decrees

head that the Prussian state will be able, not merely to get
through the dangers of the time quietly, but also to encounter
them victoriously, without any over-anxious preventive measures."

In matters of detail, the proposals diverged widely, for every-
one had selected this or that question from the cabinet order as
he thought best. Even regarding the main question of the slow
conduct of business by the ministry, and concerning the peculiar
intermediate position occupied by the chancellor, three only of
the ministers gave an answer, Kircheisen, Billow, and Beyme,
the last-named demanding with especial emphasis that the chan-
cellor should be the head of the ministry, saying, " Without this,
all other changes would be vain." Notwithstanding the respectful
sentiments they expressed, the nine opinions gave a general
impression no less confused and confusing, than that which shortly
before had been furnished by the opinions of the notables con-
cerning the constitution ; nor was there among the ministers a
single one strong enough to compel the others to combine this
medley of subjective views into a comprehensive deliberation,
to lay before the crown a definite resolution, a common proposal.
The important piece of work proved fruitless ; in seven months
the king had, after all, not received any answer, and found that
his reproach that this ministry lacked unity had been fully jus-
tified. Thus the perplexity of the ministry led to the waste of
the favourable moment in which the policy of prosecution and
suppression might still perhaps have been averted by certain
measures of reasonable severity.

Since nothing was heard from the ministers, Hardenberg set
to work on his own account. As early as January n, on the very
day on which the cabinet order was sent to the ministry, Alten-
stein had received instructions that the author of the Spirit of
the Age was to be admonished on account of his new volume.
Count Solms-Laubach undertook the commission with manifest
reluctance, discharging it as considerately as possible. Arndt
assured the chancellor in a straightforward letter that he
regretted a few " untimely and exaggerated things " in his book ;
but his intentions had been good, his loyalty was inviolable, and
he owed the admonition solely to the denunciation of his deadly
enemy, Privy Councillor Kamptz. In March there followed the
temporary closing of the gymnastic grounds throughout the
monarchy, the " Turnsperre," as Jahn called it. This step was
unavoidable after the excesses of recent months, but was in no wise
intended to lead to a suppression of gymnastics. It was merely

139

History of Germany

proposed that the gymnastic lessons should be introduced into
the regular school curriculum, and that then the gymnastic grounds
should be reopened ; the proposal for a general gymnastic
ordinance had already been drafted in the ministry of education,
and had been sent in to the monarch for his signature.

On March 3Oth, Hardenberg ordered the ministers to nominate
a commission to elaborate the press law ; the measure of freedom
or restriction which the Prussian state might allow to the press
would have a decisive influence upon the decision of the federal
assembly. The referendary of the commission, Privy Councillor
Hagemeister, an able lawyer formerly in the Swedish service, was
an opponent of the censorship, and since Privy Councillors Nico-
lovius and Kohler also desired to recognise the freedom of the
press, at least as a general rule, a reasonable proposal might be
expected from the commission, although Ancillon was its fourth
member. Nor was there anywhere an arrest in the general reform
policy of Hardenberg. In the summer, when the Rhenish court
of appeal was opened in Berlin, President Sethe and Procurator-
general Eichhorn expressed the hope that the Rhenish oral
procedure, which was in truth Old German, should it here answer
the test, would ultimately become the keystone of the Frederician
reform in the administration of justice. Even the Preussische
Staatszeitung, which Stagemann, Stein's faithful collaborator,
had been bringing out since the new year, announced everywhere
that the government had in many respects more liberal views
than the nation ; it defended the new economic reforms against
popular prejudice, and if from time to time it made an onslaught
on the liberals, this was, as a rule, only on account of their
particularist arrogance, as for instance when Mallinckrodt in
Dortmund, or some other Rhenish Westphalian writer, had used
an unduly coarse phrase about the Wendish characteristics of
the old provinces.

Simultaneously with the issue of the cabinet order of January
nth, Wilhelm Humboldt was summoned to the ministry, a
determination which seemed of the best augury for the progress
of the task of constitution-building. In November, Humboldt
had been summoned to the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, in
order to report on the Bavario-Badenese negotiations, on which
he was extremely well-informed as a member of the Frankfort
territorial commission, and also to receive instructions concerning
the territorial settlement. In Aix his vexation concerning Bern-

140

The Carlsbad Decrees

storff s appointment was plainly manifest, for he would certainly
not have refused the portfolio of foreign affairs, notwithstanding
his feelings about Schuckmann and Wittgenstein. He begged the
king to relieve him of his post in London i1 after the Frankfort
business had been settled, he wished to devote himself to science
in the quiet of his park at Tegel, participating merely in the pro-
ceedings of the council of state. Thereupon Witzleben assured
the monarch that Humboldt's rich culture and his editorial talent
would enable him to render incalculable service in the constitu-
tional deliberations. The king was favourably impressed with
the idea, and even Hardenberg thought it advisable to appease
his rival by a ministerial post ; he feared, and said as much
openly to Humboldt, that in the council of state the latter would
assume the leadership of the opposition. It was consequently
determined to divide the ministry of the interior into two parts.
The ministry of police was abolished, being united as one section
with Schuckmann's department ; in return, Schuckmann was
to cede the administration of representative and local govern-
mental affairs to Humboldt, as a special ministry. Wittgenstein
remained a member of the ministry of state, dealing only with
the affairs of the royal house, so that in an unassailable position
he could await the further course of affairs, and could at any
time withdraw into his non-political office.

According to the king's intention, Humboldt was to deal
with the affairs of local government, to treat with the old Land-
tags concerning their debts and their systems of poor relief, and,
finally, to lend a helping hand in elaborating the details of the
communal, provincial, and national constitutions. The final
drafting of the proposal was reserved by Hardenberg for himself,
this being his legal right and his duty as chancellor ; since all
the departments which he had at one time personally controlled
had been handed over to specialist ministers, there was reserved
for himself no more than the supreme conduct of the general
administration, and this would become an empty form if the draft-
ing of a constitution were to be committed to the hands of a
specialist minister. A cabinet order, couched in the customary
laconic form, communicated to the new minister intelligence of
his appointment, for, according to the laws of the absolute
monarchy, the appointment to a ministerial post was a royal
command, like any other command that every active servant
of the state must unhesitatingly obey. In a friendly letter,

1 Humboldt's Petition to the king, Aix, November 13, 1818.
141

History of Germany

Hardenberg gave a definite intimation that he was now working at
the constitutional plan, and thought of submitting his proposal
to his new colleague at a later date. l

Nevertheless Humboldt completely misunderstood the king's
purpose. He believed that he himself was to send in a constitu-
tional proposal, first to the ministry and then to the monarch.
He expressed his profound thanks for the proof of royal confi-
dence, declared himself ready " to devote his whole existence to
this business," but begged for permission to visit the capital,
saying that there only could he look into matters and formulate
his plan (January 24th). When this letter to the king, and a
second in similar terms addressed to the chancellor in person,
reached Berlin, Hardenberg's long-repressed anger broke out
into fierce flame. He considered that the prerogatives of his
office were being infringed (for in his letter to the king Humboldt
had not given a thought to the rights of the chancellor), and on
his own initiative issued a sharp cabinet order (January 3ist)
which briefly and strictly explained to the minister his new sphere
of activity.2

Humboldt now determined to write a second detailed letter
to the king, which was tantamount to a declaration of war against
Hardenberg. He once more begged for his recall from Frank-
fort, so that he might secure information in Berlin, and might
thus be enabled to express his views. His chief anxiety, he said,
was to know whether he was to be granted the independence of
a responsible minister, whether he was to have the right of report-
ing directly to the monarch concerning all the affairs of his depart-
ment. Hardenberg replied in a marginal note whose passionate
tone differed notably from the customary urbane speech of this
man of refined sensibilities. Here he had to do with his deadly
enemy, the only opponent whom he detested beyond the possi-
bility of reconciliation. " What does he want ! Why does he
write at such length ? " he asked again and again. The acclama-
tions of the newspapers, which had in advance hailed the new
minister as the father of the new Prussian constitution, had
increased the chancellor's anger to the breaking point. But he
was in the right, for though the cabinet order of January nth
had just empowered the ministers to discuss the affairs of

1 Cabinet Order to Humboldt, January n, 1819, with accompanying letter
from the chancellor.

2 Humboldt to the king, January 24 ; to Hardenberg, January 24 ; cabinet
order to Humboldt, January 31, 1819.

142

The Carlsbad Decrees

their departments with the king in the presence of the chancellor,
the constitutional proposal could not possibly be regarded as
the concern of a specialist minister. " Here," wrote Harden-
berg, " we have to do with a matter which dose not yet exist,
which in your majesty's own views can be dealt with as only in
its elements, and concerning which your majesty can seek counsel
where you will. Let the king decide whether I am indispensable
or not. So long as your majesty regards my services as useful,
I shall, as is my duty, retain within my own hands the authority
delegated to me." The king decided in the sense of the chan-
cellor's note, and in a few severe words commanded the minister
(February 17) to explain himself immediately if he desired to
remain in the royal service. Humboldt replied submissively
(February 27) : " It would be in opposition to all my sentiments
to do anything else than devote my best services to your majesty,
so long as in the remotest degree it remains within my power to
do so." »

It was amid such manifestations of mistrust, and even of
disfavour, that Humboldt was called to the councils of the crown.
He was profoundly mortified, and justified his determination to
his friends by explaining that he would not display himself to
his king as refractory, and considered it his duty at least to make
a trial.2 But he did not here express the whole truth. He must
have known that by his last letters he had for ever broken with
Hardenberg. If, in spite of this, he accepted a position whose
restricted authority seemed inadequate to his talents and to his
self-respect, it could only be with the intention of carrying on
the campaign against Hardenberg within the ministry, until the
chancellor's power had been broken. It was soon to become
plain that he was really pursuing this plan. Temporarily he
had to remain in Frankfort well on into the summer, in order to
conclude the territorial agreement. In this irritable mood, he
complained to his friends that he was intentionally kept away
from Berlin, in order that the chancellor might be able to com-
plete the constitutional plans without his assistance. What a
strange spectacle did the Prussian monarchy offer in these
momentous days when Austria was arming herself for a decisive
blow. Throughout the provinces the administration was
exemplary, but in the central organisation of the state hopeless

1 Humboldt to the king, February n, with marginal notes by the chancellor.
Cabinet Order to Humboldt, February 17 ; Humboldt's Reply, February 27, 1819.
' Humboldt to Motz, March 18, 181-9.

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History of Germany

confusion prevailed. The ministry could give no answer to
the king's urgent questions, and between the two most notable
of Prussian statesmen there existed irreconcilable enmity, which
must inevitably lead to the fall of one or the other.

This struggle between Hardenberg and Humboldt appears
all the more unedifying since they held almost precisely identical
views regarding the principles of the constitution. Whilst still
in Frankfort (February 4), Humboldt drew up for Baron von
Stein a great memorial concerning the plan for a constitution,
which accorded in all essentials with the ideas of the chancellor.
What an advance, however, had Humboldt 's richly endowed
spirit made beyond the social idealism of his youth ! He still
expressed his hostility to the " fureur de gouverner," but it was not
now the power of the state which he wished to restrict, but the
power of the officialdom. He no longer considered it the task of
the burgher to safeguard the power of free association against the
onslaughts of the state, for he now believed it to be the burgher's
moral duty to participate on his own initiative in the administra-
tion. Thus only could the moral development of the individual
be perfected ; thus only could the state acquire a living inter-
connection with the national spirit, and secure the energy which
would enable it in the hour of danger to support itself upon moral
forces. It was only the recognition of this inner necessity, and
not any outward regard for royal promises, which could justify
the venture of restricting the monarchical authority. Thus this
Kantian, too, had become filled with that fruitful idea of the his-
torical view of the state which generated the struggle against
the Napoleonic world-empire. He knew, too, how to conceive
the present with historic vision ; how in the phenomena of the
moment to distinguish the living from the dead. No one under-
stood as did he, the wisdom of the Hellenes, who termed the states-
man the practical historian. Like all the intelligent men of
Stein's circle, he wished to base parliamentary government upon
the self-government of the communes, circles, and provinces. Like
them, he demanded a subdivision into three estates, although the
excessive development of the middle classes, and the disappear-
ance of the old class differences, did not elude his keen insight.
Like them, he desired that the centralised representative body
should have legislative powers, and that the provincial diets should
have administrative duties.

In Humboldt's view " there is no question of arbitrarily
introducing something new, but simply of rendering possible the

M4

The Carlsbad Decrees

revival of what has been casually and illegally suppressed." He
knew that all enduring constitutions have in their beginnings a
somewhat amorphous aspect, and he therefore desired to preserve
with care the rights of the old estates, even if this should some-
what disturb the symmetry of the new edifice. But he also saw
that the feudal territories, if simply on account of their small-
ness, could no longer maintain their existence in the great state,
and he therefore demanded provincial diets for the new districts,
under the government of lord-lieutenants. Provincial diets with-
out a national diet seemed to him to threaten the unity of the
state, and to endanger also the rights of the estates, for, he said,
with a seer's vision, provincial diets can receive only a deliberative
voice, whilst a genuine representative system carries with it the
right of initiative. The unity of the monarchy seemed to him
of such importance that he demanded direct elections for all
representative bodies ; a national assembly elected by the provincial
diets could not shake off " the corporative spirit," i.e. par-
ticularism. In certain passages we can still recognise the inade-
quate political culture of the time, as in the proposal that the
urban communes should once more be subdivided into corpora-
tions, and in the prophecy that in the governments the principle
of reform, whilst in the estates the principle of conservatism, would
always predominate ! Nevertheless the memorial is incompar-
ably the greatest and profoundest contribution of that decade
to the question of constitution-building. The principal difference
between Hardenberg's views and those of Humboldt is displayed
in the latter's earnestness of will. He imposed a definite time-
limit for the reform (a step which the exhausted chancellor no
longer ventured to undertake), desiring that the central repre-
sentative body should assemble at latest in 1822 or 1823. On
the other hand, he showed more consideration for the old estates
than Hardenberg was inclined to do, remaining in faithful alli-
ance with Stein, and frankly recognising the element of justice
in the feudalists' claims.

But here there was no ground for serious quarrel. If the
two statesmen could come to an understanding, in Humboldt's
hands a thoroughly viable constitutional proposal might come
into existence, and the minister would unquestionably have obeyed
the command of the king, who had already decided in favour
of estates with no more than a deliberative voice. It would,
indeed, have been impossible for Humboldt to conduct the
business permanently, for politics, in his case, never absorbed his

US

History of Germany

whole life ; but nowhere could have been found a more richly
stored intelligence, nowhere a more skilful pen, for the elaboration
of the plan. Unfortunately, after all that had happened, the con-
fidential collaboration of the two rivals had become absolutely
impossible. Without vouchsafing the minister any further com-
munication, the chancellor worked at his own scheme, and on
May 2nd laid before the king the first draft, which in a concise
form already contained all the essential ideas of his subsequent
constitutional proposal.

Upon the 3rd, the king commanded the formation of a small
constituent committee.1 Since no one had any inkling of these
private deliberations, in the course of the year a number of highly
respected patriots also sent proposals for a constitution. Coun-
cillor Rhediger of Silesia, who had once collaborated in Stein's
constitutional proposals, handed in a thoroughly doctrinaire
memorial, which, after violent attacks against the old system of
estates and the overvaluation of history, went on to propose that
the population should be divided into three purely arbitrary
classes.8 Yet more modern was a proposal by Hippel. The
author of the Appeal to my People had had unpleasant experience
of the separatist spirit of the Poles, and he therefore rejected all
idea of provincial Landtags, demanding a single Prussian Land-
tag which, not unlike the present one, was to be subdivided into
two chambers. The rigid monarchist even rose to the level of
the doctrine of pure parliamentary government, and, without
grasping the significance of his proposal, declared that the nation
ought to indicate to the monarch the men to whom the latter
should give his confidence. All this was labour lost, buried in
the mass of accumulated materials.

Whilst the fate of the Prussian constitution thus still
remained in complete obscurity, serious news arrived from the
new constitutional states of the south. In Munich and Carls-
ruhe the Landtag had met for the first time, and in both towns
parliamentarism made its preliminary essays in an extremely
unfortunate manner. At the court of Munich, anger at the
decisions of the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle long persisted. If the
designs of the Wittelsbachs upon the Palatinate had been frus-
trated, the great powers should at least learn that Bavaria was

1 Hardenberg's Report to the king, May 3 ; Cabinet Order to Hardenberg,
July 3, 1819. See Appendix VII.

2 Rhediger, Concerning Representation in the Prussian State, Januarys, 1819.

146

The Carlsbad Decrees

self-sufficient, and could give the whole of Germany a brilliant
example of constitutional freedom. With the boastfulness charac-
teristic of the Bavarian court, the king, when opening the Landtag
on February 5th, declared that he had now completed what he had
planned before the existence of the federal act, and when receiving
the grateful address of his estates he spoke of this day as the
happiest of his life. The nation looked on with tense interest
at the unprecedented proceedings in Munich, for this was the
first public representative assembly in German history. It is
true that the sittings of the upper chamber were private, and
that in the brief published minutes of its proceedings no names
were mentioned, so that the reader soon became weary of learn-
ing that " a certain honourable Reichsrat " had said something,
and that " another honourable Reichsrat " had replied. The
interest in the second chamber also cooled rapidly, for the number
of skilful speakers was small, and the debates, though by no
means devoid of manifestations of primitive roughness, still
lacked the stimulus of the dramatic touch, for so cumbrous was
the order of proceedings that the speakers had to succeed one
another in accordance with a predetermined list.

There were not as yet any political parties. The state-
constructive energy of this kingdom was so slight, that the members
of the chamber split up for the most part into little territorial
subdivisions. The Wiirzburgers and the Aschaffenburgers would
hardly recognise one another as fellow-countrymen, whilst the
men of Ansbach and those of Baireuth held together as good
Brandenburgers, and the Palatiners, proud of their French
liberties, suspiciously held aloof from all the others. Behr of
Wiirzburg distinguished himself from all the rest as a fiery
orator. He was the darling of his Franconian fellow-countrymen,
and a straightforward radical doctrinaire, who in his writings on
constitutional law outdid even Rotteck's teachings, and went so far
as to desire that the monarch should be personally subjected
to the punitive authority of the popular representatives. Von
Hornthal, too, burgomaster of Bamberg, a skilful lawyer of Jewish
blood, had studied in the school of Sieves and of the constitution
of 1791 ; this was a man of narrow intelligence and small culture,
but he was active, unemotional, never at a loss, and richly endowed
with that unending prolixity which in parliamentary assem-
blies so often puts genuine talent into the shade. When
contrasted with these two men beloved of the people, the liberal
vice-president Seuffert seemed to public opinion altogether

'47

History of Germany

too moderate, because in forming his political views he knew
how to take existing facts into account.

Immediately after the opening of parliament, the crown
had once more to experience the evil results of its double-faced
attitude towards the Roman see. Since the manifest contradic-
tion between the concordat and the edict of religions still remained
unadjusted, the pope forbade the clerical members of the Land-
tag to take the oath of fidelity to the constitution. Acrimonious
negotiations once more took place, and the nuncio, the duke of
Serra Cassano, a fashionable young prelate who had rapidly made
himself at home in court circles, was already threatening to ask
for his papers.1 Then a somewhat discreditable compromise was
secured. The majority of the clerics took the oath, but on con-
dition that it involved nothing conflicting with the laws of the
Catholic church ; the state allowed this reservatio mentalis, which
was certainly capable of varying interpretations, and only one or
two of the clerical hotspurs, such as the prince-bishop of Eich-
stadt, refused to accept the compromise.

It was natural that youthful parliamentarism, now going to
school before all the world, should have to pay a costly tuition
fee. There was no lack of useless talk, nor yet of petty quarrels.
When the Reichsrats had declared in their address that this Upper
House was predestined to constitute a dam to resist the onmshing
flood of the unstable energies of the popular spirit, to oppose the
mutable by the persistent, the delegates felt that their official
honour was touched, and gave vent in excited speeches to the
fashionable hatred of the nobility, but finally contented them-
selves with declaring that the utterances of the House of
Nobles were " remarkable." In innumerable immature pro-
posals were now brought to light all the complaints and desires
which had gradually been heaped up under the regime of an
unrestricted bureaucracy, and not infrequently the Upper House
found it necessary to remind the Lower of the limits imposed
on the latter's power by the constitution, since the crown alone
possessed the right of initiating legislation. It was strange, in
this connection, to see how great was still the divergence between
the average political views of the north and of the south. Many
of the essential principles of the neo-French constitutional theory,
of which in North Germany little had hitherto been heard, had
already struck firm root in the states of the Confederation of the
Rhine. Thus, both chambers petitioned for the introduction of

1 Zastrow's Report, January 29, 1819.
148

The Carlsbad Decrees

the public hearing of legal proceedings, and the crown prince had
it expressly reported in the newspapers that he had been among
the members of the Upper House who had approved of this pro-
posal. In addition, the Lower House demanded trial by jury,
and henceforward this demand became part of the regular equip-
ment of German liberalism. On the other hand, in economic
culture, the Bavarians lagged far behind the Prussians ; the legal
privileges of the Old Bavarian " real " master craftsmen received
friendly support from the majority of both Houses, and only a
small minority took the side of the Palatiners when these
zealously defended their native industrial freedoms. Still more
deficient was the understanding of local self-government. This
people, accustomed to the omnipotence of its provincial judges,
did not even venture to hope for administrative circle assemblies
such as Prussia possessed. The Napoleonic general council, which
persisted in the Palatinate, under the name of Landrat, and whose
power was restricted to a diffident tendering of advice, seemed
to the Old Bavarians an ideal body, and in the provinces on the
right bank of the Rhine even the introduction of this modest
reform could not yet be carried through.

In general the practical work of this Landtag bore an
extremely small proportion to the expenditure of brave words. The
most important event was that Lerchenfeld, minister of finance,
at length disclosed the long-concealed condition of the national
finances. There was an annual deficit of three and a half million
florins, and a national debt of more than 105,000,000 florins,
a notable burden for a country whose commerce was so scanty,
and for one in which the responsibility of the whole kingdom for
this sum as a common state debt was recognised only after severe
struggles with the particularism of the new provinces. Most of
the liability had been incurred through the necessities of war,
but no one could ascertain how much was due to the extravagance
of the crown, for the government refused to render any account of
the administration of the absolutist epoch, because the generous
Max Joseph, who in money matters always remained a child,
had shortly before inconsiderately taken from three to four
million francs from the French war indemnity, in order to
make presents to his sons and daughters.1

The king was disgusted with the Landtag after a very few
days ; it seemed to him like an actual revolt that his officials
should now have to answer to his subjects for their actions. His

1 Zastrow's Report, February 17, 1819.

I fistory of Germany

discontent increased to fierce anger when Hornthal demanded
that the army should swear fealty to the constitution,
brazenly declaring that this proposal, which was manifestly
unconstitutional, signified nothing more than the carrying out of
one of the prescriptions of the fundamental law. This was the
first public expression of an incredible error which since then has
remained for a generation a favourite principle of the liberal
parties. Affected with the fashionable hatred of standing armies,
the constitutionalists simply could not see that an army invaded
by the spirit of contentious politics is the worst possible enemy
of liberty, and that the rights of private citizens can be safe-
guarded only when the armed force has no will of its own. With
the greatest possible confidence, as if the absurdity were self-
evident, Behr maintained : "If there exists any estate which is
without a will, I do not know where constitutional freedom
remains." The favourite theory of mistrust, the doctrine of the
natural war between princes and people, also co-operated. In a
pamphlet upon the Bavarian Landtag, von Spraun, the liberal
publicist, justified Hornthal's proposal with the courteous con-
sideration that, in default of its acceptance, the court could at
any time make arrangements for a massacre of St. Bartholo-
mew ! In Weimar, the Oppositionsblatt threateningly declared
that the German people would bear in mind for a day of reckon-
ing the names of all the unconscientious deputies who might vote
against the proposal. In order to guard against a possible abuse
of monarchical authority, it was proposed in all innocence to
deprive the king of his supreme military command, and to leave
the ultimate decision of constitutional disputes to the consciences
of common soldiers, most of whom were under age. Even the
experiences of the i8th Brumaire had not yet taught the German
doctrinaires that a coup d'etat can succeed only when it is tolerated
or approved by the nation.

Although the suggestion did not originate in revolutionary
sentiments, but was merely the outcome of thoughtless inex-
perience, it had extremely deleterious consequences. A few
excited young lieutenants gave tongue in the same sense as the
tribune of the people, and were quietly punished. The great
majority of the officers felt profoundly wounded in those monarchical
sentiments which inspire every efficient army, and in their anger
adopted an unwise measure. There was circulated throughout
the garrison for signature a petition imploring the king to reject
" a demand so utterly opposed to the spirit of the constitution " ;

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The Carlsbad Decrees

generals, captains, non-commissioned officers signed at random.
Alarmed at such manifestations, the Landtag suddenly dropped
the dangerous proposal. King Frederick William, however,
regarded with profound anxiety these first consequences of the
representative system. The unruly spirit of the mercenary
soldier, which the Imperator's exploits had awakened through-
out the Napoleonic armies, had ere this misled the French and
the Saxons into open revolt ; in Italy the old Napoleonic
officers everywhere encouraged the hatred of Austrian dominion,
and there, at any moment, a militarist revolution might break
out ; were the South German armies now to be dragged into the
struggles of party politics ? The court of Vienna regarded the
Bavarian state as already struggling on the threshold of revolu-
tion. Gentz wrote a fulminating memorial concerning Bavarian
representative institutions.1 He accused the monarch of having,
by his speech from the throne, constituted " a completely rounded
system of monarchical democracy," and asked, " What can have
given this system of popular representation, which has only just
emerged from its cradle, the courage to begin where other systems
of the kind are accustomed to end ? " With the help of the Upper
House, resolute action against the Chamber of Deputies was
possible, but that which to-day might still be saved by vigorous
measures would perhaps in a few weeks be lost beyond recall.

King Max Joseph himself was hardly less concerned about
the situation. He was already meditating desperate plans, and
consulted with his confidants whether it might not be necessary
to abolish the constitution, as it had not fulfilled the desired
purpose. On March 3oth, Count Rechberg astonished the Prussian
envoy by a confidential communication regarding this secret
design. The minister added that the only fear of his court was
that by an infringement of article 13 it might come into conflict
with the Bundestag, and he concluded with the formal request
that the king of Prussia should, through the instrumentality of
his ministry of state, give confidential information " what his
majesty the king of Bavaria may expect from his majesty the
king of Prussia, if the former should find himself under the dis-
agreeable necessity of having to adopt the aforesaid forcible
measure." Simultaneously, Bavaria expressed to the Austrian

1 Observations regarding the first Proceedings of the Bavarian Representative
Assembly. The memorial was sent to Berlin on April 10, 1819, but must have
been written in the beginning of March, for it considers the proceedings of the
Landtag only down to February Us.

History of Germany

court her repentance for the over-hasty granting of a constitu-
tion, and declared herself prepared " zealously to adopt any
repressive measures which Austria and Prussia might recommend." l

King Frederick William's temptation was great, but he
honourably withstood it. He gave the question mature con-
sideration, allowed several weeks to elapse, and on May nth had
answer made in a ministerial despatch which ran as follows : "If
we had had an opportunity of expressing our views at the moment
when the king of Bavaria had determined to introduce the con-
stitution, we should, however much of good and well-considered
matter may be contained in this constitutional charter, still have
found occasion, and have regarded it as our duty, to express
numerous doubts and counter-considerations." Now, however,
Bernstorff continued with unmistakable irony, " We are con-
cerned with questions of an entirely different nature. If we take
into consideration that the king of Bavaria, when he introduced
this constitution, did not merely present it as a notable benefit
freely granted to his people, but further did not hesitate expressly
to recognise the genuine or reputed right of the nation to such
a constitution, and that the representative assembly upon its
side, did not merely accept the new constitution in the same
sense, but, in addition, definitely and boldly expressed its view
that, as far as the rights of the nation were concerned, the recogni-
tion of these rights must be accounted the king's greatest service
— we cannot fail to recognise the great and threatening dangers
which would be inseparably associated with the crises that would
result from the autocratic repeal of the constitutional charter."
The king of Bavaria was then begged to take clearly into account
the sentiments of his people and of his army, and to consider,
in especial, whether the constitution itself did not offer him a
means for maintaining his prestige, as for example by dissolving
the chamber. He had nothing to fear from the Bundestag,
for article 13 merely prescribed in general terms the introduction
of a representative constitution, and Bavaria would in any case
not be left entirely without provincial diets. *

Thus the Prussian answer was far from offering the
assistance which the Bavarian court desired ; it was a plain
" no," couched in diplomatic form, and even in Munich was
recognised as a refusal. Some days after it had been handed in,
Zastrow reported that Count Rechberg had thanked him with

1 Zastrow's Report, March 30 ; Krusemark s Report, April 16, 1819.
* Ministerial Despatch to Zastrow, May n, 1819.

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The Carlsbad Decrees

profound emotion, saying that the proposed coup d'etat had now
been abandoned since the chambers had begun to assume a more
moderate attitude.1 In fact the opposition had gleaned some
information regarding the plans of the court — it never learned
the full truth — and hastened, through the eloquent intermedia-
tion of Hacker, to asseverate its loyalty to the father of the
constitution. The loud applause with which the chamber and the
galleries received this emotional speech, was agreeable to the
heart of Max Joseph, and the monarch who had just been plan-
ning a coup d'etat, immediately and contentedly resumed the role
of the exemplary constitutional prince. In those very days in
which Prussia's warnings restrained the Bavarian ruler from his
contemplated breach of the constitution, the beautiful medal
minted in commemoration of the constitution was ready for issue,
and the king had specimens of it ceremoniously handed to his
loyal estates, and also gave one to every commune of the king-
dom in perpetual commemoration. The whole country rejoiced
over the Bavarian liberties, and abused Prussia, for it was no
longer possible to celebrate a liberal anniversary without invec-
tives against the state of the War of Liberation. All the Bavarian
newspapers made pleasing comparisons between their king, so
faithful to the constitution, and the despot in Berlin. The
Allgemeine Zeitung related an absurd story to the effect that a
crowd of fifteen hundred burghers had stopped King Frederick
William's carriage at the Brandenburg Gate, and, with threaten-
ing cries " We have bled for the fatherland," had presented a
petition for a constitution ; the Landwehr men on guard at the
gate had refused to interfere.

Yet more energetically did Bavarian arrogance manifest
itself among the deputies. Certain members of the opposition
handed to Rechberg a private memorial intended to strengthen
the king in his constitutional intentions. Herein it was stated
that Bavaria, excluded from European politics, had uplifted her-
self once again by the moral power of her constitution, and that
her monarch was now greeted by the entire nation " as the king
of German hearts." Through this European event, Bavaria had
regained the position of a European power. If the king would
meet the wishes of his Landtag fully, " the Wittelsbach dynasty
will become the mainstay of all peoples which have proved
themselves ripe for a representative constitution, and then a con-
siderable army for Bavaria will first acquire its true significance.''

1 Zastrow's Report, May 19, 1819.

153 M

History of Germany

Thus the fantastical trias plan of the Wiirtemberg court
reappears in Bavarian tints; the Munich opposition was in
lively correspondence with the liberals of the neighbouring
land, and the Neue Stuttgarter Zeitung served them as a common
organ. The Wittelsbach ruler, however, did not stoop to the
lure. Max Joseph was alarmed by the radical language of his
popular representatives, and sent Rechberg once again to General
Zastrow to hand the latter the liberals' memorial (it was on this
very day, May 23rd, that the constitutional medal was sent to
the chambers). Once more he implored the king of Prussia to
walk with him hand in hand, so that these democratic principles
might be destroyed in the germ. Frederick William made a
brief and dignified reply, saying that he would not interfere in
the internal affairs of Bavaria, merely repeating his advice that
the king should vigorously repress unconstitutional encroachments
or demands ; then the Bavarian government could not be
befooled by the double-tongued representations, the hypocritical
flatteries, which this memorial contained. »

The close of the session was marked by one of those debates
on military affairs in which the profound inveracity of the
sovereignty of the petty states was always manifested in a
peculiarly repulsive manner. Everyone really felt that the consider-
able expenditure for the armies of the middle-sized states was
applied in an almost aimless manner so long as there did not yet
exist a firmly unified German army ; but no one ventured to give
open expression to this truth, so disagreeable to the particularist
spirit. In Bavaria, almost all parties desired that there should
be a strong standing army, since they all cherished extremely
exaggerated ideas of the European power of the Wittelsbach
state, and yet they could never make up their minds to introduce
an efficient Landwehr in accordance with the example of the
detested Prussia. All the more vigorously, therefore, did they
dispute about the cost, which indeed, in the judgment of the
Prussian envoy, was far too great. The 6,700,000 florins voted
by the Lower House seemed to the king so inadequate that in an
autograph letter to Wrede, he declared that he would rather allow
the recipients of his private charity to go hungry, and add 300,000
florins from his privy purse. Not till then did the Upper House
resolve to raise the vote of the Lower Chamber to 7,000,000. But
even this did not suffice the monarch, and when on July i6th,
with a half-ungracious closing address he dismissed the Landtag,

1 Zastrow's Report, May 23 ; Ministerial Despatch to Zastrow. June n, 1819.

154

The Carlsbad Decrees

he frankly announced that if his federal duties should render it
necessary he intended to exceed the army budget. The attempt
of the crown of Bavaria to lead the German people along the path
of freedom had, as the Prussian ministry wrote to Munich, " not
turned out very well,"1 hardly better, indeed, than the negotia-
tions, just as pompously heralded, with the Roman See. As far
as the representatives were concerned, although the great majority
of them were harmless persons of no particular account, they had
manifested a strong tendency to transgress the constitutional
rights which had so recently been acquired. On the side of the
crown there had been exhibited a scandalous weakness, an
inclination, to-day to woo popular favour in flattering terms, and
to-morrow humbly to beg the assistance of neighbours against
rts own country.

A far more striking and significant drama was enacted in
the proceedings of the first Badenese Landtag. In December,
1818, the troubles of the unhappy grand duke Charles had come
to an end. He was succeeded by his uncle, the grand duke Louis,
a man already nearly sixty, whose best years had been passed in
the Frederician army. He still lived and moved amid memories
of the Rhenish campaigns, and proudly related that he had once
commanded the celebrated battalion of Rhodich, which subse-
quently became the first regiment of the guards. Even after his
ascent to the throne he still preferred to wear Prussian uniform,
introduced Prussian regulations among his troops, and aspired
for the loan of a Prussian regiment, which, through the zeal of
Varnhagen, was soon accorded him.2 If a facing or a button
were changed in the uniform of the guard, his envoy in Berlin
never failed to append the model of the new embellishment to his
diplomatic reports. In the days of the Confederation of the
Rhine he had been in disfavour with Napoleon, and had for many
years to pass his time at the solitary castle of Salem. He had
then taken the measure of courtly cajolery, and had become
inspired with a harsh contempt for mankind. When he now
re-emerged from oblivion he immediately disciplined his officialdom
very strictly, and brought a certain amount of order and economy
into the confused administrative system ; but this man of the old
school could not regard the new constitution as anything but a
burdensome restriction.

1 Ministerial Despatch to Zastrow, August 7, 1819.

8 Varnhagen's Reports, December 16, 1818, and April 4, 1819.

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History of Germany

Since Reizenstein soon retired in a bad humour to enjoy
learned leisure at Heidelberg, Berstett acquired the decisive voice
in the government, and next to him in influence came the new
minister of finance, Fischer, a man good at figures and a rigid
bureaucrat. For a brief period the king of Wiirtemberg
endeavoured to win the friendship of his new neighbour, but after
a secret meeting at Schwetzingen (April, 1819), the two princes
parted on very bad terms.1 The old soldier in Carlsruhe would
not hear a word of the brain-cobwebs of the liberal trias policy,
and desired to secure the good wishes of the eastern powers whose
mistrust had injured his state so greatly. In this connection he
thought first of all of his beloved Prussia, whereas Berstett inclined
more to Austria. Both, however, sovereign and minister alike,
looked with grateful respect towards Russia, a country which
Blittersdorff, Badenese charge d'affaires in St. Petersburg,
unceasingly represented to them as the natural centre of gravity
for uneasy Europe ; and they gladly listened to the counsels of
Anstett in Frankfort, who gradually acquired great influence at the
court of Carlsruhe. z At home, the grand duke led the life of a
dissolute bachelor. . He was a man of good intelligence, but being
without any sentiment for refined culture he had early given him-
self up to foolish excesses. Alike for his amourettes and for his
political negotiations there was ever at his side a ready helper,
Major Hennenhofer, a busybody of the drawing-rooms, who by
cynical wit and adroit flattery had forced his way up from the
position of duke's harbinger to that of military attache, an adept
in every ruse, to whom it did not come amiss to introduce quota-
tions from Tristram Shandy into official documents, one who knew
everyone, was initiated into all secrets, and who, despite his
extreme ugliness, was always welcome as mediator and go-between.
Through the fault of this new court, the honourable state of
Charles Frederick was for long, next to Munich, the most
immoral of the German capitals.

Not without having to overcome considerable personal
reluctance did the grand duke determine to summon parliament
on April 22nd. " A small country like mine," he often declared,
" needs a patriarchal government." Nevertheless he consoled
himself with the hope that the Landtag would rest contented
with the inconspicuous role of a family council, and would not

1 Varnhagen's Reports, April 19 and 21, 1819.

a Blittersdorfi's Reports. St. Petersburg, January 5, 1819, and subsequent
dates.

I56

The Carlsbad Decrees

undertake anything " which will infringe our prerogative." l
At the banquet which he gave to the representatives after the
opening of the Landtag he lifted a huge tankard full of old mar-
gravial, drank to the health of his loyal estates, and then, in
accordance with ancient custom, had the loving-cup passed round
the table. The representatives of the people by no means took
so modest a view of their duties as did the sovereign prince. On
their way to the capital, they had everywhere been hailed by
the sanguine populace with princely honours, greeted with
triumphal arches and noisy displays, and the gracious opening
festival gave them an elevating impression, leading them to feel
that to-day a new epoch in German history was beginning. Varn-
hagen, who had already begun to mix busily among the represen-
tatives, could not relate enough to his government about " the
indescribable grandeur of this imposing moment." 2 The popular
chamber honestly believed that the eyes of the whole world were
directed upon it (in actual fact, the proceedings at Carlsruhe
attracted great attention even in England and America) ; and
it unanimously resolved that in the House, noble and official titles
should be discarded, for the honourable title of deputy stood far
higher than all other earthly dignities. This proud resolve
immediately aroused a fear in the anxious courts that it
would be speedily followed by the abolition of the nobility itself.
The Badenese nobles possessed representation in the Upper
House alone. In the Lower House it was not, as in Bavaria,
representatives from the four groups of estates who found a place,
for in Baden, the totality of those privileged to vote were, without
distinction of class, grouped in urban and rural electoral dis-
tricts, each of these comprising a taxable capital of 800,000 gulden.
The result was that the Carlsruhe Landtag, in conformity with
the modern character of the Badenese state, appeared to be almost
equivalent to a general popular representative chamber, and in
its very composition was more akin to the democratic ideas of
the new century than were the other representative assemblies
of those days. In respect of talent, too, it greatly excelled the
Bavarian Landtag. In the Upper House, the churches were
represented by Wessenberg and Hebel ; the universities by
Rotteck and his counterpart, the learned Thibaut ; the nobility by
Prince Charles Egon of Fiirstenberg, an aristocrat in the best
sense of the term, and by the conservative, Baron von Turckheim,

1 Berstett to Capodistrias, December 10, 1819.
* Varnhagen's Report, April 22, 1819.

157

History of Germany

an Alsatian, who, driven from his home by the Revolution, took
a dispassionate view of the particularist limitations of his Badenese
fellow-countrymen. Von Tiirckheim did not hesitate to
acknowledge that, in his view, the unity of the nation stood first,
and constitutional reform occupied merely a second place — a state-
ment which in the general intoxication of constitutionalist self-
satisfaction already seemed tantamount to high treason. Among the
members of the Lower House, Professor Duttlinger of Freiburg,
a keen-sighted lawyer, was conspicuous. In detailed knowledge
of affairs the privy referendary Ludwig Winter excelled all
the other members ; this was a native of the Black Forest
region, blunt and candid, with an offhand manner, a monarchist
to the core, the typical Old Badenese official, ready for all social
reforms, but a declared enemy of political dilettantism and par-
liamentary loquacity. The real leader of the House was Baron
von Liebenstein, a young official who as early as 1813 had attracted
the notice of the Prussian chancellor on his journey through Baden,
and who had recently acquired a wide reputation through his
eloquent speech on the occasion of the anniversary festival of
the battle of Leipzig. A fiery orator, active and yet cautious,
unquestionably the most brilliant parliamentarian of Badanese
history, thoroughly liberal in his views, he was distinguished from
the majority of his colleagues by practical tact and by sound judg-
ment in military matters ; yet, gifted as he was in other respects,
he greatly lacked firmness of character.

Almost all the orators of the opposition belonged to the
official class, which was considerably over-represented in this
Landtag, so that for the first time there now became apparent
one of the gravest defects of German parliamentarism, which per-
sists unrelieved to the present day. Since this impoverished people
still completely lacked a class of professional politicians, and
since, in especial, acquaintance with law was almost exclusively
confined to the ranks of the officialdom, the promoters of the new
constitution, desiring to avoid excluding from the chambers all
men with knowledge of affairs, had made the entire body of state
servants eligible for election. Many of the minor sovereigns
indulged a flattering hope that in the Landtag the officials would
moderate the zeal of the opposition. But by the new rules of
service, modelled upon the Prussian example, the German official-
dom had come to occupy a more independent position than that
of any other country in the world. As parliamentary representa-
tives, its members claimed the unrestricted right of opposing

158

The Carlsbad Decrees

their official superiors, and the view soon came to prevail that
the duty of the popular representative stood upon a far higher
level than that of the official, and consequently that the oath of
loyalty to the service ceased to be binding upon an official during
his tenure of the position of parliamentary representative. There
resulted the twofold danger (and both the evil consequences to be
now named manifested themselves alternately in South Germany)
that either the discipline of the state service would be undermined,
or else that the principles of the officials would be corrupted by
favour and by pressure from above. Means of pressure lay ready
to hand; the constitution contained no provisions regarding the
granting of leave to state servants elected to the Landtag, and
during the life of the first Badenese Landtag the question was
mooted in the ministry whether it would not be well that in the
future the leaders of the opposition should be kept away from
the chamber by refusing them official leave — a paltry idea,
though one readily comprehensible in view of the weakness of
these governments, and one which was yet to .cause much
disturbance in the south.

An assembly possessing so many men of exceptional intelli-
gence could not fail, in the first exalted consciousness of a great
destiny, to extend its oratorical arts to the consideration of all
the heights and depths of the life of the state. So long as the
nation still lacked a Reichstag, a central representative assembly,
the petty Landtags were almost forced, despite the warning of
grand duke Louis, to transgress the sphere of their competence,
and to consider questions of general German policy within the
scope of their deliberations. For a generation to come it remained
the historical vocation of the sprightly Upper Rhenish people,
in this land of pure enlightenment, to provide for the average views
of youthful liberalism that convenient and generally comprehen-
sible phrasing which made them common currency. The Land-
tag did not possess the power of initiating all legislation, but it
had the right of requesting the government to propose a law, and
it made so comprehensive a use of this privilege that the crown,
if it had given way, would have completely lost the leadership in
legislative work.

Within a brief three months, the whole programme of liberal
aspirations, matter enough for the legislation of several decades,
was brought up for discussion ; and since the proposers for the
most part contented themselves with vague generalities, the items
of this programme were voted by the chambers unanimously or

159

History of Germany

with large majorities — a step which to the delighted Varnhagen
seemed a remarkable sign of political maturity. The House was
unanimous when Baron von Lotzbeck, a wealthy tobacco manu-
facturer of Lahr, after a drastic and only too true description of
the increasing impoverishment of the country, demanded general
freedom of trade throughout Germany. It is true that no one
had a notion of the means to be adopted to secure this end,
and no one vouchsafed any attention to the fact that the king of
Prussia had just granted eleven million Germans the privilege of
free trade, this step being held up to contumely as a base attack
upon genuine German freedom of trade. Next, C. F. Winter,
the Heidelberg bookseller, proposed the establishment of the free-
dom of the press, and Liebenstein supported him with demands
which have only been realised of late in the new empire, asking,
not merely, as was reasonable, that the censorship should be
abolished, but also that the provision of monetary guarantees by
the newspapers should be done away with, together with all
measures restricting the absolute freedom of the press — a course
which was simply impossible so long as public opinion had failed
to come to a common understanding even regarding the elemen-
tary principles of German federal law. Next, Rotteck offered the
ministers (who by no means desired any such help) the assistance
of the Chambers in the struggle with the Roman curia, and sang
the glories of the German Catholic national church, being as always
in respect of form refined and amiable, but in respect of matter
utterly revolutionary, completely undisturbed by the facts of his-
tory, which had already proved that Wessenberg's dreams were
impossible to carry into effect. This warm-hearted doctrinaire
possessed wonderful energy of faith, for he simply could not con-
ceive the possibility of any valid objection to the evangel of the
law of reason. " Thibaut and A. Miiller," he modestly admitted,
" greatly excel me in genius and learning, but right and truth
are on my side, and with these on our side we are invincible."
Consequently he deemed every compromise treasonable, saying :
" I know of no middle course between right and not-right."

There followed thoroughly justified but still quite inchoate
proposals for the abolition of the corvee and of tithes, for the
separation of the judiciary from the executive, for public and oral
procedure. Trial by jury, above all, was here consecrated in
eloquent speeches as a holy of holies of liberalism. There was
little talk of the need that the courts should work in harmony
with the conscience and the habits of the people, and little talk

160

The Carlsbad Decrees

of the practical essentials of the administration of justice. Rather,
and yet more decisively than a short while before in the Bavarian
chamber, trial by jury was spoken of as a political institution.
This should constitute " the main pillar of political freedom " ;
without it, Liebenstein declared, everything else is illusory. Public
opinion joined in a chorus of acclamation, although the experi-
ences of the Napoleonic empire were far from favouring the new
doctrine ; everyone grumbled, and with good reason, at the satrap-
like arbitrariness of the Badenese officials, and all gave themselves
up to the childish hope that every form of tyranny would be
abolished by " the people." Thus a purely legal question became
a matter of political party controversy. The governments shook
with terror. Hitherto, especially as far as Prussia was concerned,
they had by no means been averse to the urgently necessary reform
of criminal procedure, but now it seemed to them that the
innovation would be dangerous to the state.

After the powerful emotions of these debates relating to the
future, wherein Varnhagen's hand was ever at work, the pedantic
trifling of the budget deliberations seemed extremely diverting.
In any case, the budget, after so many years of disorderly financial
administration, offered many points for attack. Consequently there
was a vigorous development of all those arts of parliamentary
fussiness and hair-splitting, which for a long time to come, served
the German Landtags as an example. With hallowed indignation,
the appointment of every secretary, the ration of every adjutant's
horse, was disputed. The detested military budget naturally
had many of its estimates cut out, and since the government,
thoughtlessly enough, had omitted to provide for the expenses
of the princely house before promulgating the fundamental law,
the disrespectful curiosity of the popular representatives led them
to enquire also into the domestic affairs of the dynasty. The
actual civil list was approved by the parliamentary assembly, but
of the appanage nearly one quarter was vetoed. At her dowager-
seat of Bruchsal there still lived the mother of the deceased grand
duke, the old margravine Amalie, a daughter of the great land-
gravine of Darmstadt. How often in former days, during the
French dominion, had this excellent woman efficiently espoused
the cause of the Badenese state ; and now the Landtag, which
really owed its existence to her, vetoed 20,000 florins of her modest
income. How was it possible for these petty bourgeois to
understand that the upkeep of the court of a princess whose
daughters sat on the thrones of Russia, Sweden, Bavaria, Hesse, and

161

History of Germany

Brunswick, must not be judged on the standard of the needs of a
country parsonage ? All the margravine's powerful relatives felt
affronted, and the mother of Czar Alexander exclaimed to the
Badenese charg6 d'affaires : " It seems that one can reckon very
little upon popular gratitude ! " >

By the arrogance of its demands and the stinginess of its
concessions, the Landtag had already put all the courts into a bad
humour. Now it made a last, hardly credible mistake, setting
itself in opposition to the Bundestag, and doing this, unfortu-
nately, in clear defiance of the law. In April, 1818, the court of
Baden had issued a nobles' edict, dealing with the legal relation-
ships of the mediatised and of the imperial knighthood, con-
ceived quite in the spirit of the Rhenish Confederate bureaucracy,
and manifestly conflicting with the prescriptions of article 14 of
the federal act. The edict was subsequently declared to be an
essential part of the new constitution, but the high nobility, feeling
its rights seriously infringed, would not be appeased, and the
government soon found itself in a position of painful embarrass-
ment. It was certainly impossible for this small throne to fulfil
the provisions of the federal act in the generous spirit of the king
of Prussia ; but even if certain demands made by the nobles were
excessive, and even if the house of Lowenstein went so far as to
ask that the Main dues should be discontinued in its own case,
the mediatised were unquestionably justified, according to the
terms of the federal act and of numerous European treaties, in
claiming patrimonial jurisdiction and local police powers. The
government began to recognise its error. It knew that the
disfavour which it had acquired at the congress of Vienna
was mainly due to the continuous complaint the nobles had made
of their grievances. Vainly did the government appeal against
the leader of the imperial knights, Baron von Venningen, to
" the spirit of the age, which in South Germany is unfavourable
to the nobility."2 The mediatised stood upon their rights, and,
as has been previously related, demanded a friendly hearing at
the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. In seriously-worded despatches,
the four powers reminded the court of Carlsruhe of its duty, as
specified by treaty. " In truth," wrote Capodistrias to Berstett,
" at this moment, when all the rights of the Badenese court are
once more to be placed under a double guarantee, it is impossible
that an appeal to the justice of its policy can remain fruitless."3

1 Blittersdorff's Report, St. Petersburg, August II, 1819.

2 Reizenstein to Venningen, October 22, 1818.

3 Capodistrias to Berstett, Aix-la-Chapelle, November, 1818.

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The Carlsbad Decrees

Such was in fact the case. The government could not
venture to reject the justified demands of the Quadruple Alliance,
which had so recently secured the whole future of this dynasty.
After a brief period of hesitation, new negotiations were under-
taken with the mediatised, although King William of Wiirtemberg,
the embittered enemy of the high nobility, urgently advised the
Badenese government to resist the demands of the congress of
Aix-la-Chapelle. l On April 16, 1819, a second nobles' edict,
quite in accordance with the prescriptions of the federal act, was
drawn up, was submitted to the four powers,2 and was
declared at the Bundestag to be satisfactory. Berstett had the
new edict promulgated the evening before the opening of the
Landtag. He calculated that the representative assembly would
make a virtue of necessity, and would tacitly accept the
compromise as the last exercise of power on the part of the
absolute monarchy. How little did he know the character
of the Badenese deputies ! The time-honoured problem, which
existed first, the owl or the egg, came up for solution. Does a
Landtag possess rights before it exists ? From the first such
questions have exercised an elemental force of attraction
upon the minor German Landtags, and have offered the best
material for their juristic saturnalia. So it was on this occasion.
Everyone was incensed at the unseemly breach in the constitu-
tion. From the mouths of extremely moderate men were to be
heard doctrines which, though quite harmlessly meant, strongly
reminded the hearers of Rousseau's Contrat Social. The grand
duke, it was said, in promulgating the constitution, had offered a
primal convention to the people ; by undertaking the elections, the
people had approved this agreement, and thereby it had been
perfected.

In the Lower House, Ludwig Winter was appointed referen-
dary of the nobles' edict, and now a remarkable incident occurred,
such as was possible only in the infancy of German parliamentary
life. Winter was member for Durlach, and at the same time
governmental commissioner. Although in the chamber he had
just before been acting in this official capacity, he now rose to
attack the ministry with a violence which had not been displayed
by any member before him. The passionate man acted in all good
faith. He believed that, by the nobles' edict, the grand duke
was being robbed of inalienable sovereign prerogatives, and he

1 Varnhagen's Report, January 10, 1819.

2 Ministerial Despatch to Blittersdorff, April 30, 1819.

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considered it his duty as a loyal subject to hasten to the assistance
of the crown against its own ministers. But he was a partisan,
he had compiled the first (and now abandoned) nobles' edict,
and he defended his own work with all the weapons of the
abstract law of reason. He absolutely disregarded the federal
act and the European treaties upon which the very existence of
the grand duchy of Baden depended. " We have," he exclaimed,
"nothing to do with the Bundestag, and will have nothing to do
with it ; this is an affair of our own government." These argu-
ments based upon natural rights were followed by an arbitrary
interpretation of the federal act which was bitterly to be atoned
for in the future. Winter maintained that article 13 expressly
promised a popular representative system and not a feudal
constitution, thus presupposing the legal equality of all citizens,
and that, for this reason, the privileges granted the mediatised in
article 14 could not be carried into effect and were legally null.

What a distortion of universally known facts. At the time
of the congress of Vienna, no one in Germany had as yet given
serious attention to the contrast between the modern repre-
sentative and the feudal constitution. According to their own
admission, the originators of the federal act used the term " repre-
sentative constitution" in an entirely general sense, to relate, it
might be, to a representation of the entire people, or, it might be to
a representation of estates. Prussia's attempt to give the promise
of a constitution a definite content by the enumeration of represen-
tative rights was wrecked by the opposition of the Rhenish
Confederate states, and an elastic phrase was deliberately chosen in
order that a free hand might be left to the sovereignty of the
crowns. In this way, Austria, Saxony, and Mecklenburg could
retain their old estates, while the South German states could con-
template the introduction of modern constitutions. Winter's
contention was purely sophistical, and, as was soon manifest,
a grievous imprudence ; for if the liberals should begin to
interpret article 13 speciously in their own sense, the reactionary
party would certainly pay them back tit for tat, and the
reactionaries had at least the letter of the act on their side when
they maintained that the actual term used for a representative
constitution (landstandische Ver/assung) signified representation
based upon estates (Stdnde) and not representation of the people.
But as far as his present audience was concerned, Winter had won
the game. When, in conclusion, he demanded the rejection of the
nobles' edict, the applause seemed unending ; nor was the patriotic

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banquet lacking which henceforward was regularly offered as a
reward to deserving advocates of the popular cause. In the
wider relationships of Bavaria, the mediatised, despite so much
friction between the two chambers, were left unassailed by the
liberals, but in the little land of Baden, a high nobility could not
be tolerated, for all aristocrats were regarded as enemies of the
people. Varnhagen did his best to fan the flames of anti-
aristocratic feeling among the deputies, although he knew that
his own government had collaborated in the creation of the nobles'
edict. He did not even shrink in his official reports from ardently
praising the opponents of the Bundestag and of the Quadruple
Alliance. 1

The subsequent course of the debates showed how thoroughly
the national sentiment had already been disordered by the futility
of the Bundestag. The federal assembly was overwhelmed with
abuse, and the fundamental law of the Germanic Federation was
treated with the utmost contempt. The very liberals who were
so loudly demanding the fulfilment of the ambiguous article 13,
declared that the plain and unambiguous prescriptions of article 14
were not binding. The nation's sense of honour towards the
scandalously maltreated victims of the Napoleonic coup d'etat of
1806, the plain wording of the federal act, which was so much
older than the Badenese constitution, and which in any case con-
stituted the sole constitutional bond for this disintegrated
nation — all was to count for nothing as against an indubitably
illegal grand-ducal Badenese law, which, further, had already
been annulled by the Badenese government itself. It was not
considered worth while to show why Baden could not fulfil its
federal duties towards the mediatised just as honourably as Prussia
and Bavaria. If any further advance were to be made along such
a path, the last poor vestiges of a national legal order which still
remained for the Germans would be destroyed by liberal par-
ticularism. The unbridled German licence which had devastated
the old empire was revived, basing itself no longer upon existing
feudal liberties, but upon the phraseology of the doctrine of natural
rights. Liebenstein, who had so often broken out into fiery
enthusiasm when he spoke on behalf of the unity of Germany, now
put forward the extraordinary contention that a federal resolu-
tion could become legally valid only through the approval of the
Carlsruhe chambers, although the Badenese constitution itself
expressly recognised that federal laws were binding upon the

1 Varnhagen's Reports, May 12 and July 21, 1819.
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History of Germany

grand duchy. Paulus hastened, in Rotteck's Archiv, to extol this
new doctrine as a bulwark of German freedom. The liberals
ventured to display open disobedience towards the Germanic
Federation, upon whose fundamental law the Badenese constitution
itself reposed, and this at a moment when the Bundestag was,
indeed, sinning gravely through inertia, but had by no means
attempted any forcible infringement of the liberties of the nation.
In this campaign against the Federation, the Prussian charge
d'affaires faithfully collaborated. He played the part of a
Badenese opposition leader with such audacity that a year later,
when Varnhagen was at length recalled, the grand duke Louis said
openly to Kiister, Varnhagen's successor : " We shall at length
have peace, now that Varnhagen is gone ; his presence would
to-day, as it did a year ago, ruin everything." l

In the Upper House, the rights of the mediatised were better
defended. Tiirckheim produced an admirable, though extremely
severe, report, victoriously demonstrating the injustice of the
Lower House, and asking it to consider that a highly respected
nobility was at all times a defence against arbitrary conduct on
the part of the officialdom. But the arrogance of the liberal party
had already risen to such a height that a severe word in the mouth
of a conservative was regarded as a breach of privilege. The
Lower House rejected Tiirckheim's report " with indignation,"
although in truth its own orators had by no means minced
matters. In his rejoinder, Winter even referred to the
celebrated sentence in Stein's political testament, that no subject
must resist the authority of his superiors ; and yet it was
universally known that the baron was far from regarding the former
estates of the realm as " subjects," but had vigorously defended their
established rights. The government knew neither how to advance
nor how to retreat. From the Bundestag and from most of the
courts came astonished enquiries whether in Baden everything
had got out of hand, now that the governmental commissioner
could himself lead the opposition in an attack upon the Federa-
tion and upon the ministry.2 Count Buol, upon hearing the news
of Liebenstein's speech, exclaimed : " Doubtless the speaker is
already in prison ! " Berstett was not the man to lay this storm.
He allowed himself to break out in anger ; he accused the
chambers of Jacobin sentiments, and thus only increased their

1 Kiister's Report, Carlsruhe, August 22, 1820.

2 Berkheim's Report, Frankfort, June 25 ; Blittersdorff's Report, St. Peters-
burg, August 14, 1819.

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The Carlsbad Decrees

hostility. At length the grand duke lost patience. On July
28th, the chambers were suddenly prorogued until the following
year. The three months' war of words had terminated without
result, for not a single law had been passed.

At length retribution arrived for the man who in Carlsruhe
had so long brought dishonour upon the Prussian name. For
two years Varnhagen's conduct of business had been an endless
chain of insubordination and dishonesty. His reports were
untrustworthy ; he was partisan and badly informed ; he had even
criminally lied to his government when he betrayed to the news-
papers the letters of the sovereigns of Bavaria and Baden, and
subsequently pretended to be indignant at this act of treachery.
In direct opposition to his instructions, he had at first interfered
in the Bavario-Badenese dispute, had then immersed himself in
liberal party politics, and had finally and in person opposed the
legal claims of the mediatised, which were supported by the court
of Berlin. This was a breach of duty which in the history of
Prussian diplomacy could be paralleled but once only, by the
behaviour of Count Haugwitz, at the time of the battle of
Austerlitz. Varnhagen was recalled on account of the well-
justified complaints of the court of Baden, and owed it only to the
good nature of Hardenberg and Bernstorff that he had not to suffer
unqualified dismissal, but retired on an entirely undeserved
half-pay. He fell a victim to his own vanity and disobedience ;
but since his recall chanced to coincide with the beginning of
the persecution of the demagogues, and since the ill-informed
newspapers began to circulate fables, now of his arrest and now
of his Jacobin plans, he was able in Berlin to pose as a liberal
martyr ; and when he had for years vainly besieged all the
ministers for foreign affairs, from Bernstorff to Manteuffel, for
reinstatement, he at length revenged himself by producing a dish
of literary poison which was worthy of his political deeds.

In Baden, meanwhile, Fischer, like Rechberg shortly before
in Munich, was planning a coup d'etat. In a memorial, he proposed
to his prince that the crown should resume possession of the
domains, and, if the Landtag would not agree to this, should
declare the constitution violated. Then, through the mediation
of the Bundestag, consultative estates might be introduced. For
the present, however, the grand duke rejected this plan, for he
hoped that he would be able to keep his Landtag in order with the
aid of the decrees which were at this moment being discussed in
Carlsbad. — Such, then, were the results of the first years of our

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History of Germany

constitutional life. In Wiirtemberg, a sharp dispute with parlia-
ment had temporarily brought about the king's dictatorship ; in
Bavaria, the crown had appealed for assistance to the great
powers against its own Landtag ; in Baden, prince and parlia-
ment had parted in discontent, and the popular representatives had
attacked the federal act. In view of such experiences, the king
of Prussia began seriously to doubt whether his state, so
laboriously growing to become a coherent whole, could venture to
follow the speedily repented example of Bavaria. King Frederick
William IV uttered an absolute truth when, soon after ascending
the throne, he declared that by the constitutional experiences of
the neighbouring German states his father had been led to
deliberate very seriously about the promise of May, 1815.

§ 2. ASSASSINATION OF KOTZEBUE. PERSECUTION OF THE
DEMAGOGUES.

Even before the unwonted spectacle of these parliamentary
struggles had terminated, an incident occurred which filled
all the courts with panic terrors and was to be a turning-point
in the history of the Germanic Federation. On May 23, 1819,
Kotzebue was murdered by Sand, a member of the Jena Bur-
schenschaft. Both friends and enemies immediately felt that
in this murderous deed it was not the ruthlessness of an individual,
but the long dammed-up party hatred of the revolutionary section
of the students, which had found discharge. The elemental
fascination of the mysterious, readily leads the world astray to seek
some lineaments of greatness in those who commit serious crimes ;
but while the life of this assassin offered a sufficiency of morbid
characteristics, and afforded many reasons for human compas-
sion, there was nothing remarkable about him but that gloomy
and concentrated force of will which makes the fanatic.

Carl Sand was the son of a former Prussian official, and had
grown to manhood in the Fichtelgebirge, among the loyal Bran-
denburg Franconians, in a country where everyone was grumbling
about the new order in German affairs. The fixed gaze, and the
low forehead surrounded by long, dark hair, betrayed a restricted
intelligence, that of one who learned but slowly in spite of intense
application, and who then retained with tenacious obstinacy,
against every attempt to dislodge it, the knowledge acquired with
so much difficulty. His mother, filled with the pride of conscious

168

The Carlsbad Decrees

virtue, had early instilled into the boy's mind an unchildlike sense
of self -righteousness. Thus prepared, he entered as a student
into that Teutonising circle in which raw youths were accus-
tomed to bask in the sense of their own strength and chastity,
and to rail against the wanton laxity of the older generation. In
this unfortunate mind, pagan arrogance, rationalistic pride in
the immaculate dignity of the free and independent ego, was
associated with a mystical enthusiasm which looked up with
ecstasy to the image of Christ, and which imagined that the finger
of God could be recognised in every trifling experience of daily
life : he prepared himself with prayer and pious contemplation
even for the harmless duelling games of the students, and often
after some trifling exchange of words he would solemnly invite
his opponent to meet him before God's judgment-seat.

Upon persons of experience, the reserved young man, who
in personal intercourse was pleasant and good-natured, left a
sinister impression. When Wangenheim, who had been his patron
in Tubingen, learned one day in Frankfort that Carl Sand had
wished to visit him on the way through the town, he instantly
had a presentiment that something horrible was in the wind,
threw himself on horseback, and hastened after the wanderer
along the Bergstrasse, but without overtaking him. Sand had
taken part in the campaign of 1815 as a Bavarian volunteer, but
had never seen the face of the enemy, and, filled with contempt
for soldiering, had laid aside his uniform immediately after return-
ing home. But all the more zealously did he devote himself body
and soul to the activities of the Burschenschaft. To him the
association was state and church, home and love, the one thing
and everything. He looked upon the whole world as divided into
two great camps : on the one side the pure, free, and chaste
students, and on the other the corrupt minions of tyranny.
In Tubingen, Erlangen, and finally, in Jena, he was always on
hand when ardent Teutonisers exchanged oaths of mutual
fealty, like the Swiss confederates at Riitli, and when they gushed
about great deeds like those of St. George ; but he was a clumsy
speaker, and was held of little account among his comrades, except
as a vigorous gymnast. Yet the things which the ordinary
students were thoughtlessly acclaiming, moved this sombre nature
to the core, and to him it was not an empty word when the
Burschen sang :

Deep thrust, thrust home in foeman's heart,
'Tis there thy place, good German sword !

169 N

History of Germany

When in Erlangen his beloved friend was drowned before his
eyes, and the Landsmannschafts refused to pay the last honours
to the body of the deceased, the ultimate glimmer of youthful
cheerfulness vanished from his darkened spirit ; he believed
himself to be surrounded by a world of enemies, and in his heart
declared war against this corrupt universe, asking, " You princes
of Germany, why do you trouble my peace ? " Hatred, fierce
hatred, against the unknown foes of the Burschenschaft and of
the one and indivisible free state of Germany, filled his mind ; and
now Luden, by his essay against Kotzebue, gave the wild impulse
a definite aim. To the self-righteous enthusiast, the flippant
old rascal seemed the prototype of all the sins of the elder genera-
tion, although Sand knew nothing of Kotzebue beyond a couple
of comedies and a few newspaper articles. It was in such a frame
of mind that the unhappy lad came to Jena. His soul was full of
abstract enthusiasm for heroism and a self-sacrificing death.
In June, 1818, he wrote to a friend in the following terms : " Our
life is a hero's course ; speedy victory ; early death ! Nothing
else matters if only we are real heroes. Premature death does not
interrupt our victorious career, if only we die as heroes."
Then he passed under the sway of Carl Pollen and greedily drank
in the murderous doctrines of the Blacks. " Now at length,"
he wrote, shortly after he had made Pollen's acquaintance, " I
have found an aim in life, to live in my own way, in accordance
with my own conviction, with unconditioned will, to defend among
the people the cause of pure right, that is to say, the only cause
which God has shown us to be worthy ; to defend it with life
and death against all human opinion." His intellectual capacity
was insufficient to enable him to see through the school-boy
fallacies upon which Pollen's moral system was based. He was
able, as it were, to divide his conscience into two spheres, remain-
ing loyal, trustworthy, and helpful in private life, while against
tyrants it seemed to him that everything was permissible. His
theological studies, which he had grievously neglected for the
affairs of the association, none the less furnished him with means
for basing the doctrine of unscrupulousness upon a religious
foundation. From the Bible and from Thomas a Kempis, he
imagined he could construct the proposition : " When man has
recognised truth to such an extent that he can say before God,
' that is true/ then it is true when he does it ! " When now he
daily heard Carl Pollen, " the master among the saviours of the
fatherland," eloquently extolling the moral necessity of political

170

The Carlsbad Decrees

murder, he conceived the idea of sacrificing himself for the good
cause, and of seeing whether he could not shake the people out
of their slumbers by the horrors of a sacrificial act of assassination.
Coolly, serenely, and self-sufncingly did he make his
preparations ; he had long accustomed himself to regard every
representative of the opposing view as a deadly enemy ; he lived in
a state of war with those in authority, their assistants, and their
assistants' assistants ; he would be justified in stabbing Kotzebue,
" because he wishes to suppress the divine in me, my conviction."
The notion that this attack upon an unarmed old man was a base
and cowardly act entered his mind as little as did the recognition
of the senseless folly of a crime which could not possibly improve
the existing political order. There co-operated among his motives
the deadly sin of the nineteenth century, .that impotent megalo-
mania which has played a part in the production of almost all
the notable crimes of modern history. Sand was not simply
puffed up by the moral arrogance of his sect, but was also per-
sonally vain. While he was brooding over his ruthless design,
he sketched a portrait of himself kneeling on the steps of a church
and pressing a dagger into his own heart, but on the church door
was hanging, pinned up with another dagger, the death-sentence
upon Kotzebue. Beyond question the unhappy man believed that
he had made his determination in absolute freedom, for he would
not allow that his action had any other source than his own con-
viction ; but it is psychologically impossible that the experienced
Carl Follen, who, with his basilisk glance, completely dominated
the defenceless lesser intelligence, and who read the latter's simple
soul like an open book, had not noted the plan of assassination
and favoured it. Just as certainly as the standing ear of corn
springs from the seed that has been sown, so certainly does
the preacher of political assassination stand before the moral
judgment-seat of history as the originator of Kotzebue's murder.
Whether in a strictly legal sense Carl Follen should be regarded
an instigator, will probably for ever remain concealed. Unquestion-
ably he was an accessory before the fact. As the investigation
showed, he had provided the assassin with money for the
journey to Mannheim. Wit von Dorring, and probably a third
member of that ultra-revolutionary sect of the " Uncondi-
tional " known as the Haarscharfen (the keen blades), were
also in the secret ; but it is certain that there cannot have
been any larger number of accessories, for Carl Follen instructed
his faithful followers in all the stratagems and wiles of criminal

171

History of Germany

procedure, gave them careful information as to how they were to
conduct themselves before the examining judge, and impressed
upon them in especial that the saviour of the fatherland must
not bring his comrades into danger. l

Sand set off with the repose of a good conscience,
eagerly visiting on the journey everything worthy of note.
In Mannheim he had no difficulty in securing access to
his unsuspecting victim, and, after a few indifferent words, utter-
ing a savage cry, he suddenly stabbed the old man in the throat.
He had determined, if necessary, to elude punishment by suicide,
but was prepared if possible to take refuge in flight. Not until
Kotzebue was lying dead and the murdered man's little son rushed
in to find his father's corpse, was the assassin for a moment over-
come by shame, and with an unsteady hand he directed a thrust
against his own breast, " as it were to make an atonement to the
son," as he afterwards admitted. When the dangerously wounded
man was arrested, he cried out loudly : " Long live my German
fatherland, and long live all among the German people who strive
to further the cause of pure humanity ! " Beside the corpse was
found a scrap of writing: "Death-blow to A. von Kotzebue,"
and inside, the words : "I must give you a sign, must bear testi-
mony against this laxity, and know no better way than by
striking down the arch-thrall and palladium of this evil time, the
corrupter and betrayer of my people, A. von Kotzebue," and there
followed Follen's blasphemous verse : "A Christ canst thou
become." In a letter to the Burschenschaft, left behind at Jena
and first discovered after the murder, Sand had announced his
departure, saying that he must now leave in order to become the
avenger of the people. Upon his couch of pain in prison he
displayed the greatest fortitude, invincible equanimity, and not a

1 These facts would appear incredible as long as they rested only upon the
authority of the Memoirs of the miserable informer Wit von Dorring ; but to-day
they are beyond dispute, now that an intimate friend of the brothers Pollen, the
German-American Friedrich Munch, has repeated them most circumstantially
(Munch, Reminiscences of Germany's most Troubled Epoch, St. Louis, 1873. See
also Deutsche Turnzeitung, 1880, p. 403). Munch bases his information upon
confidential communications from his friend Paul Pollen. He is probably the
only survivor of the inner circle of the Unconditionals, a man of recognised
uprightness, who still cleaves firmly to the ideals of his youth, and I cannot see
why the direct assurances of this honourable revolutionist, which in any case are
not in themselves improbable, should be regarded as incredible. The anonymous
booklet written in defence of Carl Pollen, entitled Germany's Youth in the some-
time Burschenschafts and Gymnastic Societies (by R. Wesselhoft), is no more than
a skilful and insincere piece of special pleading.

1/2

The Carlsbad Decrees

trace of remorse. In cross-examination he lied brazenly as a
faithful pupil of Follen, for everything was permissible against
the slaves of despotism : in order to shield Follen, he even falsely
accused Asmis, one of his best friends, of having lent him funds
for the journey. At first he could not be moved from this
atrocious accusation, even by the adjurations of the innocent man,
but at length, completely convicted, he admitted the truth.

The trial was conducted with extreme indulgence, but also
with ridiculous maladroitness, so that the essential mendacity of
the Blacks had the freest possible play. Distinguished judges
would not devote themselves to the detested business of persecuting
the demagogues, and consequently the investigation was almost
everywhere entrusted to incompetent legal understrappers, and
of the little that might have been proved, nothing was brought
to the light of day. Follen, the most suspect of all the witnesses,
played a bold game with the Weimar magistrates even in the pre-
liminary investigations in Jena. Under their very eyes he took
possession of a letter which they had found in the search of his
house, and destroyed it. He professed himself unable to recall the
most striking events of recent weeks, although the cold calculator,
who never uttered a word without consideration, unquestionably
forgot nothing. When it was pointed out to him that this
unprecedented weakness of memory produced an extremely
unfavourable impression, he answered, with terrorist audacity,
that this was entirely unknown to him as a principle of criminal
law.1 When subsequently in Mannheim he was confronted with
the assassin, he attempted in a matter of importance to employ a
ruse known to every criminologist. He complained of the weak-
ness of his recollection, and requested his friend to recount to
him precisely all that had happened, for this would serve to refresh
his own memory. The committee of enquiry actually fell into the
trap, and allowed the accused to relate his fable in detail, and
now in Pollen's memory, too, the forgotten circumstances were
suddenly and vividly recalled, and he declared that Sand's report
seemed to him quite accurate. The father and the brother of the
accused refused to testify, and so did his infatuated mother, who
compared her son, " the pure, great martyr," to Martin Luther.2
Since nothing was known in Baden of the parties within the
Jena Burschenschaft, only one other of Pollen's intimates was

1 Minutes of the Saxon grand -ducal committee of enquiry, April 2, May 3
and ii, 1819.

2 Letter from Frau Sand to C. Follen, May n, 1819, found at Pollen's rooms.

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History of Germany

examined, R. Wesselhoft, a discreet and cautious young man. In
these circumstances it was impossible that the investigation
should fully attain its ends, a fact admitted by the president
of the committee, Councillor von Hohnhorst, in his speedily
published report. The accessories to the crime remained undis-
covered.

The news of the punishment of the rascal satirist of Mannheim
was received with unconcealed delight in the circles of the
Unconditional. The young people were feverishly excited, and in
secret were concerting new acts of madness ; now was the time
to fulfil the exhortations of Carl Pollen's association song :

Down with the bulwark of evil,

Down with the whole tribe of tyrants !

Yet, whenever some definite proposal emerged, the voice of con-
science made itself heard. Carl Follen advised his friends in Jena
to go in mass to Mannheim, to set the town on fire, and to liberate
the imprisoned martyr ; but the majority refused. At Whitsun-
tide, the students from Jena, Giessen, and Gottingen met in
Fritzlar and on the Brocken to discuss a second act of violence,
but no agreement was secured. The better ones among them,
like Heinrich Leo, were weary of the criminal folly, and withdrew
in disgust. Even the rougher among the students, now that the
first intoxication of malicious joy had passed away, felt the idiotic
stupidity of Sand's misdeed weigh heavily upon their spirits ;
they saw that the governments were arming for defence, and
that the Burschenschaft itself was threatened with suppression.
Profound discouragement replaced the old audacity.

It was only in Giessen, the acropolis of the Blacks, that the
flames of revolutionary passion were not extinguished so quickly.
There Paul Follen, supported by a few older friends, continued
the evil work of his brother. In order to repair the failure of the
Whitsuntide gathering, he held a meeting one evening in a village
tavern, with a pastor from Wetterau, and a young apothecary
named Loning from Nassau. President Ibell of Wiesbaden was
to be the next victim. What did it matter to these madmen
that Ibell was the most efficient, and essentially the most liberal
also, of the Nassau officials ? He was the servant of the despots,
and had, moreover, just aroused the anger of the Unconditional
by the expulsion of Wilhelm Snell, a member of the Blacks.
The three assassins cast lots, but then Loning demanded the

The Carlsbad Decrees

privilege of the assassination for himself, on the ground that he
was almost a fellow-countryman of Ibell's.1 He was a friend
of L. Snell, a stupid and ignorant man, who had recently joined
the Blacks in Heidelberg, his intelligence being crude enough to
take literally the plausible gospel of political murder. On July ist,
following Sand's example, Loning had himself announced to Ibell,
and then suddenly and fiercely attacked his victim. The blow mis-
carried, for Ibell was but slightly wounded, and his brave wife
and others, hastening to the rescue, saved his life, but the vigorous
man was so much alarmed by the shock that he shortly afterwards
resigned his post, and could not for years resume public work.
The would-be assassin displayed in prison the same elemental
energy of self-control which had been shown by Sand ; in order
to safeguard his comrades, he killed himself in the most horrible
way, by swallowing fragments of glass.

Even more sinister than the two deeds of blood themselves
was the impression which they produced in the nation. It was
true that little was said about Loning, for Ibell was hardly known
outside Nassau ; but the assassin of Kotzebue seemed to be
crowned as with a halo. To us of a later generation, who are
able to look back with an unprejudiced eye, a murder committed
by a hot-blooded youth in the rage of jealousy or of a wounded
sense of honour, certainly seems far more human, far more
excusable, than the detestable and vain self-conceit of this immature
enthusiast, a man standing far below the level of mediocrity, who
had never done anything worthy of record, never spoken a bril-
liant word, never experienced a severe temptation, and who yet
arrogated to himself the position of judge of the morals of his
time, and undertook to heal the corruption of the world by a rude
infringement of the simplest of moral laws. The one thing that
can diminish our detestation, is our compassion with the blinded
fool whose empty head was defenceless against the errors of a
criminal doctrine. The feminine intelligence is dominated by
feeling, the masculine intelligence by reason : an insignificant
woman may become the delight of her entourage through the
nobility and depth of her sensibilities ; but a man without under-
standing is unable even to feel with refinement and security. The
unfortunate wretch was able in good faith to call upon God to
approve his misdeed, only because his poor brain was not able

1 From Paul Pollen's own admission (Munch, Reminiscences, p. 60), amplified
by guarded allusions in H. Leo's Memories of Youth, p. 227.

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to recognise that the harsh vainglory of his moral outlook was
the precise opposite of Christian love and humility.

His contemporaries took another view. The mass of the
nation, indeed, to whom the ideals of the Teutonising youth always
remained uncongenial, was indifferent. But in those cultured
circles which felt themselves to be the embodiment of public
opinion, there prevailed an insecurity of moral judgment which
must be numbered among the most tragical aberrations of our
recent history. Not merely did the young men at the university
hail Sand's deed as " a sign of that which will and must come,"
but even mature men compared the assassin with Tell, Brutus
and Scaevola. Whilst the French press demanded in astonish-
ment how such a bandit's deed could possibly be effected among
the conscientious Germans, German professors were quoting the
old Greek song,

Hide the dagger which is destined for the tyrant,
Hide it, as did Harmodius, in thy myrtle crown —

and the vice-master of Stralsund gave an address to the school
upon the great tyrannicidal deeds of the Hellenes. The cult of
the free personality which had been practised in the epoch of our
classical poetry had made public opinion receptive for the sophis-
tical conviction-morality of the Unconditionals, which argued
that Sand was guiltless, because, like Jesus, he had acted in
accordance with his conviction — a detestable view which, pushed
to its logical extreme, must lead to the acquittal of every hard-
ened criminal, and in accordance with which those only can be
condemned whose convictions are unstable because their conscience
is not yet extinct. In Nasse's Medizinischer Zeitschrift, Grohmann,
the alienist, declared : " It is merely in respect of its external
and ostensible form that Sand's act can be termed assassination ;
in reality it was open and declared war, it was the act of a
conscience elevated with and inspired by the highest degree of
morality, religious consecration."

A theologian, too, the pious and amiable de Wette in Berlin,
expressed himself in a like sense, as if it could be held that a
thinking being was not responsible also for his conviction. He
had personally known the unfortunate young man, and his
compassionate heart impelled him to write the mother a letter of
consolation. In this letter, he admits, indeed, that the act of her
" exceptional son proceeded from error, and was not entirely free

176

The Carlsbad Decrees

from passion," but, " the error was outweighed by the serenity
of the conviction, the passion was consecrated by the good
source from which it flowed. He considered that what he did
was right, and therefore he did right ; if everyone acts in accord-
ance with his own best conviction, he will do what is best. As
the act took place, carried out by this pure and pious youth, filled
with this belief, inspired with this confidence, it is a fine sign of the
times. A young man stakes his life in order to get rid of one
whom so many venerate as an idol ; is all this to be without
effect ? " Few, it is true, were blinded to this degree ; yet the
predominant view among the cultured classes, was the one openly
expressed by Gorres, " disapproval of the act, while approving
the motive."

Such a confusion of all moral ideas in a serious-minded people
would be inconceivable did it not find its explanation in political
discords. The general anger concerning the powerlessness of
Germany had at length found vent in a horrible outcry. It
seemed to the patriots as if the assassin had merely given expres-
sion to a feeling with which countless hearts were inspired. To
Kotzebue's name there attached an enormous measure of well-
deserved contempt. All the world, moreover, was under the
false impression that the reaction in Germany proceeded from
Russia, at a moment when, in reality, the czar exercised
extremely little influence upon Germany's destiny. In Kotzebue,
excited observers perceived the representative of the Russian
power upon German soil, although he was of absolutely no account
at the court of St. Petersburg, while we have Czar Alexander's
definite and thoroughly trustworthy assurance that Kotzebue had
himself voluntarily offered to furnish his entirely useless literary
Reports.1 Thus Sand appeared to be the guarantor of German
rights, and his act was regarded as a formal protest on the part
of the nation against an imaginary foreign dominion. The
unavoidably humane cruelty of modern criminal procedure served
further to increase natural sympathy with the prisoner. With
enormous difficulty, by the application of the highest possible
professional skill, his life was preserved for a year, until at length
Chelius, the celebrated surgeon of Heidelberg, amid the fierce anger
of the Teutonising youth, fulfilled his duty by declaring that Sand
could now endure execution. Even during the first weeks the
prison was surrounded by excited crowds.2 The longer the

1 Blittersdorff's Report, St. Petersburg, May 26, 1819.

2 Varnhagen's Report, March 27, 1819.

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History of Germany

examination lasted, the louder became the manifestations of
sympathy with the pious sufferer, who, fixed in his illusion,
endured all his sufferings with stoical calm.

Even the executioner, a warm-hearted patriot of the Palati-
nate, honoured Sand as a hero of the national idea, begged
his forgiveness, received his last commands, and presented the
block upon which the execution had taken place to a Heidelberg
sympathiser, in whose family the sacred relic was preserved as a
priceless heirloom from generation to generation. From the
timbers of the scaffold he built himself a summer-house, in his
vineyard in the sunny angle between the Rhine and the Neckar
valleys near Heidelberg ; for years afterwards, the members of
the Heidelberg Burschenschaft were accustomed to hold secret
conclave in this summer-house, as guests of Sand's executioner.1
The execution took place on May 20, 1820, in a meadow before
the gates of Mannheim ; the students came over in crowds from
Heidelberg, and in the evening, in their town of the Muses, they
uttered many a vigorous " Perish King Frederick William."
The boards splashed with the blood of the hallowed Sand were
eagerly purchased, and the place of his death was known in the
popular speech as " the Meadow of Sand's Ascension."

The comments of the liberal press upon the assassination of
Kotzebue and the attempted assassination of Ibell amounted to
more or less veiled accusations against the governments. An
anonymous writing, Observations upon the Assassination of
Kotzebue, actually extolled the wholesome influence of Sand's act,
and ascribed all blame for it to the crowns. In Borne's Wage,
Gorres described with mystical exuberance the divine dispensa-
tion whereby the old time and the new had met in bloody
encounter ; and in the summer, when the persecution of the dema-
gogues had already begun, he wrote down the latest impressions
of his mobile intelligence in a book, Germany and the Revolution,
a work which could not fail to have ah- exciting influence upon
the mass of its readers. He began by saying that among the
numerous secret conspiracies, one conspiracy was overlooked which
sat mutinously at every fireside, which found loud expression in
the market-places and in the streets. There followed a terrible
picture of recent German history. For three centuries there had
been nothing but barrenness and decay ; when love and con-
fidence were dead, everything reposed upon the instinct of blind
obedience. He could, indeed, mention no more than two definite

1 Reminiscence of Professor G. Weber of Heidelberg.

The Carlsbad Decrees

grounds for German misery, the destruction of the old
Hapsburg emperordom, and the standing armies, these masses
of drones, which in peace sucked the land dry and in war left it
undefended. Anyone endowed with perspicacity could easily
recognise that the imaginative man, who, on this occasion, once
more comported himself as the spokesman of Rhenish Prussia,
was on the point of going over, bag and baggage, to join the
ultramontanes. Among the few favourable signs of the times,
he extolled above all the Bavarian concordat which, he said, had
only one fault, that it still left excessive powers in the hands of
the state. For this reason, Gentz and Adam Miiller took a very
friendly view of the extraordinary book ; but for Rhenish Prussia
there could be no one more dangerous than the demagogic
Capuchin, and King Frederick William had good reason for regard-
ing this work as an attempt to inflame the Rhinelanders against
the Prussian state.

While an obscure, aimless, but fierce embitterment mani-
fested itself among the cultured classes, during the summer the
masses also suddenly broke into disturbance. The old racial
hatred against the Jews, and the anger on account of the usurious
practices of recent years, broke out into fury. In Wiirzburg,
Carlsruhe, Heidelberg, Darmstadt, and Frankfort, mobs assem-
bled, stormed some of the Jews' houses, and maltreated the
inhabitants. The movement extended all over the Teutonic world,
as far as Copenhagen and Amsterdam. It seemed as if the old
popular superstition had something in it, and as if the great
comet which this summer flamed in the heavens had brought
disaster and confusion over the world. Here and there isolated
Teutonising students may have played a part in the disturbances,
and the mocking war-cry, Hep ! Hep ! which was then heard
for the first time, would seem to have originated in cultured
circles, for it is supposed that the word is formed from the initials
of the phrase Hicrosolyma est perdita. Nevertheless a connection
between the Christo-Germanic dreams of the Burschenschaft and
these wild outbreaks of long-repressed popular passion, is neither
demonstrable nor probable. The political ideas of the academic
youth remained incomprehensible to 'the masses ; and in Heidel-
berg, under Thibaut's leadership, the students even assembled,
at the peril of their lives, in order to defend the Jews against
the rage of the mob. The governments, however, in their alarm,
saw in these tumults nothing more than a new proof of the secret
workings of a revolutionary party. In great alarm, Metternich

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instructed Count Buol that, after consultation with the statesmen
assembled at Carlsbad, the Bundestag must, in case of need,
summon troops from the adjoining garrison towns, since the senate
of Frankfort was displaying much too weak a front towards the
promoters of disturbance.1

No one who knows the contagious energy of political crime
will deny that, after all that had happened, the crowns were
justified in undertaking, and were even compelled to undertake,
a strict investigation into the ultimate causes of the murder
of Kotzebue and the attempt on Ibell's life, and to
initiate severe proceedings against certain writers who openly
defended political assassination. Since both the criminals belonged
to the Unconditionals, the suppression of the Burschenschaft was
unavoidable for a time at least. Yet nothing but courageous,
firm, and calm action on the part of the governments could bring
unstable public opinion to its senses once more, and at the Ger-
man courts there was no trace of such statesmanlike certainty
of aim. Gloomy epochs appear from time to time in which even
noble nations seem to be smitten by epidemic mental disorder.
Thus almost all the German governments fell a prey to a wild
delusion of persecution. The two enigmatic crimes, the excited
language of the newspapers (among which the Isis and the Neuc
Stuttgarter Zeitung were especially foolish), the stormy proceedings
of the two first Landtags — all these things in conjunction made
the minor courts extremely uneasy. There was superadded the
obscure feeling that the nation had, in truth, little ground to con-
gratulate itself upon the Vienna treaties.

The South German courts, which were hailed in the press as
pillars of the constitutional faith, displayed themselves the most
disturbed of all. King William of Wiirtemberg sent the court of
St. Petersburg so dire a description of the revolutionary senti-
ments of the German youth that Stourdza exulted loudly, and
even the ultra-conservative Blittersdorff found this appeal of
a German prince to a foreign court a contemptible act. 2 Bahn-
maier, the pious theologian of Tubingen, was deprived of a minor
post, because in an official report he had truthfully declared
that Sand's action was not regarded by the students as a crime,
but as a patriotic aberration. The court of Munich immediately
applied to Austria and Prussia, urgently demanding that common

1 Metternich to Buol, August 14 ; Bernstorfi to Goltz, August 15, 1819.

2 Blittersdorff 's Reports, St. Petersburg, April 26 and 30, 1819.

1 80

The Carlsbad Decrees

measures should be taken against the universities ; certain
teachers who had expressed their satisfaction concerning the death
of Kotzebue were immediately suspended from office ; and since
Sand sent a message to his king from prison, to the effect that the
latter had nothing to fear for himself, the timid Max Joseph imme-
diately drew the conclusion that godless designs were manifestly
cherished against other German princes.1 Finally, the govern-
ment of Baden, in whose territory the crime had been committed,
had quite extraordinary ideas regarding the extent of the " dema-
gogic intrigues," as the new official expression phrased it. The
investigation had disclosed a half truth. The government
believed itself to have ascertained that in the Burschenschaft there
existed a secret society " whose principal motto is tyrannicide,
and which has its centre in the vicinity of Giessen, in the abode
of a certain Follenius." But the Badenese government did not
discover how few and powerless were the Unconditionals,
cherishing the illusion that the German Landtags desired to com-
bine to establish a German parliament beside the Bundestag,
and then to declare the indivisible German republic. It was
consequently with ardent gratitude that Berstett received " the
gracious communication of the most sapient views of his majesty
the emperor," when Metternich wrote that the Austrian court
was determined to take serious steps against the professors and
the abandoned writers, " who are daily, in every possible way,
instilling their revolutionary principles into the mind of youth,
to the point of intoxication." Berstett immediately instructed
the Badenese federal envoy to follow the Austrian lead, and
declared to the cabinet of St. Petersburg, "We desire to press for-
ward to the source of this hellish conspiracy, which aims at nothing
less than the overthrow of all divine and human institutions ;
we desire to suppress the despotism which the professors are
endeavouring to exercise over the political opinions of Germany,
under the segis of an inexperienced and far too impressionable
youth."2

Far more momentous was the change of sentiments at the
court of Berlin. As with all other important resolves on the part
of this government, the reactionary tendency of the year 1819
proceeded from the monarch in person. The king became daily

1 Krusemark's Report, May 21 ; Zastrow's Reports, April 14 and August 4;
Ministerial Despatch to Zastrow, April 23, 1819.

2 Metternich to Berstett, April 17 ; Berstett to Nesselrode, May 9; to Metter-
nich, May 29, 1819.

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History of Germany

more dissatisfied with his chancellor, and with Hardenberg's
" curious " entourage. From the foolish articles of the liberal
journals, which Wittgenstein sedulously laid before him, Frederick
William concluded that a powerful conspiracy existed, and
expressed his gratitude to Eylert, the court bishop, when the latter,
on the occasion of the Ordensfest, stigmatised the rebellious spirit
of the age in a clamorous speech. When the news of Sand's
crime now arrived, and when the murder found so many blinded
defenders, the conscientious monarch felt wounded in his most
sacred sentiments ; he regarded it as his royal duty to intervene
with inconsiderate severity, gave the police authorities extra-
ordinary powers (May 4th), and in addition established a minis-
terial committee to conduct proceedings against the demagogues.
The Prussian students at the university of Jena were ordered to
leave that town, and although the young fellows at first talked
much of heroic resistance to the tyrannical order, in the end, when
the time expired, they all obeyed to the last man.

Yet not even this experience induced the king to ask himself
whether, after all, the spirit of insubordination in the academic
world could be so powerful as he had imagined. He considered
what Metternich had reported to him concerning the intrigues of
political parties working in obscurity had now been completely
justified by the course of events ; he refused to sign the new gym-
nastic ordinance when it was laid before him, sent urgent advice
for the adoption of severe measures both to Weimar and to Carls-
ruhe, on the ground that the " unhappy disorders among the
university youth have attained to a truly alarming height " ; and
commanded Count Bernstorff to consult with the Austrian envoy
Zichy (who had just received instructions by courier) concerning
extraordinary resolutions on the part of the Bundestag.1 The
new director of the department of police, Privy Councillor Kamptz,
with the support of Wittgenstein, ardently threw himself into the
work of investigation. A Mecklenburger by birth, and therefore
accustomed to a deathly stillness in public life, he really seems
to have believed in the great conspiracy, but at the same time
he desired to avenge himself upon his literary opponents. There
at once flocked to his assistance a rabble rout of depraved men,
who were accustomed to thrive in the miasmatic atmosphere of
mistrust and suspicion : the councillors Tzschoppe, Grano, and
Dambach, men animated by vulgar ambition, who undertook

1 Bernstorff to Varnhagen, April 23 ; Krusemark's Report, April 16 ; In-
structions to Krusemark, May 17 and June 15, 1819.

182

The Carlsbad Decrees

the journeyman's work of the prosecutions with tenacious and
bloodthirsty zeal.

Whilst the German courts were thus mastered by blind terror,
Metternich luxuriated in the sentiment of gratified vanity. Once
again he had foreseen everything, the devilish plans of the repro-
bates who dreamed of German unity had been disclosed ; now
was the opportunity to exploit the anxiety of the German crowns,
" to give matters the best possible turn, to draw from them the
greatest possible advantage." During the spring of this year,
Emperor Francis visited the Italian courts. Metternich, who
with the Prussian envoy Krusemark, travelled in the monarch's
train, sent to his wife from Rome and Naples reports of the
journey which produce on the mind of an unprejudiced reader
somewhat the impression as if a commercial clerk greedy of know-
ledge had written them and Baron Miinchhausen of happy memory
had appended certain historical and statistical observations. He
displayed his sentiment for art by playing the patron to certain
fashionable French and English painters. On the other hand,
the exhibition which the German painters had instituted in the
Palazzo Caffarelli in honour of the emperor was hardly deemed
worthy of a glance. The Viennese could make nothing of the
high-flown idealism of these Nazarenes ; moreover the artists of
San Isidoro had long hair and wore Old German coats, and, not-
withstanding the artists' Catholic sentiments, these peculiarities
rendered them extremely suspect in the emperor's eyes. The
political aim of the journey was ostensibly attained. Emperor
Francis was hailed everywhere by the polite world as protector
of Italy. He visited the Vatican as guest of the pope, who over-
whelmed the ruler of the leading Catholic power with tokens of
honour, and decorated the archduke Rudolf with the cardinal's
purple. This sufficed to determine Metternich's judgment. Why
should he concern himself to glean information about Roman
affairs from Niebuhr, the Prussian envoy, who, despite his con-
servative inclinations, despite his respect for the pope's gentleness
and for the sagacity of Cardinal Consalvi, had speedily come to the
conclusion that the eternal city had been far happier under
Napoleonic rule than under the restored priestly dominion ? To
the Austrian statesman, conditions in the Pontifical State seemed
altogether admirable, whilst the lazz,aroni of Naples beneath the
blessings of Bourbon rule were " a hundred-fold more civilised
than they had been twenty years before." He declared it alto-
gether impossible that the plaintive but spiritless Italians should

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ever venture upon raising the standard of revolt — making this
prophecy barely a year before the revolution simultaneously
broke out in Naples and in Piedmont.

He manifested the same certainty of statesmanlike insight
in his judgment of German affairs. To him this outwearied people
seemed long overripe for revolution. " I vouch for it," he wrote
to his wife, " that in the year 1789 the condition of the world
was perfectly healthy when compared with the state of affairs
to-day ! " Even before the Wart burg festival, he had several
times discussed with the South German envoys whether there
ought not to be instituted in Vienna a common foyer for the
observation of the German revolution. Now came one appeal
for help after another from the minor courts. They all complained
of their own heedlessness, and expressed their admiration for the
penetrating insight of the great statesman who alone had fore-
seen the reckless purposes of the Burschen. How was it possible
that this vainest of men should now be free from a self-admiration
verging upon lunacy ? Since the solitary giant of the eighteenth
century had passed away (he doubtless referred to Frederick II),
Metternich found that the human race had become contemptibly
petty. " My spirit," he declared, " cannot endure anything
petty ; I command a view which is incomparably wider than
that which other statesmen see, or desire to see. I cannot refrain
from saying to myself twenty times a day how right I am and how
wrong they are. And yet it is so easy, so clear, so simple, to find
the only right path ! " Thus the idealistic pride of the German
youth was countered by the cold arrogance of the man of the
world, who was never inspired with enthusiasm for any abstract
idea, who had never given a thought to the great interests
of human civilisation, but who regarded fear, that meanest of
human passions, as his natural ally, and who, amid all the follies
of police persecution, continued to imagine himself a wise advocate
of statesmanlike moderation, saying : " The sacred mean where
truth is to be found, is accessible to but few."

Without even asking for proofs, he regarded it as estab-
lished that the " Jena Fehm " chose its members by lot, in
order to despatch them throughout Germany for the work of
assassination ; the power of the individual German states was
inadequate to deal with so terrible a conspiracy. Consequently
when King Max Joseph consulted the court of Vienna, as well as
that of Berlin, regarding the suspension of the Bavarian constitu-
tion, Metternich returned an evasive answer. The press, the

184

The Carlsbad Decrees

universities, and the chambers must be gagged by the common
action of all the federal states, under Austria's leadership. " With
God's help, I hope to avert the German revolution just as I have
overthrown the conqueror of the world ! " He was firmly sup-
ported by his monarch. Now, as always, Emperor Francis desired
repose. Never must the quiet life of his press, of his postulate
Landtags, and of those schools which in Old Austria were termed
universities, be disturbed by the follies of his German neighbours.
He whole-heartedly approved his minister's theory that every
federal prince would commit "a felony against the Federation "
should he allow freedom to the press, since, owing to the existence
of a common language, the virus of this freedom might infect
German-speaking Austria. He declared with cynical frankness
that it was necessary to play upon the fears of these weak
governments, and he empowered his statesmen, in case of need,
to threaten that Austria would secede from the Federation.

At length Prussia was won over. It was possible to count
upon the old friends, the high tories of England-Hanover, for
count Miinster was one of the pillars of reaction, and the English
parliament rarely troubled itself about the internal affairs of
Germany. Miinster did not forget the undisciplined conduct
of the Burschen of Jena during a chance visit he had recently
made to the town, and the English diplomats were prepared
to swear that the whole of Germany was enthusiastically advocat-
ing political assassination.1 Nor was any opposition to be feared
from Prussia. It is true that Capodistrias, who happened to
be visiting an Italian spa, was still regarded by the Austrians
as an extremely suspect person, and he had quite recently refused
an invitation from Metternich because he wished to avoid dis-
tressing explanations. But at this moment the views of the
Greek were of little account at the court of St. Petersburg when
compared with the advice of Nesselrode, who always agreed with
Metternich, and who obstinately continued to repeat to the Ger-
man envoys that it was incredible so talented a nation could permit
the continuance of the dangerous exceptional privileges of its
universities ! As a work of supererogation, Emperor Francis
wrote personally to the czar, expressing his sympathy on account
of Kotzebue's murder, and taking the opportunity to complain
of the conduct of Alexander's former tutor, Laharpe, because in
Italy Laharpe was making an improper use of his imperial pupil's

1 Apologia of th Jena Burschenschaft to Count Munster, July, 1819. Report
of von Cruickshank, grand-ducal Saxon Resident, Berlin, July 28, 1819.

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History of Germany

name, and, in the name of Russia, was stimulating disaffection in
Rome. The czar paid no attention to this imperial denuncia-
tion, but as far as German affairs were concerned he took the
same view as Nesselrode. The hatred of Russia which found
expression in the attacks made by the Jena students upon
Kotzebue and Stourdza was regarded by him as a personal
affront, and he expressed a vigorous censure of Charles Augustus'
laxity in his proceedings against the demagogues.1 To sum up,
the Austrian court had a perfectly free hand for its campaign
against the German revolution.

It seemed for a time as if the first blow would be directed
by the Bundestag. Despite all his good-will, after Sand's crime
Grand Duke Charles Augustus had not been able to spare his
university the institution of certain severe measures. He com-
manded that a stricter discipline should be imposed, and ordered
that, until further notice, foreigners should be admitted to the
university only upon special recommendation from their respective
governments, because the spirit of the students " takes here and
there a dangerous turn, and much of this poison is brought to
Jena from foreign schools."8 Since the Isis continued to rage,
measures were at length taken against Oken. After the senate
had vainly uttered remonstrances, it was necessary to lay before
the good blusterer the choice of abandoning his professorial posi-
tion, or giving up his newspaper. Since Oken rejoined, after his
manner, that he had no answer to make to such a proposal, he
was dismissed from his professorship amid the lively condolences
of his professorial colleagues. Soon afterwards he had to
transfer his newspaper to Leipzig. He himself endeavoured to
settle in Wiirzburg, but this was forbidden by the direct order of
the king.3 He then passed some time in learned labours in Paris,
being the first refugee of the German agitation. At the Bun-
destag, the Hanoverian government, alarmed by the exodus of the
Gottingen students, had made confidential enquiry as early as
December, 1818, whether all the states which possessed univer-
sities ought not to agree upon common measures to secure academic

1 Krusemark's Reports, May 21 and June 30 ; Blittersdorff's Reports, St.
Petersburg, April 21. May 30, 1819.

* Rescript of Grand Duke Charles Augustus and of Duke Augustus of Gotha
to the academy in Jena, March 30. Count Edling, Instructions to the federal
envoy, von Hendrich, March 28, 1819.

3 Zastrow's Report, October 9, 1819.

1 86

The Carlsbad Decrees

tranquillity.1 This suggestion was immediately utilised by the
grand duke to avoid worse happenings, and to defend his Jena
against unjustified attacks. He made the formal proposal that
the Bundestag should issue rules for university discipline, but
without imposing limitations upon ancient academic liberties.
" No country," says a cabinet memorial, " is richer than Ger-
many in men of thoroughly grounded learning, men of culture,
loyal in the state service, efficient servants of the church, and
these advantages have been secured through the work of the
German universities." Never, continued the document, must the
universities, which Count Buol himself in his inaugural address
had declared to be a proud monument to German development,
never must they be transformed into schools. " Freedom of
opinion and of teaching must be preserved to them, for truth would
be found here, in the open conflict of opinions ; the pupils must
be safeguarded against one-sidedness, against reliance upon
authority, and must be trained to become independent." There
was appended a cordial defence of the students. They had
desired in their Burschenschaft to realise the fine idea of the unity
of the Germans ; those who in the war had been utilised as fit
to bear arms must not immediately thereafter be treated as
infants. When this declaration2 was read in the Bundestag,
on March nth, before Sand's crime had been committed, the
assembly was greatly embarrassed. Count Buol and several of
the other envoys urgently begged Hendrich, the representative
of the Ernestine ruler, to withdraw his proposal, because this
matter did not fall within the competence of the Federation.3
Charles Augustus, however, held firmly to his resolve,4 and subse-
quently, after the assassination of Kotzebue, sent Privy Councillor
Conta to Frankfort in order to advocate the proposal. But " from
the personality of the federal envoys," Conta gained the con-
viction that a federal resolution was unattainable, and merely
endeavoured in confidential conversation to secure an agreement
among the envoys of those states immediately concerned in the
matter.5

The views of the court of Vienna differed from those of

1 Hendrich's Report, December 28, 1818.

2 Grand Duke Charles Augustus, Rescripts to Hendrich, January 26 and
February 17, 1819.

3 Hendrich's Reports, March 12, 1819.

4 Charles Augustus, Rescript to Hendrich, March 16, 1819.

s Conta, Report to the Grand Duke, May 4. Goltz's Report, Frankfort,
May 17. Blittersdorff's Report, St. Petersburg, May 8, 1819.

I87

History of Germany

its perplexed envoy. The Hofburg desired to utilise the Weimar
proposal to induce the Federation to direct an immediate blow
against the universities. Gentz and Nesselrode heard with disgust
the bold language of the prince who, at such a moment, still ven-
tured to defend the free struggle of opinions and the dreams of
unity which inspired the German students. Metternich, on the
other hand, expressed the opinion, " This old Burseh cannot be
punished with contempt, for he is used to it." Such was the
tone in which an Austrian statesman now ventured to speak of
the most renowned member of the German estate of princes — the
days of Wallenstein threatened to return. Consequently Count
Buol was instructed to agree to the discussion of the Weimar
proposal, in order then to carry through a counter-proposal which
Gentz had elaborated in accordance with the ideas of Adam
Miiller, a master-stroke of pusillanimity in the way of police
regulations. The plans of the house of Austria for the reform
of the German universities consisted principally of two proposals.
The students were to be deprived of their exceptional position,
and in disciplinary matters, as well as others, were to be exclu-
sively subject to the control of the ordinary police ; for through
the agency of the college servants and similar persons the police
could readily be kept informed of the proceedings of the young
people. Further, all the German governments were to pledge
themselves that no university teacher who had been deprived of
his office for promulgating dangerous doctrines should ever be
reinstated at any German university. It was upon this latter
point that the Hofburg laid especial stress. In Gentz's view, all
the sins of the students were due simply to the reckless doctrines
of their professors, and he brazenly declared it to be unquestion-
able that Oken, Fries, Luden, and Kieser were the true assassins
of Kotzebue. Emperor Francis, suspicious of everything which
lay beyond his own immediate circle of vision, held the same view.
He urgently commended to all the courts the acceptance of the
Austrian proposal, and personally begged the king of Prussia
to give it his friendly support.1

The slowness of the regular proceedings of the Federation
offered, however, a certain guarantee against surprises. When
the customary sending for instructions began, and the govern-
ments had maturely considered the difficult question, it once
more became plain how little the Austria of Metternich had in
common with German civilisation. In Austria it was only the

1 Krusemark's Report, May 21, 1819.
188

The Carlsbad Decrees

medical faculties which enjoyed the complete freedom of teaching
and study that prevailed at German universities. In Berlin,
on the other hand, there was a lively feeling that to take forcible
action against academic freedom might readily destroy all the
foundations of German culture. Even the timid Ancillon was,
after all, unable altogether to renounce the cause of the German
professors, and gave the Hofburg to understand that for
Germany all this was more difficult than for Austria, because
Germany possessed great universities, which were teaching institu-
tions, and not simply educational institutions, and which could
thrive only in freedom. l Eichhorn, who for a year past had reported
upon German affairs in the Prussian foreign office, composed
for the Bundestag an able memorial (July loth) which did not,
indeed, express itself so considerately towards the arrogance of
the younger generation as had done Duke Charles Augustus, but
which was in full agreement with the practical details of the
Weimar proposal. In Eichhorn's view, the chief institutions of
the German universities, as they had come into being in the course
of historical development, seemed thoroughly healthy ; he warned
the governments against the attempt to intervene in this world
of freedom with threats and exhortations, saying, " The utter-
ance of a government is of necessity also an act " ; he even
ventured to express the simple thought, one which at that moment
was an extremely bold one, that under certain reservations
students' societies might perhaps be permitted, for the innu-
merable prohibitions issued for centuries past had been without
avail ; and finally, he expressly declared against the proposal
that a dismissed professor should never be reappointed at any
university. It would suffice, he said, if the governments should
conscientiously communicate to one another the reasons for any
such dismissal, for certainly no German prince would ever take into
his service a corrupter of youth. In the committee of the Bun-
destag, the views of Prussia were by no means all carried into effect ;
the Austrian proposal that no discharged professor should ever
be reinstated, was adopted by Bavaria, Hanover, and Baden,
despite Prussia's opposition. But in the further course of the
negotiations, Austria everywhere encountered the hostility of
particularism, whose existence is nowhere better justified than
in the domain of academic life. Even these alarmed petty
princes did not wish that the peculiarities of their universities
should undergo complete atrophy, and would only agree upon
1 Ancillon, Instruction to Krusemark, June 15, 1819.
189

I listory of Germany

a few common rules ; it was all the harder to overcome their
resistance since university affairs were unquestionably outside
the competence of the Federation.

Metternich felt that he would never attain his ends
through the instrumentality of the Bundestag, and in any case
the anarchical condition of the Frankfort assembly had long
before aroused the anger of the court of Vienna. Count Buol,
with his poverty of ideas and his tactless violence, was unable
to lead the assembly. Just as little was the good-natured
Goltz fitted for the position he occupied ; owing to an indis-
cretion he had quite recently been recalled, and with difficulty
had secured forgiveness from his court.1 Thus it might happen
that some of the envoys of the lesser states, Wangenheim, Harnier,
and Lepel from the two Hesses, Smidt of Bremen, and others,
secretly supported by the crafty Bavarian Aretin, would come
to constitute a liberal opposition, a state of affairs utterly
unjustified in an assembly of diplomats, because this opposition
would base its actions, not upon instructions from the courts,
but simply upon the personal convictions of the envoys. In
the sittings in committee, the representatives of these minor
states were arrogantly inclined to display the superiority of
their culture and their eloquence to the envoys of the two
great powers. At the same time the liberals were the advo-
cates of particularism, being indefatigable in the discovery of
wiles and machinations to hinder the completion of the federal
military organisation. Just at this time, Wangenheim privately
showed his colleagues an autograph memorial from the king of
Wurtemberg wherein an attempt was made, altogether in the
sense of the Confederation of the Rhine, to incite the German
sovereigns against the military dictatorship of the two great
powers, and this document was so spitefully worded that Austria
and Prussia were forced to make serious representations in
Stuttgart. *

A speedy and comprehensive decision, such as was desired
by the court of Vienna, was not to be secured from this
assembly. Consequently, as early as April, Gentz advised
that a confidential understanding should first of all be secured
with the greater courts, and Metternich agreed with the
proposal, as soon as he was informed of the tardy course of
proceedings at the Frankfort committee. It was his intention

1 Goltz's Report to the king, March 9, 1819.
J Krusemark's Report, January n, 1819.

190

The Carlsbad Decrees

to go to Bohemia in July, in order to disclose to the king
of Prussia, who at this season was in the habit of visiting
the spa of Teplitz, the programme of certain provisional federal
laws. Nothing but federal laws, he repeatedly wrote to Berlin,
would serve to remedy the far-advanced evil of revolutionary
conspiracies ; the time had long passed in which measures
on the part of isolated states of the Federation would suffice.1
If an agreement with Prussia were secured, the representatives
of the two great powers would in Carlsbad come to an under-
standing about the laws of exception with the ministers of
the greater states of the Federation, and these laws would have
to be adopted and promulgated by the Bundestag without
further deliberation, for who among the petty powers would
venture to resist the desires of the nine most powerful German
courts if these had unanimously decided upon a course of
action. After the exceptional laws had been completed, the
ministers of the federal states were finally to assemble in Vienna
in the course of the winter in order to effect that enlargement
of the elements of the federal constitution which had been
promised since the year 1815 (of course in an ultra-conservative
sense), and especially to establish binding general rules as
regards representative institutions. This plan closely resembled
a coup d'etat. It contemptuously overrode all the constitutional
rights of the Bundestag, and involved the severest criticism
of the federal constitution, implying that from this Federation
no definite action could be secured by any other means than
by intimidation and the use of arbitrary power.

Delighted at heart, Gentz now worked with holy zeal at the
proposals for the Carlsbad meeting : provisional exceptional
laws against the universities, the press, and the demagogues ;
with, in addition, an interpretation of article 13 for which
the follies of the Badenese chambers gave a welcome pretext.
If the liberals had unscrupulously interpreted article 13 as
the promise of a representative system, Gentz was quite
ready with an opposing sophistical argument which was at
least as well-founded as the other. When article 13 spoke of
a representative constitution, it meant estates and nothing more.
If the German states, Gentz wrote to Soutzo the hospodar,
should adopt a democratic representative system, all federative
unity would be broken up, and Austria would find it beneath
her dignity to participate any longer in such a federation.

1 Krasemark's Reports, Rome, June 4; Perugia, June 22, 1819.

191

History of Germany

Meanwhile, in profound secrecy, the minor kingdoms, and also
the especially trustworthy courts of Baden, Mecklenburg, and
Nassau, were invited to send their leading ministers to Carlsbad
in July, and all joyfully accepted the proposal. No information
was vouchsafed to the other cabinets : in the case of some
because the time was short, and because only a small group
of ministers could rapidly come to any conclusion ; in the
case of others, because Emperor Francis regarded them with
mistrust. As late as July, the Weimar envoy innocently
reported from Berlin that the forthcoming Carlsbad congress
was beyond question chiefly directed against France.1

At the court of Vienna no words could any longer be
found sufficiently strong for the description of the grand duke
of Weimar. The Maecenas of the German wits, it was mock-
ingly said at the Hofburg, had now become the patron of
German political assassins ; a few hotspurs were already recall-
ing the fate of John Frederick. The good prince held his own
as long as he could. In the spring of this year he even
thought of nominating the dreaded Gagern as his federal envoy,
but General Wolzogen fortunately dissuaded him.2 Meanwhile
there came to hand serious exhortations from Russia, and
plain threats from Austria. On the journey to Carlsbad, Metter-
nich bluntly declared to a statesman of one of the minor courts
that the only legal ground for the existence of the petty federal
states was the federal act, that only as members of the Federa-
tion had they secured the recognition of the European powers,
and that by felony against the Federation they would forfeit
their existence. However certain it was that this preposterous
legal view was absolutely contrary to the international character
of the federation of German states, and that it infringed the
sovereignty of all the German princes which had been so often
and so ceremoniously recognised, Charles Augustus was well
aware how much this sovereignty was worth in the way of
substantial support, and he was not so foolish as to attempt
with the paper strength of a paragraph in the federal consti-
tution to undertake a struggle for power against the declared
will of all the greater states of the Federation. Once again,
in the evening of his days, he had bitter experience of the
falsity of particularism from which he had suffered all his life.
He had silently to accept what he was unable to prevent,

1 Cruickshank's Report, July 10, 1819.

2 Goltz's Report, May 25, 1819.

192

and could do no more than secretly resolve to apply the Carls-
bad decrees as leniently as possible. Next to Weimar, the
curia of the free towns was especially suspect to the cotirt
of Vienna ; the venerable and patriarchal senates of the four
communes owed this undeserved reputation to the good Smidt,
the federal envoy of Bremen, who really cherished a genuine
admiration for the federal constitution and for the house of
Austria, but who always desired that the promises of the federal
act should be seriously carried out, and who occasionally gave
offence by his bourgeois candour.

The Bundestag itself, just as much as the minor courts,
remained without any news of the Carlsbad undertaking. After
its deliberations about the universities, this body had fallen
altogether into the disfavour of the Hofburg, and Gentz himself
said something which would shortly before have still been
regarded as high treason, namely, that this assembly was not
a whit better than the Reichstag of Ratisbon. The affair was to
be a secret even from Count Buol, and the unhappy Goltz had
once more to play the part which he had played in the spring
of 1813, when he sat among the French troops with a govern-
mental committee in Berlin, while the king in Breslau was
preparing for war against France. It was simply a matter of
rumour in Frankfort that the visits which so many German
ministers were making to Carlsbad, ostensibly for the sake
of their health, might also perhaps lead to political conversa-
tions.

As late as July 3ist, Smidt sent to his senate an innocent
memorial concerning the matters which, in his opinion, ought
to be discussed at Carlsbad. He, also, thought it desirable
to allay the excitement of public opinion, but he wished to
reconcile " the German nations " with existing circumstances,
so that they should not ever and again be embittered by the
sight of the political and economic prosperity of conquered
France, and he therefore recommended to the Bundestag lively
action on behalf of the general welfare, such as the Federation
had already displayed in the organisation of the federal army,
which, however, unfortunately had not yet come into existence.
Smidt hoped that the Bundestag would by degrees effect the
abolition of the internal customs-dues of Germany, but was
careful to warn against any exaggerated hopes, so that Austria,
which hardly needed the German market, might not be rendered
hostile ; he hoped for a federal court of justice, hoped for a

History of Germany

common foreign policy conducted by the diplomatic committee
of the Bundestag, and hoped for many other excellent things.
So little notion had he of Metternich's designs.

How significant a contrast ! On the one hand, the amor-
phous federalist dreams of an upright patriot, in his native
republic the prototype of a cautious and practical statesman,
who, with childlike confidence, expected the impossible from
the incurable futility of the Germanic federation ; on the other
hand, the cynicism of an un-German policy which proposed
to enforce calm upon the peoples by police pressure, but which
pursued its secret aims with finished cunning and clear calcu-
lation. There could have been no doubt in such a competition
to which side victory must accrue, even if there had not
existed a ludicrous inequality of forces. The Hanseatic states-
man never dreamed that his innocent memorial would be
betrayed to the court of Vienna, and that there, notwithstand-
ing his ardent asseverations of fealty to the house of Austria,
it would be regarded askance as a new indication of demagogic
sentiments. The nine courts in the conspiracy had nothing
to fear from these petty opponents, and Gentz triumphantly
announced to his friend Pilat that a moment of sublime import-
ance in German history had arrived.

Meanwhile, in the course of July, the first arrests and
domiciliary searches took place in Berlin ; on July I3th, Privy
Councillor Kamptz reported to the chancellor upon the result.1
Abruptly and roughly, with criminal levity, he had loosed his
pack of hounds upon all who might by any possibility have
the remotest relationship to the Burschenschaft. Yet the
number of arrested persons remained extremely small, for Metter-
nich was deliberately lying when he indicated Prussia as the
breeding place of revolutionary designs. The Prussian univer-
sities, in especial, had remained comparatively unaffected by
the Teutonising movement. What the Austrian and his
Prussian adherents were aiming at was, not the revolutionary
sentiment, but German national pride, and this unquestionably
found its strongest support in the people, the army, and the
officialdom of Prussia. In Berlin, Jahn was the first victim.
He was brought to Spandau, and then sent to the fortress of
Kiistrin. His position was a serious one, for among the papers
of the students and school-boys who had been arrested, the

1 Hardenberg's Diary, July 13, 1819.
194 "

The Carlsbad Decrees

Golden Sayings and other foolish outpourings of the Turnvater's
heart had been discovered, all extremely suspicious to the
minds of timid underlings.

Since the state was supposed to be in danger, it was con-
sidered legitimate to intercept and examine letters. In the case
of quite a number of young men charged with isolated acts
of folly or quite harmless epistolary utterances, the hearing
was adjourned from month to month. For example, the two
Swiss students Ulrich and Wyss had to undergo prolonged
examination because in one of their letters the observation was
found that Sand's crime would injure the good cause. It
seemed that " the good cause " could mean nothing but a
demagogic conspiracy. When the accused asked what precisely
was meant by " demagogic," the examining judge, an extremely
youthful referendary, answered that the term demagogic meant
" any forcible evocation of a constitution." Again, one of
the most respected burghers of Berlin, G. A. Reimer the book-
seller, a man in a large way of business, a bold venturer but
a prudent calculator, one of the first representatives of the
reawakening economic energies of the German bourgeoisie, had
his house searched because he was undoubtedly acquainted
with Niebuhr, Eichhorn, and Schleiermacher, and because the
devotees of gymnastics frequently visited his hospitable home.
Grano and Dambach participated in person in the important
affair. Reimer himelf was absent on a journey, and since
Eichhorn, as a friend of the family, gallantly offered his
services to Reimer's wife, and insisted that the examining
officers should show their search-warrant, these subordinates
revenged themselves by sending in a shameless report in which
they expressed the definite opinion that Eichhorn — one of the
leading officials of the monarchy — might very probably be
connected with the conspiracy. Among Reimer's papers were
found a few of Schleiermacher's letters dating from the days
of the peace of Tilsit, in which the writer spoke of an
approaching popular rising, and this phrase, which related to
an uprising against foreign dominion, was sufficient to throw
suspicion even upon the great theologian. During the next
few months, his sermons were subjected to police supervision.
The spies reported that he was accustomed to speak of " the
liberation of the spiritual powers of mankind which we owe to
the teaching of Christ " ; the hymns sung by the congregation
were suspect ; and, to crown all, " four students with beards, after

195

History of Germany

receiving the Holy Communion, continued kneeling, apparently
in devout prayer." *

Kamptz did not hesitate to publish numerous sentences from
the letters of the arrested persons, some of these sentences being
distorted, and he published them although he was one of the most
zealous defenders of secret judicial procedure. In the Vossische
Zcitung he wrote so defamatory an article concerning Jahn's
arrest that the prisoner instituted a prosecution for slander which
could be suppressed only by an appeal to legal technicalities.
In the Jahrb richer der Gesetzgebung, he endeavoured to instruct the
Prussian judges, telling them that even if they had to do with
nothing more than criminal theories, they must regard these as
constituting the offence of high treason. Stagemann was forced
to open the columns of the Staatszeitung to the most ridiculous
revelations, and, like many another upright official, consoled
himself with the view that, after all, the suspicions could not be
utterly groundless, because if they were the highest police authori-
ties would not talk with such absolute confidence. In these
revelations it was stated that a gymnast sixteen years of age was
responsible for the horrible utterance : " Oh ! excellent Sand,
you did not know what blockheads we were ! " The same young
rascal, who had plainly just been intoxicated by reading Schiller's
Robbers, had also written : "I should like to see someone hanging
on every tree between here and Charlottenburg ; then I could
breathe more freely"; and further down, "To kill the whole
eight-and-thirty of them would be a trifle, the work of a moment."
As regards this last utterance, the Staatszeitung sagely remarked
that the eight-and-thirty Serene Highnesses of the Germanic
Federation were plainly signified. These scandalous absurdities
appeared in the official journal of the monarchy, side by side with
admirable essays displaying the perspicacity of a benevolent and
just government. If the idiocy of official understrappers could
thus expose this glorious state to universal ridicule, is it surprising
that public opinion began to despair ? The Prussian state
resembled a man whose intelligence is in other respects sound
but who has become the prey of a fixed idea ; in all other
branches of the administration the ancient and honourable

1 Account by Wyss of his arrest on July 7 ; Report of the commissaries Grano,
Dambach, and Eckert upon the domiciliary search at G. A. Reimer's, July n ;
Police Report to the superintendent of police Le Coq, November 14, 1819, et seq.
These and other papers relating to the history of the persecution of the demagogues,
I owe to the kindness of G. Reimer of Berlin, Further details will be found in the
Prenssische Jahrbucher, July, 1879.

196

The Carlsbad Decrees

traditions were preserved, and it was only against the demagogues
that the depraved elements among the officialdom had free play.

On the Rhine, with the guidance of his vulgar instinct,
Kamptz had selected for attack the very men who represented
the Prusso-Gerinan spirit in the difficult province. In Cologne,
for example, the procurator, L. von Miihlenfels, was arrested,
an enthusiastic patriot, who had proved his courage at Denne-
witz. He was acquainted with the brothers Follen, but had
never been initiated into their secret designs. Simultaneously
in Bonn domiciliary searches were made in the houses of Arndt
and the brothers Welcker. Vainly did Humboldt guarantee
the innocence of his young friend F. G. Welcker, the philologist,
begging the chancellor to consider how readily the new
university might be destroyed if a new professor, so recently
appointed as a man worthy of all honour, were to be exposed
to so ridiculous a prosecution.1 In Giessen, as professor of
archaeology and philology, Welcker had already aroused the anger
of the Rhenish Confederates by his nationalist enthusiasm ; subse-
quently, when professor in Gottingen, he had been denounced
by Kamptz to the Hanoverian government, and he now had to
wait six years before Minister Schuckmann informed him that
the investigation had disclosed nothing amiss.

Still more cruel was the fate of Arndt. Anyone who in an
age of anonymous journalism has the courage to defend his
political opinions with candid vigour will not in the long run
escape arousing intense hatred. As soon as the domiciliary
searches at Bonn were reported, the numerous enemies whom
Arndt had made among all parties set busily to work ; his pere-
grinations in the service of the fatherland were represented to
the monarch as suspicious proofs of an adventurer's inconstancy,
and the king, who for a long time to come remained firmly con-
vinced of the existence of a secret association threatening the
order of society, provisionally forbade the continuance of his
lectures. The man who had formerly raised his voice on behalf
of the reconquest of the German river, regarded it as "a terrible
irony " that here, on the liberated Rhine, he should become the
victim of exceptional legal procedures. He wrote to the chancellor :
" They certainly will not discover me to be a rascal and a traitor,
to be a base slave who calls wrong right." For two decades he
was to suffer under an injustice which remains the most detest-
able of all the sins of this demagogue-hunt. Before long, the

1 Humboldt to Hardenberg, July 20, 1819.
197

History of Germany

bloodhound's scent of Kamptz's tools put them on the trail even
of the chancellor's confidants. The indefatigable Grano appeared
in person on the Rhine in order to go through Dorow's papers.
Justus Gruner, too, who, stricken with a mortal illness, was seek-
ing relief in Wiesbaden, was visited by the police agents, and the
closing days of his brief life were embittered by an affront
which the passionate man profoundly resented.

It seems improbable that Hardenberg can have believed in
all the fables of the demagogue-hunters. Even now, from time
to time the old man displayed his kindly heart. He gave assist-
ance to the wife of the unhappy Jahn, two of whose children died
during the latter's prolonged imprisonment ; and he wrote in a
friendly spirit to Dorow, saying that Dorow might confidently
disclose all his secrets, for then his innocence would be plainly
manifest to all. Yet even in Hardenberg's private letters there
is not a word to be found of regret or hesitation, but rather a
number of severe remarks upon the recklessness of the dema-
gogues. He, too, had been convinced by Wittgenstein, whom
he regarded as a faithful friend, and he believed in the existence
of a grave danger to the state, even though he could not approver
every step taken by the prosecutors. At a later date, his
panegyrists, Benzenberg and Constant, maintained that Harden-
berg was in appearance only at the head of the reactionary party.
This assertion is incorrect. He still held firmly to his constitu-
tional designs, but they could not be realised unless the king were
completely at ease regarding the safety of the state.

The older men among the accused bore their fate with
a quiet dignity which should alone have sufficed to show the
baselessness of suspicion. Neither Arndt, F. G. Welcker, nor
Miihlenfels, ever allowed their monarchical sentiments to be
impaired or their Prussian loyalty to be disturbed by the injustice
done them ; while Reimer continued with undiminished fervour,
and notwithstanding all the affronts that had been offered him,
to preach courage and confidence to his morbidly depressed friend
Niebuhr.1 The hot-blooded Carl Theodor Welcker stood alone
among the victims in the fierceness of his anger. He was an
unconditional admirer of the representative system, and at the
time of the Vienna congress, in a speech upon " Germany's Free-
dom," had demanded a German parliament. It was natural
enough, therefore, that such experiences should lead him to pass

1 I have published the correspondence between G. A. Reiraer and Niebuhr iu
the Preussische Jahrbucher, August, 1876.

198

The Carlsbad Decrees

an extremely hostile judgment upon the Prussian state — a judg-
ment which found only too ready an acceptance among the liberals
of the south-west. In the case of the younger men, on the other
hand, it was by persecution that many of them were first driven
into revolutionary courses, so that, for some, existence was
blighted in the bud, whilst others were forcibly estranged from
the fatherland. Such was the case with Franz Lieber, who,
after long wanderings, found a new home in America, and there
defended the ideal of the federal republic with all the wealth
of ideas of the German historical school of law, for Lieber was
the most talented among the publicists of modern democracy.

Although the majority in the Bundestag hailed the
wholesome severity of the Prussian government with servile
gratitude,1 the stupidity of the persecution of the demagogues
was really of sinister importance to Prussia, and to the relation-
ship of Prussia to the nation. Niebuhr had prophesied : " What
a life without love, without patriotism, without joy, full of dis-
affection and anger, must result from such relationships between
subjects and governments ! " This prophecy was literally ful-
filled. Whilst the particularist liberals had hitherto vilified the
Prussian monarchy without reason, they were now able to throw
themselves with delight upon the open wound in the body of the
German state. Since the German-Austrians remained com-
pletely aloof from the national movement, and since Metternich
had hitherto found little opportunity for making arrests, Prussia
now was regarded as the power of darkness in German life ; and
in the minds of the self-satisfied constitutionalists of the south-
west an anti-Prussian prejudice became firmly established which,
however foolish it might be, yet exercised a real power, and was
a serious hindrance to our political evolution. The futility
of the proceedings against Arndt and Jahn made people feel
that there had been no ground for police interference at
all. But at least one genuine conspirator had been seized,
Adolf Follen, in Elberfeld. At his rooms was found the pro-
posal for the constitution of the German republic ; but while
so many innocent persons had to suffer, he, with the character-
istic unscrupulousness of the Unconditionals, was able to delude
the examining judge.

Louder and louder became the rumour that the Carlsbad
assembly was to prescribe definite forms and limits for the German

1 Goltz's Report, July 20, 1819.
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History of Germany

Landtags. To avert this danger, even at the eleventh hour, two
sovereigns independently endeavoured to promulgate constitu-
tions. The princess regent Pauline of Lippe-Detmold, one of
the ablest women of her day, had for a considerable period been
engaged in a dispute with her estates because she desired a reform
of the old Landtag composed of thirty-two knights and seven
towns, and wished that each of the three estates should have
equal voting power. She was the benefactress of her little
country ; the burghers and the peasants were upon her side to
the last man ; and she spoke with frankness (which aroused
unfavourable comment in Vienna) of the natural right of the people
to representation of all classes. But where matters of positive
law were concerned, she was, after the feminine manner, far from
precise. As formerly had been King Frederick of Wiirtemberg,
she had been inspired with a vigorous sense of sovereignty by
the destruction of the Holy Empire, and having no longer to
dread the imperial majesty, she considered, in addition, that
she was no longer bound by local agreements. The old estates
exhibited a no less vigorous resistance than in Wiirtemberg, and
complained to the Federation. Councillor Schlosser, the same
man who had formulated the protest of the estates of Jiilich-
Cleves, was their literary spokesman. When the Carlsbad
conferences drew near, the princess immediately foresaw that the
decrees which would there be promulgated would harmonise little
with her liberal views, and, quickly making up her mind, on
June 6th she promulgated a new constitution for her territory. This
liberal coup d'etat, however, miscarried. Supported by the prince
of Schaumburg-Lippe, who claimed a co-sovereignty, the old estates
once more appealed to the Federation. After a profoundly secret
discussion, in which Wangenheim displayed the whole abundance
of his constitutional learning, the Bundestag resolved to offer
mediation to the disputants, and summoned the princess to dis-
continue, for the time being, the carrying out of her new
fundamental law. This " for the time being " endured until
the year 1836, when at length, with the co-operation of the
Bundestag, a compromise was effected.

The king of Wiirtemberg had better success. Who could
possibly foresee and counteract the devious machinations of this
master of falseness ? King William had been the first to pro-
pound the idea that the Federation should impose fixed limits
upon the powers of the diets. When he broke off the negotiations
with his own Landtag he expressly declared that he wished first

2GO

The Carlsbad Decrees

to await the decrees of the Bundestag concerning the rights of
the German chambers, and since then he had not abandoned
this heartfelt desire. Von Maucler, his new prime minister, like
Zentner in Bavaria, trained the officialdom to become a strictly
obedient and unconditionally dependent " guard," as the liberals
mockingly phrased it. Even the influential privy councillor von
Gros, who in former days, when professor at Erlangen, had enjoyed
the special favour of Hardenberg, was a shrewd bureaucrat of
the enlightened Rhenish Confederate order. Finally, Count
Wintzingerode, son of the minister of Frederick I, who had
recently been appointed to the portfolio of foreign affairs, had,
as envoy in Vienna, acquired Metternich's full confidence by
his levelheadedness and strictly monarchical sentiments.1 The
work of the Wiirtemberg government was characterised through-
out by a rigid and shrewd absolutism. To the martinet mind
of the king, the noisy licence of the students seemed abominable,
and Wintzingerode was already discussing with him the question
whether it was not advisable to establish, beside the university
of Tubingen, a new Carlsschule with a semi-military discipline.
Consequently the invitation to the Carlsbad conferences was
far from unwelcome to the king. On the other hand, he was
unwilling to forego the reputation of being the most liberal among
the German princes, and he desired to complete his constitutional
work as a sovereign prince, unmolested by the Federation.

For the past two years he had been playing a double game,
which had gradually become a necessity to his intriguer's dis-
position. He defended the absolute freedom of the Wiirtemberg
press against the Federation and the great powers, but would
not allow a word to be said against himself. In Frankfort,
through the instrumentality of Wangenheim, the enthusiastic
venerator of the federal law, King William advocated the ideas
of liberal federalism, and when the hotspur went a little too far,
Wintzingerode, who for his part regarded the federal act as a
" nonsensical idea," had to offer excuses to the Hofburg, and to
lay stress upon the ultra-conservative views of the king. How
successfully could this Machiavellian policy be now continued if
the constitutional deliberations could be resumed simultaneously
with participation in the Carlsbad conferences. Thus the estates
might be rendered docile by fear of the Carlsbad decrees ;
while if in Carlsbad a proposal should be made conflicting
with the interests of the court of Stuttgart, the Wiirtemberg

1 Krusemark's Report, June 4, 1819.

2O I p

History of Germany

plenipotentiary might entrench himself behind the Landtag and
give regretful assurances that the proposal would never be
accepted by the stiff-necked Swabians. Thus would the defiant
resistance of the representatives of the ancient rights be broken,
and the king's liberal reputation would be preserved.

This political trap was set with considerable skill. On June
loth the king astonished the country by issuing a writ for fresh
elections, and on July I3th the Landtag assembled in Ludwigsburg.
What a change of mood had taken place during the past two
years. The efficiency of the royal dictatorship, which on the
whole worked for good, had conciliated many hot advocates of the
old rights, and had diminished the mistrust felt for the crown.
The folly of the obstinate resistance of the old estates had now
become clear to many ; all were dominated, as Schott, a member
of the Landtag, openly declared, by dread of the impending
Carlsbad decrees, which might so readily " endanger the most
valuable right of the country, the free agreement." Sober-
minded hopes were now concentrated upon this corner-stone of
Swabian freedom ; if the new order could come into existence by
general agreement, people were prepared to give way in matters
of detail. The Old Wiirtembergers who had for so long a time
lived under the protection of the convention of Tubingen and
under the succession settlements, could not even conceive of
political liberty without a fundamental convention secured by
mutual agreement, and Schiller had voiced his fellow-country-
men's most cordial sentiments when he sang :

And over every house, every throne,
Hovers the treaty like a guardian angel.

, Several of the leaders of the old opposition, Waldeck, Massen-
bach, and Bolley, did not reappear in the new Landtag ; others,
such as the worldly-wise Weishaar, had in the interim come to
terms with the government. In order to protect his popular
representatives from temptation, the king dealt with Paulus, the
zealous advocate of the old rights, who was on a visit to his native
land, by simply expelling him from the country. The deadly
enemy of the Wurtemberg scriveners, the outspoken F. List, was
excluded from the Landtag by an extremely simple expedient.
Since on the day of the election he had not quite completed the
thirtieth year of his life, the local authority of Reutlingen, acting on
orders from above, announced to the electors that their votes were

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The Carlsbad Decrees

invalid, but that " they would be allowed to record fresh votes
on the following Monday." * When subsequently List, having
now unquestionably become eligible for election, endeavoured
to secure a seat in another constituency, he was involved in a
prosecution instituted on account of the revolutionary lan-
guage of his electoral address, and thus it was possible to keep
the inconvenient man at a distance during the entire session of
the Landtag. The precaution was hardly necessary, for the oli-
garchy of the advocates of the old rights had already quietly made
its peace with the ministry. The assembly opened with proofs
of devotion, which contrasted strangely with the defiance of
earlier days, and which were little calculated to cure the monarch
of his cynical contempt for mankind. The Landtag thanked
the king because he had " once more entered the path leading
to a convention upon which from ancient days the constitution
of the country has developed," and immediately nominated a
committee for the discussion of the new constitutional proposal,
which differed from the previous proposals that had been rejected
chiefly in respect of conciseness of form and aptness of phrasing.
On September 2nd the committee issued its report, and if the
old Landtag sinned through pedantic .slowness, the new one con-
ducted its work at a furious speed because it desired to counter
the Carlsbad decrees by an accomplished fact.

The discussion was completed by September i8th ; in two days
one hundred and twenty-one articles had been passed. The
bicameral system, which previously had been so passionately
resisted, was now accepted almost without a struggle, on the
ground that the question was already decided " by relationships
which cannot possibly be left out of consideration." All parties
felt that if dangerous proceedings on the part of the Bundestag
were to be averted, some sort of concession must be made to
the mediatised who had been so unjustly treated by the crown.
Dominated by this fear, the Landtag even went too far to meet
the wishes of the high nobility, conceding to the crown no more
than the right of nominating at most one-third of the members
of the Upper House (the proceedings of which were to be private),
an arrangement which rendered insoluble disputes between the
two chambers extremely likely to occur. The idol of the repre-
sentatives of the ancient rights, the estates treasury, was also
half-heartedly defended by Uhland and a small minority. The

1 Proclamation of the Local Authority of Reutlingen to Peter Votteler, the
coppersmith, and others, July 10, 1819.

203

History of Germany

majority had learned in the interim that this antediluvian insti-
tution was incompatible with the unity of the modern state, and,
as Schott phrased it, what they desired was, not a feudal, but a
representative constitution. When the matter was put to the
vote, the opposition was withdrawn, and Uhland, in giving his
affirmative vote, formally declared : ' The most important thing
remains ; let us, above all, secure the convention, the primeval
rock of our ancient rights." An address from Stuttgart burghers,
drafted by F. List, sharply criticising the overhasty proceedings
of the estates, was not published until after the close of the
deliberations. On September 24th, the king signed the new funda-
mental convention ; the constitution was steered safely to port
a moment before the Carlsbad decrees became known to the
country. Two days later, King William wrote to Emperor
Francis, who had warned him against the work of constitution-
building, to say that the course he had taken had been inevitable,
but that, in order to please the emperor, he would postpone the
summoning of the new Landtag.

Thus at length was realised what the Swabian poet had so
often demanded :

That among the stout people of Swabia
Right shall prevail, and the convention.

Beyond question the political utility of the new constitution
was by no means increased through its having been secured by
common assent. Instead of being a work constructed upon a
single design, it was a laboriously secured compromise, taking
over into the new time many institutions of the Old Wiirtem-
berg system which had now become useless or even altogether
impracticable. For example, the extensive property of the
Lutheran church was to be restored. The servile committee
spoke of this decision as " one of the finest and greatest ideas
which a ruler had ever conceived," and declared, " we will not
desecrate the present moment with a review of the considerations
which may seem to suggest the undesirability of this restitution."
But the great idea proved utterly impracticable to carry out, for
the church land, confiscated years ago, had been fused with the
royal domains. Side by side with the ministry there was to exist
a privy council ; the state debts were to be administered by
officials appointed by the estates ; a standing committee of the
Landtag was to meet in Stuttgart ; there was to be a small estates

204

The Carlsbad Decrees

treasury, which was to provide, however, for the Landtag's own
expenses alone — all these being vestiges of Old Wiirtemberg
institutions, which could serve only to render modern administration
difficult without increasing the power of the Landtag. The Swa-
bian parochial spirit had been careful to secure the powerlessness
of the second chamber. Since not one of the sixty-four chief
administrative districts would renounce having its own represen-
tative, the result was that, with the representatives of the knight-
hood, the clergy, and the seven good towns, there were no less
than four-and-ninety representatives^ the great majority of whom
were necessarily persons of no particular account. King William
could henceforward enjoy the agreeable hope that he would
be able, in his strictly centralised state, to carry on undisturbed
his customary rigidly bureaucratic regime. Freedom of the
press was promised, " but subject to laws now existing, or to be
enacted in the future, against the misuse of this liberty." Only
through painful experience were people to learn that such high-
sounding promises of " general fundamental rights " were in
reality utterly valueless, for even the censorship had not been
directly abolished. As a work of supererogation, article 3
provided that all organic decrees of the Bundestag should, as was
proper, apply also to Wiirtemberg.

Notwithstanding all defects, the Wiirtembergers could not
be persuaded out of the belief that their fundamental law was
the most liberal in Germany. The constitution, like that of
Baden, was a half-way house between the feudal and the repre-
sentative systems, for at least the deputies from the supreme
administrative districts to the second chamber represented the
entire people with the exception of the nobility and the clergy.
In addition, this constitution possessed, in the standing com-
mittee of the Landtag, a peculiar institution, which was, indeed,
of little practical value, but which in the opinion of the day
seemed a formidable bulwark of popular rights. The populace
had manifested its participation in the labours of the Landtag
by sending in numerous petitions, directed chiefly against the
bicameral system. The most remarkable of these petitions
emanated from Reutlingen, a town whose German sentiments
were always above reproach, demanding (for the first time in this
quiet epoch) the summoning of a national German parliament,
on the ground that " in this way only, all the German states can
enjoy a genuinely representative constitution." On Septem-
ber 25th, amid loud rejoicings, the monarch swore fealty to the

205

History of Germany

constitution. It was decided to coin the inevitable medals, and
when three days later the king and the Landtag appeared at the
Cannstadt popular festival, Swabian enthusiasm for liberty flamed
up fiercely. The unsuspecting crowd was still in happy ignorance
of what the plenipotentiary of this popular king had meanwhile
been contriving in Carlsbad.

The peculiar conditions in which the new fundamental law
had come into existence were extremely injurious to the national
sentiment of the Swabian land. The constitution had arisen out
of a secret struggle against the Germanic Federation. All the
speeches of the popular representatives voiced the belief that it
was necessary to defend Swabian liberties against the tyranny
of the Federation. In such circumstances, the tribal pride of
the Swabians, already excessive, gained new force. Since in the
centralised authority of Germany the crowns alone were repre-
sented, and in the individual states the subjects alone, youthful
liberalism almost everywhere acquired a particularist tendency,
and nowhere was this separatist spirit more powerful than in
Wiirtemberg, where already the view spontaneously prevailed that
the fundamental law, acquired largely in opposition to the will of
the Germanic Federation, was superior to that Federation.

§ 3. TEPLITZ AND CARLSBAD.

On July 22nd, Metternich reached Carlsbad, inspired by
the proud conviction that " from this place either the salvation
or the ultimate destruction of the social order will proceed."
Emperor Francis had abandoned a proposed visit to his Lombardo-
Venetian kingdom because the repression of the German revolution
seemed a more urgent matter. The intimates with whom the
Austrian statesman first conversed were, in addition to Gentz,
his two friends of the Vienna congress, the Hanoverians, Counts
Hardenberg and Minister. In any case, in all matters where no
intervention of parliament was to be feared, Metternich could
unconditionally rely upon the highly reactionary sentiments
of the tory cabinet, and subsequently he wrote gratefully to the
prince regent : " One is always certain to find your royal high-
ness on the road of sound principles." But all other assistance
was worthless in default of an unconditional understanding with
the crown of Prussia. In order to bring this about, Metternich

206

The Carlsbad Decrees

hastened to Teplitz, and there, on July 2gth, had a private con-
versation with King Frederick William, which determined the
course of German policy for years to come. The king showed
himself to be extremely discomposed on account of the sinister
demagogic plans which, as Wittgenstein assured him, had been
disclosed by the latest domiciliary searches ; he was annoyed,
and with good reason, on account of the chancellor's inefficiency
and the dilatoriness of his ministry, which had kept him waiting
seven months for an answer to urgent enquiries. He complained,
" My own people fail me," and he committed himself confidingly
to the advice of this Austrian who in Aix-la-Chapelle had already
given him such admirable counsel. Metternich understood how to
strike the iron while it was hot. For Prussia, he declared, the
day had now arrived for a choice between the principle of conser
vatism and political death ; the great conspiracy had its origin
and its seat in Prussia, and it penetrated even the ranks of the
highest officials ; still everything could yet be saved if the crown
would make up its mind not to grant any popular representation
in the modern democratic sense of the term, and would content
itself with estates. At the same time he handed in a memorial
in which he repeated the ideas voiced by him at Aix-la-Chapelle. l
The king's assent to these proposals was a matter of course, for
even Hardenberg's constitutional plan had never aimed at more
than a representation of the three estates, and had not dreamed
of a representation of the people as a whole.

Upon the monarch's orders, Hardenberg, Bernstorff, and Witt-
genstein now held confidential conversations with the Austrian. The
chancellor laid his constitutional proposal before his Viennese
friend, and secured the latter's complete approval.2 On August
ist, Hardenberg and Metternich signed a convention evidently
drafted by Metternich, concerning the general principles of the
federal policy of the two great powers. » The convention was to be
kept permanently secret owing to " the prejudices which inspire
many of the German governments against a closer and most whole-
some union between the two leading German courts." The parties

1 This memorial is perhaps identical with an Austrian memorial which at
Troppau was subsequently handed to Count Bernstorff, and which has been pub-
lished by P. Bailleu in the Historische Zeitschrift, pp. 50 and 190, 1883. See
Appendix VII.

2 Hardenberg's Report to the king, August 16, 1819. See Appendix VII.

3 Agreement concerning the Principles by which the Courts of Austria and
Prussia have determined to be guided in the Internal Affairs of the Germanic
Federation. Teplitz, August i, 1819. See Appendix VIII,

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History of Germany

to the convention went on to recall the constitutional aim of the
Germanic Federation, as guaranteed by Europe ; and then
declared (article 2) that as European powers it was their duty to
watch over the political existence of the Federation, while as
German federal states it was their duty to care for the safety of
the federal constitution. For this reason, within the interior of the
Federation, no principles must be applied that were incompatible
with its existence, and all decisions of the Bundestag must be
faithfully carried out as laws of the Federation. The article of
the federal act which imposed upon the Federation the duty of
caring for the internal safety of Germany, an article unques-
tionably intended solely to avert the danger of breaches of the
public peace, thus received an entirely new and utterly arbitrary
interpretation ; it was to serve to subject to a uniform rule the
internal affairs also of the federal states. Since the revolutionary
party threatened the existence of all governments (thus proceeded
the agreement) the present opportunity must be utilised in order
to secure closer union among the German courts, and to estab-
lish at the Bundestag the rule of the majority. First of all,
therefore, there must be an agreement about article 13 of the
federal act — and here followed an astounding pledge which, as far
as Metternich was concerned, constituted the kernel of the docu-
ment. Article 7 ran as follows : " Prussia is resolved to apply
this article in its literal sense to her own domains only after her
internal financial affairs shall have been fully regulated ; that is to
say, she is determined that for the representation of the nation she
will not introduce any general system of popular representation
incompatible with the geographical and internal configuration of
her realm, but that she will give her provinces representative
constitutions (landstdndische verfassungen), and will out of these
construct a central committee of territorial representatives."

Naturally this clause involved a mutual pledge, for, beyond
question, Emperor Francis was equally resolved not to introduce
any general system of popular representation. Article 7 in
essentials conveyed nothing new, for Hardenberg had long before
resolved that the constitution should not be promulgated until
after the completion of the new financial laws, which were now
nearly ready ; while the ordinance of May, 1815, expressly pre-
scribed that territorial representation was to proceed from the
provincial diets. All the more ignominious therefore was the
form of the pledge. Like a repentant sinner, and without any
formal counter-pledge, the monarchy of Frederick the Great gave

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The Carlsbad Decrees

a foreign power a promise about the subsequent conduct of
certain internal affairs whose control every self-respecting state
should keep within its own hands ; and Metternich reported with
delight to his emperor that " Prussia has given an engagement
not to concede any popular representation." This was the most
shameful humiliation which Hardenberg had ever brought upon
Prussia. The policy of peaceful dualism was now to be tested,
and its outcome proved to be the subjection of Prussia to Austria's
leadership. The chancellor signed the document because he saw
no other way of retaining his king's shaken confidence ; and
because the promise, taken literally, certainly contained nothing
which ran counter to the hitherto accepted principles of Prussian
policy. But both parties to the agreement cherished hidden
designs. By the term " central committee," Hardenberg, as he
was soon to show, understood a large national Landtag, whereas
Metternich, now, as before in Aix-la-Chapelle, was thinking only
of a small committee of about one-and-twenty members, and
secretly hoped that even this shadow of a Prussian central
administration (of which his emperor was extremely afraid) might
yet be prevented from coming into existence. Thus Prussia had
completely come over to the side of the new Viennese doctrine,
in accordance with which article 13 promised representation of
estates merely, and not popular representatives. Both the powers
pledged themselves " to assist those states which (under the
name of estates) have already introduced systems of popular
representation, to return to methods better adapted to the
Federation," and, with this end in view, to await first of all the
proposals of the governments concerned.

The press was the second object of the Carlsbad deliberations.
The two great powers were agreed regarding the principles
of a memorial by Gentz, which described in the most emphatic
language how, in view of the equality in civilisation in the different
states, and the complex circumstances of intercourse among the
Germans, no individual state could preserve itself from infection,
and how, therefore, every prince who tolerated press licence
within his own land committed high treason against the Federa-
tion. For this reason a strict federal press law was essential, and,
above all, " the German governments must mutually pledge them-
selves that none of the editors who have become notorious
to-day are to be allowed to undertake the editorship of new papers ;
and, generally speaking, must pledge themselves to reduce as far
as possible the number of newspapers."

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History of Germany

The third topic for the conference was the universities and
the schools. Metternich had a very low estimate of the political
capacity of the professors, basing this judgment, characteristic-
ally enough, upon the opinion that no professor knew how to
pay due regard to the value of property ; but he considered the
political activity of these unpractical people to be indirectly most
dangerous, because they taught " the union of the Germans to
constitute a single Germany," and because the rising generation
was being brought up "to pursue this insane aim." It was for
this reason that he laid so much stress upon the speedy dismissal
of demagogic teachers, and Hardenberg was weak enough to throw
overboard forthwith all the reasonable principles of that memorial
by Eichhorn which Count Bernstorff had only a few days before
sent to the Bundestag. He agreed to the stipulation " that pro-
fessors whose sentiments are notoriously bad, and who are involved
in the intrigues of the disorderly students of to-day, shall imme-
diately be deprived of their chairs, and that no one who is thus
dismissed from any German university shall be reappointed to a
university in any other German state." Finally, it was arranged
that the same rules should be extended to the teachers in the
schools.

Such were the contents of this unhappy convention. It
seemed as if a sinister destiny presided over this unfortunate
nation which was so laboriously striving to emerge from its state
of disintegration, forbidding to it all possibility of self-under-
standing, forcibly imposing barriers in the way of any advance
towards political power. Many of the disastrous aberrations of
the German patriots in later years are explicable solely out of
the absolute confusion of all political ideas which was the neces-
sary outcome of the unnatural alliance of the two great powers.
It was the aim of the two powers to provide for the authority
of the Germanic Federation a reinforcement which was beyond
question urgently needed : but they enlarged the competence of
the Federation far beyond the prescriptions of the federal act ;
they allowed it a right of intervention into the internal affairs
of the individual states, a right of intervention incompatible with
the nature of a federation of states ; they even spoke of felony
on the part of German princes against the Federation, as if
sovereignty by Napoleon's grace had already been annihilated,
and as if the majesty of the old empire had been re-established.
This " Unitarian " policy, however, did not originate out of
nationalist sentiment, but out of Austrian particularism. The

210

The Carlsbad Decrees

Germanic Federation was to receive the authoritative powers of
a sovereign state in order to annul for all time the desire of the
Germans " to unite themselves to form a single Germany " ; in
order that the spiritual slumber of the peoples of Austria might
continue undisturbed by the higher civilisation and the more
lively spiritual energies of their German neighbours. In the
most definite terms possible, acting upon repeated commands
from his monarch, Metternich declared that he desired to save
the Germanic Federation by Austrian co-operation, or, failing
this, to separate the Austrian states from Germany, in order to
save Austria by herself— and there was not yet to be found in the
German nation a single mind to realise the unspeakable good
fortune such a separation would be, or to voice the liberating
cry, " Let us separate from Austria ! "

The means employed to further this policy were as corrupt-
ing and as un-German as were the aims of those who initiated it.
The Germanic Federation did not as yet possess either a federal
army or a federal supreme court, or indeed any kind of universally
national institution except the Bundestag ; and such a Federa-
tion, which could not even protect the Germans against the foreign
world, was now (according to the wording of the Teplitz conven-
tion), " in the purest spirit of the Federation," to be empowered
to disturb by prohibitions and prosecutions the holy of holies of
the nation of Martin Luther, the free movement of ideas. Thus
German policy sank, as it was aptly phrased, to the level of a
German police system ; for decades the entire life of the Bun-
destag was devoted to urgency police measures. The natural
opposition between the absolutist centralised authority and the
constitutional member-states became accentuated to the degree
of irreconcilable enmity ; anyone who would not abandon belief
in political freedom was henceforward compelled to fight the
German Bundestag, and thus the liberal party, although this
party almost alone had grasped the idea of national unity with
enthusiasm, was forced unwittingly and unwillingly into the
arms of particularism. At the congress of Vienna all parties had
felt that there must be conceded to the nation some of the
" rights of Germanism," that from the side of the Federation
a certain moderate degree of political liberty must be guaranteed,
and it was only because the arrogance of Rhenish Confederate
sovereignty made it impossible to secure an agreement about this
minimum that the federal act had gone no further than to make
promises expressed in very general terms. Now, all at once,

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History of Germany

everything was turned topsyturvy. It was held that upon the
Federation devolved, not the smallest possible, but the greatest
possible measure of political rights. No longer was the Federa-
tion to be the citadel of the nation's freedom, but it was to pre-
scribe limits which the Landtags, the press, and the universities
were never to exceed. With what unprecedented frivolity, too,
was it proposed to rob of their legal rights " the editors who are
to-day in ill-repute, the notoriously disaffected teachers " — as if
the arbitrary powers of the Committee of Public Safety to deal
with suspects were to be renewed upon the peaceful soil of
Germany !

What was the cause of this sinister mistrust felt for a loyal
and law-abiding people ? The Landtags of Bavaria and Baden,
in the zeal of youthful inexperience, had brought forward a few
foolish proposals ; and yet at this very time the docile conduct
of the Wurtemberg estates showed that it was merely necessary
for the governments to draw the reins a little tighter in order to
control the presumption of their harmless popular representatives.
The press, again, had sinned gravely by its aimless blustering and
scolding, nor was Gentz entirely wrong in what he said in his
memorial concerning the misbehaviour of the journals. ' To-
day," he wrote, " there is not in Germany a single newspaper pub-
lished as the outcome of private enterprise which those of the
right way of thinking can regard as their organ, and this is a state
of affairs which was unprecedented during the time of bloodiest
anarchy in France." But beyond question, in Germany the press
did not represent public opinion ; the mass of the nation by no
means shared the indignation expressed by the journalists ; and
anyone familiar with the German fondness for fault-finding could
unhesitatingly venture to prophesy that the great majority of
German newspapers would always be on the side of the opposi-
tion. It is true that the inadequate manner in which so many
cultured men expressed their condemnation of Kotzebue's assas-
sination showed that a portion of the higher classes had begun
to despair of the existing order ; but unquestionably a policy of
blind and rough persecution was the best means to increase this
despair. Finally, the revolutionary follies of the students
certainly needed the strong hand ; but they were restricted to three
or four universities, and, even in these, involved no more than
small circles ; while if the universities were to be officially stig-
matised as the nurseries of treason, the only result would be to
drive the patriotic spirit of the young men into devious courses.

212

The Carlsbad Decrees

The worst feature of all was that the state which had restored
freedom to Germany, the one which had everything to hope from
national unity and nothing to dread, now voluntarily put its neck
under the yoke of the Austrian dominion, and therefore, to that
portion of the nation which could not see beyond the next day,
assumed the semblance of a sworn enemy. The star of the
Frederician state had become obscured by clouds of suspicion.
By the anxious mood of a noble monarch misled by blind coun-
sellors, and through the perplexities of the aging Hardenberg,
this state had been diverted from the paths in which it had risen
to greatness, and when Austria had gathered in the Teplitz
harvest Metternich declared with satisfaction to the Russian
envoy, " Prussia has ceded us a place which many Germans had
designed for Prussia herself ! "

As soon as the two great powers had come to an unreserved
agreement, the victory of Austrian policy was decided. No one
in the Carlsbad assembly was prepared to oppose them on prin-
ciple. Count Schulenburg, the Saxon, now made common cause
with the two Hanoverians, for he, like them, was a strict advo-
cate of the feudal state-system. Baron von Plessen, of Mecklen-
burg, a man of far more liberal and mobile intelligence, was by
the traditions of his homeland forced into more or less the same
position. Even the representatives of the so-called constitutional
states manifested uncritical docility. Count Rechberg, the true
originator of the Bavarian plan for a coup d'etat, did, indeed,
in accordance with the custom of Munich, cherish some mis-
trust for Austria ; but he was far more afraid of the revolution,
and this latter fear decided his conduct, although he had been
expressly instructed not to approve anything which infringed
Bavarian sovereignty or the Bavarian constitution. Baron von
Berstett gave such terrible accounts of the disorders of the Carls-
ruhe representative assembly that in Gentz's opinion to listen to
him was at once a horror and a delight. Marschall of Nassau
outbid even the reactionary fanaticism of the Badenese states-
man ; nor did Count Wintzingerode leave anything to be desired
in respect of hostility towards the demagogues, although to him
was allotted the thorny task of avoiding anything that might
completely undermine the reputation of the most exemplary of
constitutional kings.

The members of the Carlsbad assembly fortified one
another in their fears of the great conspiracy, and Metternich

213

History of Germany

was able to handle them so adroitly that Bernstorff wrote
to the chancellor, " We can settle everything here, but later
it will be impossible ! " 'So completely did they adopt the
Austrian view of German affairs that at length they all came to
believe that they were doing a great and good work, and honestly
rejoiced in the fine patriotic unity of the German crowns. ' The
issue lies in God's hand," wrote Bernstorff when their work had
been completed ; " but at any rate a great thing has already
been achieved in that amid the storms of the time the German
princes have been able to express their principles and intentions
openly, definitely, and unanimously."1 The sense of satisfaction
was all the stronger because the German statesmen were working
entirely among themselves, and no foreign power even attempted
to exercise any influence over the Carlsbad negotiations. As
yet no one dreamed that this fine spectacle of national inde-
pendence and harmony was nothing else than the subjection of
the German nation to the foreign dominion of Austria.

Owing to the complexity of German life there was, indeed,
a counterpoise for every weight, and even this brilliant triumph
of the house of Austria had to be purchased at the cost of
a trifling ill success. The two great powers had agreed that,
in the first instance, only three items from the programme
of the Teplitz convention should be laid before the Carlsbad
assembly for immediate settlement. An agreement was first to
be secured concerning the necessary laws against the press, the
universities, and the demagogues, while the other measures for
strengthening the federal authority, and especially the interpreta-
tion of article 13, were to be deferred until the ministerial con-
ferences of the following autumn. Such was the sense in which
Metternich spoke when, on August 6th, in a long address, he opened
the first of the three-and-twenty conferences which henceforward
were held almost every evening until August 3ist ; at the same
time he laid before the assembly a convention, which, as far as
many of its propositions were concerned, was a literal repetition
of the Teplitz conversation, but from which everything which
concerned the two great powers alone had been prudently omitted.
All those present declared their assent with the liveliest gratitude ;
but Wintzingerode moved that the interpretation of article 13
should be included among the urgent items of the discussion.
The king of Wiirtemberg, he said, was quite willing even now, as
he had formerly been in Frankfort and Vienna, to accept " a

1 Bernstorfi to Hardenberg, September 2, 1819.
214

The Carlsbad Decrees

boundary line " for the rights of the Landtags to be estab-
lished by the federal authority, and in this way to abate the
pretensions of his Ludwigsburg Landtag — so long as nothing
in this boundary line conflicted with the peculiar interests of
Wiirtemberg.

Metternich joyfully accepted this unexpected proposal. As
he admitted to his Prussian friend, he hoped " that it might be
possible to avert the conclusion of a premature agreement
between the king of Wiirtemberg and the estates of his country,"
and he developed in detail the new Austrian doctrine in accord-
ance with which article 13 was to allow estates only, and not
representative constitutions ; if the Federation would formally
agree to this interpretation, which was the only right one, then
it would be the duty of Bavaria and Baden to modify their consti-
tutions also in the requisite sense. The great majority eagerly
agreed. At first even Bavaria and Baden seemed inclined to
accept the Viennese interpretation ; l and in the intoxication of
victory, " in a sort of inspiration," as he himself informs us, on
August igih, Gentz composed a great memorial Concerning the
Difference between the Representation of Estates and a General Repre-
sentative System — perhaps the most preposterous example extant
of unscrupulous political sophistry as manipulated by a skilled
writer.

Making a clever use of certain phrases employed by Haller
and Adam Miiller, Gentz showed how the old German provincial
diets were based upon differences in caste and law, of which God
himself was the author, while the foreign representative system
was based upon the revolutionary illusion of popular sovereignty
and universal equality before the law. On the one side was a
strong monarchical authority, restricted only in the exercise of
particular rights ; on the other, the subordination of the crown
to the arbitrary will of popular representatives, a state of anarchy
which was utterly irreconcilable with the rights of the Federation.
Ultimately this would lead to the formation of a chamber of
deputies in addition to the Bundestag, and consequently to a
general revolution. If no decent way of retreat was left open to
those German princes who, in drawing up their constitutions, had
failed to be guided by the only admissible interpretation of
article 13, " there is nothing left for the rest of us but to renounce
the Federation." There was not a sentence in this work which
was not in flat contradiction with universally known historical

1 Bernstorff to Hardenberg, August 8 and 13, 1819.

-
215

History of Germany

facts, for it was unquestionable that the modern German mon-
archy had acquired its strength in no other way than in
continuous conflict with the old estates, and that in the new
constitutional states the power of the crown was incomparably
higher than in the feudal territories of Saxony, Hanover, and
Mecklenburg, where the whole state-system was oligarchical in
character. Just as certain was it that the Landtags of the South
German states did not represent the people in general, but were
semi-feudal corporations, or at most the Badenese Lower House
might be regarded as a representative chamber in the neo-French
sense of the term. Nevertheless, behind this doctrine, which in
appearance was hammered out with so arbitrary caprice, there
lurked an extremely definite political aim. When Gentz was
expressing his fervour against the revolutionary representative
system, he had in mind Rotteck's theory, which unquestionably
deduced the rights of the system of popular representation from
the principle of popular sovereignty ; and when he extolled the
Old German provincial diets, he was not thinking of the stormy
days of feudal licence, but of the docile postulate Landtags of the
new Austria, and this peaceful life of the Austrian crown-lands
was to serve as an example for the whole of Germany.

In the history of German party struggles, Gentz's memorial
long continued to exercise an influence. From the first, it
charmed the suggestible crown prince of Prussia, who here
at length found a masterly formulation of his own ideas ; and
subsequently when the memorial became known to wider circles it
long remained the arsenal from which the feudal party in Prussia
drew most of its weapons. At the moment of its issue, however,
it was a grave political error, and proved disadvantageous
to the working out of Metternich's plans. The represen-
tatives of Bavaria and Baden rivalled Count Munster in lively
complaints of the presumption of the chambers. Wintzingerode
strongly recommended that by a federal law the suffrage should
be restricted to the leading landowners, and that, above all, the
publication of the proceedings of the Landtags should be for-
bidden, for this publicity was a foreign discovery which all the
statesmen in Carlsbad were unanimously agreed in stigmatis-
ing as purely demagogic. Wintzingerode made this proposal,
assuredly acting on instructions, at the very moment when his king
offered the Landtag of Ludwigsburg publicity and a compara-
tively unrestricted suffrage. Such being the mood of the South
German courts, it was certain that a federal law to restrict the

216

The Carlsbad Decrees

rights of the Landtags in favour of those of the crown could be
carried through if Austria moved cautiously.

Instead of this, Metternich demanded a return to the old
estates, and to the Wiirtemberger this was " the worst of evils,"
an absolutely unacceptable proposal. In his long struggle with
the advocates of the good old law, King William had experienced
all too painfully that the renowned Old German estates might
readily become more dangerous than a modern system of
popular representation. He took a firm stand here, not from
liberalism, but because he trembled for the prestige of his crown.
A whole series of Wiirtemberg memorials, ambiguous, full of con-
tradiction, as chameleon-like as the policy of the Swabian king
himself, opposed the Austrian suggestion. On one occasion
Wintzingerode went so far as to maintain boldly that the principle
of popular sovereignty had been already granted. " The die is
cast, the governments have thought it necessary to concede this
point ; however much they may regret it, the game must be
played out." On another occasion, conversely, he desired that this
dangerous principle should be forbidden by the federal authority.
Amid all these shifts and doublings one thing only remained
certain, that the Wiirtemberg minister would under no conditions
agree to the re-establishment of the old estates. Quite unam-
biguously he referred to the difficulties which arise " out of the
Old Wiirtemberg constitution, out of its suppression, out of its
more recent recognition, and its subsequent impracticability."
Meanwhile he had succeeded in bringing over to his side the
ministers of Bavaria, Baden, and Nassau ; these Rhenish Con-
federate courts knew no worse enemy to their monarchical supreme
authority than the nobility, whose powers would inevitably be
increased by the reconstitution of the old estates. Thus the
modern bureaucratic theory of the state which prevailed in the
south came suddenly and sharply into conflict with the feudal
views of Austria and of the central lands of North Germany.
The Prussian minister, who had expressed himself in vigorous
terms against the representative system, " this foreign shoot
grafted upon an old stem," now found it advisable for the sake
of harmony " to make every allowance for the embarrassments
of the Wurtemberg government." 1

It was finally decided, as Austria had intended from the
first, that the federal interpretation of article 13 should be
deferred to the Vienna conferences, and that meanwhile at

* JBernstorff to Hardenberg, August 25, 1819.

History of Germany

Carlsbad the assembly should content itself with enunciating a
general principle to which all the federal states could agree.
Temporarily Gentz had to lay aside his memorial, and now worked
at a presidential address which was to be read at the Bundestag as
an introduction to the Carlsbad decrees. In this, a formal protest
was entered against the democratic notions with which the
unambiguous principle of representative estates had been falsely
confused, and the hope was expressed that until a federal law
had been enacted, the German governments would give to article
13 no other interpretation than one which would be " com-
pletely harmonious with the maintenance of the monarchical
principle and of federal unity." This new formula was unani-
mously accepted, and, notwithstanding its dangerous laxity, it
corresponded better to existing conditions than the old formula,
for this federation, with its absolutist centralised authority, could
continue to exist only if the monarchical power remained active
in its member-states. In this way the attempt at a complete
misinterpretation of article 13 was for the time frustrated, cer-
tainly by the opposition of the South German courts, not, how-
ever, through their loyalty to their constitutions, but owing to
their dread of the old estates.

The other negotiations, however, proceeded so easily and
rapidly that Bernstorff was actually embarrassed by this excess
of harmony, and declared to the Austrian minister of state that
his king was bound only by the Teplitz convention, and that as
regards anything further than this he must reserve his approval.1
The secret of the deliberations was inviolably preserved. Buol
and Goltz in Frankfort merely received laconic orders that for
the present the prorogation of the Bundestag for the recess should
be postponed. Not until August i8th, when the proceedings were
already drawing to a close, did Metteniich and Bernstorff send
to the king of Denmark, as duke of Holstein, a brief confidential
communication regarding the aim of the conferences, at the same
time begging the Copenhagen cabinet to instruct its federal envoy
to accept unconditionally the enclosed presidential proposals.
Haste was requisite owing to the approaching recess of the
Bundestag, and, further, complete unanimity was essential, for the
sake of the impression to be produced upon the nation. Conse-
quently ' Your excellency will perform a true service for
Germany for every day earlier in which you send instructions to
your royal envoy." The only thing enclosed with this despatch

1 Bernstorfi to Hardenberg, August 13, 1819.
218

The Carlsbad Decrees

was the draft of the provisional federal press law.1 If a royal
court was fobbed oft with such scanty views, it was natural that
absolutely no attention should be paid to the petty states. It
was assumed that most of them would lack courage to resist,
and no communication was sent to them. Others were indirectly
threatened, and Bernstorff reported to the chancellor, " We have
provided against unseemly observations on the part of the
free towns." a To avoid offending the touchy elector of
Hesse, towards the end his envoy in Vienna, Baron von Miinch-
hausen, was invited to join the deliberations, and took part in
the last six sittings. Von Fritsch, on the other hand, was treated
with open contempt when he appeared at Carlsbad, commissioned
by Grand Duke Charles Augustus to learn what was going on.
Metternich allowed him as a guest to participate in only one
sitting of little importance, and then sent him home again
without any further information. Gentz wrote with satisfaction
in his diary : " The innocents have now left Carlsbad."

In order to ensure the carrying out of the emergency laws
against the demagogues, a provisional federal executive ordinance
was now adopted, empowering the Bundestag to supervise
the carrying out of all federal resolutions by a committee,
and in case of need to employ military coercion against any
recalcitrant federal state. Bernstorff, to whom so wide an
extension of the rights of the Federation seemed a serious matter,
received definite instructions from Berlin to approve the law.
" Without vigorous executive measures," wrote the chancellor
to him, " we shall never carry through any federal decision. In
default of such measures, such a state as Bremen might frus-
trate all the efficiency of the Federation." 3 Thus the Bundestag
was given powers which, if vigorously utilised, might lead to the
control of particularism ; but even this strengthening of the cen-
tralised authority, in itself a wholesome thing, merely aroused
ill-feeling among the people because it was to serve solely for
the purposes of the persecution of the demagogues.

Next came the second proposal, that for legislation about
the universities. To this end, Gentz had elaborated an intro
ductory presidential address abounding in frivolous accusations.
He maintained that the universities had become estranged from

1 Metternich and Bernstorff to Minister Rosenkrantz in Copenhagen, August
18, 1819.

2 Bernstorff to Hardenberg, September 2, 1819.

3 Hardenberg to Bernstorff, August 17, 1819.

219

History of Germany

their original character, from their renown acquired in better
days, and blamed " a great part of the university teachers," on
the ground that they had filled the heads of the students with
the phantom of a so-called cosmopolitan culture — certainly the
last accusation which could justly be brought against the Christo-
Germanic hotheads. Supported by such considerations, the law
demanded, at every German university, the appointment of an
extraordinary governmental plenipotentiary to supervise the
maintenance of order, to watch over the spirit of the teachers,
and to give that spirit " a wholesome direction." Anyone who
was dismissed from his professorial chair on account of breach
of duty or the diffusion of dangerous doctrines, was (in accordance
with the idea long cherished by Metternich) never again to receive
a professorial position in any German state. Finally, the old
laws against the students' associations were rendered more severe,
and in especial were extended to the Burschenschaft, for " the
aim of this body to bring about a permanent community and
correspondence between the different universities is simply inad-
missible." Thus the natural intercourse between the individual
state-institutions of Germany, in so far as they had not wholly
succumbed to particularism, was now forbidden from the federal
side. Alike in form and content, the law was a gross outrage
upon the German universities, and would have destroyed
academic freedom had not the majority of the governments,
faithful to their good old traditions, given it a comparatively
liberal interpretation.

Bernstorff, who, next to Gentz, was the most cultured of
the statesmen at Carlsbad, was unwilling that this difficult ques-
tion should be dealt with in so summary a fashion. He pro-
posed that they should merely come to an agreement upon certain
general disciplinary principles, and leave the rest to more detailed
elaboration by the Bundestag. But his colleagues answered
with one voice that there was danger in delay ; and since Harden-
berg, who now sailed entirely in Wittgenstein's wake, also shared
the view of the majority, Bernstorff was able to do no more than
secure, as a single alleviation, that under certain conditions the
rights of the governmental plenipotentiary might be transferred
to the former curator, so that, after all, the universities should
not without exception be formally placed under police super-
vision. In other respects the Austrian proposals were adopted
almost unaltered ; the measured and well-informed report of the
Bundestag committee on the universities, which was sent to

220

The Carlsbad Decrees

Prince Metternich while the conferences were in progress, was
left unnoticed.1

The motive force of the conferences, Emperor Francis's
anxiety regarding any disturbance of his hereditary domains,
was most plainly manifested in the third proposal, the provisional
press law. For this law, as for all the others, Gentz had prepared
an introductory presidential discourse, describing in vivid colours
how every one of the federal states was endangered by the free-
dom of the press in the lands of its German neighbours, and how
this danger had recently been increased by the publicity of the
proceedings of the Landtags. During the sittings, Metternich
spoke yet more plainly, saying that it lay in the very nature of
the Federation that its members must guarantee one another's
freedom from moral and political injury, and must guarantee one
another against attacks on the part of the press. Freedom of
the press was unquestionably more injurious for the great states,
which in Germany might be simultaneously attacked from thirty
different centres, than for the petty states, whose writers would ever
be ready to treat the home governments with discretion, if only
they could retain a free hand against their powerful neighbours.
Therefore, in order to protect herself against the attacks of the
German press, Austria proposed that " the necessity of preventive
measures," i.e., of the censorship, should be recognised as the rule,
though this was a plain infringement of article 18 of the federal
act, which did not, indeed, expressly forbid censorship, but estab-
lished freedom of the press as an elementary principle. For the
next five years all newspapers and all books comprising less than
twenty sheets were to be subject to the censorship, but every
federal state was to be free, should it so desire, to subject even
larger works to the censorship. Here also the intention was, not
to prescribe a minimum of freedom, but to establish a maximum
which must on no account be exceeded.

Since henceforward newspapers were not to be published
without the approval of the state authority, the press law
immediately drew the conclusion that every German govern-
ment was responsible to the Federation, and to the individual
federal states, for the good behaviour of its press. Upon the
demand of an injured government, or upon its own free initiative,
the Bundestag was to be empowered to prohibit newspapers and
books, and, in accordance with the Teplitz convention, the editor

1 Bernstorff to Hardenberg, August 25 ; Goltz's Report to Bernstorff, Frank-
fort, August 28, 1819*

221

History of Germany

of a newspaper thus suppressed was not to be allowed to edit
any other paper within five years. Unquestionably this respon-
sibility of the sovereign German princes to a conference of envoys
was a monstrosity from the point of view of constitutional law ;
but since at Carlsbad the statesmen were all agreed in regarding
the press as their common enemy, they accepted without demur
even this attack upon the sacredness of sovereignty, regarding it
as self-evident that every well-disposed government would, under
all circumstances, Joyfully accept the suppression of a newspaper.
On this occasion also, Hardenberg showed how completely he was
now dominated by Wittgenstein's party. Upon his express orders,
Bernstorff had to agree that freedom from the censorship should
be allowed only to works consisting of more than twenty sheets ;
Austria had desired to concede that works consisting of more
than fifteen sheets should be exempt. l

These negotiations concerning the press were weighty with
consequences in relation also to another domain of our political
life. Among the reasons which were brought forward to show
the necessity of the censorship, Metternich laid especial emphasis
on the fact that the demagogues very logically hoped that the
adjudication upon press offences would be in the hands of juries,
but trial by jury, together with public and oral procedure, were
unconditionally rejected by all the members of the conferences,
who considered them, as Gentz phrased it, to be " axioms of
the revolution." The foolish phrases which the Badenese Land-
tag had showered upon the palladium of popular freedom,
received their inevitable answer. It was the curse of these days
of hatred and suspicion that both parties now came to draw up
for themselves catechisms of rigid political dogmas, each holding
to its own catechism with all the moroseness of German partisan
hatred, so that for years every possibility of an understanding
was prevented. To the doctrinaires of the reaction, the private
procedure of the law courts, which served only to expose the excel-
lent German judiciary to undeserved suspicion, seemed to be a
pillar of the monarchical principle.

Somewhat more lively, but by no means unfriendly, were
the proceedings concerning the fourth law, the aim of which was
the suppression of demagogic intrigues. Although as yet no sign
had been discovered of a revolutionary movement for whose
control the existing courts would not suffice, all the participators
in the conferences agreed in the view that the terrible con-

1 Hardenberg to Bernstorff, August 25, 1819.
222

The Carlsbad Decrees

spiracy ramifying throughout Germany could not be mastered
in any other way than by an extraordinary federal centralised
authority. The only question was, whether the Federation was
merely to conduct the investigations, or was also to pass judg-
ment. By the institution of an extraordinary federal jurisdic-
tion, the existing legal institutions of all the federal states would
be seriously infringed, and the generally recognised principle that
no one must be withdrawn from the jurisdiction of his natural
judges would be infringed. Consequently Bernstorff proposed
that they should be satisfied with a central committee of enquiry. l
The chancellor, however, asked Kircheisen and Kamptz their
advice, and these two men were still inspired by the first
savage zeal of the demagogue-hunt, and dreaded nothing so much
as that the demagogues of Bonn might be acquitted by the
Rhenish juries — from whom, indeed, in this case, no impartial
judgment was to be expected. But Kamptz, as an able lawyer,
knew how to adduce better grounds than this for his opinion.
For those who seriously believed in the existence of a grave
danger threatening the entire Federation (and unfortunately this
illusion prevailed at the Prussian court), the introduction of a
federal committee of enquiry was unquestionably a dangerous
half-measure, for, in view of the complexity of German legal
institutions, it was inevitable that the sentences the courts would
pass on the demagogues would be contradictory, and that there-
fore the federal authority which conducted the enquiry would be
exposed to universal hatred and contempt. For this reason
Hardenberg replied that the federal central committee would be
effective only if it were endowed also with judicial powers ; in the
old empire the imperial courts had always dealt with breaches
of the public peace directly, before their own forum.2 At the
same time he sent a proposal for the establishment of a provisional
federal jurisdiction, which Bernstorff had now to defend.

At first the majority of the Carlsbad statesmen were inclined
to favour the Prussian proposal, and Metternich also was delighted
with it. But thereupon, quite unexpectedly, a powerful opponent
showed himself in the field, Emperor Francis. The sole human
trait in the policy of this rigid despot was that he endeavoured
to defend the existing order against high and low ; his flatterers
gave the name of justice to what was in reality no more than a
pedantic adherence to the ancient and traditional. When rebels

1 Bernstorff to Hardenberg, August 8, 1819.

2 Hardenberg to Bernstorff, August 13, 1819.

223

History of Germany

raised their heads against him, he by no means shrank from
courts-martial and cruel measures of exception ; but so long as
the danger did not affect him personally, justice must pursue its
customary course. Moreover, he was influenced by his old mis-
trust of the unruly Germans ; he could rely upon his own
Austrian courts, and he would not trust a single Austrian traitor
to German judges. Finally, it has to be remembered (and herein
lies the cream of the joke) that he did not himself really believe
in the existence of the great German conspiracy, and merely
wished to derive the utmost possible advantage from the fears of
the other courts ; consequently he dreaded that an extra-
ordinary federal jurisdiction might, after all, secure no serious
result, and might therefore make itself a laughing-stock. His
leading judge, Baron von Gartner, an old imperial jurist of the
school of Kamptz, had to draw up an opinion for the conferences,
which, appealing to the privilegia de non evocando of the electors,
declared that the sovereign rights of the German princes could
only be preserved if the federal central committee had its powers
restricted to the conduct of the enquiries.

Vainly did Kamptz endeavour to instruct his former pupil.
In his usual pompous style he wrote : ' ' The laudes Gartneriana.
uttered in Carlsbad were all the more agreeable to me because
they have shown me, as you yourself I hope now gratefully recog-
nise, that you owe to my example and to my good teaching all
that you know." He then went on to expound how dangerous
it would be that judgment upon the demagogues should be left
to so many subordinate judges, to their weakness, to their wooing
of popular favour, to their dread of the newspapers ; this would
be to establish anew the " coimperium " of the complainants which
was now to be annihilated.1 In vain did Hardenberg send this
writing to Carlsbad and ask the conferences to consider that, after
all, a tribunal established by the Germanic Federation could not
be regarded as a foreign jurisdiction ; a central committee
with no more than investigatory powers, would, he said, show
itself to be utterly useless, and would only arouse bad
blood.2 Emperor Francis would not be persuaded. On
August 28th he announced his final determination : "I will never
decide who is to judge until I know precisely what is to be
judged. What would happen if the joint committee failed to
find anything at all of importance, or very little ? What

1 Kamptz to Gartner, August 31, 1819.

1 Hardenberg to Bernstorff, August 25, September i, 1819.

224

The Carlsbad Decrees

would happen if the members of this committee differed in
their views ? " l The emperor's attitude sufficed to settle that
of the majority in Carlsbad.2

Metternich, too, very unwillingly had had to give tongue in
the sense of his monarch, and did so just as cynically as the latter,
saying that, after all, no one as yet knew " how many guilty
of high treason would be found as a result of the committee of
enquiry," and adding that a formal federal court with judicial
powers "if it should give very little result, would certainly be
far more compromising than useful." The consequence was
that the central committee was to have only the power of insti-
tuting an enquiry into the conduct of the demagogues, but the
right was reserved for the Bundestag, in case of need, to give
this committee judicial powers as well. Metternich urgently
begged the Prussian minister to accept the failure, and not to
renew the dispute at the Bundestag. " This would lose our game."
The result of the enquiry might after all render it possible to
enlarge the powers of the central committee, and to make it
a court of justice.3 The committee was to meet in Mainz
a fortnight after the federal resolution had been passed, was
immediately to attempt to ascertain all the facts of the demagogic
intrigues, was to issue instructions to the prosecuting authorities
of the individual states, was to demand documentary reports
from them, was, at its discretion, to hear certain suspects in
person, and finally, for the enlightenment of the nation, was
to draw up a comprehensive report upon the affair. To keep
the Ernestines and the free towns out of the matter, an arrange-
ment was made at Carlsbad to select the seven states which were
to nominate the seven members of the central committee of
enquiry, those chosen being Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Hanover,
Baden, Nassau, and, last of all, Darmstadt, so that the
courts excluded from the conferences should have at least one
representative.

Thus it was that Emperor Francis prevented those courts
which at the congress of Vienna had rejected Prussia's proposal
to institute ordinary federal jurisdiction from, four years later,
establishing an extraordinary federal tribunal for the punish-
ment of the demagogues. But what was determined on in place

1 His Majesty's Decision, Schonbrunn, August 28, 1819.

2 Bernstorff to Hardenberg, September 7, 1819.

8 Metternich to Bernstorff, September 5, 1819, with a Memorial upon the
central committee of enquiry.

225

History of Germany

of this, was in reality far more sinister. A judicial tribunal, bound
by the forms of judicial procedure, at least offered certain
safeguards against arbitrary conduct, whereas the new central
committee of enquiry, which could intervene in the ordinary
legal procedure only by way of denunciation, writ, and arrest, had
from the first the aspect of a tyrannical instrument, was by the
people immediately christened "the Black Committee," was daily
discredited by the contradictory judgments passed by the various
territorial courts, and, as Hardenberg had foreseen, became the
object of universal detestation.

The four laws were all approved, and whatever was still
lacking in respect of the interpretation of article 13 could easily
be postponed until the Vienna conferences, which were to be held
in November, for all parties were agreed upon " the maintenance
of the monarchical principle." Even an enlargement of the rights
of the majority at the Bundestag, such as had been planned by
the two great powers in Teplitz, could perhaps also be secured
in Vienna. The results exceeded all Metternich's expectations.1
" Never," he declared, " have more exemplary harmony and
urbanity prevailed than at our conferences." When all met
once more, on September ist, to take leave of one another, every-
one was in a good humour, and one of the ministers was so
extremely enthusiastic that he proposed to his colleagues that they
should sing the Ambrosian hymn of praise. Naturally, at the
close of " this ever memorable meeting," the master of state-
craft who had conducted affairs so admirably was hailed with
the united expression of unbounded respect and gratitude, and
due praise was also given to the great talents of Councillor Gentz.
A wonderful amount had, in fact, been accomplished in a few
days. This cumbrous federation, which seemed inapt for any
development, suddenly, and with revolutionary impetuosity,
grasped political rights which had never been allotted to the
ancient empire ; it arrogated to itself dominion even over
branches of internal political life which the powerful central-
ised authority of the modern German Empire leaves to the
territories without restriction ; so recklessly did it transgress
the limits of its fundamental law that clear-sighted professors
of constitutional law like Albrecht were able to maintain that
after the Carlsbad decrees the Germanic Federation had aban-
doned the character of a federation of states, and had become

1 Bernstorff to Hardenberg, September 2, 1819.
226

transformed into a federal state — a view shared by many of
Metternich's sympathisers, and especially by Ancillon. Without
opposition, Germany's princes allowed all these limitations of their
sovereignty to be imposed upon them by Austria. Metternich
wrote in triumph : "If the emperor doubts being emperor of
Germany he greatly deceives himself."

Never since Prussia had existed as a great power, never since
the days of Charles V and Wallenstein, had the house of Austria
been able to set foot so heavily upon the neck of the German
nation. Just as masterfully as in former days Emperor Charles
had imposed the Interim of Augsburg upon the contentious Reichs-
tag of the conquered Schmalkaldians, so now did Metternich
call a halt to a new national movement of the Germans ; just as
contemptuously as Granvelle had at that time laughed at the
peccata Germanice-, so did Gentz now mock at the tribulations of the
Old Bursch of Weimar and his liberal train ; and just as submis-
sively as in those days the weakly Joachim II, so now did a
Hohenzollern stand before the Austrian ruler. But Austria had
soon to learn that the crown which Emperor Francis had once
torn from his own head was not to be regained by the trickeries
of a false diplomacy. In earlier days Austria's dominion had
always been a misfortune to the Germans ; the more brightly the
star of the Hapsburgs shone, the more prostrate was the condition
of the German nation. That great emperor who, in Augsburg,
had once desired to control Protestantism, had at any rate offered
the Germans something to replace their lost freedom, a mighty
thought, one capable of filling even a Julius Pflugk with enthusiasm,
the great conception of the Catholic world-empire. But what
could they offer to the nation, these petty spirits who now
endeavoured to tread in the footsteps of Emperor Charles ?
Nothing but oppression and coercion, nothing but an unscrupulous
distortion of the federal law, which must inevitably make their
solitary national institution loathsome to the Germans, throwing
as makeweight into the scale the lie that Germany was to be
rescued from an imaginary danger.

For the real interests of the nation Metternich had nothing
but a mocking smile. An exhortation from the minor courts
regarding the unfulfilled pledge for the facilitation of commercial
intercourse throughout Germany was met by the Austrian
statesmen with empty phrases. He had had to promise the
Prussian minister that the odious dispute regarding the federal
fortresses should at length be brought to a close. Upon Prussia's

227

History of Germany

demand, too, Langenau and Wolzogen had already appeared in
Carlsbad, the latter to the alarm of the strict Austrian party,
who regarded him with suspicion as an emissary of the German
revolutionaries. But amid so many more important matters,
Metternich found no time for the promised discussion with the
two generals.1 Moreover, in relation to his policy, what mat-
tered the safeguarding of the German frontiers when compared
with the great civilising tasks of the censorship and the prosecu-
tion of the students ? And since the new rulers of Germany
were incomparably smaller and of less account than had been
the Hapsburg heroes of the days of Schmalkald and of the Thirty
Years' War, since these new rulers owed their successes, not to
the might of victorious arms, but solely to the foolish terrors of
the German courts, the inevitable reaction set in, not, as in the
days of Maurice and Gustavus Adolphus, firmly and forcibly, but
slowly, unnoticed — and yet all the more certainly. Austria had
offered the Germans a stone in place of bread. As soon as Prussia
determined to deal honourably with the needs of this nation,
and to provide that economic unity which Prussia alone could
give, from that moment the spectre of German dualism, whose
hideous features had once again been displayed, began gradually
to fade, and the thinking part of the nation came gradually to
realise that the withdrawal of Austria from the Germanic Federa-
tion, so arrogantly threatened in Carlsbad, offered the only
possible means of rescuing the fatherland.

But this prospect was still remote. At the moment, the
Hofburg was jubilant with victory. In an affectionate auto-
graph note, Emperor Francis thanked the king of Prussia for his
vigorous common action " against the disturbers of that estab-
lished order upon which the existence of the thrones depends." 2
Gentz sang the glories of " the greatest step backwards which has
been made in Europe for thirty years," and to the Austrian envoy
in London Metternich expressed the hope that this deed of salva-
tion would find an echo throughout Europe. In actual fact, in
Spain alone had the ideas of pure reaction hitherto secured so
decisive a success. Among the great civilised nations it was Ger-
many which first gave the example of a coup d'etat from above,
an example which eleven years later served as prototype for the
July ordinances in France. The policy of moderation which the
Quadruple Alliance had observed down to the time of the con-

1 Bernstorff to Hardenberg, August 25 and September 2, 1819.

2 Emperor Francis to King Frederick William, August 29, 1819.

228

The Carlsbad Decrees

gress of Aix-la-Chapelle, was now at an end ; the power which
had acquired the leading position in the European alliance openly
manifested itself on the side of the principles of oppression.

There still remained a serious piece of secret work to be
completed before, as Metternich phrased it, the bomb could burst
in Frankfort. What had been effected in Carlsbad was no more
than a conversation between nine federal states, a conversation
which from the point of view of federal law had no formal validity,
although these states controlled the majority of the inner council.
For an enlargement and alteration of the federal act, such as was
involved in the Carlsbad decrees, unanimity was necessary. Thus
it was essential to secure the silent submission of thirty federal
states to the orders of the nine, to enforce the majority rule, pro-
posed at Teplitz, in actual fact upon the inner council of the
Bundestag. The lever of intimidation which had done such good
service in Carlsbad must once more be utilised in Frankfort.
Metternich desired to prevent any discussion in the Bundestag,
for the decrees of the Carlsbad conspiracy could not bear critical
illumination. So short-sighted was his cunning, that he was
unable to see how foolish it was to humiliate the German central
authority before the whole nation at the very moment in which
this authority was to receive enlarged powers odious to public
opinion. On September ist, Metternich communicated the Carls-
bad decrees to the presidential envoy, instructed him to arrange
for their speedy adoption, and then to adjourn for the recess.
The same instructions went simultaneously to Count Goltz, who
was now at length initiated by Buol, Plessen, and Marschall into
the secrets of Carlsbad.1 Some of the other Carlsbad conspirators
did not even think it necessary to inform their own federal envoys.
It was not until September I3th that the court of Carlsruhe sent its
federal envoy the laconic order : " Since, according to information
received, in one of the next sittings the Austrian envoy will give
a report concerning the Carlsbad conferences, you will accept the
Austrian proposal without further parley " ; and the Badenese
envoy was to vote for the seven states appointed in Carlsbad as
members of the central committee of investigation.2

Not even yet was precise information given to the govern-
ments which had been excluded from the conferences. Bernstorff
contented himself with sending the Prussian envoys at the minor

1 Bernstorff to Goltz, September i ; Goltz's Report, September 7, 1819.

2 Ministerial instructions to the Badenese federal envoy, September 13, 1819,

229

History of Germany

courts a brief summary of the events of the conferences, as frag-
mentary as had been the casual communication made to the
Danish court.1 The Carlsbad decrees were to be approved with-
out examination by Austria's vassals, just as in former days had
been the act of the Confederation of the Rhine by the faithful
followers of Napoleon. In fine competitive zeal, the diplomats
of the nine initiates declared to the minor courts that nothing but
harmony of all the governments could rescue Germany from
its dangerous position ; and, wherever necessary, the Austrian
envoy played his last trump, threatening the secession of
Austria. Only to the court of Darmstadt, which had been
granted a place in the central committee of enquiry, was a
more detailed report vouchsafed. The envoys of the two great
powers, Handel and Otterstedt, went to the grand duke, related
to him the essential matters, and adjured him " to ensure the
salvation of the common fatherland by the unconditional
unanimity of all members of the Federation." The dignified
old ruler was but ill-pleased at the threatened limitation of his
sovereignty, but he believed in the great demagogic peril, and
merely reserved for himself the right, when the Carlsbad decrees
should be promulgated, of promising his country that the con-
stitution should be established on May i, 1820. The govern-
ments, he said warningly, must not give the appearance of desiring
to restrict the arbitrary acts of others while imposing no limits
upon their own.2

Thus everything was prepared for the great coup. On
September I4th, Buol gave the Bundestag the first confidential
communication regarding the Carlsbad conferences. On September
i6th, he read the presidential address sent him by Metternich, and
then proposed the speedy adoption of the agreed observations
concerning article 13, together with the four laws. Most of
the federal envoys now learned for the first time the text of the
Carlsbad decrees. It was the most important and comprehen-
sive proposal ever submitted to the Bundestag, and to deal with
it, Buol, without a word of contradiction, proposed a period of
four days, a period which, in view of the methods of intercourse
of that time, made it impossible to send home for instructions.
The vote was to be taken on September 20th, whereas the rules for

1 Bernstorff, Brief Summary of the results of the Carlsbad proceedings.
(Undated, presumably of September 9, 1819.)

z Bernstorff, Instruction to Otterstedt, September i ; Otterstedt's Reports,
Darmstadt, September n and 13, 1819.

230

The Carlsbad Decrees

the conduct of business demanded that at least fourteen days
should elapse. The consequence was that at the time when
the decrees were passed in Frankfort the great majority . of the
German governments had had no information as to their
wording. There was absolutely no constitutional discussion of the
proposals, but not one of the envoys censured this omission.

On the day of the vote no one ventured any formal opposi-
tion, but to Austria's alarm it appeared that, notwithstanding all
threats, only a portion of the envoys were empowered to give
unconditional approval. Many were still awaiting instructions ;
others, after the German manner, had all kinds of reflections and
wishes to announce. For example, the court of Dresden found
the Carlsbad decrees too liberal, and expressed the hope that
throughout Germany, as in the kingdom of Saxony, all printed
matter, without exception, should be subjected to the censorship.
Wangenheim, too, brought forward a whole series of strictures,
thus offering fresh proof of the untrustworthiness of the court
of Wiirtemberg, for in Carlsbad Wintzingerode had cheerfully
accepted all four of the laws. The Wiirtemberg envoy raised
particularist objections against the federal executive organisa-
tion, finding it too severe that every federal state should be
responsible for the behaviour of its own press, and so on. Electoral
Hesse also entered a protest against the federal executive
organisation which so greatly infringed the rights of sovereignty.

It was with the greatest tension that the assembly awaited
the vote of the Luxemburg envoy. Everyone knew that his royal
master, who treated all German affairs with deliberate contempt,
had left him without instructions. But Buol and Goltz had dis-
cussed the matter with Count Griinne, who frankly declared that
although he had not received plenary powers, " he would no longer
withhold his assent from a formally compiled decree " — appending
an insignificant proviso in favour of the national peculiarities of
Luxemburg. As Goltz reported to his king, the game was won,
" for in this way that ostensible unanimity could be secured, and
the fifteenth and sixteenth curiae and the free towns could be
deprived of any pretext for divergent manifestations." l When
the representative of the king of the Netherlands showed so
accommodating a disposition, how could the smaller powers resist ?
The envoys of the Ernestine houses and the sixteenth curia voted
aye, although they had to acknowledge that as yet they had
received instructions from some only of their principals. Weimar,

1 Goltz's Report to the king, September 28, 1819.
231

History of Germany

too, was among those who voted aye. The proxy of the fifteenth
curia did not hesitate to lie, and declared the serene highnesses
had ordered him to give an affirmative vote, although it was
obvious that he had not received instructions from the two
Schwarzburgs. After all this, there was nothing left for the
envoys of the free towns but " in default of special instructions,
to join in the universally expressed unanimity."

A unanimous vote had been secured ; the Bundestag had
submitted to the decrees of the nine. But was it possible to
venture to publish in the minutes this remarkable decision, exactly
as it had been taken, with all its clauses and reservations ? As
Goltz admitted to his monarch, it was all too plainly manifest
" that the general assent was dependent, not upon conviction,
but rather upon acceptance of the force of circumstances." If
public opinion, as to whose hostility there was a general under-
standing, was to be silenced by a fine manifestation of the
unanimity of the German thrones, Austria, after all the tricks and
lies of this unsavoury negotiation, must not shrink from one last
falsification. Vigorously supported by Goltz and Plessen, Buol
suggested to his colleagues that " in order to increase the
impression to be made," it was essential that the published minutes
should be purged from all observations.1 Everyone agreed with-
out hesitation. Thus it was that the actual details of the voting
were buried in a profoundly secret register, which was to serve
" only as an authentic record of the proceedings," and might
perhaps be used as a text for subsequent deliberations.2 But the
published minutes related the " unanimous adoption of the
Carlsbad decrees," and specified that all four laws should
" immediately enter into force in all the federal states." Great was
the shock when the Germans suddenly learned that the Bundestag,
which had been deaf to all the pressing needs of the nation, had
with such undignified haste, and with manifest contempt for the
prescriptions of the federal act, adopted coercive laws destined
to gag the mental life of the country. Even the minor courts
experienced so lively a sense of coercion, that the Prussian envoy
urgently advised his government not to string the bow too
tightly, and to invite all the governments without exception to
the Vienna conferences. When the work was finished, the presi-
dential envoy invited his colleagues to a brilliant banquet. Count
Goltz secured forgiveness for former mistakes, and received the

1 Goltz's Reports to the king and to Bernstorff, September 18, 22, and 28. 1819.
- First published in the year 1861 in C. L. Aegidi's work, From the Year 1819.

232

The Carlsbad Decrees

cordial gratitude of his court for the happy discharge of a difficult
task. l

It was under such auspices, with a falsified vote, that the
dominion of the house of Austria at the German Bundestag began.
It was with another falsified vote, with a fraudulently secured
declaration of war against Prussia, that in the year 1866 this
dominion was to find its worthy close. 3

1 Bernstorff to Goltz, October 9, 1819.

2 See Appendix VI. This was added by Trcitschke in the final volume of
his History. It deals with the history of the Burschenschaft, especially with
reference to the murder of Kotzebue and the Trial of Sand. Its main reference
is therefore to pp. 187 etseq, — TRANSLATORS' NOTE.

CHAPTER X.
CHANGE OF MOOD AT THE PRUSSIAN COURT.

§ I. THE CARLSBAD DECREES AND FOREIGN POLICY.

PRINCE METTERNICH could count with certainty upon having
incurred the anger of the liberal parties, for, according to his
own modest assertion, " in three weeks he had completed what
thirty years of revolution had been unable to effect." He
had never thought it worth while to try to learn the character
of the German people ; he had no idea how highly this ideal-
istic nation prized freedom of thought, and how terribly it
would perforce be affronted by the attack upon the press and
the universities. The Carlsbad decrees confused public opinion
and wrought havoc from the first. Among the moderates,
the hope of peaceful development in German affairs disappeared.
Republican ideas, which in our monarchical history lacked all
foundation, began to gain the upper hand now that Germany's
princes appeared as the sworn enemies of popular freedom ;
the enthusiasm for the great free state of America, which had
hitherto been no more than theoretical, became in many minds
a practical party sentiment. The wild song of the Uncondi-
tionals, A way with the Princes, now made its way into wider
circles.

The nation got out of tune with its political system and
with its finest historical memories. The fine patriotic enthu-
siasm of recent years was dispersed. From everyone's lips
fell bitter complaints that the blood spilled at Leipzig and
Belle Alliance had been spilled in vain. While the German
liberals had at first adopted a few Jacobin principles, half
unconsciously as it were, now, when they were threatened with
oppression and persecution under the name of the Old German
law, they went over with flying banners into the French camp,
becoming intoxicated with a constitutionalist theory which but
scantily concealed the republican ideal. The victors greedily

234

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

collected those fragments of spurious political wisdom which
fell from the table of the vanquished ; German liberal policy
bowed before French ideas as slavishly as had German poesy
bowed before French in the days of Louis XIV. The new
ideas of the historical school of law, created out of the depths
of German life, fell into disrepute, and anyone who combated
the aberrations of the degenerate conservative party, turned
to that revolutionary doctrine of natural law which had long
before been refuted by German science. In its anger at the
injustice it had suffered, German liberalism really became beside
itself ; it forgot the priceless blessings of the wars of libera-
tion, began to take a lighter view of the heroes of those
struggles as " deceivers or deceived," and gradually succumbed
to a cosmopolitan revolutionary fanaticism which must neces-
sarily prove disastrous to a developing nation.

Although under the menace of the censorship, which imme-
diately came into operation, the press could say very little,
the diplomatic world could not escape the general anger. In
Frankfort, in Stuttgart, in Munich, everywhere, the rage of
the cultured classes found expression in violent language.
Everywhere the new Black Committee was compared with the
Committee of Public Safety of the Convention.1 No one felt
the injustice more keenly than the professors, who found that
they were all scorned and calumniated by the Federation on
account of the follies of two or three men of Jena. What must
Dahlmann and Falck, two of the leading advocates of the
German law in Kiel, feel when Holstein, and at the same time
Schleswig, which was not a part of the Federation, now received
the censorship as their first gift from Germany, when for fifty
years, since the days of Struensee, these regions had enjoyed
unrestricted freedom^of the press under the absolutist regime of
the Danish autocrat. The Kieler Blatter suspended publication,
because it would not consent to subject itself to any censor.
Dahlmann, who was in the future so often to find the apt
word for the feelings of incensed national sentiment, declared
that by the federal decrees the German universities had been
"degraded and injured in a manner impossible to forget."
He gave notice to Baron von Stein that his collaboration in
the Monumenta Germania would cease for so long as at the

.

1 Goltz, Reports from Frankfort, September 22 and 28, and October 26 ;
Zastrow's Reports from Munich, October 9 ; Kuster's Report from Stuttgart,
October 12, 1819.

235

History of Germany

head of this undertaking there were those federal envoys who
had participated in the affront to the German professorial
caste. " My good name," he wrote, " is worth more to me
than any scientific undertaking. I cannot believe that it will
be possible, when our hands are thus tied, to garner the noble
fruits of science from a soil stained with oppression and
persecution, as soon may be the case." On the birthday
of the king-duke, Dahlmann, in his academic address, came
forward as advocate of the calumniated universities, speaking
of lese-majeste as " the sole and peculiar offence of those
who have never done any wrong." He defended the right
of the new time to find its own political forms, saying, "He
also is an innovator who endeavoured to re-establish the
obsolete " ; and he prophesied that, since the new federal laws
sacrificed the intimate essence to the empty forms of peace,
they would serve merely to secure a police-ridden semblance
of order, and not to establish order itself.

Even in the highest circles of society, severe criticism was
by no means lacking. Hans von Gagern sent his friend Plessen
a warning letter which, amid many oddities, contained a number
of valuable expressions. " Do not," he wrote, " cheat your
masters ; do not lead them to believe that everything which
is now happening in the way of innovation, and love of inno-
vation, is, when it comes from their side, nothing but forbear-
ance and graciousness." Even Stein, who took a very harsh
view of the follies of the Jena professors and of the Carlsruhe
enemies of the nobility, condemned the appointment of the
new governmental plenipotentiaries as an affront to the univer-
sities. When the sleuth-hounds of the demagogue-hunt now
accused the baron himself of participating in the great
conspiracy, his fury broke bounds, " Vox faucibus haeret,"
he exclaimed, " in face of such bestial stupidity, or such devilish
wickedness, or such base levity, originating in a thoroughly
foul mind." Even the princes, who bent their necks beneath
the yoke, subsequently found occasion for bitter meditations
when they recalled to mind that never had any German emperor
treated the least among his imperial princes so contemptuously
as the Vienna court had now treated the entire Bundestag.
" This attack upon the still youthful constitution of Germany,"
wrote the duke of Oldenburg, " has served only to alarm the
impartial, to offend public opinion, and to arouse criticism."
The ill-feeling of the petty courts began to give occasion

236

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

for serious anxiety ; after all, Metternich thought it advisable
to pay due weight to the warnings of the Prussian federal
envoy, and arranged with the cabinet of Berlin that none of
the German courts should be excluded from the ministerial
conferences of the ensuing winter.1

The general discontent was loudly re-echoed in the foreign
press. It was only the French ultras who rejoiced, making
known their opinion that for France also a Carlsbad coup d'etat
would be useful. Not even the Moniteur ventured openly to
approve Austria's doings. In France, declared this paper,
such laws would be impossible to apply, for Europe no longer
had any place for despotism. The liberal publicists outbade
one another in the expression of their anger. First of all,
of course, came the inevitable Archbishop de Pradt, rushing
into the field with one of those voluminous works which, as
Gentz said, could be read just as well forwards or backwards ;
in August, already, before he had heard a word about the
proceedings in Bohemia, he published the first section of his
writing, The Carlsbad Congress, declaring that the times of
Pilnitz and Brunswick had come back again. Still more
furiously did Etienne rage in the Minerve ; and similar strains
were heard from the Censeur and the Independant, and from
almost all the liberal periodicals of France and England. " The
Germans," they declared, "have put themselves outside the pale
of humanity by imposing a disgraceful system of slavery ; they
have become subject to the prescriptions of Sulla, to the tyranny
of Tiberius ; everywhere else in the world arbitrary power
conceals itself beneath a mask, but in Germany it stalks shame-
lessly and openly in the light of day."

The tone thus set was henceforward faithfully maintained.
The strengthening of Central Europe, so inconvenient to Ger-
many's neighbours, no longer seemed dangerous, now that the
Germanic Federation had displayed this mute submission to
the house of Austria. For thirty years Germany remained
for all the press of western Europe the classical land of every
kind of political contemptibility, utterly unworthy of the respect
of free Britons and Frenchmen ; and the nation which twice
within two years had planted her victorious banners upon
Montmartre, was treated by her vanquished neighbour with
contemptuous benevolence as a good-natured race of philistines,
composed of people who passed their time over beer, tobacco,
* Kmsemark's Report, Vienna, October 16, 1819.
237

History of Germany

and philosophy, and who, justly recognising their own
limitations, had comfortably renounced all plans for political
power and liberty. The Germans themselves had so thoroughly
accepted the consciousness of the hopeless " misere allemande,"
that they willingly accepted such manifestations of uncritical
arrogance as proofs of the superiority of western European
civilisation, and were no longer disturbed in their sense of
cosmopolitan brotherly love.

Notwithstanding the hostility of the nation, the Carlsbad
decrees were everywhere carried out with a promptness and
precision which from time immemorial had been unknown
in the case of any imperial or federal law. The central com-
mittee of enquiry immediately assembled. The most mischievous
of its members was Hormann, the Bavarian, that fanatical
Bonapartist who for years past in the Alemannia had been
attacking the Borussomaniacs, and who now hoped that he
would be able completely to exterminate them. Pfister of
Baden and Musset of Nassau worked hand in hand with
Hormann. Prussia had at first appointed the wretched Grano
as her plenipotentiary, but a sense of shame soon became active
in Berlin at the contemplation of such a representative. Grano
was recalled, and was replaced by President von Kaisenberg,
a distinguished lawyer, who conducted the duties of his repulsive
office with great circumspection and notable moderation, and,
in continuous conflict with Hormann, managed to prevent much
evil and many arbitrary acts.

The censors and the university plenipotentiaries immediately
began their work. The Burschen of Jena, in a quietly phrased
letter to the grand duke, expressed their regret that they
had been publicly misunderstood, and on November 27th
obediently dissolved their association. When they broke up
there were heard the verses of Binzer :

The bond has been severed,
'Twas black-red-and-gold.
This God has permitted.
Who knows what He willed ?

— sentimental complaints, which certainly breathe no thought
of revolutionary designs. Some of the more faithful adherents
met the same night in order to reconstitute the dissolved asso-
ciation, These new secret Burschenschafts, which henceforward

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

continued to meet in almost all the universities, since they were
in unceasing conflict with the police, bore from the first a
more revolutionary colour than did the old national league,
and yet in essentials they were even less dangerous than this
had been. The serious soldiers of the War of Liberation soon
left the universities ; their youthful successors were the ordinary
freshmen from the schools, who wished to enjoy the pleasures
of student life without restraint, and who engaged in quarrels
with their opponents, the corps and the Landsmannschafts
(which now everywhere sprang to life once more), with far
more zeal than they devoted to political oratory. But the
wholesome moral influence of the Burschenschaft movement
was preserved for the universities, and the detestable roughness
of the good old time never became completely reinstated. After
Oken's dismissal, the professors of Jena were left undisturbed ;
Fries, alone, on account of his foolish essay about the highly
well-born French monkeys, had to suspend his lectures for
several years. What pitiable results were these after the
Austrian presidential envoy had, before all the world, launched
his accusations at the entire order of German professors !

The carrying into effect of the new federal laws took
place everywhere under the immediate supervision of the envoys
of Austria and Prussia. The two great powers would not leave
this supervision to the Bundestag. This body had been dis-
credited by its contentiousness and its inactivity, and finally by
the enforced vote of September. In Vienna and at the friendly
courts the question had for months been under consideration
whether it was not advisable that all important federal affairs
should be directly discharged by the governments, and that
the federal assembly should merely be summoned to Mannheim
for three months in every year,1 as a modest diet. Conse-
quently the Austrian envoys received instructions that the
enforcement of the censorship and of the disciplinary measures
applied to the universities should be carefully supervised in the
petty states. In his own federal territories, indeed, Emperor
Francis could do nothing to carry the Carlsbad decrees into
effect ; in this peaceful Austrian world there was no demagogue,
no member of the Burschenschaft, not even a liberal newspaper,
to expel. It was only to show their goodwill that in October
the Viennese police organised a hunt against the numerous
private tutors from Switzerland ; but since against those

* Berkheim's Reports, Frankfort, April 2, 1819, 'and subsequent dates.

239

History of Germany

arrested no stronger evidence could be found than "a few letters
breathing bad principles," the emperor was forced to content
himself with keeping the offenders in prison for a short time,
and then showing them across the frontier.1

The court of Berlin showed itself to be almost more zealous.
The king was and remained convinced of the necessity of the
exceptional laws ; he commanded all his envoys in Germany
to supervise the carrying of these into effect ; and informed
the greater federal states that he counted upon their active
co-operation. The only state that did not require any such
exhortation was his faithful ally England-Hanover. The suspect
Thuringian courts, on the other hand, were, like the Hansa
towns, simply informed of the king's earnest desire ; but to
them no confidential words were expressly vouchsafed.8 Mean-
while, Humboldt, who had an honest veneration for Charles
Augustus, was soon able to secure the restoration of friendly
relationships with the court of Weimar. He wrote to the
grand duke : "In my opinion, if people hold fast to the
principles of justice, if those liable to punishment are visited
with due severity, if the masses, who seek nothing but
repose and internal security, are treated with confidence, and
if on these lines action is consistently taken, no danger need
be feared. In such times as these, it is inevitable that the
spirit of faction should arise. Since, however, I am convinced
that, to a government, party spirit is equally disastrous and
unworthy, I shall do my best to work against it wherever
I may encounter it, whether it be directed against ourselves
or against any other country." 3 The Weimar government
had been intimidated to such an extent that it was already
designing to submit to the Landtag an alteration of the consti-
tution in conformity with the latest federal decrees. But
when, in October, this government approached Bernstorff on the
subject, the Prussian sense of justice once more manifested
its undiminished force, and the minister rejoined that this
" delicate operation " was no doubt desirable, but in the exist-
ing situation might well miscarry, and in that case might have
extremely disagreeable consequences at once at home and

1 Kruscmark's Report, October 30, 1819.

* Instructions to the envoys in Dresden, Munich, Stuttgart, and Darmstadt,
October 2 ; Instructions to Count Keller in Erfurt, and to the charges d'affaires
in Hamburg and Frankfort, October 2, 1819.

3 Humboldt to Grand Duke Charles Augustus, October 9, 1819,

240

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

abroad.1 Thereupon the proposal was dropped, and Prussia
had once again safeguarded the existence of a German terri-
torial constitution.

On September 28th, a circular despatch, composed by
Ancillon, was sent to the envoys in foreign countries, describing
with theological unction how the four powers had re-established
legitimacy and property, and how Germany had afresh confirmed
this policy. " Germany by its geographical position is the
centre of gravity, or, better expressed, the heart of Europe,
and it is impossible that the heart should be disordered with-
out this disorder being speedily sensible in the most remote
extremities of the political body." When this document was
improperly published, having been disclosed in Paris, the whole
liberal press of Europe resounded with a cry of distress concern-
ing Prussia.

Soon afterwards, on the anniversary of the battle of Leipzig,
the king commanded the publication of the Carlsbad decrees.
On the same day he approved the censorship edict, which the
chancellor had elaborated with the greatest possible speed.
Scholl and Koreff, the two magnetic wizards, the same worth-
less fellows whom Wittgenstein was accustomed to suspect
as Hardenberg's liberal seducers, had in this matter given
faithful service to their patron ; z the committee appointed
in the spring to elaborate the press law was not even consulted.
The new edict, in essentials an elaboration of Wollner's censor-
ship ordinance of the year 1786, went far beyond the Carlsbad
prescriptions, declaring in its preamble that all printed matter
without exception should, as hitherto, be subjected to the
censorship; even the exemption from censorship previously con-
ceded to the academies and the universities was suspended for
the five years' duration of the edict. The only thing to offer
any guarantees against arbitrary acts was the newly constituted
supreme college of censorship ; but under the lax administra-
tion of Councillor von Raumer, this ultimate court of appeal
never attained to any vigorous efficiency. Meanwhile, Ancillon,
Nicolovius, and Kohler, the members of the old press law
committee, remained assiduously at work. They held fast to
the principles of their late referendary, Hagemeister, and on
November gih handed to the ministry of state a proposal
which, in sharp contradiction with the censorship edict, made

1 Cruickshank's Report, October 30, 1819.

2 Hardenberg's Diary, October 4, 1819.

241

History of Germany

freedom of the press the general rule, and reserved the cen-
sorship for political newspapers alone.1 This well-intentioned
suggestion was ignored, a striking testimony to the sudden
change of sentiment in Hardenberg's policy. Characteristic
was Ancillon's attitude, for he found it possible simultaneously
to elaborate this liberal press law and to impress upon the
diplomats the need for the strict enforcement of the Carlsbad
decrees. Certain severe ordinances were also issued regarding the
discipline of the universities, but through Altenstein's happy
intervention, the force of these was largely mitigated by the
mildness of their practical application.

Since the arrests of July, throughout the realm of Prussia,
Kamptz's tools had been able to track out only two more
notable demagogues. De Wette's incredible letter to Sand's
mother became known and was laid before the king. As soon
as the matter was proved, Frederick William, unaffected by the
requests of the university of Berlin, ordered that the theologian
should be dismissed. By his orders, de Wette received a
letter couched in the following terms : "It would go against
his majesty's conscience if a man who considers assassination
justified under certain conditions and provisos were to remain
in a position in which he is entrusted with the instruction
of youth." De Wette endured the severe, but just, punishment
with a Christian submission which served merely to give fresh
proof how little revolutionary energy there really was in the
theoretical radicalism of this professorial circle ; at the very
moment when he was expelled from Prussia, he invoked God's
blessing once again upon this king and upon this state which
he had served to the best of his ability.

Gorres' conduct was more defiant. Warned in good time
by his friend Willemer, when his book upon " Germany and
the Revolution " was published he escaped the threatened prose-
cution by flight, and, from Strasburg, then demanded a safe
conduct : he would render an account only to the jurors of
his Rhenish home. The crown could not parley in this way
with an accused person ; nor would the king concede to him
trial by jury, for, after the town of Coblenz had just intervened
on behalf of its fellow-citizen in a truly arrogant petition, it
could easily be foreseen that the Rhinelanders would make
an improper use of the opportunity afforded by such a trial

1 Published by F. Kapp. Prussian Press Legislation during the Reign of
Frederick Williarn II}. (Archiv. f. Gesch, d.d. Buchhandels, VI, p. 185.)

242

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

for an offensive manifestation against the Prussian regime. In
accordance with the outlook of the old absolutism, the king
regarded himself as justified, in cases of political danger, in
personally nominating the judges, and did not change his mind
on this point even when the Rhenish public prosecutors declared
that there was no ground for a criminal charge. Frederick
William considered that he did not exceed his prerogative when
he had the fugitive informed, through the instrumentality of
Hardenberg, that Gorres must first answer the summons and
then leave it to the monarch to decide before what court he
should be tried. But to Gorres, the king's procedure seemed
an invasion of Rhenish liberties, and he refused to leave
Strasburg.

Public opinion, already in an extremely bad humour, now
broke out into fierce anger when the editor of the Rheinische
Merkur was thus expelled by the Prussian state (with good
cause, indeed, but only on account of inconsiderate words, and
in a manner which involved infringement of legal forms), and
when his ancient and deadly enemies the French (whom he
could now no longer harm in any way) generously and with
unconcealed and malicious joy granted him asylum. In inter-
course with the Strasburg Jesuits, Gorres was soon completely
won over to the side of those clericalist efforts towards which
he had already been drawn in Coblenz. The unstable roman-
ticist, who had at one time in mighty dithyrambs extolled the
victorious flights of the black eagle, now, blinded by religious
and political hatred, formed for himself a horrible caricature
of the Prussian monarchy, the region of Protestant and
unimaginative barrenness and of dead bureaucratic rules.
Henceforward it was his pride, in the name of German and
Catholic freedom, to fight against " this malformed and rigid
skeleton."

Besides Gorres, C. T. Welcker and about fifty authors,
students, and publicists, threatened by the prosecution of the
demagogues, had taken refuge in Strasburg. Thus Alsace,
which, four years before, Germany had desired to liberate from
the French yoke, now offered asylum to the dissatisfied of
Germany, and many of those thus expelled, declared to their
revolutionary friends in Strasburg that they would have done
well at an earlier date to cast in their lot with free France !
It was proposed to found here on the frontier a free German
newspaper, but the hopeless poverty of the refugees^ and a

34$

History of Germany

strict prohibition from Berlin of the import of all German
newspapers published in foreign countries, frustrated the design.
The central committee of enquiry immediately reported to the
Bundestag the dangerous intrigues that were going on in Stras-
burg, and both the great powers demanded of the neighbour
court of Carlsruhe that strict supervision should be exercised.
Berstett acted on these instructions with fiery zeal. He entered
into correspondence with the legitimist mayor of Strasburg ;
placed de Wette, who had just come to Heidelberg, under
police supervision, and declared with servile enthusiasm that
Baden regarded herself as Germany's outpost and made it a
point of honour to safeguard the fatherland against the
onslaughts of " Teutonising Jacobins upon the left bank of the
Rhine." »

Two German states only, Bavaria and Wiirtemberg, offered
a feeble opposition to the federal laws ; but since both these
governments had already approved the decrees unconditionally,
their subsequent attempts at resistance were essentially dis-
honest, petty, and devoid of all prospect of success. In Munich
there was once more displayed that scandalous weakness which
had been characteristic of this court since the fall of Montgelas.
When Count Rechberg returned from Bohemia, he was over-
whelmed with reproaches by his colleagues Lerchenfeld and
Reigersberg. The former dreaded the destruction of political
freedom, and in a passionate letter to his friend Wangenheim
had already expressed his liberal discontent with the Carlsbad
decrees.2 The latter trembled for Bavaria's position of
European power, proudly believing that Bavaria was self-
sufficient, and could dispense with the Federation. In secret,
Montgelas also gave his assistance, for the ancient opponent
of Austria hoped once more to get his hand on the tiller.
When the Carlsbad decrees were laid before the ministerial
council, Lerchenfeld and Reigersberg accused the foreign minister
of having exceeded his instructions. In fact, the Bavarian
constitution was the only one which did not in set terms
accept the legal validity of the federal laws.

King Max Joseph, however, in so far as he was able to

1 Berstett to Metternich, October 2 and 22 ; to Schuckmann, November 26 ;
Metternich to Berstett, October 30 ; Schuckmann to Berstett, November i, 1819.

2 Printed by F. von Weech, Correspondence and Documents bearing on the
History of the Ministerial Conferences of Carlsbad and Vienna, p. 16.

344

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

come to any decision, was filled with dread of the demagogues,
although the crown prince, in an earnest letter, implored him
not to abandon the constitution. Annoyed by the dissensions
among his councillors, he had not been willing to attend the
ministerial council in person, and had instead sent the faithful
Wrede. As soon as Rechberg was attacked, Wrede, quickly
making up his mind, laid his hands upon the documents, and
in the name of the king declared that what was past was
past, and that the only thing which remained for discussion
was the acceptance of the Carlsbad decrees.1 Thus the attack
on Rechberg was averted, and, after further lively disputes,
the two parties in the ministry met in a pitiable compromise.
The Carlsbad decrees were published, but with an appendix
which declared that they were to be valid " subject to our
sovereignty, and in accordance with the constitution and the
laws of our kingdom." It was only the federal executive
ordinance (whose carrying out did not indeed depend upon the
crown of Bavaria but upon the Federation) which was omitted
from the publication ; the censorship, too, in accordance with
the Bavarian constitution, was to be restricted to political
newspapers.

If this proviso were to have any meaning at all, it signi-
fied that Bavaria was to be exempted from the decrees which
the court of Munich had already twice formally approved, first
in Carlsbad and then in Frankfort. The two great powers
immediately armed for defence, and, in view of the plans for
a coup d'etat which the Bavarian crown had recently laid before
them, the proviso did in fact seem dishonourable. Emperor
Francis personally expressed his annoyance to the Bavarian
envoy ; 2 sent his father-in-law an autograph letter, warning
him against " partisan intrigues " ; and gave strict instructions
to his envoy in Munich. Still more vigorously did Bernstorff
bear testimo'ny. " If the Bavarian government recalls," he
wrote to Zastrow on November ist, " in what urgent need
it stood a few months ago, what counsel it then asked
from us, and to what an extent the desire to give this govern-
ment a firm standing-ground in future from which to resist
improper presumptions, has co-operated in bringing into existence
the Carlsbad decrees, it will readily understand our astonishment.

1 Zastrow's Reports, October 9 and 20, December 23, 1819. Further details
in Appendix IX.

2 Krusemark's Report, October 30, 1819.

245

I listory of Germany

If the Bavarian government wishes to secede from the
Federation, and as far as future difficulties are concerned to
confide in its own powers (which may not always prove suffi-
cient), we must advise those federal states which are of the
same way of thinking with ourselves to oppose this first devia-
tion from the federal decrees." When General Zastrow simul-
taneously communicated these views to Vienna, and read to
the Bavarian minister the instructions which had been hailed
with joy,1 Count Rechberg felt profoundly contrite, and begged
the Prussian to give him a note which he could lay before
his colleagues. Zastrow responded to the request (November
8th), and now the Bavarian heroics lamentably collapsed. In
a humble answer Rechberg declared that his king had never
had any idea of seceding from the Federation, and that the
sole aim of the publication had been " to pacify the subjects
of the crown." 2

Deeds corresponded to words. The censorship of the
newspapers and the supervision of the universities were in
Bavaria effected with the greatest possible severity, and the
sending of Hormann to the Mainz committee left no further
doubt open regarding the sentiments of the court of Munich.
A petition on the part of the indefatigable Hornthal against
the Carlsbad decrees was brusquely rejected by the ministers.
Certain officers who assembled in Ratisbon and Kelheim in
order to defend Bavarian constitutional rights against the
attacks of their country's old enemy, Austria, were reminded
by Colonel Zoller of the duties of military discipline, and were
speedily silenced.8 To strengthen the repentant sinners, on
December 7th Ancillon despatched another unctuous memorial
in which he said : " Truth has forces of its own to which
in the end people must submit. Everything that increases
Germany's unanimity favours its unity. Sovereignty has no
other enemies to fight against than those who 'hypocritically
feign for it a suspect veneration." * At the same time Ancillon
gave assurances that his king had not the remotest desire
to see the Bavarian constitution abolished ; it would suffice if this
constitution were to be manipulated in a strictly monarchical

1 Bernstorfl: Instruction to Zastrow, November i ; to Krusemark, November 2.
Krusemark's Report, November 10, 1819.

* Rechberg to Zastrow, November 13, 1819.

3 Zastrow's Report, November 17, 1819.

4 Ancillon to Zastrow, December 7, 1819.

246

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

sense. Prussia, therefore, advised against the introduction of
a Bavarian constitution based upon provincial diets, such as
the envoy in St. Petersburg, Count Bray, upon Metternich's
suggestion, had just before recommended to the court of
Munich. l

At length the vacillating Max Joseph felt fully reassured.
He knew that he could go hand-in-hand with the court of
Prussia without any infringement of his oath to the constitu-
tion. Wrede, too, who, in his fickle way, had showed himself
for a time to be greatly concerned on behalf of Bavarian
sovereignty, was converted by a flattering letter from Metter-
nich, and assured the Prussian envoy of his profound detestation
of the liberal views of Lerchenfeld. The last-named had con-
siderable difficulty in retaining his post, for his demagogic letter
to Wangenheim was betrayed to the king, and aroused the
monarch's most intense anger.2 The humiliation of the court
of Munich was complete, and the victory of the two great
powers was secured for the future when Rechberg now refused
to go to the ministerial conferences at Vienna. He desired
to remain in Munich, in order to keep the unreliable monarch
in view. In Vienna, Zentner was to represent the Bavarian
crown, and Rechberg's knowledge of men led him to predict
that this bureaucrat, suspect for his liberalism, would return
from the shores of the Danube a warm admirer of Metternich.3

The dishonesty of the Bavarian court seemed respectable
when compared with the conduct of the crown of Wiirtemberg.
As early as October ist, King William promulgated the Carls-
bad decrees without proviso, and on the same day introduced
the censorship. Yet a few days earlier he had sworn fealty
to the new constitution, which promised the freedom of the
press, and which in many other respects conflicted with the
declarations made at Carlsbad by the Wiirtemberg minister,
Wintzingerode. Perhaps, like Hardenberg, he salved his con-
science with the fact that the federal press law was valid for
five years only. This double-faced attitude was excused to
the great powers, as far as might be, by tortuous assurances.
After all that had happened, declared Wintzingerode to the
Prussian envoy, the crown owed its people a proof of con-
fidence. In Vienna, on the other hand, the king allowed it to be

1 Blittersdorff's Report, St. Petersburg, October 25, 1819.

2 Zastrow's Reports, December 23, 1819, January 9, 1820.

3 Zastrow's Report, October 27, 1819.

247

History of Germany

understood that, were it possible, he would gladly recall what had
happened.1 When the town of Esslingen sent in a petition
against the Carlsbad decrees, Wintzingerode administered a
sharp rebuke to the censor who had passed this dangerous
document. Simultaneously the same minister prepared a diplo-
matic campaign for the conferences of Vienna, and, in order
to secure for his court support among the small fry, he next
had the minutes of the Carlsbad conferences, which it had
been agreed to keep secret, sent to several of the minor courts
excluded from those conferences.

Meanwhile King William endeavoured to destroy the one
thing which in this gloomy epoch of our history was something
to rejoice about, namely, the harmony of the German crowns
vis-a-vis the foreign world. In October he went to Warsaw
in order to incite his imperial brother-in-law against the two
German great powers, but Metternich thereupon immediately
ordered the Austrian envoy, Lebzeltern, to pay a simultaneous
visit to the Polish capital.2 The precaution was hardly neces-
sary. Czar Alexander gave his brother-in-law an extremely
cool reception, for this excess of falseness disgusted him,
although he himself by no means invariably eschewed crooked
paths. He did not hesitate to say openly before the foreign
diplomats that twice formally to accept the Carlsbad decrees,
then to work against them, and, finally, to appeal to him
(the czar) for help, was an unsavoury practice (de la mauvaise
besogne).3 The king of Wiirtemberg had to depart with
nothing effected, and subsequently, on a visit to Carlsruhe, he
endeavoured to induce the court of Baden to join with him
in a liberal sonderbund ; but neither the grand duke nor the
ultra-conservative Berkheim, who was now the duke's principal
stand-by, would yield to these incitations. At the same time
King William sent an urgent request to the Bavarian govern-
ment not to display any needless hesitation about enforcing
the Carlsbad decrees, for, after he had unreservedly recognised
these decrees, no other German prince must exhibit a more
liberal spirit.4

1 Kuster's Report, Stuttgart, October 12 ; Krusemark's Reports, Vienna,
September 22, October 2, 1819.

* Instruction to Krusemark, October i, 1819.

3 Lebzeltern 's Report from Warsaw (in Krusemark's Report, Vienna, Decem-
ber 8) ; Blittersdorff's Report, St. Petersburg, November 7, 1819.

4 Berstett to Grand Duke Louis, Vienna, December 12 ; Zastrow's Report,
Munich, December 6, 1819.

248

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

This king, who vacillated in so undignified a manner
between despotic inclinations and ambition to pose as a liberal,
was extolled by his loyal people in ignorant good faith, as
the mainstay of Teutonic freedom. " Never has Wiirtemberg
attained a more glorious position," wrote Wangenheim with
delight, " and if this position is occupied with firmness and
maintained with intelligence, the country will acquire an internal
strength which will fit it to cope with all others."1 When
King William returned from Warsaw, the inhabitants of
Stuttgart assembled in crowds to greet him at the gate, took
the horses out of his carriage, and dragged it in triumph
to the palace. Here the school children awaited him, and
they sang : " Praise God from whom all blessings flow," the
people joining in, and grown men being moved to tears. In
the evening, bonfires flamed on the hills, and in the theatre
Uhland's Ernest of Swabia was played. There were thunders
of applause when a stirring prologue sang the glories of the
prince who in a time of wild confusion magnanimously extended a
hand to his people, and when this prologue declared, " The gods still
descend to earth." To supply an effective background for the
brilliant spectacle of Swabian freedom, the poet described the
intense gloom of Prussian affairs, and said, alluding to Gorres :

Such is the curse of that unhappy state

Where freedom and the law in ruins lie,

Where those late deemed the saviours of their land

Must flee for refuge to a foreign hearth.

In this way were praises showered by a German tribe
upon a prince who had just been endeavouring to spur on the
Russians against his German allies. In the intoxication of
enthusiasm for Wurtemberg freedom, no one gave a thought
to the common fatherland. Now that the Germanic Federation
had estranged itself from the people, particularism once again
stalked abroad unashamed. In Ulm a number of Wurtemberg
officers, led by General Hiigel, combined to send the king an
address turgid with Rhenish Confederate megalomaniac The
memorialists began by singing the praises of their const tution,
" engendered by the spirit of truth, and conceived by the love
of right " ; and they went on to vent their anger in abusive

1 Wangenheim to Harlmann, November 6, 1819.
* Zastrow's Report, November 17, 1819,

249 s

History of Germany

terms upon " the foreign governments who rail against the
happiness of the Wiirtemberg people, and who cherish the
insane illusion that they will be able to hale Wiirtembergers
abroad before a foreign inquisition, to judge them by the laws
of other lands than our own." In conclusion, they actually
demanded war against the two great powers, speaking yet more
plainly than a few months before had spoken the liberals of
the Bavarian chambers, describing it as " the most glorious
of struggles on behalf of the most sacred possessions of a full-
grown people," and declaring " the entire nation will flock to
our ranks, full of enthusiasm ! " However childish these boasts
might seem, the incident was taken seriously both in Vienna
and Berlin, for what would become of the Germanic federal
army if this unbridled spirit of political partisanship, which
had already more than once manifested itself in the Bavarian
army, was now to infect some of the other minor Napoleonic
contingents ? Both the great powers demanded in Stuttgart
that severe proceedings should be taken against the signatories
to the address. King William complied, but the punishments,
he inflicted were so trifling as to leave no doubt about his
own true opinion. Such a policy, false and contradictory
in every word, was not likely to impose any obstacle in the
way of Austria's triumphal campaign.

King William's journey to Warsaw seemed all the more
foolish because in Russia the state of perplexity and insecurity
with which the policy of that country had become affected
in the spring of 1818 still persisted. Now, as before, Nessel-
rode was Metternich's devoted disciple, and unreservedly
approved all that had been done in Carlsbad ; 1 the views of
Capodistrias in this matter were strongly opposed to those of
Nesselrode ; the czar was in essentials of the latter 's way of
thinking, but was not firm enough to reject unhesitatingly
the liberal ideas of his Greek friend. Immediately after the
Carlsbad conferences, Emperor Francis had written personally
to the czar explaining how gravely the repose of Europe was
endangered by the criminal neglect displayed by the minor
German crowns in their proceedings " against the fools and
the noisy complainants." Next the two German great powers,
directly their work was completed, laid before the czar the

1 BlittersdorfTs Reports, St. Petersburg, August 14, 1819, and subsequent
dates.

250

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

new federal decrees, and received the warmest expressions of
Alexander's gratitude. All the foreign ministers at the court
of St. Petersburg agreed in reporting that the czar was abso-
lutely convinced of the imminent danger of a general revolu-
tionary uprising ; it was only for this reason, Alexander
repeatedly declared, that the Russian army remained upon a
war footing.1

Meanwhile Capodistrias was pursuing a liberal policy upon
his own account. He called the representatives of Bavaria
and Baden seriously to task, asking them why the courts of
these countries had so frivolously abandoned their sovereignty.
What would happen now, he asked Blittersdorff, if the
Bundestag were to entrust to the crown of Bavaria the carrying
out of executive measures against Baden ? " Fear," he said,
" is always an evil counsellor, and fear seems to have dictated
the Carlsbad decrees. If the German princes are sovereigns
merely in order to submit themselves to another's authority,
well and good, let them choose an overlord, but let them choose
one overlord, not eight-and-thirty." It would be well, he
said in 'conclusion, that the court of Carlsruhe should think
twice before agreeing, at the Vienna conferences, to accept new
decrees which would convert the Germanic Federation into a federal
state ! • The Russian envoys to the minor courts, Anstett in
Frankfort, Pahlen in Munich, and Koselowski in Stuttgart, did
not know what to make of these extraordinary contradictions,
and therefore acted on the old Muscovite principle that
disturbances of the peace in Germany must be advantageous
to Russia, omitting nothing which might serve to encourage
resistance to the German great powers.

At length, on November 30th, Capodistrias took a somewhat
bolder line, simultaneously despatching four comprehensive
memorials : an answer to Lebzeltern, the Austrian envoy ;
a verbal note to the two German great powers ; a circular
despatch to the Russian envoys in Germany ; and, finally, an
additional memoir dealing with the consequences of the recent
federal decrees.3 The bombastic phraseology of these documents
showed only too clearly that the Greek could not venture to

1 Krusemark's Report, December 8, 1819. Report from Lowenhjelm,
Swedish envoy at St. Petersburg (appended to Krusemark's Report, January 2,
1820).

2 Blittersdorfi's Report, St. Petersburg, November 4, 1819.

3 Capodistrias to Lebzeltern, November 30, 1819. The three other documents
are published by F. von Weech, Correspondence, pp. 19 et seq.

251

History of Germany

express his whole opinion. To sum up the verbiage, Czar
Alexander hailed the Carlsbad decrees as fresh proof of his
allies' magnanimous intentions. But he could not give that
unconditional approval which the Prussian court anticipated,
for he noted with profound distress that unanimity was lacking
among the German governments themselves, and that many
of them were to-day showing by their actions their disapproval
of that which yesterday they had accepted as a matter of
principle. In view of these dissensions, and of the severely
disordered state of Germany which was manifested by the
commencement of emigration, the czar was unable to give any
definite opinion until he had consulted the court of St. James's.
Thus Russia sought advice from her sworn enemies, from
the English tones, and England stood absolutely firm on
Austria's side ! Count Miinster, who remained Castlereagh 's
sole adviser in all German questions, was a yet more zealous
advocate of the Carlsbad policy than Metternich himself ; from
Bohemia he had sent emphatic instructions to the privy council
of the duchy of Brunswick (which was under the guardianship
of the prince regent) to impress upon its members th£ correct
doctrine of the German representative estates. The German
great powers were not likely to find much difficulty in parrying
so hopelessly maladroit a thrust. Hardenberg immediately
wrote to Castlereagh (December 3oth), asking him in a friendly
way to give a brusque reception to this sophist Capodistrias
(" who already gave us so much trouble at Aix-la-Chapelle) " ;
the czar, declared Hardenberg, is really quite of our way of
thinking. Metternich wrote in similar terms.1 Castlereagh,
of course, hastened to reply to his old friend that all the
latter's undertakings received his cordial good wishes, and on
January I4th despatched an answer to the Russian court calcu-
lated to disperse " the visions of Count Capodistrias." In
point of form his rejoinder was cautiously worded. He had
to avoid irritating the whigs in parliament, where, in a fierce
speech, Lord Minto had just been reproaching him on account
of " the league of the courts against the peoples." Conse-
quently he refused to accept Metternich's proposal that he
should discuss with the other courts of the Quadruple Alliance
the adoption of common measures to be undertaken upon
the death of Louis XVIII ; and in his despatch to the Russian
envoy he took the line that, as a matter of principle, England's

1 Krusemark's Report, January 2, 1820.
252

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

policy was one of non-intervention.1 Nevertheless he essentially
espoused the cause of Austria, approving the campaign against
the revolution, and finding that there was no occasion to com-
plain of what had been done. The Badenese government, too,
considered it its duty to reject the Greek's warnings in forcible
terms : " The federal act," wrote Berstett, " is for Germany
to-day the law and prophets."2 After this Capodistrias kept
quiet, and for a time Nesselrode once more gained the upper
hand.8 Nor was a word of contradiction heard from the
Tuileries.

Thus Metternich could pursue his course undisturbed, in
arrogant security. He contended that throughout Europe the
beneficial consequences of his " diplomatic counter-revolution "
could already be observed. The French ministers now opposed
the independents far more decisively than for a long time
past, while in the English parliament the tory cabinet continued
to gain victory after victory.4 Never had Gentz written more
proudly and more confidently than in this happy winter. To
the attacks of the French press he scornfully rejoined : " The
moment is perhaps not far distant when all good fathers in
Germany will recognise that what blindness or bitterness has
termed the death-blow of the German universities was really
the beginning of their rebirth." When the French deputies,
in an access of unbridled partisan frenzy, expelled Gregoire
the regicide from the chamber, the Oesterreichsche Beobachter
expressed its approval of this action in the statesmanlike words :
" The result cannot fail to encourage those of the right way
of thinking, seeing how profoundly it has depressed their oppo-
nents." Adam Miiller declared to his friend : " There now
exists on both sides of the Rhine a firm association on behalf
of the cause of God and truth, and this association is your
work." The Germans were to learn again at Christmas precisely
what was understood at Vienna by the cause of God and truth.
At the very time when the German demagogues were being
haled to prison, General Mack, the man who had capitulated
at Ulm, was reinstated by Emperor Francis in all his honours
and dignities. "By an excess of imperial grace "g (as General
Krusemark could not refrain from observing) all the accumulated

1 Krusemark's Reports, January 2 and April 10, 1820.
1 Berstett to Capodistrias, December 10, 1819.
s Krusemark's Reports, January 17 and February 12, 1820.
< Krusemark's Report, December 26, 1819.

253

1 listory of Germany

pay which had been withheld from Mack since the glorious
days of Ulm was now paid over to the hero.1

§ 2. HARDENBERG'S DESIGN FOR A CONSTITUTION. DISMISSAL

OF HUMBOLDT.

Of enormously greater value to the Hofburg than the
friendly attitude of the foreign powers was a struggle within
the Prussian ministry, a struggle whose connection with the
Carlsbad decrees was indirect merely, but which ended in a
victory for the Austrian party. On August 5th the chancellor
had returned to Glienicke in good spirits, believing that by
the Teplitz convention he would have regained the king's confi-
dence, and sanguinely devoting himself to the completion of
his plans for reform. The new tax law and national debt
law were nearly ready. Hardenberg desired to secure Stein's
opinion on these measures, despatching a gracefully worded
letter speaking of himself as Stein's pupil in financial matters,
and making the friendly enquiry, " Why can we not work
together ? " But the proud imperial baron remained firm in
his hatred, and overwhelmed Hardenberg's proposals with
criticism although he knew absolutely nothing about them.
Meanwhile the design for a constitution also attained its final
form. The malicious tongues of the capital were wagging
confidently with assurances that for a long time past the chan-
cellor had abandoned his constitutional ideas ; and it was
generally asserted that upon receipt of the news of Kotzebue's
assassination he had exclaimed, " A constitution for Prussia
has now become impossible ! " But no one could give any
direct authority for this rumour, and if it were not simply
invented, the exclamation was no more than the involuntary
outcome of a first moment of panic. This much is certain,
that now, when circumstances were extremely unfavourable,
Hardenberg resumed his work on behalf of the constitution.
On August nth he laid his final proposal before the king,
an elaboration of the plan which had been approved by Metter-
nich in Teplitz ; and, after further confidential discussions in
Charlottenburg, to which Witzleben was also a party, Frederick
William once more commanded that a special committee should
be formed out of the constituent committee of the council of
state to draft the constitution on the lines of Hardenberg's

1 Krusemark's Report, December 13, 1819.
254

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

proposals. This special committee consisted of the chancellor,
Humboldt, Schuckmann, Ancillon, Daniels, and Eichhorn.1
Six additional weeks elapsed, for Daniels was detained by the
business of organising the Rhenish judiciary. At length, on
October I2th, the special committee held its first sitting, and
Hardenberg's proposal, Ideas for a Representative Constitution in
Prussia, emerged into the light of day.

This work showed that, although years had undermined
the old statesman's energy of will, the boldness and incisiveness
of his ideas remained undiminished.2 In accordance with the
thorough-going ancient Prussian manner, and in sharp contrast
with the improvised constitutions of the south, he desired to
establish parliamentary rights upon the broad foundation of
self-government in the commune, the circle, and the province.
The septuagenarian still believed himself to possess the energy
requisite for a reconstruction of the entire state administration
from below upwards. He no longer displayed any trace of
those bureaucratic-liberal ideas which he had formerly mani-
fested in the issue of the gendarmerie edict, and nothing could
be move unjust than Stein's reproach that Hardenberg was a
man simply of " liberal phrases and despotic realities, paying
no regard to existing institutions." Hardenberg, rather, just
like Stein himself, started from the principle, "we have nothing
but free proprietorship," and all representative rights were to
depend upon free landed proprietorship. Consequently a com-
munes' ordinance, to give the communes the management of
their own affairs, was indicated as the most pressing need
of the moment. The circle diet was to consist of deputies
indirectly elected by the rural and urban communes and others
directly elected by the manorial landowners, thus representing
three estates (or four estates if there were any mediatised nobles),
and these bodies were to form undivided assemblies, not bound
by instructions from the electors. Thus it was not the landed
nobility but great landed proprietorship as a whole which
received especial representation ; the manorial landowners did
indeed receive the name of " circle estates," but they were
not as such given integral votes at the circle diet, having
merely the right to elect representatives to that diet. Every
Christian landowner of full legal age and of unblemished reputa-
tion was eligible for election. The circle diets were to elect

1 Cabinet Order to the Chancellor, August 23, 1819.

2 Ideas for a Representative Constitution in Prussia. See Appendix X.

255

History of Germany

representatives of the three estates to the provincial diet,
of which body the mediatised and the bishops were to
be ex officio members ; the king himself had declared represen-
tation of the universities undesirable, except in so far as the
universities were landowners. All these representative bodies
were chiefly concerned with the administration of local affairs
and of debts, and with the assessment of taxes. On the other
hand, the general Landtag, elected by the provincial diets, was
to have no executive powers, and was merely to receive annual
ministerial reports upon the administration, relating especially
to the state of the finances, and was to discuss the new laws
for the monarchy as a whole.

Here it was plain how differently from Metternich the
Prussian chancellor interpreted the pledges of the Teplitz con-
vention. He seriously desired that there should be a respected
(if not very large) Prussian diet, and not a paltry central
committee ; leaving it for the constituent committee to con-
sider whether the unicameral or the bicameral system would
be preferable for this general representation of the three estates.
He was further careful to leave open the difficult questions
of initiative in legislation, of publicity, and of ministerial
responsibility. He also left open the question whether the
provincial diets were to represent the newly formed provinces
or the feudal territories of former days. Foreign affairs and
military concerns (in so far as they did not involve personal
obligations) were beyond the competence of the diet. An
enumeration of certain fundamental rights followed : equality
before the law, freedom of conscience, and so on. Prescriptions
regarding freedom of the press and the administration of justice
were also mooted. All this was done at the very moment
when Hardenberg was enforcing the Carlsbad policy, for in his
eyes the new federal laws were no more than exceptional laws
for a few years of special need. In conclusion, the chancellor
insisted upon the firm maintenance of the monarchical principle,
and recalled the saying salus publica suprema lex esto.

The proposal offered numerous points for criticism. In
view of the endless complexity of social conditions in the
country districts, a single communes' ordinance for the entire
monarchy was plainly impossible. Still more questionable was
the notion that the suffrage was to be granted exclusively
on account of landed proprietorship, for in the towns this plan
would lead to numerous absurdities. A dubious proposal also

256

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

was the re-establishment (assumed to be possible) of the old
territories, although it was true that difficulties were involved
in the taking over of the complicated debts of these territories
by new provincial administrations. Open to criticism, above
all, was the unfortunate system of threefold indirect elections.
The danger was obvious that a general Landtag of this kind, not
elected but delegated, would become estranged from the nation,
and that the monarchy would assume the character of a federa-
tive state. Nevertheless, in the existing posture of affairs, the
point of supreme importance was that a parliament should be
constituted for the monarchy in its entirety ; the form of this
parliament was of comparatively little moment. In essentials,
Hardenberg's proposals amounted to the summoning of a united
Landtag, such as assembled in the year 1847. It was not impossible
that such an assembly, summoned in 1820, would in the course
of a generation have been able to lead the state gradually
and peacefully into the paths of a purely representative system.
Every sentence of the memorial disclosed the serious
and straightforward character of the chancellor's determination.
With great caution he had avoided introducing anything which
might alarm the king, and for this reason he had, above all,
withdrawn military affairs and foreign policy from the compe-
tence of the diet. Moreover, he had gone as far as possible
to meet the desires of the feudal party, and yet, in the incon-
spicuous section about the circle diets, the proposal contained
a bold and far-reaching reform. The lords of the manor were
deprived of their integral votes at the circle assemblies, their
voting power being reduced to a moderate amount in harmony
with the relative economic forces of the new time. In this
way redress was given for one of the bitterest and most
justified complaints of the peasants in the east ; the feudal
dominion of the nobility in the rural districts collapsed, being
replaced by representation of the interests of three social groups,
among which the lords of the manor still, indeed, received
a considerable preponderance of power, but were no longer
given an absolute dominance. Hardenberg's plan was, in fact,
to complete the reforms of 1807-12, to destroy the last vestiges
of the feudal Order. Readily comprehensible was the anger
with which the feudalist party at the court raged against the
old Jacobin. Had he not, in his maladroit closing words,
betrayed his " ideas " ; had he not shown that he honoured
the salut public as the greatest of all goods ?

257

History of Germany

It is true that the chancellor laid before the committee
no more than the outline of a proposal, a light sketch of
suggestions which bore a similar relationship to Humboldt's
constitutional memorial as that which a skeleton bears to a
living body. Everything depended upon how the committee
would fill in these outlines. There seemed no reason to expect
that any of the members of that body would offer opposition
on principle. Eichhorn and Daniels gladly approved the leading
elements of the proposal. In the brief months of his career
as a minister of state, Humboldt found only two opportunities
of expressing his views upon the principles involved in the
constitutional dispute, and showed in both instances that
Hardenberg's compromise was his own. When two decayed
rural poor-houses which the state had long before handed over
to the estates of Electoral Mark, had to be re-established,
and the estates, after their custom, protested against the alleged
infringement of their rights, Humboldt replied : " I do not
deny that in my view profound difficulties are at present
involved in the settlement of all matters connected even
remotely with a representative constitution." He advised
the monarch to adopt a middle course. The government
should immediately undertake the urgently necessary reform of
the poor-relief system of Electoral Mark, but should promise
the estates that their views should subsequently be given due
consideration as soon as the new provincial representation should
come into existence. The estates of County Mark, which once
more petitioned for the re-establishment of their ancient institu-
tions, received a firm and friendly answer to the effect that
the provinces would not be left without representative institu-
tions, but that the needs of national unity made it impossible
" to leave in isolated and unaltered existence that which had
hitherto obtained in utterly different circumstances."1 It was
as if Hardenberg himself had dictated the answer. Ancillon,
too, still favoured the chancellor's plan ; in his book Political
Science he had just expressed a strong commendation of the
advantages of the bicameral system. Even Schuckmann had
hitherto continued to express himself in favour of the design
to establish a constitution.

As soon as the news that Humboldt was one of the
members of a new constituent committee had been bruited

1 Humboldt to Schuckmann, October 24 ; to Bodelschwingh-Plettenberg,
September 22, 1819.

258

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

abroad, the flagging hopes of the liberals began to revive.
Councillor Gravell, the indefatigable journalistic advocate of
a constitution, republished, in November, the notorious letter
sent by the youthful Gentz to King Frederick William, and
declared in his defiant preface : " There are two great days in
the life of nations : the day on which the king ascends the
throne, and the day on which a constitution is granted ; on
the first of these days, the accident of time, on the second,
wisdom itself, concludes a new alliance between prince and
people. Frederick William's people is now approaching the
second of these great days, for the year 1820 brings the evangel
of the future, the day of the foundation of a representative
constitution." The Oppositionsblatt, the radical paper of
Weimar, went so far as to prophesy in December that in the
following year there would be promulgated a Prussian constitu-
tion satisfactory to the wishes of the boldest.

The challenging language of the old estates, whose arro-
gance had continually increased since the announcement of
the Carlsbad decrees, served merely to strengthen the chancellor
in his constitutional designs. " Filled with consolation and
hope by the newest decrees of the august German federal
assembly," the lords of the manor of W7est Havelland memorialised
the king on November I7th to express their indignation
concerning " the unseemly presumption of the so-called popular
representatives of other German lands," and they continued
as follows : " Well acquainted with the state of mind of the
countryfolk, the most vigorous element of the nation, we are
able to assert that these are in general far from inclined to
lend ear to the widespread intrigues of those who desire to
lead the people astray. On the contrary, they earnestly hope
for the continuance of their ancient institutions, upon which
their present favourable situation depends. All the German
lands owe the happiness they have enjoyed for half a millen-
nium to the existence of the representation of estates, to a
system which can be altered by a convention alone." There
followed a petition for the re-establishment of the old rights,
and there was enclosed a defiant letter to Hardenberg, condemn-
ing the abolition of the privileges of the estates as an attack
upon property. Soon afterwards, the estates of County Ruppin
demanded that the crown should summon to the constituent
committee elected deputies of the old estates from the individual
provinces in rotation — a demand which was soon to acquire

259

History of Germany

practical importance. Both these petitions were rejected by
the chancellor in sharp terms.1

Nevertheless Hardenberg's new constituent committee did
not display much vitality. It resolved, first of all, to draw
up a general plan for the representative institutions as a whole,
and then to pass step by step from the consideration of the
communes' ordinance to the representative systems of the circles,
the provinces, and the entire monarchy. But before the end
of the year no more than two sittings had been held, and
two only of the members of the committee, Ancillon and Eich-
horn, had issued written opinions regarding the general design.
Both demanded a bicameral system, and both considered that
the central representative body should have " a legislative as
well as a deliberative voice." 2 From the first the efficiency
of the committee was paralysed by the enmity between Harden-
berg and Humboldt, who were now measuring strength in
a fierce struggle.

Humboldt did not enter the ministry until August I2th,
after the completion of his work at Frankfort, and had from
the very first to endure the offensive mistrust of Hardenberg.
The minister for representative affairs was allowed for many
weeks no word of information concerning the chancellor's
" Ideas " ; and when the design for a constitution was at length
disclosed, he was just as much taken by surprise as were the
other members of the committee. There were, indeed, good
reasons for Hardenberg's insulting attitude, for Humboldt since
accepting office had unceasingly laboured to secure for himself
and the other ministers that independent and responsible posi-
tion which was in his view essential, but which was incom-
patible with the rights of the chancellor. His ultimate aim
was the overthrow of Hardenberg. He hardly cared to con-
ceal his opinion that the chancellor was a man of ill-omen,
and an opportunity was soon offered for joining battle. On
August gth the king had informed the ministry of his well-
grounded displeasure that the cabinet order of January nth
still remained unanswered.3 The ministerial council met in

1 Petition to the king from the lords of the manor of the West Havelland
and Zauche circles, November 17 ; Petition of the estates of County Ruppin,
December 21, 1819.

* Minutes of the constituent committee, October 12 and 28. Ancillon and
Eichhorn, Ideas concerning the Representative Constitution.

' Cabinet Order to the Ministry of State, August 9, 1819.

260

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

order at length to fulfil the king's command, and the new
member was able to concentrate the widely divergent opinions
of his colleagues upon a single definite idea.

Humboldt considered that the principal ground of previous
errors was to be found in the chancellor's position of power,
and he won over the majority of the ministers to his side,
for Bernstorff and Klewitz were absent, and Wittgenstein
carefully abstained from attendance. Hardenberg vainly
endeavoured to dissuade the ministers from taking up such a
position ; barely eight days after Humboldt's entry, the mood
of the ministry had become so difficult that the chancellor
already foresaw the necessity for a change.1 On August 26th
the ministry of state subscribed an answer to the king,
compiled by Humboldt, and contrasting strangely with the
opinions previously given by individual members. Humboldt's
report made no more than a superficial reference to the
principal questions in the cabinet order of January nth,
concerning educational matters, the press, and insubordination
among the officials ; the kernel of his disquisition was found
in the repeatedly expressed opinion that, in consequence of the
chancellor's position, there could be recognised " hardly any
trace of the idea of a centralisation of administration in the
ministry of state, with joint responsibility." He consequently
demanded a complete fusion of the chancellorship with the
ministry, so that the chancellor should effectively preside over
the ministry of state, should report in full to this body, but in
urgent cases should be empowered to act on his own responsi-
bility ; the minutes of the ministry of state were to be
immediately sent to the king, and no proposal was to be laid
before the monarch without previous knowledge of the minister
concerned.

In other respects the ministers made very few recommen-
dations. They gently indicated that some among them had
more confidence than had his majesty in the good sense of the
majority of the nation ; they expressed a hope that they would
receive more precise information regarding the most recent police
enquiries, and desired that the secret police " should not shun
the light of day upon its actions." There were interpolated
a few quite indefinite complaints regarding " vacillation in respect
of supreme administrative principles," and a number of unjus-
tified and even utterly frivolous grievances. For example, the

1 Hardenberg's Diary, August 19, 1819.
261

History of Germany

indispensable reform of taxation was condemned in advance, on
the ground that " new taxes of an extremely dubious character
must be avoided." The king was begged not to grant the consti-
tution without consulting the ministry of state ; and yet all the
ministers belonged to the great constituent committee of the
year 1817, a body before which the proposals of the new smaller
special committee must be laid as a matter of course.1

If the report were approved by the monarch, this would
inevitably involve the chancellor's resignation, although of all
the ministers Humboldt alone desired such an outcome. Since
Hardenberg no longer held any special portfolio, and since owing
to his deafness it was simply impossible for him to assume the
effective presidency of the ministry of state, Humboldt's proposals
would completely deprive him of power, and the existing unified
government (whose serious defects it was indeed impossible to
overlook) would be replaced by a many-headed collective regime
devoid alike of will and leadership. In view of the lament-
able proofs of dissension and inefficiency which this ministry
had furnished in recent months, who could possibly desire
such a change ? This very report, despite its specious
unanimity, had come into existence only as the outcome of lively
disputes.

Hardenberg immediately prepared for defence. He once
more declared that upon the king's command he was perfectly
willing " to retire to solitude with an extremely thankful heart,"
and begged the monarch " to give the ministry whatever degree
of independence it might desire," also to approve the sending
in of ministerial minutes ; but in the hands of the chancellor
must be left the rendering of regular reports to the monarch, these
being based upon the reports the chancellor himself received
from the ministers. In manifest irritation, he went on to show
how the report of the ministry of state made short work of every-
thing else, and looked upon a restriction of the chancellor's power
as the " sole panacea." The imposition of new taxes was, he
said, " unavoidable, and necessary for the good of the state."
Repeatedly he reproached the ministers for taking much too
light a view of "the aberrations of the Zeitgeist, of the danger
of a future generation of revolutionaries " ; and in conclusion
he rallied with indignation to the support of his friend Wittgen-
stein, " who during the seven years in which he has been chief

1 Report of the Ministry of State to the king, August 26, with marginal notes
by the chancellor dated September 10, 1819.

262

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

of the secret police has taken no single step without my full
knowledge."

The breach between the two rivals was now plain to all,
and widened to such an extent that Bernstorff and Wittgenstein
considered it necessary to abstain from regular attendance at
the sittings of the ministry of state. General Witzleben, a
personal friend of both the disputants, and regarding both as
indispensable, vainly endeavoured to secure a compromise.1
Hardenberg threatened to resign, and after the king had refused to
consent to exceedingly severe measures, secured on October 2ist
the issue of a none the less extremely ungracious cabinet order
expressing to the ministry the monarch's displeasure concerning
the superficiality of the last report, and confirming the chan-
cellor in all his powers. In future the reports of the ministers
were, indeed, to be sent directly to the crown, but the right was
reserved for the chancellor of deciding upon which of these
reports he would himself also report.2 The ministers were to
remain in a dependent position which was disagreeable to them-
selves and was in many respects disadvantageous for the rapid
discharge of business, but which was inevitable as long as the
chancellorship existed. In conclusion, the king once more
reproved the ministers for their continued failure to send him
the several opinions which he had commanded on January nth.
Hitherto the ministers had prudently avoided furnishing these
opinions, but, in response to the monarch's repeated commands,
they were at length forced to comply,3 and now it became incon-
trovertibly plain that the struggle against the chancellor had
been initiated by Humboldt alone. In their earlier opinions
three only of the ministers had complained of Hardenberg 's
tutelage,4 and not until after Humboldt's entry into the ministry
had they all suddenly become aware that the primary cause of
the trouble lay in the chancellor's dominant position. In such
a situation ^ further attempt at mediation on the part of the
excellent Witzleben was of necessity fruitless.5 Humboldt was
forced to retreat, after Hardenberg had repelled his attacks for
the second time.

1 Two Cabinet Orders to Wittgenstein and Bernstorff, October 7. Witzleben,
Memorial concerning the Report of the Ministry of State and the Marginal Notes
by the Chancellor, September, 1819.

2 Two Cabinet Orders to the Chancellor and the Ministry of State, October 21.
Hardenberg's Diary, October 12 and 14, 1819.

3 Report of the Ministry of State to the king, November 10, 1819.

4 Vide supra, p. 138.

5 Witzleben, Memorial concerning the Cabinet Order of October 21, 1819.

263

History of Germany

With this struggle for power there now became asso-
ciated the far more important dispute regarding the most
recent development of federal politics. On September 8th
Humboldt brought up the persecution of the demagogues
for discussion, and induced the ministers, notwithstanding
the opposition of Bernstorff and Schuckmann, to ask the
monarch whether the new precautionary measures were to
be treated as legal or as extraordinary measures. A strict
exhortation to obedience was the reply (September i6th).
Thereupon the new federal decrees were laid before the ministry
of state, and were discussed in three sittings (October 5th and 27th,
November 3rd).1 There were stormy scenes ; it was rumoured in
Berlin that Humboldt had spoken of the Carlsbad decrees as
" scandalous, un-German, an affront to a thinking nation." The
lengthy draft-report which he laid before the ministry on October
5th showed no trace of such rash expressions. The considera-
tions he brought forward dealt exclusively with the danger to
Prussia's sovereignty. ' We certainly do not fail to recognise
the beneficial tie which unites Prussia to Germany, but the
feeling that we belong to an independent monarchy, to one not
incorporated in Germany, is ever predominant." The Carlsbad
decrees gave the Bundestag the dangerous right of interfering
in the internal affairs of the monarchy ; Prussia, moreover,
since everything was decided in accordance with the suggestions
of Austria, " was numbered among the states whose condition
was considered to be, as it were, a morbid one." Article 13
of the federal act did not apply to the Prussian state, for
before that article existed the king had promised a constitution
to the entire monarchy, not excepting the non-German provinces.
The police reports upon the demagogues showed " that the
number of these men is small and their position in civic life
insignificant." With the support of such considerations Hum-
boldt proposed that a demand should be made of the Bundestag
for the promulgation of the Carlsbad decrees as extraordinary
measures for two years ; further, the minister for foreign affairs
should be empowered to discuss with the appropriate ministers
any federal decrees which concerned the internal affairs of
Prussia.

The latter proposal seemed altogether superfluous, for the
minister for foreign affairs already possessed the desired powers ;

1 Minutes of the sittings of the Ministry of State, October 5 and 27, November
3, 1819 (recorded by Humboldt).

264

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

but the former was as untactful as it was weak. For at the
time when Humboldt presented his report the Bundestag had
long since adopted the Carlsbad decrees, doing so with the
king's express approval ; and while the ministry was still dis-
cussing the matter, these decrees were formally promulgated in
Prussia, once more upon the monarch's command. In accord-
ance with the constitutional laws of the absolute monarchy,
the ministry was faced with an accomplished fact ; unless it
were possible to persuade the king to abandon the Austrian
policy (and Humboldt 's involved phrases were certainly incom-
petent to secure this end) nothing could be done to alter what
had happened. Although almost all the other ministers had
serious objections to the Carlsbad decrees in respect alike of
form and content, their general mood was one of hesitation,
owing to the manifest impossibility that the struggle could
lead to a favourable issue. Two only among them, Boyen
and Beyme, supported Humboldt's proposals. In his Prussian
pride, General Boyen had always remained unaffected by the
illusions of peaceful dualism ; his soldierly common sense was
sickened by the obscure intrigues of the demagogue-hunters,
whose suspicions embraced even Gneisenau, and Groben, the
Christian romanticist. Boyen had of late years given all his
sympathies to liberalism, although in his own department he
never carried out a single practical reform ; and he had recently
become closely associated with Humboldt.

Thus the struggles of political life suddenly brought together
three men who in reality had very little in common. Beyme's
old-fashioned and ineffective philanthropy was the precise con-
verse of Humboldt's Hellenist outlook ; nor did Boyen and
Humboldt love one another, and while at the congress of Vienna
they had fought a duel. Unfortunately both his new allies
pursued their aims with just as little skill as Humboldt himself.
The minister of war sent in an opinion full of ideas, pithily
describing the natural contrast between Austria, the obstinately
inert Catholic power, and Prussia, whose policy it was to strive
ever freely upwards. It was Boyen' s wish that as far as
possible the relationship of Prussia to Austria should be
restricted to a simple defensive alliance, although on account
of the cumbrousness of the Austrian financial and military
systems " we shall probably have to bear the first brunt of
the campaign." He considered an increase of the federal
authority undesirable so long as Prussia did not possess a

265 T

History of Germany

predominant influence at the Bundestag, and so long as the
Federation did not guarantee for Prussia the safety of the
latter's non-German provinces. Here was the candid confession
of faith of a Frederician patriot, but his observations contri-
buted nothing towards the decision of the question at issue.
Beyme, too, started from the sovereignty of the crown of
Prussia, and showed how from the outlook of international
law the latest decrees had effected a profound change in the
character of the Federation. Not one of the three ministers
touched the kernel of the matter ; not one of them declared
in plain terms that the Carlsbad policy was the outcome of
foolish anxiety, and that the strengthening of the federal authority
was injurious only because it was intended to subjugate men's
minds, instead of being effected for the increase of national
power.

Bernstorff defended himself skilfully against Humboldt's
masked attacks. He openly declared: "The whole of Ger-
many is at one in recognising that the federal treaty was the
issue of the pressure of the moment, that it was the unripe
fruit of precipitate negotiations, and that it effected a very
unsatisfactory compromise between conflicting views and
interests." Such being the situation, the only course open
was to lead on the incompetent Bundestag by means of a
confidential understanding between the two great powers. If
the Carlsbad decrees were justified (and even Humboldt had
not ventured to dispute this in set terms), their efficiency must
not be paralysea, and least of all must the king be led to
contradict himself. All the other ministers declared themselves
conditionally or unconditionally adverse to Humboldt's proposal,
Altenstein expressing himself in a characteristic opinion which
plainly disclosed the anger felt by the man of refined culture
on account of the affront inflicted on the universities. " The
only thing that I dread is general oppression," thus wrote
the well-meaning man ; " but if this oppression be not utterly
annihilating it will, after all, do little harm. Science can bear
it, and often can thrive under it like a palm tree."1

Meanwhile Bernstorff had left for the Vienna conferences.
Without asking his opinion again, the ministry voted on the
matter on November 3rd. Humboldt's report was rejected,
but the ministers could not agree upon the formal approval

1 Humboldt's Report, October 5. Opinion of Bernstorff, beginning of October ;
of Beyne, October 20 ; of Boyen, October 26 ; of Altenstein, November 3, 1819.

266

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

of the Carlsbad decrees. The deplorable spectacle of hopeless
disharmony, which had now continued for months, found an
appropriate close when the minutes of these three ministerial
sittings were sent to the monarch, accompanied by a few
opinions, but without any resolution or any report. Such a
government could not endure, and a change which should restore
energy and unity was indispensable.

Hardenberg recognised that he must bring matters to a
crisis. To induce the king to take a resolute line he invoked
the aid of Ancillon (November nth), sending him the minutes
of the ministry, and writing that, under the pretext of defending
the sovereignty of the crown and the rights of its subjects,
Humboldt's party was in reality taking the side of the revolu-
tionaries, was endeavouring to undermine the principles of the
country's foreign policy, and to overthrow the chancellor and
Bernstorff. He had made up his mind not to stick at |half
measures, for, "if we hesitate we shall unquestionably rush
upon destruction, dragging down with us Germany, and perhaps
even Europe." But since he did not wish to sit as judge
in his own cause, he begged Ancillon to give him " the opinion
of an enlightened and unbiased patriot." Ancillon was to be
an unbiased judge of Bernstorff ! Hardenberg might just as
well have asked Bernstorff himself. Ancillon' s answer, sent
four days later under the seal of profoundest secrecy, must
have been read by the shrewd old chancellor with a mischievous
smile. He knew its tenour in advance.

Bernstorff 's mentor hardly troubled to maintain the mask
of non-partisanship. He spoke in Bernstorff 's name. " The
count relies on the king's firmness and on your excellency's
support. United these are invincible, and Germany's evil
genius will be exorcised." The objections of the opposition,
" which are at once a misfortune and a scandal," were regarded
by Ancillon as so paltry that it was difficult to believe in the
good faith of the three ministers. " In order to help on the
cause of truth on its way to triumph," he had, " con amore "
prepared a gigantic memorial, opening the flood-gates after his
customary manner. The work, he said, " has grown under
my pen." On three and thirty closely ^written folios he gave
a terrible description of the spirit of instability which had
transformed itself, first of all into the spirit of faction, and
subsequently into the spirit of revolution. Fortunately Austria
and Prussia had in good time seen through the sinister designs

267

History of Germany

of those who aimed at the institution of a great German
federal republic. The Carlsbad decrees were equally wise
whether regarded as permanent or as transitory measures.
With these, Hardenberg closes, and Bernstorff opens, a great
and glorious career.1 Bishop Eylert also sent in an opinion
couched in the same sense as that of Ancillon. The decision
could no longer be postponed, for the foreign diplomats had
already got wind of the dispute, and were sending in terrible
reports of the revolutionary dangers which threatened the
venerable chancellor.2

To complete the confusion, in two additional departments
there now broke out quarrels which, though without political
significance on their own account, reacted upon the ministerial
crises. The unnatural subdivision of the ministry of justice
into two sections had long given rise to deplorable friction.
In the new provinces of the east, Kircheisen conducted the
organisation of the courts wholly in the spirit of a conversative
jurist of the old school, but did his work with ability and
success. Beyme, on the other hand, took an unfavourable
view of all his colleague's suggestions. Regarding the institu-
tions of Rhenish law as ideally satisfactory, he endeavoured
to introduce some of these into the eastern provinces. More-
over, he had just asked the Rhenish public prosecutors for
their opinion whether Gorres's latest writing was liable to prose-
tion, and had endorsed their negative response. Weary of
the unending disputes, Kircheisen now (November 27th) applied
to the king to ask whether Beyme exercised any control over
the affairs of Old Prussian legal administration. Were this
the case, he said, he must ask to be allowed to resign.3

The war minister, too, no longer felt secure in his post.
The king had now determined to carry out that military plan
which he had been meditating for years. It was his wish to
associate the Landwehr more intimately with the army of the line,
giving the Landwehr in time of peace the form it was destined
to assume in time of war. Boyen, however, could not reconcile
himself to the well-planned and altogether innocuous proposal,

1 Hardenberg to Ancillon, November u. Ancillon's Reply, November 15,
1819 ; with Appendix, Considerations sur les derniers decrets de la Diete.

2 Report of the Swedish envoy von Taube to Count Engestrom in Stockholm,
Berlin, November 9, 1819.

s Kircheisen's Report to the king, November 27, 1819.

268

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

considering that if carried into effect it would lead to the
destruction of "the very spirit which makes the Landwehr."
Greatly exercised in mind by the struggles in the ministry
of state and embittered on account of the evil arts of the
demagogue-hunters, he began to give credence to the sinister
rumours that a Landwehr revolt was imminent. In the diplo-
matic corps, belief was general that the court of Vienna was
engaged in secret machinations against the detested democratic
troops ; 1 and it is probable that Duke Charles of Mecklenburg,
with his supporters, also made use of this favourable moment
when reaction was in flood to enforce his old objections to the
Landwehr system. On the other hand, the partisan phrases
of liberalism had contributed to render difficult a purely objec-
tive consideration of the problems of military organisation.
Unquestionably a bold democratic idea underlay the Prussian
army law ; a nation with such a military system could not
be ruled in definite opposition to its own will, nor would it
be possible that direct participation in legislation and adminis-
tration should be permanently denied it. But what a
caricature, what a distortion of these truths was displayed in the
foolish newspaper articles which extolled the national army
of the Landwehr as a bulwark against the hireling spirit of
the officers of the line. The well-meant writing by Captain
von Schmeling, The Landwehr and the Gymnastic Art, declared
that the circle committees which dealt with the work of enrol-
ment provided the first germ of the Prussian constitution, this
assertion leading von Schmeling's opponents to enquire with
indignation whether a great state could be governed by means
of a hundred petty circle parliaments.

The king was uninfluenced by such aberrations of party
spirit. He considered the Landwehr indispensable to the safety
of the state, aiming only to increase its warlike efficiency and
at the same time to diminish military expenditure in time of
peace. But in these sultry times distrust was in the air. The
Austrian party had long regarded the minister of war with
suspicion ; now Boyen himself became a prey to baseless fears.
The organiser of the Prussian national army dreaded lest the
reorganisation of the Landwehr should lead to the destruction
of his great work, and in a rage sent in his resignation. It
was in vain that in a kindly worded despatch (December gth)

1 Report of the Badencse envoy, General von Stockhorn, Berlin, December 21,
1819.

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History of Germany

the king urged him to reconsider his decision. Boyen, as
he declared to Hardenberg (December I3th), desired " to
escape from circumstances in which I might at times find it
difficult to harmonise my principles with changing events " ;
and as a parting word to the chancellor implored him to pro-
ceed with the utmost possible caution with alterations in the
Landwehr organisation, " because the proposed changes are of
the greatest importance in relation to the peculiar situation of
our state, in relation to the prosperity of our industry, and
for the maintenance of a good understanding with the civil
authorities ; and because they affect above all the ministry of
the interior." l

As soon as Boyen abandoned hope, his friend Grolman
also gave free rein to his long repressed discontent. During
his brief period of office, the chief of the general staff had
displayed a fine activity. He had elaborated the proposal
for the fortification of the eastern provinces ; in co-operation
with Crelle, surveyor of public works, he had drawn up a plan
for the construction of main roads throughout the monarchy ;
he had begun the trigonometrical survey of the country ; and
he had given his own department, which still formed a sub-
section of the ministry of war, so notable a sphere of indepen-
dent activity that the complete separation of the general staff
from the ministry of war could now be no more than a
question of time. Amid these manifold labours, he had
followed the course of politics with all the zeal of his passionate
nature. Throughout life this talented man held rigidly to
his principles ; neither in 1814 nor in 1815 would he visit
the French Babylon which he had helped to subdue with his
own good sword. Thus it was that even after the peace he
remained faithful to the idealistic emotion of the wars of
liberation, and was quite unable to understand the relaxation
which affects ordinary men when the time of struggle is over.
To him it seemed that the age was exhausted, petty, con-
temptible ; and when Boyen resigned, he also declared to the
king (December I7th), " In view of existing circumstances and
of the distressing years I have lived through since 1815 I am
compelled to resign." The blunt, almost defiant, tenour of
this despatch could not fail to annoy the king. At first he
had taken Boyen's resignation in good part, but now he inferred

1 Boyen to Hardenlierg, December 13, 1819. Cf. the documents concerning
Boyen's resignation published in the Militar Wochenblatt, 1892. No. 79.

270

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

that the two friends were acting in collusion, and accepted
the resignations with manifest displeasure. He did, indeed,
vouchsafe the minister of war a word of recognition for past
services, but from General Grolman he did not conceal that
he found it difficult to understand to what Grolman referred,
in speaking of " the distressing years lived through since 1815. "l

What a disaster that two of the most faithful and far-
sighted of the king's servants should thus withdraw to sulk
in their tents at the very moment when it was indispensable
that all good men should stand shoulder to shoulder. The
court of Vienna jubilantly hailed " this new triumph of ths
good cause," for at the Hofburg Boyen's Frederician sentiments
had always been in bad odour.2 In the army the great loss
was generally regretted. Klausewitz considered it expedient
to write a memorial expounding the political necessity of the
Landwehr system. He showed how slight in Germany was
the danger of a revolution, but how considerable the possibility
of a hostile attack from two sides, and said plainly that sooner
or later the crown, if it wished to maintain the new army
organisation, would have to summon to its aid representa-
tives of the nation. He expressly warned the men of 1806
" against ruining an edifice upon which our magnificent destiny
in the years '13, '14, and '15 stood, as a goddess of victory
stands upon her war-chariot."

The next few days were to show that all such anxieties
were needless, and that the action of the two generals had
been premature. In a cabinet order of December 22nd the
king recognised in cordial phrases how happily the Landwehr
had thriven up to this time, how willingly the nation had
borne the sacrifices imposed upon it ; and he went on to com-
mand a new classification of the Landwehr, which was " not
to involve the slightest alteration in the nature of the institu-
tion " ; sixteen Landwehr brigades were formed, and were incor-
porated in the divisional structure of the line. Henceforward
the division (the old mixed brigades had received this name
since 1818) was to comprise, in addition to the technical troops,
one brigade of infantry of the line, one brigade of Landwehr

1 Witzleben to Hardenberg, December 18 ; Grolman 's Request to the king,
December 17 ; Cabinet Order to Grolman, December 20, to Boyen, December 25 ;
Boyen to Hardenberg, December 17 and 27 ; Hardenberg to Boyen, December 25,
1819.

3 Bernstorff to Hardenberg, Vienna, December 25, 1819.

271

History of Germany

infantry, and one cavalry brigade. Thus was effected the
organisation of the Landwehr which persisted in essentials until
the days of the regency. The two halves of the army
now became somewhat more closely associated, though not
as yet intimately enough ; it was hoped that by the common
manoeuvres of the divisions the difference between the two
branches would be to some extent diminished. The hazy belief
that the Landwehr might pursue an independent existence was
abandoned — at any rate in principle. By this cabinet order
the strength of the peace effectives was legally established, and
in view of the rapid increase in population there was a prospect
that the military burden would gradually diminish. As a whole
the reform was a valuable one, for the Landwehr could now
be led to war without any important changes in its formation.
Unfortunately, economic considerations prevented any far-
reaching changes. The most dangerous defect of the new
military system, the weakness of the army of the line (which
numbered no more than 136,000 men) was left unremedied.
The universal demand was for economy ; the national debt
must be paid off at once, and there must no longer be a
deficit.

For this system of timid and rigid penuriousness Boyen's
successor, General von Hake, was well suited. Twice before,
in Scharnhorst's days, Hake had for brief periods been in charge
' of military administration. He was a diligent and conscien-
tious worker, but pedantic, narrow-minded, a man without
ideas, without enthusiasm. During his tenure of office the views
of the civil officialdom reacquired that excessive influence upon
the military system they had had during the first years of the
reign of Frederick William III. Many unquestionable defects
continued unrelieved because all monetary expenditure was
shunned, but fortunately the king made the army his own
immediate concern, and kept the soldierly spirit alive by his
personal intervention. The talented initiator of the army
law was succeeded by an ordinary military routinist, and it
was not surprising that the mass of the uninformed conceived
a false notion of the reasons for this change, and lent ear
to the most sinister rumours. Years passed before it was
generally recognised that on this occasion General Boyen had
been mistaken and had opposed an indispensable reform.

The resignation of the minister of war set the ball rolling,

272

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

for naturally the proceedings in the ministerial council had
not been without influence upon Boyen's decision. Hardenberg
regarded the general's fall as the first defeat sustained by the
opposition.1 Armed with Ancillon's "unbiased opinion," he had
immediately demanded the dismissal of the three ministers,
and since the king, still hoping for a reconciliation, postponed
his decision regarding Humboldt and Beyme, on December 28th
the chancellor formally mooted the cabinet question. It was
time, for meanwhile Humboldt and Beyme had advanced a
step further. In the ministry of state, without the previous
knowledge of the chancellor, they had secured the passing of a
resolution by which all the lord-lieutenants should immediately
be summoned to Berlin. Should this be done it could be
foreseen with certainty that the chiefs of the provincial adminis-
tration, led by the ever-dissatisfied Schon, would, just as they
had done two years before,2 lay before the throne a mass of
grievances, justified and unjustified. At this moment such an
opposition would have been a positive danger to the state.
A valuable but extremely unpopular reform was imminent, and
it was one which could be successfully carried into effect by
a vigorous and united government alone. The last great work
of Hardenberg, the laws concerning the new taxes and the
closing of the national debt account, was within the next few days
to be completed by the council of state. It was impossible
that the experienced helmsman should allow the high officialdom
to disturb him in setting his course amid the storms of general
indignation that were likely to break out when the new taxes
were announced. In both his ministerial reports Humboldt
had declared that he still found it impossible to believe in
the existence of a deficit, and that he therefore regarded the
new taxes as superfluous. Utterly erroneous, and even incom-
prehensible as this view was, it was shared by a large propor-
tion of the critically minded higher officials (for, in accordance
with the good Old Prussian tradition, the heads of the official-
dom considered themselves foreordained to protect the people
from fiscal oppression). Was it possible for the chancellor to
tolerate as one of his nearest subordinates a minister who held
such views concerning the most vital problem of the immediate
future ?

The discontent of the three ministers in the matter of the

1 Hardenberg's Memorandum, Christmas, 1819. See Appendix XI.
* Vide supra, vol. II, pp. 469, 470.

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History of Germany

Carlsbad decrees was well founded ; but Hardenberg, none the
less, was in a posture of legitimate self-defence. He was not
fighting simply for the retention of his own power, but on
behalf of well-considered reforms by which alone could be
furnished a substitute for the abolished excise, and by which
alone could be restored the balance between national income
and national expenditure. Thus it was not solely on personal
grounds that he now made urgent representations to the king
that further co-operation with Humboldt and Beyme was impossible.
He used a number of acrimonious expressions ; recalled the
manner in which Beyme had espoused the cause of Gorres ;
declared that he had definite information of Humboldt's inten-
tion to oppose the tax laws in the council of state, designing
then " to leave the service refulgent with a popularity acquired
at such a cost " ; and did not hesitate to inform the king
of the contemplated summoning of the lord-lieutenants. More
firmly than ever before did he believe in the dangerous
intrigues of the revolutionary party. He desired to dismiss
the lord-lieutenant of Silesia because it seemed to him that
Merckel was too lenient in his treatment of the gymnasts ; the
military educational institutions must have a new director to
safeguard the young officers against the influence of the
Teutonising Jacobins.1 So extraordinarily complicated had
become the posture of affairs that the reordering of Prussian
finance was at this moment inseparably connected with the
policy of the Carlsbad decrees.

Even had the king been less firmly convinced that this
policy was essential, he no longer had any choice open. Was
it possible for Frederick William to follow Humboldt's advice,
and to propose in Frankfort that the term of application of the
provisional press law should be reduced from five years to two ?
Was he, for the sake of so futile a half -measure, to change
the basis of his European policy ? In these days of legitimism,
the system of European alliances was inseparably con-
nected with the internal affairs of the states, and it was
impossible for a great power to follow the example of the
pseudo-states of the Confederation of the Rhine, and to play
a dishonourable game between its own people and foreign
powers. A belated attack upon the Carlsbad decrees would
involve a separation from Austria, and the dissolution, or at
least the enfeeblement, of that great Quadruple Alliance to

1 Hardenberg to the king, December 28, 1819.
274

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

which during recent years the monarchy had owed its security
and its European prestige. Thus detached from its old allies,
the state would be completely isolated ; from the liberalising
particularism of the German petty states it would receive
neither a powerful nor a loyal support, and would perhaps
be forced before long to make common cause with France ;
it would at any rate be compelled to arm, and to keep ever
on the watch. Hence Prussia would have to abandon that
policy of economy, of quiet collection of energies, by which
alone her restoration could be brought about, and would be
forced to hold herself in readiness to effect a premature solution
of the great problem which power was to dominate German
political life. Was the long-planned re-establishment of order
in the finances to be once again postponed, at the dictates
of an opposition which simply denied the existing necessities
and which had hitherto contented itself with sterile refusals ?

The king did nothing but what was essential when on
December 3ist, in very brief words, he relieved the two
ministers of their duties in the council of state and the ministry
of state. Schuckmann and Kircheisen once again received
the undivided leadership of the ministry of the interior and the
ministry of justice respectively. At the same time General
Pirch was appointed director of military educational institutions.1
Beyme was painfully surprised, and obeyed " with a lacerated
heart." Humboldt accepted the blow with his customary
philosophic calm ; and since he had received a special bounty
after the war, he renounced his retiring pension, an action
which was thankfully noted by the king. In laying down his
office he wrote to the monarch that he did so " inspired with
the consciousness that he had had the king's weal and that
of the state ever before his eyes." 2 Unquestionably this man
who cared so little for political influence and political fame did
not deserve the reproach made by Hardenberg and Gneisenau
that his conduct had been dictated solely by personal ambition.
He regarded the chancellor's power as disastrous, and he recog-
nised the errors of the Carlsbad policy ; but in this struggle
he did not display simplicity, greatness, and resolution.

Hardenberg rejoiced at having won the game. Humboldt's

1 Three Cabinet Orders, dated December 31, 1819, to the ministry of state,
to Beyme, and to Humboldt.

2 Beyme to the king, January i ; Humboldt to the king, January i ; Cabinet
Order to Humboldt, January 6, 1820.

275

History of Germany

arrogance had led him to aspire to the chancellorship, and
his overweening ambition had led to his fall — it was in this
manner that the changes in the ministry were represented to
the foreign diplomats. The way seemed clear. The chancellor
at once submitted his tax proposals to the king, and after
the first audience he wrote proudly in his diary, Nascitur novus
ordo.1 If the finances could only be set in order, the most
serious objection to the constitution would be removed, and
Hardenberg determined on a course which was unparalleled
in Prussian history, the opening of a central representative
assembly for Prussia. The far-reaching character of the old
man's plans was astonishing. Yet his delight in victory was
premature. With the fall of the three ministers, the constituent
committee lost its best talents, and the ministerial council
was deprived of the only members who seriously desired that
the constitution should come into existence. In this confused
struggle the victor was not Hardenberg, but Wittgenstein, who
had throughout been collaborating in the background — and
behind Wittgenstein stood Metternich. Before long, the
Austrian party, to whose assistance the chancellor had appealed
in order to get rid of his rivals, turned against Hardenberg
himself in order to destroy the design for a constitution, which
now had no other supporter at the court.

§ 3. THE FIRST PRUSSIAN CUSTOMS-CONVENTION.

The entire historical process arises out of the continuous
action and reaction between the conscious human will and
environing circumstances. Just as the reason immanent in
things can be realised only through the voluntary energy of
a great man, of one who understands the signs of the 'times,
so also the sins and errors of politicians are limited by the
character of the states and by the power of the ideas which
have come into existence in the course of history. Great was
the error of the crown of Prussia when in Carlsbad it set
itself in opposition to the living forces of the new century ;
and yet this state was modern from the foundation upwards,
was unable to estrange itself completely from the new time,
and at this very moment began a fiscal reform by which it
was enabled in respect of economic development to outsoar all

1 Stockhorn's Report, February 19 ; Bernstorff to Hardenberg, Vienna,
January 12 ; Hardenberg's Diary, January 10, 1820.

276

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

the other states of Germany. In Teplitz, Hardenberg had been
completely dominated by his belief in the absolute community
of interests of the two German great -powers, and had complied
with Austria's wishes to the point of unselfishness. Neverthe-
less the opposition between the two powers was grounded upon
their ancient history ; and the individual human will could
not do away with that opposition, so long as the problem
which power was to dominate German political life remained
unsolved. Almost at the very moment in which the court of
Berlin seemed wholly submissive to Austrian leadership, it made
a fresh advance along the lines of the Frederician policy, and
began to form a customs-union with the neighbouring German
states. The first step was a trifling one, almost ludicrously
trifling when judged by latter-day standards, but it was the
inconspicuous beginning of a policy which was to bind the Ger-
man states indissolubly to Prussia in the bonds of economic
interest and which was to prepare the way for the liberation
from Austria.

Since the Prussian customs-law had come into operation,
making itself felt at the outset by Germany's smaller neigh-
bours only through its severities, there had everywhere been
voiced with renewed strength the demand for the abolition of
all internal tolls, this being the commencement of a passionate
agitation for German commercial unity, the precursor and
prototype of the subsequent struggles on behalf of political
unity. The entire nation seemed united in a single great idea;
nevertheless, views as to ways and means were widely divergent,
and the only exit, an adhesion to the existing unity of the
Prussian market, was for long shunned in unfortunate blindness,
until at length its adoption was enforced by bitter need alone.
Soon after the peace there began a stream of immigration
into impoverished Prussia, the number of immigrants being
about one-half of the excess of births over deaths ; the great
majority of them were young persons from the neighbouring
German countries, coming to seek their fortune in the land of
social freedom. When the internal tolls were now abolished
in the monarchy, in the towns near the frontier, at least, the
advantages which the Prussian man of business secured from
his widely extended free market were plainly manifest. Thus
some of the wine merchants of Bingen moved over to the
Prussian bank of the Nahe, for prices in Prussia were often
three times as high as those prevailing in the overstocked

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Hessian market. The officialdom of the minor courts was
still accustomed to the guild system, to the difficulties imposed
upon settlement and upon marriage, to the thousand annoyances
characteristic of petty social legislation ; here, as yet no one
had any idea of the superiority of Prussian commercial policy.
To many well-meaning officials in Saxony and Thuringia, the
Prussian tax laws seemed needless fiscal severities, for their
own countries had a trifling military expenditure, and were
therefore able to get along with an extremely modest income. The
consequence was that along the home frontiers of Prussia, under
the protection of the petty courts, there ensued a war df all
against all, a disastrous state of affairs which to-day we find
it difficult to conceive. People became brutalised by the evil
trade of smuggling. To the duty-free bonded warehouses which
were found everywhere adjacent to Prussian territory, there
came every day a number of sturdy bronzed fellows, their coats
worn shiny from carrying burdens, many of them with a sheath-
knife in the belt ; they shouldered the heavy bales of goods,
a princely custom-house officer accompanied them as far as
the frontier, and dismissed them with a " God speed " upon
their crooked path. The common people could never hear
enough about the wild adventures of bold smugglers, of which
the present generation knows only through old-fashioned
romances and tales for boys. Thus our loyal populace became
accustomed to regard the laws with contempt. The disorderly
and revolutionary spirit which gradually gained the upper hand
in the petty states was in truth actually nurtured by the minor
courts, nurtured by the sins of the demagogue-hunt and by
the criminal folly of this commercial policy.

Yet it was not the petty states which favoured smuggling
that were generally blamed for these disastrous consequences,
but Prussia, which earnestly endeavoured to put a stop to
smuggling ; not the courts which obstinately adhered to their
dishonest fiscal dodges, their antiquated and unpractical customs-
ordinances, but Prussia, the state which had reorganised and
transformed its fiscal system. Incapable of understanding the
vital conditions of a great nation, the minor courts seriously
demanded that Prussia should immediately reverse the step
taken after such mature consideration, should annul the reform
whose influence was making itself felt throughout all ramifi-
cations of the national life; they demanded that this reversal
should be effected before the new system had been given a

278

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

fair trial — and half Germany agreed with the preposterous
suggestion.

Outside the circle of the Prussian officials, there were,
during these first years, no more than two writers of note
who ventured unreservedly to defend Maassen's work. The
indefatigable Benzenberg, in his book, Concerning Prussia's
Monetary Economy and new Fiscal System, once again displayed
his practical abilities. In his association with Hardenberg,
he had learned to regard economic problems with the eye of
a statesman. He knew that all serious criticism of a fiscal
system must begin with the question, "What items of national
expenditure are absolutely essential? " — a question utterly ignored
by most of the publicists of that day. He was thus able to
demonstrate that Prussia could not dispense with the income
from her customs. He did not hesitate to praise the army
law and the new tax laws as the greatest benefits of the most
recent years of the reign of Frederick William III. He insisted
that they must be maintained against all possible resistance,
and demanded of the neighbour states that they should accept
the king's invitation, and should negotiate with Prussia con-
cerning the mutual abolition of customs-dues. He vigorously
attacked the fantasy of federal customs. In August, 1819, he
sent an open letter to F. List, asking how it was possible
for the Bundestag, " which has no kind of legislative powers,"
to bring about any such reform, or how it could even conduct
the customs-administrations. Was the abolition of internal
tolls possible without a proportionate taxation of internal con-
sumption ? The sober-minded man's voice could not be heard
amid the general clamour ; besides, he had long been an object of
suspicion to the liberals because he had an unprejudiced admira-
tion for the peculiar merits of the Prussian state.

As early as January, 1819, E. W. Arnoldi of Gotha, one
of the most efficient of German merchants, hailed the Prussian
customs-law as the foundation of a union of all the German
states. " Let us," he wrote in the Allgemeine Anzeiger,
1 ' cordially accept the hand now held out to us ; Prussia places
the principle of mutuality in the forefront of her law, declaring
herself prepared to effect agreements with her neighbours."
At an earlier date, in Hamburg, this excellent man had sat
at the feet of Bnsch, and had gained a free outlook upon
world commerce such as was still quite foreign to the inland
pettiness of the majority of his commercial associates. He was

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History of Germany

profoundly distressed on account of the childish immaturity
of the business world, which did practically nothing to shake
off the yoke of an absurd system of commercial legislation.
For years past he had entertained the idea of a league of
German manufacturers to represent their common interests.
Then, in his native town, he founded a chamber of commerce
under the name of Corporation Hall (Innungshalle), and founded
also a commercial school which speedily attained success.
Finally he discovered a wide domain of fruitful activity in the
field of insurance, which was still completely in foreign hands.
The great Phoenix Assurance Company of London had agencies
in all the larger German towns, making excessive profits out
of the Germans by immoderately high premiums, for the small
native insurance companies which were to be found in isolated
towns of the north did not extend their activities beyond the
place of origin. But in 1819 Arnoldi asked the German nation
how long it was prepared to go on providing money for
English money boxes, and proposed the formation of a mutual
fire insurance bank for the whole of Germany. Two years
later this institution came to life in Gotha, the first beginning
of the extensive development of our national system of insur-
ance. The general hatred of England's commercial supremacy
redounded to the advantage of Arnoldi's bold enterprise.
Throughout the interior of Germany, abuse was showered on
England and the Hansa towns (for to the South Germans these
towns seemed no better than English counting-houses) ; the
reawakening of the Napoleonic cult and the French sympathies
of the southern liberals were favoured by this mood. It is
true that but little thought had as yet been devoted to the
question how German industry could be protected against exces-
sive foreign competition. This much only seemed indubitable,
that all the recently introduced new tolls ought immediately
to be abolished, and that the freedom of commercial intercourse
promised in article 19 of the federal act must be secured by
the Bundestag.

Even Friedrich List, the generous-minded and talented
agitator who inveighed against the internal tolls with all the
energy of his impetuous nature, shared the general error. Just
as Gorres, in the Rheinische Merkur, had formerly advanced
the idea of the political power and unity of the fatherland,
so did List now advocate the commercial unity of Germany
— a man of kindred spirit, ardent, brilliant, a master of forceful

280

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

speech, filled with profound and genuine passion, prone to
fantastic aberrations. A true imperial townsman, he had
grown up in Reutlingen, a city proud of its freedom, and
had been engaged in unceasing disputes with the Wiirtemberg
scriveners ; he was one of those born fighters for whom destiny
seems ever to provide new quarrels, even when these are
unsought. He lost his mother and his only » brother in conse-
quence of the roughness of brutal officials ; and after he had
subsequently passed some years amid the soul-destroying pseudo-
activities of the Wurtemberg scriveners' offices, his detestation
of the autocratic spirit of the Rhenish Confederate officialdom
became limitless, and he made it the aim of his life to awaken
a spirit of independence in burgher and in peasant, to enlighten
them regarding their nearest interests, to liberate political
economy from the formulas of the professorial chair, and to
expound it in popular language. By birth simply a German,
just as was the imperial knight Stein, his bold plans from
the first transcended the limits of his Swabian home, and for
this reason to the interrelated and interconnected Wiirtembergers
he soon became suspect as a foreign disturber of the peace.
In his view, a new epoch of commercial and political greatness,
more enduring than the glories of the Hanseatic league, was
to dawn for the German fatherland. He possessed a rare
power of inspiring the masses with enthusiasm, an agitator's
talent such as in our history, so poor in great demagogues,
has been possessed by only two other men, Robert Blum and
Lassalle. In April, 1819, in conjunction with several manufac-
turers belonging to the minor states, Miller of Immenstadt,
Schnell of Nuremberg, and E. Weber of Gera, List founded
the Union of German Merchants and Manufacturers, which was
soon joined by the majority of the great firms of South and
Central Germany. Since the Wurtemberg government regarded
the position of consulting adviser to the Union as incompatible
with official dignity, List quickly made up his mind, and
resigned his position as professor at Tubingen.

The new Commercial Union immediately sent the Bundestag
a petition for the carrying out of article 19, for the abolition
of all internal tolls, and for the passing of a German customs-
law, which should counter the tariffs of foreign countries by
the imposition of severe retaliatory duties, until the whole of
Europe should come to an agreement to establish general free-
dom of trade — for List, like most South Germans of that day,

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History of Germany

adhered on principle to the doctrine of free trade. Repulsed
in Frankfort, List then besieged the courts, the men of business,
and everyone else he could think of, with his demands, and
in his journal, the " Organ of German Merchants and Manu-
facturers " (Organ des deutschen Handels- und Gewerbstandes) ,
he unweariedly and pitilessly laid bare the errors of German com-
mercial policy. Thus by his unresting activities he did more
than any of his contemporaries to secure the permeation of the
nation with a conviction that the existing state of affairs was
untenable. Great and bold dreams, which only our own genera-
tion sees in course of fulfilment, coursed through his mobile
intelligence : he thought of a unified system of industrial legisla-
tion, of a German postal system, of national exhibitions ; he
hoped that the romantic imperial dreams of the younger genera-
tion would be expelled by the work of a practical national
policy ; and he foresaw the time when a free constitution, a
German parliament, would be the outcome of commercial unity.
In excess of self-satisfaction he spoke of himself as the creator
of the customs-union, but no unprejudiced person can admit
that List was justified in this claim.

It was not the way of the patriots of that time to expound
and to adhere to a definite programme, a clearly elaborated
political idea. Only in the interior of the South German middle-
sized states did the constitutional movement now begin to evoke
consistent and definitely expressed party opinions. Those who
wrote about Germany as a whole, were still satisfied with
exhibiting a brilliant ideal image to contrast with the wretched
present, going on to produce a rapid succession of impressions and
hints for practical statesmen. Just as Gorres innocently pub-
lished in the Rheinische Merkur a whole squadron of plans for a
German constitution, so did List pass by leaps from one design
to another. Now he desired that the German internal tolls should
be farmed out to a joint-stock company ; now Germany was to
adhere to the Austrian prohibitive system ; now again it occurred
to him that Prussia might lead the way to unity. In his peti-
tion to the Bundestag he declared : " We are involuntarily led
to the idea that the liberal government of Prussia (a country
which, owing to its territorial situation, must more than all
others desire freedom of trade) cherishes the great design of
inducing, by means of this customs-system, the other states of
Germany to come to terms in the end for the institution of complete
free trade. This idea becomes tantamount to certainty when

282

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

we take into account the declaration of the Prussian government
that it desires to conclude special commercial treaties with neigh-
bouring states." Unfortunately the passionate man was unable
to hold fast to this simple and accurate view. In so far as amid
his unstable activities it is possible to recognise a single dominant
tendency, he was an opponent of Prussian commercial policy.
After all divagations, he returned again and again to the idea
which Prussia had long before abandoned as unattainable, the
idea of a federal customs-system. List's knowledge of Prussian
affairs was extremely defective ; his Commercial Union was held
together by the hope that the Prussian customs-law would speedily
be repealed ; it maintained correspondents in all the larger
German states, with the characteristic exception of Prussia.

Nothing but the charm which adhered to the name of " Ger-
many " can explain why so many excellent and perspicacious
men continued to hope for a commercial policy instituted by the
Germanic Federation. The Bundestag had done everything it
could to disillusion enthusiasts. The report upon List's petition
was entrusted to Martens, the Hanoverian, a man who like most
other " German Great-Britons " was delighted with the existence
of English commercial supremacy upon German soil. With the
zealous and yet timid spirit of the politician whose outlook is
that of a policeman, he began by asking what right this Union
had to pose as representative of the German commercial classes,
and suggested that the high governments would do well to keep
a watchful eye upon their subjects. To the immediate question
he contributed little more than a drastic description of the enor-
mous difficulties which had been placed in the way of commercial
unity now that the German states had become sovereign powers
(May 24th). Some of the federal envoys desired that a special
committee should at least be appointed ; but if this were done,
the petitioners might imagine that the step had been taken at
their instigation ! l To avert so criminal a misinterpretation,
the federal assembly went no further than to decide that it would
occupy itself with article 19 at some subsequent date. Some
weeks afterwards (July 22nd) the Ernestine courts once again
reminded the Bundestag of the unhappy article ; List's friend,
E. Weber, and the manufacturers of the Thuringian forest, would
not give the assembly any peace. On this occasion, Baden,
Wiirtemberg, the two Hesses, and the Ernestines, delivered
orations in praise of freedom of trade in Germany. They were

1 Berkheim's Report, Frankfort, June 25, 1819.
283

History of Germany

well-intentioned, cost nothing, and inspired the assembly with
such enthusiasm that it actually determined to appoint a special
committee after the recess, in 1820. Such was the assistance
which German commerce could expect from Frankfort. The
Prussian envoy rightly regarded it as incredible that this assembly
should even conceive itself capable of undertaking so difficult a
task.1

Notwithstanding these experiences, many years were still to
elapse before it was generally recognised to be impossible to carry
out the empty promises of article 19. The Badenese govern-
ment, in especial, obstinately adhered to the fantasy of a federal
customs-system. Its long and narrow territory, one in which
transit trade was considerable, suffered with especial severity
from the distresses of internal tolls, and Berstett, the Badenese
minister of state, noted with considerable anxiety the growing
embitterment of the people. This man of limited views hoped
that the economic prosperity of the nation might atone for its
scandalous disintegration, might afford " material compensation
for the loss of many ideas which, though chimerical, are regarded
with affection." For this reason he recommended to the Carlsbad
conferences, in a lengthy memorial (August I5th), that a federal
customs-system should be introduced, securing free trade for a
population of thirty millions ; but the thoroughly confused docu-
ment, full of contradictions, made no attempt whatever to deal
with the great question, how it would be possible to include Han-
over, Holstein, Luxemburg, and German Austria, in a national
customs-system. Metternich was disagreeably surprised by the
proposal, one to which it was simply impossible for Austria to
consent, and he went so far as to question the competence of the
Federation in this matter. " Commerce," he contended, " its
extension and its restriction, are within the first attributes of
sovereignty." According to the Austrian doctrine, the Federa-
tion was unquestionably competent to maltreat the universities,
although the federal act said not a word about the matter ; on
the other hand, freedom of trade, which was expressly fore-
shadowed in the federal convention, would infringe the sove-
reignty of the federal states. It would hardly have been possible
to give a more forcible indication of the Hof burg's attitude towards
the vital problems of the German nation. At length, however,
after repeated pressure from Baden and Wiirtemberg, the Aus-
trian statesman agreed that the customs question should appear

1 Goltz's Report, July 20, 1819.
284

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

upon the agenda of the forthcoming Vienna conferences. He
knew very well what was likely to be the outcome of such
discussions.

Meanwhile the ablest among the Badenese financiers,
Nebenius, had expounded in a brilliant memorial his ideas
concerning the conditions of German free trade. This work was
privately undertaken, and never exercised any influence, even
indirectly, upon the development of the customs-union, but in
clarity and definiteness it excelled all that had hitherto been
written by private individuals concerning German commercial
policy. The learned compiler of the Badenese constitution
acquired in these years, by his work on economic conditions in
Great Britain,1 a scientific repute which was subsequently
increased by the appearance of his book Public Credit. This last
is a classical work which can never pass completely out of date ;
like Ricardo's books it will always remain invaluable to students
of political economy as a school of strictly methodical thought
His memorial on the German customs-system, compiled in
January, 1819, also displays throughout the secure vision of the
trained expert. In April, 1819, it was confidentially communi-
cated to the members of the Badenese Landtag, and in the
following winter was submitted to the Vienna conferences by
Berstett as a noteworthy private opinion. Maassen, Klewitz, and
the other authors of the Prussian customs-law had, indeed,
nothing to learn from the counsels of the Badenese statesman.
For them what was true in his memorial was not new, and what
was new was not true.

In the cautious phraseology beloved of Nebenius, the memorial
took a decisive line against the Prussian customs-law, bringing
the evils of this system into strong relief, and failing to recognise
its advantages. The proposition was defended, " No German
state, Austria excepted, can effectively protect its domain against
foreign competition " — an opinion which Prussia's statesmen
were just beginning to refute by practical demonstration. The
authors of the law of May 26th started from the needs of the
Prussian economy, whereas Nebenius opened with the considera-
tion of the distresses of German commerce. Consequently the
former regarded the matter chiefly from the financial outlook,
while the latter concerned himself with politico-economical aspects.
Thus Prussian statesmen desired a gradual expansion of the

1 Bemerkungen iiber den Zustand Grossbritanniens in Staatswirtschaftlicher
Hinsicht, Carlsruhe, 1818.

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History of Germany

Prussian customs-system, subject to the conditions imposed by
the interests of Prussian finances. Nebenius, on the other hand,
in accordance with the general opinion of the age, demanded a
system of German federal customs, a customs administration
subject to the Bundestag. The policy he advocated was the
precise opposite of that which was brought into being by the
actual customs-union ; it was plain that the first step along
the path indicated by Nebenius must lead to the repeal of the
Prussian customs-law ; and must therefore annihilate the very
foundation of the subsequent customs-union. The struggle of
those days in matters of commercial policy centred in the single
question whether the Prussian customs-law was or was not to be
maintained. In this dispute, Nebenius took the wrong side. His
memorial contested the leading political idea of Prussian com-
mercial policy, and anyone who wishes to regard it as the pioneer
work which led to the formation of the customs-union must, by
the same token, describe Great Germans and Little Germans as
persons of identical views. Obviously both parties were aiming
at German unity, unfortunately by divergent routes.

The statesmanlike sense of the talented Badenese was by
no means equal to his economic insight. Though he doubted
whether Austria could enter the customs-union, he did not attain
to definite conclusions upon this matter. As late as 1835, he
regarded Austria's accession as possible ; should this take place,
the customs-union " would constitute the finest of all possible
markets." The weighty political reasons which made such an
idea unacceptable to Prussia never became clear to him. Just
as little could he understand why Prussia, as a European power,
was forced to maintain the unconditional independence of her
customs administration. He demanded that the customs
administration should be centralised under the control of the
Federation, that the customs-officials should be sworn in to the
Federation alone. Even in the discussion of subsidiary questions
he was not always able to look beyond the narrow circle of vision
of his native petty state. With few exceptions he desired that
the dues should be levied at the frontiers alone, because, in the
view of the Badenese officialdom, this arrangement would bring
special advantages to the frontierland of Baden. Maassen, on
the other hand, had bonded warehouses and customs-houses
instituted in all the larger Prussian towns, for a lively forwarding
trade was obviously impossible without such facilities.

Side by side with these errors, the memorial does indeed

286

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

display a number of well thought-out and practically useful pro-
posals, but there is not one of these with which the Prussian
cabinet was not already familiar, not one which it had not already
put into application. Nebenius very clearly developed the propo-
sition that freedom of trade is impossible without a customs-
union. This idea, which to us to-day seems trivial and
self-evident, was completely new to the diplomacy of the petty
states of those days. But the fact was well known to the statesmen
of Berlin, for Prussia had offered free trade to those states alone
which had been willing to enter the Prussian customs-system.
Equally well thought-out were the principles of the tariff pro-
posed by Nebenius. He desired to impose moderate dues upon
articles in general use and upon colonial produce ; the raw
materials necessary for domestic manufacture were to be duty
free ; manufactured articles were to be protected by dues which
approximately corresponded to the customary premium upon
smuggling ; hostile action on the part of foreign countries was
to be countered by retaliatory tariffs. Such ideas were unques-
tionably excellent, but, at the very time when Nebenius wrote,
the Prussian tariff was published, and it was guided throughout
by these same principles. Independent consideration had led the
South German economist to the same ideas which Eichhorn had
frequently indicated as the corner stone of the Prussian system,
namely, freedom, reciprocity, and no prohibitions. Was it not
a striking indication of the general obscurity of thought charac-
teristic of those days that a man of such astuteness should
approximate so closely to the ideas of the Prussian customs-
system, and yet should never propound the question whether the
structure of German commercial unity ought not to be erected
upon the solid foundation of this system. Nebenius also advanced
the principle that the distribution of the revenue derived from
the customs should be proportionate to population. But at the
time when his memorial became known in Berlin, Prussia
had already incorporated this momentous idea in a treaty.
Nebenius went on to show that customs unity is impossible
unless internal consumption is taxed on like principles ; until
this end is secured, we must be satisfied with provisional taxes.
This view also had long prevailed in Berlin ; it was precisely
because Eichhorn and Maassen were familiar with the wide
differences in the fiscal systems of the neighbour states that they
had no desire to suggest a premature unification. They knew
just as well as Nebenius^ that it would suffice to conclude J a

287

History of Germany

customs-treaty for a few years ; like him they confidently hoped
that the immeasurable blessings of freedom of trade would prevent
the dissolution of a customs-union once it had been formed.

When the ordinary German biographer has not much to
say about the character of his hero, he is accustomed to extol
the man's unpretentious modesty. This phrase has become an
accepted part of the ceremonial of the historic art ; it recurs as
irresistibly as the graceful declaration that every great plebeian who
has risen to fame sprang from parents who were honest though
poor. Nebenius, too, has been freely besprinkled with such
commendations. Those who had to deal with him upon affairs
of state took a very different view, for in the diplomatic world
Nebenius was generally regarded as a person of high intelligence
but as an extremely disagreeable negotiator. He was numbered
among those men of a quietly learned character whose
unadorned exterior conceals an extremely irritable sense of self-
esteem, men who bear contradiction very badly, refutation still
worse. Although he was far from being inclined to the loud
boasting characteristic of Friedrich List, he was by no means
disposed to hide his light under a bushel. He admitted, indeed,
that no one individual could justly claim to be the originator of
the customs-union. Yet he plumed himself on the ground that
his memorial had for the first time propounded the idea of a general
customs-association ; that, apart from a single error, it had
accurately prophesied the constitution of a subsequent customs-
union. He failed to see that this single error concerned the vital
problem of German commercial policy ; he failed equally to
recognise that the greater part of his memorial dealt solely with
the expression of wishes in matters where Prussia had already
taken effective action. His great service and his only one lies
in this, that, simultaneously with the Prussian statesmen and
independently of them, he had thought out the correct solution
of some of the important problems of German commercial policy ;
but the decisive question whether there should be a federal
customs-system or adhesion to the Prussian customs-union, was
rightly answered in Berlin and wrongly answered by Nebenius.
He came nearer to the truth than did List. If List may be com-
pared with Gorres, of Nebenius it may be said that of the future
customs-union he foresaw about as much as Paul Pfizer foresaw of
the modern German empire.

In the year 1819, no one as yet had any clear conception of
the commercial league which was to come into existence one and

288

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

a half decades later. As Eichhorn was accustomed to say after-
wards, " The idea had not as yet begun to develop." The warp
of the great tissue had already been stretched. The Prussian
customs-system had come into existence ; Prussia had expressed
her desire to enlarge this system, and, in a spirit freed from all
pettiness, to guarantee her German neighbours an abundant share
in the income from the common tolls. But the woof, the good-
will of the neighbour states, was still wanting. On all sides there
was yet lacking a definite conception of the loose federal forms
which could alone render possible an undertaking never yet ven-
tured, a permanent commercial league between jealous sovereign
states. The necessary goodwill was subsequently enforced by
necessity. The administrative forms of the customs-union were
not thought out in advance either by Nebenius or by any other
thinker. Theory can never solve such problems ; their solution
was found in the paths of practical politics, through negotiations
and mutual concessions between the German states. The
Badenese thinker wrote as an irresponsible private individual ;
he was able boldly and unhesitatingly to conceive the unity of the
entire fatherland. He held to this ideal with invincible firm-
ness, and it was because he took so high a flight that he adopted
the impossible plan of federal customs. Prussia's statesmen
had a precious good to safeguard, the commercio-political unity
of their state, acquired with so much difficulty, and still seriously
threatened. Accused by the enthusiasts, now of obstinate petti-
ness, now of self-satisfied arrogance, they had to endure with
patience, and, cautiously building upon the groundwork of existing
institutions, they attained their lofty goal.

At the right moment the originators of the Prussian customs-
law secured a powerful diplomatic ally in the new referendary
for German affairs, J. A. F. Eichhorn, to whom his chief,
Count Bernstorff, gave a free hand in the domain of commercial
policy. Among the heroes of toil who in weary days continued
to maintain the great traditions of Prussia, who amid peaceful
activities laid the foundations of their country's renewed
greatness, Eichhorn stands in the first rank. His whole career
had prepared him to effect the peaceful subdual of particularism.
His youth had been passed in Wertheim at the confluence of the
Main and the Tauber, in the very heart of the decayed world of
the old empire, and throughout life he was never able to forget
how he had in this region seen the official of the imperial court of

289

History of Germany

chancery, clad in his Old Franconian attire, executing the orders
of emperor and empire. Filled with enthusiasm for the deeds
of Frederick the Great, he had then moved northward to serve
the state of his election ; and to him as to many others it was
revealed that Prussia inspires the warmest love in those Germans
who have laboured to acquire this sentiment. In Cleves he wit-
nessed the collapse of the Prussian regime, in Hanover the fiscal
arts of a small-minded annexationist policy, and despite all this
remained true to his state. Then he took part in Schill's bold
adventure, and in Berlin entered into confidential association
with Stein and Gneisenau, with Humboldt, Altenstein, and
Kircheisen, all of whom immediately accepted this unknown and
youthful stranger as an equal. A pupil of Spittler, having
received a thorough and many-sided education, as first syndic
of the university of Berlin he came into intimate personal contact
with men of the learned world. Profoundly religious, he formed
a close friendship with Schleiermacher, and by marriage became
connected with the great theologians' family of Sack. The days
of the War of Liberation were passed by him with uplifted heart,
first as an officer on Blucher's staff, and subsequently as a member
of Stein's central administration. In this latter position he was
afforded ample opportunity of becoming acquainted with the
inmost soul of the minor German governments. The enthusiasm
of these great years was preserved by him unshaken in the quiet
succeeding epoch of peace.

When at the age of forty he received the important post in
the foreign office, he became inspired with the hope of founding
a permanent union such as previously, under the central adminis-
tration, had had no more than a temporary, inchoate, and
undesired existence ; of binding the German states for ever to the
crown of Prussia by the bonds of justice, confidence, and interest.
He regarded this as the fulfilment, the transfiguration, of the
dreams of 1813. In article 19 of the federal act he recognised
" the well-meant intention of the German princes, without
prejudice to their sovereignty, to guarantee for German subjects
the benefits of a common fatherland"; and he believed that
Prussia possessed the power which was lacking to the Federa-
tion of securing these benefits of a fatherland for the Germans.
Beside that incisive boldness which has often made itself admired
in the great epochs of our history, people are apt to over-
look that cold, tenacious, and enduring patience which in the
endless and tedious bargainings with German particularism had

290

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

become second nature to Prussian statecraft. No other of our
statesmen had so masterly a grasp as Eichhorn of this Old Prus-
sian virtue. Year in and year out the talented man had to wade
through the sticky slime of pettifogging negotiations, merely to
read about which after the event arouses positive nausea. Yet
nothing disturbed the freshness of his mind ; never did he lose
sight of the great aim which loomed behind the trifling work of
the hour ; again and again, after severe illnesses, he braced his
weakly frame for unresting activity. His eyes were everywhere ;
like a physician at a sick bed he supervised the moods of the minor
courts, their malice, their egotism, their hopeless stupidity. He
sometimes relieved the tedium of his work with a light word.
" What can be the real intentions of the ducal Saxon houses ? "
he wrote on one occasion, "I don't believe they know them-
selves ! " Yet in spite of all the trouble the petty states gave
him, he never ceased to preserve for them respect and good feeling,
and with a federal and friendly sentiment never failed to accede
to all their reasonable wishes. Not. infrequently, spume from the
foul waves of the demagogue hunt bespattered even his honour-
able name ; but he remained always true to himself, valiantly
did all he could to assist his persecuted friends, and nevertheless
succeeded in retaining the king's confidence. For many years
Prince Metternich employed all his worst arts against the detested
patriot, who was regarded in Vienna as Prussia's evil genius.
Simultaneously he was attacked by the liberal press as a man
with the disposition of a slave. Unruffled, he continued to add
stone after stone to the inconspicuous structure of German com-
mercial unity, enduring in silence the unfair judgments of public
opinion, for any attempt at open justification would inevitably
have led to his fall. A time came, however, when the courts
recognised his services ; all the orders of the Germanic Federa-
tion, except one from Austria, were bestowed upon the unpre-
tentious privy councillor, and the state-documents of the grateful
members of the customs-unions extolled him as " the soul of the
Prussian ministry." The nation, however, never fully recog-
nised how much it owed to Eichhorn.

It was his hope to enlarge the Prussian customs-system by
degrees, by means of treaties with the German neighbour-states.
He had not drawn up in advance any fixed plan for the forms and
limits of this enlargement ; rightly recognising the difficulty of
the undertaking, he left such matters to be decided by the incal-
culable course of events. In the year 1819 the question whether

291

History of Germany

the limits of the Prussian customs should be reached at the
Main or at the lake of Constance, was not within the domain of
practical politics ; this question might influence the dreams of
the leader of Prusso-German policy, but it could not direct
his work. One thing only was certain, that the new customs-
system must be maintained, that it must constitute the fixed
nucleus for the reorganisation of German commerce. He
demanded a free hand for Prussia's commercial policy, decisively
refusing to permit Austrian intervention in this sphere. Yet he
was far from being inspired with any hostility towards the
Hofburg ; to him, a conservative animated by the ideas of
1813, the notion of detaching the Germanic Federation from
Austria remained utterly alien. When quite an old man he
combated Radowitz's plans of union, regarding them as unrealisable
dreams.

A vexatious evil, and one requiring immediate attention,
was the situation of the numerous enclaves The customs-
boundaries were speedily advanced so far as to embrace, almost in
their entirety, the Anhalt duchies and a part also of the small
Thuringian regions which were surrounded by Prussian terri-
tory. All goods brought to these regions were subjected to the
Prussian import duties. It was not until the new system of fron-
tier supervision came into operation, in the beginning of the year
1819, that Eichhorn invited these states to treat with the Berlin
cabinet regarding the customs-question. In accordance with a
reasonable compromise, the king was prepared to hand over to
the sovereigns of the enclaves the income which the imports to
these furnished to his state treasury. This somewhat brusque
method of procedure, which in the papers of the ministry of
finance was spoken of as " our enclave system," could not fail
to arouse some hostility among the minor courts ; but it was
essential to show these neighbours that in matters of commercial
policy they were dependent upon Prussia. Nothing but amiable
weakness could allow the success of the great customs-reform
to depend upon the previous assent of a dozen or so of petty
suzerains who, after the manner of the German princes, could be
convinced by nothing but the eloquence of accomplished facts.
The only thing injured was the vanity of the neighbour overlords,
for it was manifest that Prussia's action redounded to the economic
interests of the enclaves. An independent commercial policy
for these pitiable fragments of territory was inconceivable. It

292

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

would be impossible for their economy to thrive if Prussia
excluded them from her customs-system, and surrounded them
with her barriers ; moreover, trade within the province of Saxony
would be grievously disturbed, if all goods passing through Anhalt
or Schwarzburg had to be placed under seal and subjected to the
examination of the customs-officials. It was equally impos-
sible for Prussia to leave the trade of the enclaves altogether
unsuper vised. The contribution of these trifling regions to the
general revenue from the Prussian customs was no more than
one eightieth part of the whole, but by smuggling they might
readily become a serious danger to Prussian finances.

The wholesome severity of the Berlin financiers secured for
the enclaves free trade in the Prussia market, and for their state-
treasuries the promise of an assured and abundant income such
as they never could have acquired through their own unaided
energies. The Prussian government acted in good faith, it was
prepared that its own enclave system should be utilised against
Prussia herself, declaring on several occasions that should a South
German customs-union come into existence the Wetzler enclave
must be subjected to this customs-system.1 Altogether unten-
able, therefore, was the complaint repeatedly voiced by the injured
petty princes, that Prussia's enclave system was an infringe-
ment of international law. There was excellent legal warrant
for subjecting to the Prussian transit dues all goods destined for
the enclaves, and if the Berlin court thought fit, along certain
lines of traffic, to raise the transit dues to the level of the import
duties, no valid objection could be offered to this course.

When Eichhorn invited the petty states to join in friendly
conventions in the matter of the enclaves, he simultaneously
declared that the king was prepared to discuss the adhesion to
the Prussian customs-union of other territories than these
enclaves. He laid stress on the national character of the customs-
law, pointing out that it was conceived in the spirit of article 19
of the federal act, that it was intended, first of all, to abolish the
internal tolls in a portion of Germany, and further to facilitate
the adhesion to the system of other federal states. The king,
he said, had earned the gratitude of the federal associates by thus
beginning to liberate the German market from the dominion of
the foreign world. Henceforward Prussia's commercial policy
continued faithfully to pursue this national tendency ; the

1 My authority for this statement is, among others, Memorial of the Ministry
oi Finance, December 28, 1824.

293

History of Germany

suggestion frequently mooted in later years, that Belgium or
Switzerland should be accepted into the customs-union, was always
promptly rejected by Berlin. It was not cosmopolitan freedom
of trade at which Prussia aimed, but the commercial unity of the
fatherland. In a note signed by Bernstorff, sent to the Gotha
privy council under date June 13, 1819, it was stated that in
the law of May 26th the king's main intention was " to tax trade
in foreign commodities, and to ward off the competition of non-
German factories from Prussia herself and from those other Ger-
man states which in these respects will adhere to Prussia's rules.
It is the king's strong desire that the measures, adopted solely in
order to tax commodities of foreign origin and to protect native
Prussian industry against the produce of non-German factories
shall not, as far as can be avoided, redound in any way to the
disadvantage of allied federal German states. The note went
on to advise the formation of a Thuringian commercial union,
which should then join the Prussian customs-union, thus indicat-
ing the precise course which fourteen years later led to the
commercio-political union of Prussia and Thuringia.

The Staatszeitung gave an official assurance in the same
sense, declaring : " Prussia, not merely on account of her own
situation, but also because she regards the co-ordination of the
individual interests of the German states with her own general
interest as eminently desirable, strongly desires to further the
plan of complete freedom of trade between the federal states ; and
it is Prussia's greatest wish to secure the removal of all the diffi-
culties which may seem to oppose the carrying of this plan into
execution." Towards Christmas of the year 1819, when the
delegates of List's Union visited Berlin in order to win over the
government to the idea of a German customs-union, they received
the following assurance from Hardenberg and three of the
ministers : " It is far from being the desire of the Prussian govern-
ment to impair the welfare of the German neighbour states by one-
sided measures. This government would be delighted if all the
governments of Germany could come to a general agreement
regarding the principles of a common commercial system such as
would favour the welfare of all parties to that agreement. The
Prussian government, for its own part, would gladly do anything
in its power to secure for the whole of Germany the advantages
of a system of free trade based upon justice. But we cannot
fail to recognise that the organisation of the individual German
states by no means fits them as yet for common action in these

294

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

matters, especially when it is remembered that the arrange-
ments for such common action must be carried out in the like spirit
by all. As yet, therefore, it seems that no more can be effected
than that individual states which consider that their interests
suffer from the present posture of affairs should endeavour to
come to an understanding with those members of the Federation
from whose actions, in their view, their troubles arise, and that
in this manner harmonious arrangements should spread from
frontier to frontier, aiming at the increasing abolition of the
internal barriers of separation." l

Herein was given definite and concise expression to the
fundamental idea of such a national commercial policy as, in view
of the futility of the Bundestag, was alone possible of attainment.
Concerning proposals that were still inchoate, no government
could speak more plainly than did Prussia. But, owing to the
epidemic infatuation which now affected public opinion, and amid
the loud chorus of complaints directed against absolutist Prussia,
the frank expressions and actions of the Berlin cabinet were
utterly ignored. People persuaded themselves into the illusion
that Prussia was selfishly separating herself from the great father-
land. Invectives rained upon the arrogance and particularism
of Berlin, proceeding above all from the petty courts which had
to accept the enclave system. Even to Charles Augustus of
Weimar it seemed an extremely arrogant suggestion that his
administrative districts of Allstedt and Oldisleben, which were
surrounded by Prussian territory, should be subjected to the
Prussian customs-system, and he wrote in the following terms
to the court of Berlin : "A strict carrying into effect of the law
of May 26th seems so little in harmony with the principles of the
federal act that assuredly this matter will form the subject of
the next proceedings of the Bundestag, and his majesty of Prussia,
as a federal prince, will find it necessary to make conciliatory
proposals to the Federation.2

Eichhorn could not agree to such naive proposals. He
could not sacrifice the customs-system of the province of Saxony to
the preferences of Austria and of the majority of the Bundestag,
but continued to hope that the recognition of their own advantage
would lead the petty Thuringian dynasts to accept Prussia's
offer, and to sign treaties recognising the adhesion of their

1 Preussische Staatszeitung, 1819, No. 131. Idem, December 28, 1819.

2 Despatch from Privy Councillor Edling and Conta to Count Bernstorff,
Weimar, January 26, 1819.

295

History of Germany

iutra-Prussian enclaves to the Prussian customs-system. All the
minor neighbours did, in fact, apply to the court of Berlin, but
only to demand the immediate abolition of the enclave system,
although they made no suggestions as to how this abolition
would possibly be effected. The well-meaning prince, Giinther
Frederick Charles of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, considered
himself especially aggrieved. The larger moiety of his realm,
the Unterherrschaft which included the capital, a region con-
taining nearly 30,000 inhabitants, was surrounded by Prussian
territory and incorporated into the Prussian customs-system.
Since the crown of Prussia, as assign of Electoral Saxony, also
exercised the postal monopoly and certain other suzerain rights,
very little of his cherished sovereignty was left to the prince.
Consequently Lestocq, the much-worried envoy of the Thuringian
states, and subsequently the Sondershausen privy council itself,
had to besiege the Prussian court with demands for " the
repeal of an ordinance to which, for its part, Schwarzburg-
Sondershausen is firmly resolved never to agree."

Klewitz answered courteously to the effect that matters
could without difficulty be arranged by a treaty ; further he
promised the prince duty-free passage for goods destined for the
court ; but any change in the law, he said bluntly, was impos-
sible, in view of the danger of smuggling from the little neighbour
state.1 Sondershausen would not take the hint. For several
months in succession the Prussian government was continually
harassed with demands whether it was not at length willing to
do away with an arrangement which so grossly infringed the
rights of Sondershausen sovereignty. The prince personally
directed to the king " a most devout request," that the king,
" giving renewed proof of your majesty's generally honoured
and universally valued liberality and magnanimity shall give
occasion for the most unrestricted and most devoted gratitude." 8
All was vain ; the humble form of the request could not conceal
its arrogant content. Then von Weise came in person to Berlin,
an excellent old man who in conjunction with his son, the privy
councillor, ruled Sondershausen in patriarchal fashion. But he
also failed to secure his end.

1 Lestocq to Bernstorff, January 22 ; Despatch from the Sondershausen Privy
Council to Bernstorff, February 27 ; to Klewitz. February 9 ; Klewitz to Chan-
cellor von Weise. January 30. to Fernstorff, March 18, 1819.

t Von Weise to Hoffmann, April 23 ; Prince Giinther to King Frederick
William, July 29, 1819.

296

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

In Erfurt, meanwhile, Vice-president von Motz had taken
up the quarrel. He knew the most intimate secrets of par-
ticularism, for his governmental district was in close association
with nearly a dozen petty territories. As a good neighbour, he
was on intimate terms with the two von Weises, and now did his
first service on behalf of Germany's growing commercial unity
(which was soon to thank him for greater things) by representing
to his friends how childish it was to cling to a customs suzerainty
which could never possibly become effective.1 The prince, a
patron of the arts, had long desired to establish a Sondershausen
national theatre in the charming valley of the Wipper, but funds
were lacking ; should he adhere to the Prussian customs system,
this would help him out of his difficulties. The consideration
was not without effect.

Towards the end of September the elder von Weise returned
to Berlin, and since this time he really meant business he was
received with extreme friendliness. Maassen and Hoffmann con-
ducted the negotiations, remaining in continuous communication
with Eichhorn. While still unacquainted with Nebenius' memorial,
Hoffmann suggested on his own initiative that the simplest thing
would be, ignoring petty fiscal details, to allot the general
income from the customs-dues proportionally to population.*
Thus was discovered that measuring-scale based on population
which served Prussia as the foundation of all her subsequent
customs-treaties. Von Weise immediately accepted this favour-
able offer, and on October 25, 1819, was signed the first treaty of
accession to the Prussian customs, in virtue of which the prince
of Sondershausen " without prejudice to his suzerain rights "
subjected the Unterherrschaft to the Prussian customs-law, receiv-
ing a share in the customs revenue proportionate to the population
of the region, and provisionally a round sum of 15,000 thalers.
The pygmy ally was not granted any co-operation in customs
legislation, and had simply to accept Prussia's commercial
treaties and all other alterations which the ministry of finance
might determine. In other respects, his suzerain rights were
meticulously respected ; even the customs inspection on
Schwarzburg territory was to be effected solely by the princely
officials.

Loud was the rejoicing in the valley of the Wipper. The
prince expressed his profound gratitude for this new proof of

1 From the Memoirs of Frau von Brinken, Motz's daughter.

2 Hoffmann to Maassen, October 10, 1819.

297 x

History of Germany

royal magnanimity ; ' at length it was possible to him to open
his celebrated smoking theatre, where he vied with the burghers
of his capital city for the favour of the muses of the dramatic
and the nicotian arts. From the financial point of view the agree-
ment unquestionably allotted a lion's share to Sondershausen .
The impecunious Thuringian mountain-land consumed far less
than the eastern provinces in general of the colonial produce
which provided the bulk of the customs revenue, but, for political
reasons, Prussia was glad to make the monetary sacrifice.

All the more reasonable seemed the expectation that the
other petty states would follow Sondershausen 's example. In
the preamble to the treaty, the king had once more declared that
he was ready to enter into similar agreements with other federal
princes. Rudolstadt was already beginning to negotiate. Hoff-
mann also expected that he would speedily come to terms with
Brunswick, Weimar, and Gotha, and began in his proposals to
transcend the principles of the enclave system. The Prussian
state, even if it should renounce all plans of conquest, was at
least compelled by the unhappily dismembered configuration of
its domains to cherish commercio-political ambitions. The
Prussian customs system could with difficulty be carried out
unless, in addition to the enclaves, certain partially enclosed neigh-
bour states were to be subjected to the Prussian customs-law.
Take the case of Anhalt-Bernburg, a small proportion of whose
frontier was not coterminous with that of Prussia, and which
was therefore conscientiously treated as foreign territory. What
was Prussia's reward for this scrupulousness ? A formidable
smuggling traffic, which increased from month to month, and
which threatened to swallow all the customs revenue of the pro-
vince of Saxony. Already in October, 4,023 cwt. of goods, for the
most part colonial produce, had been imported into the little
Harz towns adjoining "Ballenstedt, to vanish there without leav-
ing a trace. This region, at least, in Hoffmann's view, must
immediately be included within the Prussian customs barrier. As
soon as the treaty with Sondershausen was made public it would
be impossible for the petty neighbours to fight against their own
interests any longer.2

The hope proved fallacious. The customs treaty, which
to us to-day seems so much a matter of course, was to remain

1 Von Weisc, junior, to Hoffmann, November, 1819.

2 Lestocq to Berr.storff, October 29; Hoffmann to Bernstorff, December 18
1819.

Change of Mood at the Prussian Court

for several years a solitary specimen. Immediately the report
of its conclusion became disseminated, a cry of wrath resounded
at all the courts. Prince Giinther had to bear serious
reproaches from his serene colleagues because he had so shame-
fully sacrificed the treasure of sovereignty ; alarmed at the
general indignation, the other petty neighbours, who had been
about to follow his example, withdrew from the negotiations.
The duke of Ccethen took the lead among Prussia's opponents,
declaring in the name of the minor princes : " Voluntarily they
can not and will not submit, for to do this would be a breach
of their most sacred duties towards their subjects, their houses,
and their own honour ; he went on defiantly to demand that
Prussia should place at his disposal a toll-free strip of Prussian
territory twenty kilometres wide and extending as far as
the Saxon frontier, in order to secure for the house of Anhalt
free access to world-commerce. Looking on with ostensible
good-nature, but surreptitiously inciting to further resistance,
there stood behind the incensed pygmies Prussia's faithful
federal ally, Austria. The courts secretly resolved that at
the Vienna conferences they would with united forces secure
the repeal of the Prussian customs-law ; only if this first
beginning of German customs unity were swept from the
earth would it be possible for the Bundestag to establish a
national commercial policy. The entire nation outside Prussia
joyfully participated in this frenzy of particularist passion.
All the songs and speeches in favour of German unity were
forgotten, directly Prussia addressed herself to securing for the
Germans " the benefits of a common fatherland."

Prussia's statesmen had hoped that during the very first
years after the new law came into operation some of the Ger-
man neighbours would be won over to the policy of practical
German unity. But now Prussia was forced to assume the
defensive. The victorious struggle for the maintenance, and
subsequently for the extension, of the customs-area remained
for many years the principal task of Prussian statecraft.
Through his peaceful success in this campaign, King Frederick
William atoned for the errors committed in Carlsbad, and
established the boundary stones for the new Germany. He
was the right man for this work of German patience, so incon-
spicuous, and yet of such momentous importance. Equable
and ever devoted to his aim, loyal and firm, animated by
a sense of justice which disarmed mistrust, always prepared

299

History of Germany

to encounter a converted opponent with upright benevolence,
he gradually liberated the debris of Germany from the bonds
imposed by Germany's own folly and by foreign intrigues,
preparing the way for greater times. The present must not
display less gratitude than did Frederick the Great when he
said, referring to his father's inconspicuous life-work : " For
the energy of the acorn we have to thank the shade of the
oak tree which covers it."

300

BOOK III.

AUSTRIA'S HEGEMONY AND THE INCREASE
IN THE POWER OF PRUSSIA.

1819-1830.

CHAPTER I.i
THE VIENNA CONFERENCES.

§ I. FINAL ACT OF THE GERMANIC FEDERATION.

THE power of inert daily custom sometimes robs genius of
the fruits of its activity, but it also frequently hinders injustice
in its presumptuous career. A coup d'etat such as Prince
Metternich had succeeded in effecting in Carlsbad and Frank-
fort could not be promptly repeated, and least of all in the
greatly subdivided German world. The anxiety of the summer
of 1819 had been dissipated, the new exceptional laws temporarily
sufficed to allay the real and the imaginary dangers of a dema-
gogic rising, and in proportion to the degree in which they
once more felt safe were the minor courts again influenced
by the sentiment which ever dominated them in peaceful times —
regard for their own sovereignty.

It is true that Bavaria, by a conciliatory declaration to the
two great powers, had mitigated the objections she had herself
made against the Carlsbad decrees, and that the king of
Wiirtemberg had failed to secure the assistance demanded in
Warsaw. Nor was the efficiency of the federal decrees at all
restricted by the fact that the court of Munich had permitted itself
a trifling excess of independent power in refraining from pro-
mulgating the federal executive ordinance, and in introducing

1 Treitschke's Prefaces to Book III constitute Appendix XII, and will be
found at the end of this volume.

303

I listory of Germany

the censorship for political periodicals alone ; for the federal
executive organisation, which gave new powers solely to the
Federation and not to the individual states, was unquestionably
in legal force now that the Bundestag had promulgated it,
and such abundant provision was made for the good behaviour
of Bavarian authors by the ordinary executive authority of
the police, that subsequently Zentner was able truthfully to
declare that in this way the aim of the Carlsbad press law
"was just as efficiently and often more certainly attained than
it would have been by a censorship." * Nevertheless Harden-
berg felt that all these half-hearted attempts at resistance
gave expression to a hidden discontent which might very readily
become dangerous. Who could foresee whether the Bavarian
crown prince might not soon gain supreme influence at
the court of his indulgent father ? The young prince was
definitely opposed to the Carlsbad decrees ; his whole nature
revolted against them ; they conflicted with " the liberal and
popular German sentiment " of which he loved to boast, and
with the pride of sovereignty characteristic of the house of
Wittelsbach. It was known in Berlin that henceforward
Bavaria and Wiirtemberg would be on their guard ; both these
courts had instructed their plenipotentiaries that at the
ministerial discussions in Vienna they were to approve nothing
which conflicted with their respective territorial constitutions.
The high-handed conduct of the two great powers in Carlsbad
had offended even the ultra-conservative minor courts of the
north ; while the elderly king of Saxony, despite all his devotion
to the house of Austria, displayed his dissatisfaction at the
contemptuous way in which he had been treated by the
Bundestag. All these considerations urged caution, and
although Hardenberg had successfully repulsed the attacks of
Count Capodistrias, he thought it advisable to avoid rousing
further suspicion in the minds of the Russian statesmen, and to
refrain from giving them any excuse for secret machinations in
Germany. When General Scholer reported that the court of
St. Petersburg looked forward with lively anxiety to the minis-
terial discussions in Vienna, Bernstorff immediately gave a
reassuring answer to the effect that there was no intention

1 Zentner, Memorial concerning the Renewal of the Carlsbad Decrees,
May 28, 1824.

2 Zastrow's Report, Munich, November 17 ; Kuster's Report, Stuttgart,
November 29, 1819.

304

The Vienna Conferences

in Vienna to initiate any changes, but that the sole aim of
the conferences was to carry out and to develop the federal
act.1

The experiences of the last few weeks had, moreover,
made the chancellor feel that Prussia's own interests might
be seriously endangered by any further advance along the
path entered at Teplitz. Hardenberg had there facilitated an
extension of the competence of the Federation which conflicted
with the legal character of the federal constitution, and which
it would hardly be possible to maintain in default of an inde-
pendent centralised authority. In the interim he had come
to consider that it would not be possible to perform the next
and most important task of his German policy, the maintenance
of the new customs system, if the federal authority should
become competent to undertake arbitrary interference in this
matter. When, with the king's approval, he gave Count Berns-
torff instructions for his conduct at the Vienna assembly, he
wrote : "It is, above all, the minor states which, misled by
an erroneous and arrogant conception of their sovereignty,
are apt to regard as infringements of that sovereignty the
necessary undertakings of the great states." The first modest
attempt to enlarge the Prussian customs area had brought all
Prussia's smaller neighbours into the tilting ground, and there
was no doubt that in Vienna they would endeavour to annul
the Prussian customs-law by means of a decision of the entire
Federation. Was Prussia herself to sharpen the weapons of
these opponents, to work at this juncture for the establishment
of a permanent federal jurisdiction, to subject the vital problems
of Prussian commerce and the entire future of German commer-
cial policy to the incalculable pretensions of a tribunal in which
the minor states had the decisive voice ? As soon as Harden-
berg devoted serious attention to one of the great problems
of practical German unity, the very nature of things led him
back to that sober conception of the federal law which
Humboldt had formed when the Bundestag first assembled ; 2
he recognised that the economic interests of the nation must
be pursued independently of the Federation, that they could
be furthered solely by negotiations between the individual
courts.

At the Vienna congress, Hardenberg had still endeavoured

1 Bernstorff to Ancillon. December 7, 1819.

2 Vide supra, vol. II, p. 400.

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History of Germany

to secure a strong federal authority, one which should be com-
petent to control the internal activities of the individual states ;
but now that the Federation had acquired " a different organi-
sation and development from that which we had anticipated,"
this seemed to him neither possible nor desirable. The federal
constitution, such as it was, reposed upon the sovereignty of
the individual states ; the Viennese negotiations promised
to be fruitful only if this principle should be unreservedly
recognised. It was for this reason, moreover, that the chancellor
expressly reiterated Prussia's old demand that the matter of
the federal military organisation should at length be settled ;
he also desired that the Carlsbad decrees should for a few
years be inviolably maintained as urgency laws, but he was
opposed to granting the Federation a more powerful influence
in the internal affairs of the individual states. Consequently
there was to be no permanent federal jurisdiction, nor yet any
definitive federal executive organisation, so long as the provisional
federal executive organisation remained untried. Nor did
Hardenberg any longer wish to abolish the provision in the
federal constitution whereby, in all decrees concerning organic
institutions, unanimity must be secured, for the minor states
remained unwilling to agree to a juster distribution of votes
at the Bundestag. Regarding article 13 of the federal act,
he expressed no more than a few diffident wishes ; and in con-
clusion he enunciated the dry opinion that it would perhaps
be best " to acquiesce entirely in the general admonitions of
the presidential address at the last session of the Bundestag.1

Metterm'ch, too, began cautiously to give way. It is
true that shortly before the opening of the conferences he
wrote boastfully enough to the loyal Berstett : " Count upon
us. Count that Prussia will hold firm ; I guarantee it.
Count, finally, upon the enormous majority of the German
governments, and above all upon yourself. You will find me
here too, just as you left me on the last day in Carlsbad ;
and you will also find the emperor, unquestionably an enormous
moral force ! "2 But he certainly felt that he could not again
venture, as in those victorious days in Bohemia, to play the part
of dictator. His intention that the general representative
system should everywhere be replaced by the representation
of estates had been frustrated in Carlsbad ; still less, therefore,

1 Instruction to Bernstorff, November 10, 1819.
a Metternich to Berstett, October 30, 1819.

306

The Vienna Conferences

could he expect to carry out this intention in Vienna, at cere-
monious and formal ministerial conferences, where the arts
of intimidation and surprise would avail him nothing. He
therefore prudently adapted himself to circumstances, and, in
issuing on October i6th the invitations to the minor sovereigns,
he employed a modest and disarming form of expression. All
that was intended was " a preliminary discussion " between the
German governments, so that the Bundestag might receive
unanimous instructions concerning the important decrees which
Count Buol had promulgated on September 2oth. 1

In the latter half of November, when the invited
plenipotentiaries of all seventeen votes of the inner council
reported themselves to Metternich, he found most of them
favourably disposed, prepared to do everything which could
in any way help to establish " the monarchical principle "
more firmly, but also full of alarm regarding a possible further
curtailment of their sovereignty. Willingly, therefore, he
adopted the conciliatory methods urged upon him by Bernstorff
in preliminary confidential conversations. Both statesmen were
agreed " not to diverge by a hair's breadth " from the
September decrees, nor to allow any further discussion of what
had been effected in the past. Henceforward, however, the
Carlsbad policy was to be retained " within the limits of the
achievable ; by the paths of " moderation and harmony," an
endeavour was to be made to effect a compromise with those
members of the Federation who held divergent views ; as con-
cerned the difficult interpretation of article 13, the monarchical
principle and the federal unity were to be simultaneously
maintained, and yet due regard was to be shown for those states
which by their constitutions " had already to a large extent
lost sight of these two joint considerations." 2 To allay in
advance the suspicions of the minor courts, Metternich over-
flowed with ardent asseverations of loyalty to the Federation.
The federal act, he declared in the very first sitting, was held
sacred by the court of Vienna ; even should some verbal error
have crept into the document, Emperor Francis would never
allow a word of this holy charter to be altered. This was
an unambiguous announcement that Austria did not again

1 Metternich to Berstett, October 16, 1819, with letter of invitation to the
Grand Duke of Hesse, etc.

2 Bernstorff's Report, November 24 ; Bernstorff to Ancillon, November 23,
1819, to Goltz, March 25, 1820.

307

History of Germany

purpose to effect an arbitrary strengthening of the federal
authority such as had been determined on in Carlsbad.

The representatives of the two great powers had anticipated
at the outset lively opposition on the part of Bavaria and
Wiirtemberg, but they were soon agreeably disillusioned.1
Zentner, the Bavarian plenipotentiary, knew how to gratify the
wishes of both parties in the Munich cabinet, and adopted
a middle course which was, in existing circumstances, the
only sound policy for his state. He openly professed his loyalty
to the constitution, and with juristic acumen advocated that
strictly particularist view of the federal law which, at first at
the Vienna congress, and subsequently at the Bundestag, had
been obstinately maintained by the house of Wittelsbach.
According to the Bavarian doctrine, the fundamental law of
the Federation was comprised exclusively in the first eleven
articles of the federal act ; the " special provisions " of the
nine concluding articles, dealing with the internal affairs of the
federal states, were regarded in Munich as no more than a
voluntary agreement between sovereign powers, and were not
considered unconditionally binding. But there was never any
doubt as to the Bavarian's intentions. He displayed not a
sign of the liberal tendencies erroneously attributed to him ; he
avoided uttering a word which might arouse suspicion in this
circle, and did so all the more scrupulously because his
colleagues expressly assured him that the court of Munich
had by its appeal for help contributed to bring about the
Carlsbad decrees. So long as the sovereignty of the Wittels-
bachs and their territorial constitution remained intact, he
would gladly share in any measures tending to secure " order " ;
and since in the negotiations he showed himself an able man
of business, always accommodating and courteous, hard-working
and well informed, altogether free from duplicity, he was soon,
as Rechberg had prophesied, on good terms even with Metter-
nich. He speedily formed a close friendship with Bernstorff,
and once more the understanding between the two principal
purely German states proved natural and wholesome ; as parties
now stood, they could indeed do little positive good, but they
were able to prevent many of the follies of reactionary party
policy.

Less friendly, but perhaps even less dangerous, was the

1 Bernstorfi's Reports. November 30 and December 7 ; Bernstorff to
Ancillon, November 30, 1819.

308

The Vienna Conferences

attitude of Wiirtemberg. A singular obscurity continued to
prevail regarding the designs of the court of Stuttgart, an
obscurity which corresponded with the character of King
William. The Prussian envoy to this court was altogether
unable to see his way clearly ; now one of the ministers would
assure him that in essentials the court was in complete
sympathy with the Carlsbad decrees, and now again the king
would express ultra-liberal sentiments to the Russian envoy.1
A similar uncertainty was betrayed in the choice of plenipoten-
tiaries for the conference. Wintzingerode remained in Stuttgart
for reasons identical with those which kept Rechberg in Munich ;
he was unwilling to lose immediate contact with his king,
and he desired to retain the decisive voice in the privy council.
Count Mandelsloh, a good-natured, easy-going, rather dull old
gentleman, whose political innocence was above suspicion, was
furnished with credentials for Vienna, and yet Stuttgart policy could
never work straightforwardly. This blameless envoy received
as assistant, without voting power, Baron von Trott, a liberal
Rhenish Confederate bureaucrat, a man after the Swabian
king's own heart, shrewd, active, and ambitious. For some
months past he had been regarded as King William's chief
confidant, though no one could say how long he was likely
to retain this position, for at the court of Stuttgart the change
of roles was usually very rapid. In Vienna he was ill
received from the first, for he had the reputation of being
a Bonapartist, and was inclined to Wangenheim's trias plans ;
Miinchhausen, the envoy of Electoral Hesse, actually refused
to sit in council with a man who had once served as prefect
under King Jerome. Being thus suspect on all hands, and in
addition being on terms of personal enmity with his chief, it
was impossible for Trott to play any part in the conferences,
and it was only at intervals, when some trifling intrigue was
initiated from Stuttgart, that he emerged from obscurity.3

Among the other plenipotentiaries, the most notable was
Baron du Thil, the Darmstadt minister of state, a man of
keen statesmanlike intelligence, reputed an ultra-conservative
monarchist, but one who took a freer and more accurate view

1 Kiister's Reports, September 21, October 23, November 29. and following
dates, 1819.

* Kiister's Report, October 26, 1819.

s Further details are given by Aegidi, The Final Act of the Vienna
Ministerial Conferences, II, p. 62.

309

History of Germany

than did most liberals of the practical aims of the national
policy and of the German vocation of the Prussian state ; here
in Vienna he acquired among the Prussian statesmen a prestige
which at a later date was to bear valuable fruit for Germany's
unity. ' He too, however, always displayed anxiety when there
was any talk of enlarging the powers of the Federation. Most
of the other ministers held similar views, down to the good
Fritsch, who represented the Ernestine court, and Senator Hach,
the plenipotentiary of the free towns. This mood of the
statesmen unquestionably harmonised with the sentiments of
the nation.

It was the curse of the Carlsbad policy that every increase
of the federal authority was henceforward regarded as a danger
to civic freedom. In a people in which a sense of national
pride and in which thoughts of the fatherland were only just
beginning to reawaken, it was inevitable that particularism
should manifest itself with renewed energy now that the policy
of centralisation was pursuing false aims. During these very
days, W. J. Behr; the leader of the Franconian liberals, pub-
lished in Wiirzburg a' writing upon The Influence of the
Federation upon the Constitution of its Member States, which
secured warm approval from the press and faithfully represented
average liberal views. In this work, the particularist doctrine
of the court of Munich was greatly surpassed. We find in it
not a single word about a German nation, nor any allusion
to the great tasks of civilisation which that nation could per-
form with united energies alone. The dissolution of the Holy
Empire and of the Confederation of the Rhine had proved, it
was contended, the impracticability of a German national state.
The Germanic Federation was merely a free association of
co-existing peoples, which kept the peace one with another,
and which combined for the joint defence of their safety
against the foreign world ; but these peoples desired to retain
their individual sovereignty unimpaired. The Federation had
nothing whatever to do with the internal affairs of its member
states, and since sovereignty and subordination are utterly
incompatible, the only resource of the Federation against a
recalcitrant member was exclusion. Woe unto us, said the
author, if " the spirit of a national state comes to animate
our German federation of states, leading it to lust after the
exercise of supreme authority ! " The treatise closed with a

1 Otterstedt's Report, Darmstadt, June 10, 1820, and subsequent dates.

310

The Vienna Conferences

panegyric on Bavaria's free constitution. Thus completely
had the new constitutional glories expunged the memories of
ten centuries of history ; the nation of the Othos and the
Hohenstaufen had been dissolved into "coexisting peoples."

Since Metternich and Bernstorff both felt that it was neces-
sary to reckon with this strong particularist tendency, soon
after the opening of the conferences there became manifest an
unexpected transposition of parties. The great powers walked
hand in hand with Bavaria, receiving in most cases the approval
of those very minor states which had shortly before been mis-
trustfully excluded from the Carlsbad deliberations. The two
reactionary courts, on the other hand, which in Carlsbad had
shown themselves most subservient, Baden and Nassau, formed
the opposition in Vienna, playing there the part of " the Ger-
man ultras," as Bernstorff phrased it. To Berstett's limited
intelligence, the urgent grounds which forced the court of Vienna
to walk cautiously seemed non-existent ; he thought only of
Badenese domestic embarrassments, of the Carlsruhe Landtag
which was shortly to reassemble, of the grand duke's angry
exclamation, "It is better to be devoured by lions than by
swine ! " As Bernstorff wrote, Berstett desired " to see his
own work destroyed by federal intervention," and hoped for
a comprehensive redrafting of the federal act which would
impose strict limits upon the territorial constitutions ; as a
minimum he wished for a new exceptional law to prohibit
publicity of the proceedings of the chambers throughout the
five years' duration of the Carlsbad decrees.1 Vainly did
Berstett's companion, the restless young Blittersdorff, bring the
assistance of his incisive pen. Nos ultras soon became a
nuisance even to their old Austrian patron. One after another
of Berstett's plans came to nought, and at length he was
reduced to attempting, by continually bringing forward fresh
proposals, to postpone the end of the conferences, " hoping
to inspire in the Badenese Landtag a wholesome sense of terror
through the long continuance of the present meeting." 2 So
remarkable were the bubbles arising out of the marsh of German
federal policy. The statesman who thus expressly defended
the necessity for a strong centralised authority was animated,
not by a national sentiment, but by the dread of revolution,

1 Bernstorff to Ancillon, November 30 and December 25, 1819. Berstett's
Reports, Weech, Correspondence, pp. 34 et seq.

2 Bernstorff's Report, April 9 ; Bernstorff to Ancillon, April 9, 1820.

History of Germany

and by the frank and excessive self-esteem of particularism ;
as Bernstorff declared, he continually confused " the separate
affairs of Baden with the loftier and more general concerns
of the community." The issue of the Viennese negotiations
filled these reactionary centralists with profound disgust.
Blittersdorff wrote angrily : " By her half measures, Austria
ensures the victory of the new ideas ; in this connection the
Vienna final act may be stigmatised as the most disadvan-
tageous charter of peace which has been signed by Austria for
many years." 1

Yet more passionate was the anger of Berstett's friend,
Marschall of Nassau. He had expected that in Vienna the
war of annihilation against the new constitutions would imme-
diately break out ; and before the opening of the conferences
he had drafted a memorial describing in glowing terms " the
injurious and illegal characteristics " of the Wiirtemberg funda-
mental law. Because this constitution was couched in the
form of a convention, it was, by the doctrinaires of both parties,
despite its extremely modest content, regarded as the master-
piece of liberalism. Marschall conceived that he was listening
to the alarm bells of revolt when the burghers of Stuttgart
declared in an address : " Cultured Europe, from the banks
of the Tagus to those of the Niemen, is united in accepting the
principle that ruler and people cannot be conceived of without
a convention of acquiescence." He insisted that in its very
origin this constitution " pays homage to the democratic prin-
ciple that is fermenting in Germany ; the maintenance and
establishment of the internal repose of Germany are dependent
upon its public disavowal." To the chief of the all-powerful
Nassau bureaucracy, the anxiously restricted municipal freedom
of the Swabians seemed an attempt " to republicanise the
state from below upwards " ; and since he himself was quarrel-
ling with the Landtag about the domains, he regarded it as
an indignity that King William, following his father's example,
had conceded to the state his proprietary rights in the crown-
lands, wrathfully exclaiming, " A German prince has declared
his family property to be national property ! " a He was

1 Blittersdorff, Observations upon the Present Political Crisis, November 3,
1820.

* Marschall, Observations uy.on the Wiirtemberg Constitution, Vienna,
November 17. 1819, published by Aegidi, Zeitschrift fur deutsches Staatsrecht, I,
P- 149-

312

The Vienna Conferences

speedily to learn how unfavourable was the air of Vienna to
such designs. Noting the confidential understanding between
Bernstorff and Zentner, he was confirmed in his old opinion
that "the political ferment" issued from this detested North
German great power, and he stormed with uncontrolled violence
against the Prussian minister.

The representatives of the Guelph houses, Miinster and
Hardenberg, as might be expected of these retainers of the high
tones, held very similar views to the two reactionary hotspurs,
but they had no desire to embroil themselves with the great
powers. How different was now Metternich's position from
what it had been in Carlsbad. It is true that he continued
to seem to the world the admired leader of German statesmen,
and in honour of the master the laborious work, which after
six months' negotiations was at length brought to a conclusion,
was dated May I5th, Metternich's birthday. But whereas in
Carlsbad he had played the chief, in Vienna before almost
every important step he came to an agreement with Bernstorff,
who here for the first time displayed an entirely independent
attitude, and who for his part held secret council with Zentner.
The Austrian did not allow his disappointment to find
expression, and in his letters continued to boast as usual of
the undisturbed triumphs of his new diplomatic campaign.
In reality, the policy of compromise which was followed at
these conferences, while it expressed the moderate sentiments
of the Berlin cabinet, was far from conforming to the intimate
wishes of the Hofburg ; for everyone knew that the two ultras,
Berstett and Marschall, together with Plessen of Mecklenburg,
were Metternich's favourites.

Supported by Kiister, the second Prussian plenipotentiary,
who had been familiar with the mode of thought of the minor
courts since the days of Ratisbon, Bernstorff, by prudent pliancy
and open good feeling, speedily acquired an extremely favourable
position, so that Zentner termed him " the soul of the con-
ferences." l He avoided speaking too frequently in the plenary
assemblies, for Prussia held the presidency in eight of the ten
committees which prepared the labours of the conferences, and
was represented in all ten of them. The net outcome of the
tedious deliberations could not be expected to be otherwise than
scanty. Their course proved for all time that a federation which
admits the sovereignty of its member states must renounce any

J Zastrow's Report, Munich, July 5, 1820.

313 Y

History of Germany

idea of a healthy federal development. Nevertheless an agree-
ment was secured concerning the interpretation of several of the
articles of the federal act which had been all too concisely drafted,
and also regarding certain general principles for the constitutional
life of the individual states. The amplification of the federal law
which was here effected was at least somewhat more practical
than the federal act itself ; and what was above all fortunate was
the complete avoidance of any arbitrary steps which might cause
fresh offence to the embittered nation.

The foundation upon which the conferences themselves rested
was far from being legally incontestable in the light of the federal
constitution. Just as modestly as in his letter of invitation did
Metternich declare, when opening the conferences on November
25th, that the assembly was not a congress, and could not properly
speaking come to any definite decisions, but had met merely in
order "in a preparatory but binding manner" to agree upon a
common treatment of federal affairs ; it did not purpose any
limitation of the sphere of activity of the Bundestag, but proposed
to define the scope and boundaries of this sphere. Since the Bundes-
tag had as yet failed to bring into being any of the promised
organic institutions, it was certainly an obvious thought to come
to the assistance of this body by a confidential deliberation
among the leading statesmen, a deliberation which could not be
paralysed either by the tedious procedure of the Bundestag or by
the hocus-pocus of sending for instructions. In Carlsbad, only
one party had been present ; while here in Vienna the entirety
of the members of the Federation were represented. But article
10 of the federal act had expressly assigned to the federal
assembly, as the first business of that body, the drafting of the
fundamental laws. Should the Bundestag be deprived of this
task, its prestige, which in any case had been profoundly reduced
since the September decrees, would be completely destroyed,
and the hopeless futility of the German central authority would
be proclaimed to the entire world. What a ludicrous spectacle :
whilst in Vienna negotiations were proceeding concerning the
structure of the federal constitution, the highest German authority
quietly enjoyed its recess from the end of September until
January 20th ; and then Count Buol, who had meanwhile
received the commands of the Vienna assembly, proposed a
further prorogation until April 10. Vainly did semi-official news-
paper articles endeavour to appease public opinion by the assur-
ance that the committees were still unceasingly at work ; the

314

The Vienna Conferences

nation knew just as well as the federal envoys themselves that the
machine in Frankfort was completely at a standstill.1 During a
period of seven months there was but one occasion on which the
Bundestag gave a notable sign of life, and this was when it requested
the French court to suppress the Elsasser Patriot, a joint organ of
the liberals on both banks of the Rhine.2

Meanwhile matter for discussion at the Vienna conferences
continued to accumulate. The first committee, appointed to
determine the competence of the Federation, found itself compelled
to elucidate almost all the difficult questions of principle involved
in the federal law, and quite spontaneously the problem arose
for consideration whether it was not desirable that the principles
thus agreed upon should be assembled in a great federal
constitutional law. After the majority had quietly come to
an understanding upon the matter, on March 4th Metternich
proposed that out of the articles upon which an agreement had
here been secured there should be compiled a supplementary
act to the federal act, which should then, " in conformity with
article 10 of the federal act," be submitted to the Bundestag for
formal ratification.

Thus in conformity with article 10 this same article was to
be suspended, and the drafting of the fundamental laws, which
was the privilege of the Bundestag itself, was to be simply
transferred to a ministerial conference concerning which the
federal act had not a word to say ! Not even Metternich had
ever before interpreted the prescriptions of the German federal
law so boldly. What did it matter to him that as recently as
November he had declared that nothing more was contemplated
than a friendly discussion between the federated governments ?
He now confidently maintained that the authority of this minis-
terial assembly was supreme, that of the Bundestag subordinate
merely. Yet however certain it was that the Austrian proposal
was open to serious objections from the legal point of view, this
proposal was an adroit diplomatic way out of the difficulty, for
it offered the simplest means of securing a definite result from the
tedious negotiations, and at the same time of thrusting the
Bundestag completely on one side. This latter aim was one which
Metternich had continuously in view, for he was profoundly dis-
quieted by the medley of parties in the Eschenheimer Gasse.
Neither Count Buol nor his Prussian colleague was competent to

1 Goltz's Reports, January 18 and 25, 1820.

2 Goltz's Reports, February 15 and April 27, 1820.

315

I li story of Germany

control the envoys of the lesser federal states. The recall
of Goltz, who earnestly desired to escape from the incessant
bickering at Frankfort, had for some time been under con-
sideration ; but no suitable successor was forthcoming, for
Solms-Laubach was regarded by the Vienna court as suspect,
while the king considered Hatzfeldt unsuitable, for he was
a Catholic, and Prussia must act at the Bundestag as leader
of the Protestant courts. For the present, therefore, tho
inadequate representation was left unaltered, and Goltz meroly
received instructions that where questions of federal law were
involved he was to seek the advice of the learned Kliiber.1 The
leaderless Bundestag was simply impossible to count on. If it
should be allowed to rediscuss the Vienna agreement, it was easy
to foresee that Wangenheim and his liberal friends, with or with-
out permission from their courts, would unfurl the standard of
the opposition, and that their speeches, disseminated by the pub-
lished minutes throughout the length and breadth of the land,
would stir up public opinion. Amid the anarchy of this Federa-
tion anything was possible, even a struggle between the federal
envoys and their respective ministerial chiefs. Such a misfortune
could only be avoided by settling matters once for all in Vienna,
and by forcing the Bundestag once more, as in the previous
autumn, to yield to the force of accomplished facts. To this
had the Germanic Federation come in five brief years : the most
trifling emendation of its fundamental law could be secured in
no other way than by the evasion and humiliation of its highest
authority.

The so-called final act, which was now, in accordance with
Metternich's proposal, compiled out of the resolutions that had
been formulated, contained in the thirty-four articles of its first
part detailed prescriptions concerning the nature and the sphere
of activity of the Federation. Almost every sentence of these
general propositions was a triumph of particularism. In the first
sitting, Metternich had continued to speak of the Bundestag as
the supreme legislative authority of the Federation, and promised
that the sovereignty of each individual state should be " restricted
only in so far as was demanded by the aim of Germany's unity."
Zentner immediately entered a protest, to the effect that the

1 Bernstorff to Hardenberg, February 19, April 3 and 17 ; Hardenberg's and
Bernstorfi's Requests to the king, July 18 and August 2 ; Hardenberg to the
king. August 5 ; Cabinet Councillor Albrecht to BernstorfT, September 27, 1820.

The Vienna Conferences

phrase " German unity " gave occasion for misunderstandings,
and that a supreme legislative authority was impossible in a
federation. Metternich at once gave way, and answered pro-
pitiatingly that of course he had thought only of legislation
in accordance with general agreement. The tone thus set
was maintained by the majority throughout the subsequent
negotiations ; the final act declared the Germanic Federation
to be an association based upon international law, a community
of independent states with reciprocally equal treaty rights — a
conception which to the court of Wiirtemberg actually seemed
to err on the side of undue unification. Yet the honest Fritsch
sometimes felt sick at heart when he saw the German common-
wealth thus volatilised into a loose relationship of mutual agree-
ments ; in this way, he wrote complainingly, these sovereign
independent states would make their subjects so unhappy that
the demand for unity would become a popular movement and
would lead to a popular revolution. Nevertheless the envoy of
the Ernestines in the end heedlessly adhered to the decisions
of the majority. Nor did Bernstorff oppose the particularist
interpretation of the federal law, for this interpretation indis-
putably corresponded to the wording and to the spirit of the
federal act. It sufficed him that beneath these doctrinaire
general articles there was after all concealed a practically valu-
able decision. Article 6 permitted the cession of sovereign rights
in favour of a federal ally, and in this way Prussia, without the
majority becoming cognisant of the fact, gained a free hand for
the treaties of accession to the Prussian customs system.

The Bundestag was to represent the Federation " in its
entirety " ; the federal envoys remained, " unconditionally
dependent " upon their sovereigns, being responsible to the latter
alone for obedience to instructions and for the conduct of business
(article 8). The aim of this prescription was at once to prevent
any independent action on the part of the members of the Bundes-
tag and to make it impossible for the Landtags to interfere in
the proceedings of the federal assembly. But herein it became
manifest how incompetent a congress of diplomats is to under-
take difficult legislative tasks. Since Zentner, Hach, and
Berg, were the only experienced lawyers attending the con-
ferences, the work of these proved in matter of form no less
defective than had been the federal act, and the wording of
article 8 betrayed the unsteady hands of juristic amateurs. This
article forbade the territorial assemblies from calling the federal

317

History of Germany

envoys to account, but did not forbid them to take their
constitutional ministers to task concerning the nature of the
instructions sent to Frankfort, and it was speedily to become
apparent that the conference had served only to enrich the federal
law with a new insoluble problem. So long as the Federation
continued to exist, no definite answer was ever found to the
difficult question whether the Landtags were entitled to exercise
an indirect influence upon the course of federal policy.

Party feeling ran high when the constitutional unanimity
of the federal decisions now came up for discussion. Berstctt
and Marschall put forth all their eloquence, demanding majority
decisions upon every question which did not transcend the
essential purpose of the Federation, and giving clearly to under-
stand that they still hoped at the appropriate time, by means
of a majority vote, to secure the passing of a federal customs-
law and of a federal decree concerning the rights of the
Landtags.1 It was the arriere pensee of these remarkable
"Unitarians" which made it necessary for the Prussian minister
to take his stand upon the specifications of the federal act ; just
as little would he sacrifice his customs-law to the preferences of
the Bundestag majority as would Zentner sacrifice the Bavarian
constitution. As long as the minor states, comprising barely
a sixth of the nation, could outvote the other five-sixths, the
preposterous right of the Liberum Veto remained an indispensable
resource for the more vigorous states. The unhappy experiences
of recent years had put this matter beyond doubt, and for this
reason Hardenberg, who in Teplitz had still thought of enlarging
the rights of the federal majority, had long since changed his
mind. Even Metternich now recognised the impracticability of
his Teplitz plans. He warned the assembly against attempting
to transform the federation of states into a federal state, and
vigorously protested against the obnoxious expression Li be nun
Veto on the ground that the right of veto was inseparable from
sovereignty. Prussia suggested an intermediate course. Should
an organic institution, while supported by a majority at the
Bundestag, fail to secure unanimous acceptance, the states of
the majority were to be rendered competent to enter into an
agreement among themselves, resembling the concordats of Old
Switzerland. The proposal was rejected, for the formation of
dangerous separate leagues (Sondcrbundc) was dreaded. The
upshot was that in essentials there was retained the prescription

1 Bcrnstorff's Report, April 16, 1820 .
318

The Vienna Conferences

of article 7 of the federal act which demanded unanimity for
all fundamental laws and organic institutions. The solitary
advantage secured by the lengthy discussion was an obscure
interpretation of the obscure expression " organic institutions " ;
this was to signify " permanent institutions as means for the
fulfilment of the declared aims of the Federation."

Equally paltry was the outcome of the laborious delibera-
tions concerning the so-called " permanent jurisdiction." How
strange had been the change of roles. Prussia, which at the
Vienna congress had been the most ardent advocate of a per-
manent federal court of justice, now insisted upon the precise
wording of the federal act no less definitely than did Bavaria,
the old opponent of federal jurisdiction, and proposed that since
the federal law recognised only an arbitral method of procedure,
every voice of the inner council should nominate a distinguished
jurist as arbitral judge. From these seventeen, the contending
parties should in each individual case elect five judges,
and certain additional guarantees should be given for the
impartiality of the arbitral decision. Metternich, on the other
hand, who five years earlier had cheerfully sacrificed federal
jurisdiction to Bavarian opposition, now gave secret support to
the North German petty states, all of which, with suspicious zeal,
demanded the institution of a permanent federal tribunal.

Every member of the conference knew where was to be found
the key of this enigma. In reality the dispute had nothing to do
with federal jurisdiction, but concerned the Prussian customs-law,
which overhung Prussia's smaller neighbours like a threatening
cloud. Since the regular exercise of judicial powers was not
within the competence of the Federation, it was not now suggested
(as Humboldt had still hoped five years earlier) that the proposed
permanent jurisdiction should take the place of the old imperial
court of chancery, but that it should serve merely to settle
disputes between the federal states. What a piece of good luck
it would be for Electoral Hesse, Nassau, Mecklenburg, Anhalt, and
the Thuringian states, if they were to be empowered to bring
their innumerable grievances against the Prussian customs
system before a permanent federal court consisting of sixteen
non-Prussians and one Prussian ! In this manner, perhaps, the
dreaded Prussian enclave system could be bloodlessly abolished
by way of civil procedure. Kiister rejoined, not without irony,
that a permanent federal tribunal endowed with so limited a
sphere of activity " would for most of the time sit about doing

3»9

History of Germany

nothing, and perhaps its very existence would serve to awaken
and foster litigiousness." Since Prussia and Bavaria stood
firm, the conference at length decided to content itself " for
the present " with the existing arbitral ordinance of 1817, by
which disputes were to be submitted to the supreme court of a
federal state chosen by both parties. Bernstorff was but half
satisfied with his success ; he knew how little an ordinary law
court of the German highlands was fitted for the decision of
difficult questions of constitutional law ; but none the less he
regarded it as a definite gain that the proposed federal court, of
necessity partisan through and through, should not have come
into existence.1

The new federal executive organisation, which henceforward
took the place of the provisional arrangements of Carlsbad, was
conceived in the same spirit of particularist caution. It was
to be the rule that the Bundestag should deal only with the
governments, and should have executive powers in relation to
these alone. Solely if the government of one of the federal
states should actually apply for help to the Federation, or in
case of open revolt, was the Federation empowered to take direct
proceedings against subjects.

In all these deliberations, Bernstorff had gone hand in hand
with Zentner. Very different was the party grouping in respect
of the second portion of the final act, which, in eighteen articles
(articles 35-52), furnished prescriptions concerning the foreign
policy and the military system of the Federation. In these
" military-and-political questions," Prussia now, as always,
espoused the cause of federal unity. In Hardenberg's view, effec-
tive protection against the foreign world was the solitary advantage
which the nation might hope to secure in the field of federal
policy, which had proved so sterile as far as internal affairs were
concerned. King Frederick William was still unable to reconcile
himself to his failure to secure the entry of Posen and Old Prussia
into the Federation. All the more earnestly, therefore, did he
now desire to conclude a perpetual defensive alliance between
the Germanic Federation, Austria, and Prussia ; if this should
prove impossible, he demanded that there should at least be
furnished a definite answer to the question which still remained
unsettled, what precisely was a federal war. If one of the two
great powers should be attacked in its non-German provinces,

1 Bernstorff to Goltz, March 25, 1820.
320

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the Federation must be empowered to declare war by a simple
majority vote, and if no such decision were taken, the states of
the minority must not be forbidden to furnish help to the
attacked party. The king had chiefly in mind his own unpro-
tected eastern frontier, but thought also of Austrian Italy, for
in this matter he was in agreement with the chancellor, holding
that any attack upon Austria endangered Prussia as well. His
intentions aroused general and vigorous opposition. The middle-
sized states already performed their federal duties unwillingly, and
were far from inclined to submit, to any increase of the burden.
On this occasion even Zentner was reserved and almost hostile ;
his conduct showed that the court of Munich was secretly pre-
pared, in certain circumstances, to pursue the policy of armed
neutrality as leader of a pure German federation.1 The foreign
world also set itself in motion. The foreign envoys to the Bun-
destag all described to their courts in lively colours the imminent
menace of a great central European national league ; the St.
Petersburg cabinet showed itself greatly annoyed at the lack of
confidence on the part of its German ally ; even friendly England
confidentially warned the court of Vienna that it was necessary
to avoid driving the czar into the arms of France.1 In view of
all those considerations, Metternich could not make up his mind
to give unconditional support to the Prussian proposal ; he was
afraid of " compromising the Federation in the eyes of Europe."

After an obstinate and sordid dispute, the conference
agreed that federal declarations of war would be made only
by a two-thirds majority, in plenum. Offensive wars, on the
other hand, begun by any federal state with non-German posses-
sions acting as a European power, were to remain " completely
foreign to the Federation." Upon the angry requisition of
Bavaria and Wurtemberg, the clause just quoted, to give it a
more formal significance, had to be embodied in a special article
(46). 3 Not till after this, in article 47, came the prescription
for the case of an attack upon the non-federal provinces of German
federal states. In such an event, the Bundestag might decide by
a simple majority in the inner council that the federal
domain was endangered, and might then proceed to declare a
federal war in the customary manner. There was no formal

1 Bernstorff's Report, January 29, 1820.

~ Bernstorff's Reports, December 7, 1819, January 9, 1820 ; Bernstorfi to
Ancillon, March 4 ; Krusemark's Report, March 5, 1820.
3 Bernstorff's Report, April 9, 1820.

321

History of Germany

prohibition against the participation by individual federal states
in the European wars of the German great powers, and such
participation was consequently permitted, since the individual
powers retained the right to conclude alliances. The king of
Prussia was but ill-pleased by the partial success of his negotia-
tors, and Metternich consoled him with a reference to the future,
in which perhaps there might be concluded a perpetual alliance
between Germany, Austria, Prussia, and the Netherlands.1 It
was not until a much later date, when the policy of peaceful
dualism was shattered, that it was learned in Berlin what a scourge
Prussia had manufactured for herself with this article 47, and
how readily it could be misused by the majority of the Bundestag
in order to involve the North German great power in the wars
of the house of Austria. At this moment it would not have been
possible to understand such fears. It was by all parties regarded
as axiomatic that Austria and Prussia would always go hand
in hand, and that the minor states would always prefer a con-
venient neutrality.

Not even in Vienna was the matter of the federal military
system finally settled, for Austria dealt with the affair with her
customary slackness. All that was decided was that the con-
tingents of the smallest federal states should consist solely of
infantry. Once again, as previously in Frankfort, Wolzogen
had to conduct interminable negotiations with his colleague
Langenau concerning the federal fortresses ; but although the
king, now as before, declared himself prepared, in accordance with
Austria's previously expressed wishes, to vote for the fortification
of Ulm, Metternich displayed no inclination to offend his South
German neighbours by such proposals. The petty states even
endeavoured to apply to the garrisons of the federal fortresses
the sacred principle of the unconditional equality of all members
of the Federation, and this although Prussia was justified by the
terms of the European treaties in occupying Luxemburg jointly
with the Netherlands, and Mainz jointly with Austria. With much
labour and pain Prussia at length secured an agreement that
these treaties should be recognised ; and that Mainz, Luxemburg
and Landau should be taken over by the Federation. As regards
the fourth federal fortress, on the other hand, it was again
impossible to come to terms. High Germany still remained
without military protection, and the house of Rothschild continued
to reap usurious gains by the use of the money which had been

1 Hardcnbcrg's Instruction to Bernstorff, January 22, 1820.
322

The Vienna Conferences

provided for the German fortresses.1 How accurate a description
had the crown prince Louis of Bavaria given of this federal policy,
directed towards essentially false aims, when in his marvellous
lapidary style he said : " Are we not harnessing our horse the
wrong way about ? We seem to oppose unity where unity ought
to exist, against the foreign world ; whereas we eagerly seek unity
in internal affairs — for the suppression of freedom ! " He did not
know that his beloved Bavaria had in the matter of the federal
military system proved just as refractory as the other kingdoms
of the Confederation of the Rhine, and that Prussia alone had
honestly and earnestly aimed at the defence of the fatherland.

The third portion of the final act (articles 53-65) opened with
the statement, " The independence of the members of the Federa-
tion excludes, in general, the exercise of any influence by the
Federation in the internal affairs of its members." It was only
regarding the rights of subjects, about which the federal act had
already given assurances, that the final act furnished certain
" general provisions," the application of these being, however,
expressly reserved for the individual states. In this connection,
of course, the momentous article 13 of the federal act demanded
the first consideration. To all the members of the conference
it seemed beyond question that this article could be interpreted
solely in a rigidly monarchical spirit ; except for Trott and
Fritsch, not one of them was suspect of liberal inclinations. The
ultra-conservative sentiments of the assembly were greatly rein-
forced when, in the course of the winter, alarming intelligence
began to pour in from southern and western Europe. In January,
1820, a revolt broke out in the Spanish army ; in February
occurred the murder of the Due de Berry, the heir to the Bourbon
throne ; the edifice of legitimacy was crumbling everywhere, and
the Bundestag dolorously agreed with Count Reinhard, who
reported the assassination which had taken place in Paris, when he
said, " Such an occurrence will cause the whole of civilised Europe
to mourn." * Immediately afterwards, a sinister conspiracy was
discovered in London, the disturbance spread all over Spain, and
involved Portugal as well. The revolution once more raised its
head in every corner of the world. All the more firmly was the

1 BernstorfFs Reports, January 31, March 12 and 18, April 30, May 7 and 15,
1820.

3 Reinhard, Note to the federal presidential envoy, February 18, Reply from
the Bundestag, February 19, 1820.

History of Germany

determination maintained in Vienna to uphold the quiet of Central
Europe. The conservatives of every land directed their hopeful
glances towards the assembly of German statesmen. ' The
Vienna conferences are the anchor of safety," said Richelieu to a
plenipotentiary of Emperor Francis ; " by them, with God's help,
\\ill be effected the preservation of the order of society." l

None the less, even the proceedings concerning the represen-
tative systems were characterised by that conciliatory caution
with which the Viennese deliberations were stamped throughout.
It was only the two ultras, Berstett and Marschall, who demanded
a comprehensive interpretation of article 13 in the absolutist
sense.1 Bernstorff, on the other hand, raised the counter-
consideration, that several of the German princes were already bound
by solemn pledges. Zentner absolutely refused to discuss any
alteration of the Bavarian constitution. Even the king of Den-
mark, who had long hoped to abolish the feudal representative
institutions of Schleswig-Holstein, at once had the declaration
made that as a sovereign prince the form of his representative
institutions was a matter for his own decision alone. Thus it
happened that Metternich could not venture to return to
the doctrine of representation expressed by him at Carlsbad.
" We are not here engaged in renovation," he declared to one of
his confidants ; "we are building afresh, nous ne revenons pas sur
nos pas." He wrote to Rechberg in January saying that it was
impossible to uproot the forms which had, unhappily, during the
last three years been implanted in Germany ; let Wiirtemberg
therefore, he said with a cynical humour which hardly concealed
his ill-will, retain her constitution as a punishment !

The assembly felt that it was at least necessary for the nation
to be appeased by the honourable fulfilment of article 13. Prussia
therefore proposed that the Federation should furnish a general
guarantee for the representative constitutions. Berstett opposed
this, for the zealous centralist regarded the strengthening of the
federal authority as open to serious objection, now that it might
prove to the advantage of the rights of the nation. Since most of
the other courts desired that the mediatisation of the nation should
be strictly maintained, and that all direct contact between the
Federation and its subjects should be carefully prevented, the
conference was content with the indefinite prescription (article 54)
that it was the duty of the Bundestag to see to it that article 13

1 Krusemark's Report, March 27, 1820.
- Bernstorff 's Report, December 25, 1819,

324

The Vienna Conferences

should not remain unfulfilled in any state of the Federation ; more-
over, for every member of the Federation the right was reserved
of demanding for its constitution a federal guarantee. This was
followed by the well-meant proposal that the existing constitu-
tions should be subject to alteration " only in accordance with
the methods specified by these constitutions themselves." This
suggestion was also opposed by Berstett as an attack upon the
monarchical principle. Bernstorff, too, now showed some anxiety,
on the ground that no one could say with certainty what
constitutions still really existed in Germany ! Was Prussia to
pledge herself that the pitiable vestiges of the feudal estates in her
old territories were to be abolished only with the consent of these
estates ? In that case a constitution for the realm as a whole
would be impossible. " The new constitution," wrote the
chancellor to Bernstorff, " must issue from the will, the wisdom,
and the justice of the king alone." He therefore demanded
complete freedom for the Prussian crown, and upon Bernstorff's
proposal the conference gave article 56 the unimpeachable
phrasing that "representative constitutions existing in recognised
efficiency " could be altered only in accordance with constitutional
methods.1

Next came the principal article of the new German consti-
tutional law. The " monarchical principle," which in Carlsbad,
in accordance with Wurtemberg's proposal, had secured general
recognition, and which was in fact essential to the existence of this
federation of princes, was formally recognised as the rule for all
the German territorial constitutions. Article 57 specified : " The
entire state-authority must be centred in the supreme head of
the state, and it is only in the exercise of certain definite rights
that by a representative constitution the sovereign can be bound
to accept the co-operation of the estates." Great was the delight
of Gentz when the committee of the conferences had agreed upon
this article. For so long a time he had been conducting a paper
warfare against Montesquieu's tripartition of authority and
Rotteck's popular sovereignty ; now he beheld all these anarchical
doctrines " irrevocably overthrown " by a solemn decision of
the German areopagus ; and since, judging after his kind as a
publicist, he overestimated the importance of such struggles in
the field of pure theory, he wrote with arrogant joy in his diary,
under date December 14, 1819, " One of the greatest and worthiest

1 Instruction from the Chancellor, December 25 ; Bernstorff's Report, Decem-
ber 31, 1819.

325

History of Germany

results of the negotiations of our time — a day more important than
that of Leipzig!" His loyal follower, Adam Miiller, also desired
that the precious article should be adopted into the code of the
general European constitutional law, and henceforward for three
decades article 57 was by some passionately attacked and by
others passionately defended from German professorial chairs as
" the motto of the monarchical system." Its practical value was
incomparably smaller than these doctrinaires assumed. Once
again the amateur lawyers of the conferences had failed to find
a definite legal form of expression for their sound political ideas.
The wording of the article seemed so elastic that in case of need
every one of the existing constitutions could be considered
compatible with it, and Bavaria could agree to it just as readily
as Saxony and Hanover. This announcement of the monarchical
principle effected absolutely no change in existing facts ; it was
only with the system of purely parliamentary government, which
in Germany now first began to secure isolated and impotent
advocates, that the article was irreconcilable.

A like obscurity of ideas upon constitutional law was
displayed when the conference turned to consider the right of the
Landtags to vote supply. The deliberators vaguely recognised
that no well-ordered system of national administration would
be possible if the popular representatives were to be empowered
at their discretion to veto any item of national expenditure.
But as yet there had been no thorough discussion, either theoretical
or practical, of the difficult problems of constitutional budgetary
rights. No one had as yet mooted the simple question whether
in reality the voting of the budget was the legal title in virtue of
which the constitutional state provided for its expenditure ; no
one had drawn attention to the indisputable fact that by far the
larger moiety of the expenditure of the German states (the
payment of regular salaries, interest on the national debts,
etc.) reposed upon older laws ; and that consequently the popular
chambers did not possess the right to overide these laws by the
arbitrary refusal of supply. Gropingly the conference endeavoured
to find a way out of the difficulty. Marschall proposed that the
representative chambers should not be competent to refuse supply
where this was indispensable to the fulfilment of the existing
administrative laws. Yet thoughtful members of the conference
could not but feel that the proposal of this extremist might readily
be misused for the destruction of the budgetary rights of the
Landtags. Ultimately it was considered advisable to pass over

326

The Vienna Conferences

this thorny question in silence, and to let the matter rest with
the self-evident declaration (article 58) that no representative
constitution could restrict the sovereigns in the fulfilment of their
federal duties.

Among all the prescriptions of the new constitutions, to
the timidities of the diplomatic mind there was none which
seemed so dangerous as the publicity of the proceedings of the
Landtags. There was full agreement in Vienna, as there had been
in Carlsbad, that this demagogic monstrosity was utterly inaccept-
able. The ministers of the constitutional states gave vent to
loud complaints concerning the unbridled character of parlia-
mentary eloquence.1 Everyone agreed that the unrestricted
publication of such speeches conflicted with the wholesome
provisions of the new press law ; and Metternich expressed the
opinion that the result of this abuse would be the irremediable
destruction of every state with a population of less than ten
millions. Nevertheless Zentner objected to the idea of any
alteration in the Bavarian constitution. On this occasion also
the ultras were defeated, and a half -measure was again adopted.
Article 59 provided that the procedure of the Landtags must be
careful to secure that, neither in the actual debates in the
chambers, nor in the subsequent publication of these, should the
legal limitations upon freedom of speech be transcended. The
net result of all this was that the desired transformation of
the German constitutional law amounted to very little more
than empty words.

For the mediatised, the final act conceded the right of appeal
to the Federation. All the other promises of the second portion
of the federal act, however, after fruitless discussions, were
referred to the Bundestag " for further elaboration " — for this
humorous postponement until the Greek kalends remained always
the ultimate resource when no agreement could be secured. It
was only in respect of the paragraph in the federal act (article 18)
which promised that common measures should be taken to maintain
copyright that Metternich permitted himself a further notable
proposal. Literary piracy, having been expelled from Prussia,
continued to flourish undisturbed in Austria and in most of the
petty states. Every volume of the great Brockhaus encyclo-
paedia was immediately pirated by a Stuttgart firm, and it was
in vain that the rightful publisher imprinted upon the title pages
of the new edition Calderon's motto, " As the author wrote, not

1 Bernstorff's Report, December 12, 1819.
327

History of Germany

as the thief printed." In the circles of the Old Wiirtemberg
officialdom the favouring of reprinting was actually regarded as
a patriotic duty, because the practice brought so much money
into the country ; and even among the lawyers the view still
largely prevailed that reprinting was a natural right, because the
idea of literary property was incapable of legal definition. A
number of booksellers of standing, led by Perthes and Brockhaus,
after vainly stating their grievances to the Bundestag, petitioned
the Vienna conferences, Brockhaus recommending that a super-
visory authority should be established in Leipzig, resembling the
French "Direction de rimprimerie et de la Librairie."

The harmless proposal thus made by the honest liberal
was now turned to the service of the aims of the higher police,
this being done in an Austrian memorial which Metternich
submitted to the conference. The memorial was unmistakably from
the pen of Adam Miiller, who resided in Leipzig as Austrian
consul-general. It started from the principle that the censorship
and the protection of literary property were inseparably
associated. Where freedom of the press prevailed, the book trade
was altogether beyond the scope of the civil law, whereas by
the censorship the Germanic Federation " adopted printed matter
as its very origin into the complete nexus of civil law, and refused
to recognise any state of ideas pursuing an independent course
beside the real state." Consequently the association of German
booksellers, whose existence had been tacitly tolerated for a
considerable period, must be recognised as a formal corporation
and must be subjected to the strict supervision of a federal
authority in Leipzig. No other writings than those which had
been registered at this directorate general would enjoy legal
protection. German booksellers in foreign lands could also join the
corporation as associates, but only if they belonged to a state
in which the censorship existed, for it would be manifestly unjust
to treat the " outlaw " publishers of England and France on equal
terms with the legitimate booksellers of Germany and Russia
Such was the Plan for the Organisation of the German Book Trade.
The aim was unmistakable ; the censorship, which had as yet
been introduced provisionally only, and for a term of five years,
was quietly to be constituted a permanent institution of the
federal law, and was to be recognised as the precondition of
literary property. The conference, however, proved disinclined
to strengthen the Carlsbad decrees, and the distinction between
the legitimate and the outlaw booksellers was too subtle for it.

328

The Vienna Conferences

Adam Miiller's proposal was allowed to lie on the table, an
instructive specimen of Austrian legal wisdom.

The conference worked with unceasing diligence, although
in pleasure-loving Vienna there was no lack of banquets and
festivities. Day after day, at the long table in Metternich's
anteroom, there assembled, now the committees, and now the
plenum. It seemed as if the harvest had already been happily
garnered when Wiirtemberg suddenly endeavoured to destroy
the fruits of the long and laborious work of mutual adjustment.
Ill-humouredly enough had King William hitherto given a free
hand to his conservative minister Wintzingerode, who spoke with
unconcealed contempt of " our admirable constitution," and who
was endeavouring to regain the confidence of the two great
powers. From time to time Metternich sent a didactic despatch to
Stuttgart in order to strengthen the half-converted court in its
good intentions, and in order to keep it in a state of salutary
timidity by the display of the spectre of revolution. Writing to
Trauttmansdorff, the Austrian envoy, he declared that in Germany
the firm establishment of public order was even more urgently
necessary than in France, for across the Rhine the revolutionary
transformation of all property relationships had already been
completed, " but the plans of the German demagogues are
simultaneously directed towards a republic and an agrarian law."
Then, in January, it was bruited abroad that the conference
proposed to infringe the forms of the federal law, and simply to
impose its decisions upon the Bundestag.

So precious an opportunity of posing once more as the
advocate of freedom, and of tripping up his serene princely
colleagues, was one which King William found it impossible
to forego. Count Mandelsloh immediately received instructions
to declare that the king would never agree to such a plan,
that the two great powers could not be allowed to ignore the
Bundestag. This was an unpleasant task to impose upon the
peace-loving envoy, who passed all his evenings quietly enjoying
himself in Metternich's brilliant salon, who in his reports could
never lavish enough praise on the " urbanity " of the great
statesman, and who from time to time would interweave into
his despatches some such profound statement as, " Here, too,
in my opinion,^ sunset is an extremely interesting moment."
Mandelsloh did not dare to carry out the command. Not
until Metternich proposed that the decisions of the conferences

329 z

History of Germany

should be incorporated in a federal supplementary act, not until
March 4th, did the Wiirtemberger interpose the timid objection
that it might be as well to secure the assent of the European
powers which had signed the act of the Vienna congress.
All the other envoys furiously protested against this view,
so that Mandelsloh was forced to withdraw lu's observation.
Meanwhile he had received express commands from Stuttgart
that he was definitely to reject Metternich's proposal, and at
length, on March 2Qth, he handed in a formal protest, appealing
to the constitutional rights of the Bundestag, and referring once
more to the possible veto of the guarantors of the congress act.

The coup had been long prepared. Whilst Mandelsloh was
endeavouring to secure support from among his colleagues in
Vienna, Wintzingerode had written to Munich, where Lerchenfeld
attempted for a time to support Wiirtemberg's undertaking. In
Frankfort, Wangenheim hawked round a memorial among the
federal envoys, urgently warning them of the danger that a new
instrument was about to be introduced into the federal con-
stitution. The king journeyed to Weimar to seek the assistance
of Charles Augustus, and to influence the czar through the
instrumentality of his sister-in-law, the grand duchess Maria
Pavlovna. l The unexpected blow at first caused lively anxiety
in Vienna. Many even believed that all their labour had been
wasted, since the final act could be adopted only by a unanimous
decision. The two great powers, however, immediately resolved
to encounter the Wiirtemberger in earnest. "It is necessary,"
wrote Bernstorff, " to show this monarch, whose designs are but
ill concealed, that he would display himself as the openly declared
enemy of all the rest of Germany " ; and again, " he is endeavour-
ing to break up our union, but this will lead only to his own
disgrace ; we leave him as his only choice to join us, or else to
leave the Federation as an enemy, for otherwise Capodistrias
would triumph \" 2

Prussia had, indeed, good ground for annoyance. After all
that had happened during these months, with Wiirtemberg's volun-
tary co-operation, this belated protest was merely a frivolous
playing with the letter of the federal constitution, and the repeated
reference to the foreign veto served to render the actions of

1 Zastrow's Report, March 29 ; Goltz's Report, April 25 ; Bernstorfi's Report.
April 9, 1820.

3 Bernstorfi's Report, March 27; Bernstorfi to Ancillon, March 27, to
Hardenberg, March 27, 1820.

330

The Vienna Conferences

the Stuttgart court even more open to suspicion. Was all the
weary and distressing business of the Viennese negotiations to be
recommenced in Frankfort ? Were these princes who, through
the instrumentality of their ministers, had just effected the long
promised elaboration of the elements of the federal constitution,
and who in doing this had conscientiously observed the voting-
regulations of the Bundestag, now to have the completed work
examined, and perhaps altered, by their own federal envoys ?
Certainly the dignity of the Bundestag would suffer if it were
compelled to adopt the Vienna decisions without discussion ;
but what would become of the dignity of the German sovereigns
if this congress of envoys, which was dependent solely upon the
instructions of its mandataries, were to be allowed to exercise
a higher authority, overriding that of a free union of all the German
governments ? What result was likely to be secured by a renewed
deliberation in Frankfort ? One only, that Wangenheim (sup-
ported, perhaps, by the orators of the South German chambers)
would subject the decision of the conference to malicious criticism,
and ultimately, after arousing much vexation, would reluctantly
adhere to the decision of the majority. Metternich thoroughly
understood his opponent when he wrote to Emperor Francis,
" The matter is to go through in the end, but the king desires it
to appear as if he submitted to force."

All the courts without exception shared this view. King
William had no success in Weimar ; while the Bavarian ministerial
council rejected Wiirtemberg's proposals, after Wrede, unques-
tionably commissioned by King Max Joseph, had spoken decisively
in favour of loyalty to the Federation. All the members of the
conference exchanged written pledges not to separate until the
final act had been definitively established, and not to tolerate
any further discussion at the Bundestag. Austria undertook
"to press the refractory court hard," as Bernstorff phrased it.1
Both Emperor Francis and Metternich wrote to Stuttgart,
declaring most emphatically that the conference would never
allow the Bundestag to undertake a revision of the agreement
that had been secured ; moreover, the court of Vienna was far,
they said, from proposing that the Vienna decisions should, like
the Carlsbad decrees, be brought before the Federation as a
presidential proposal, for, since all the members of the Federation
had taken an equal share in the work, the Hofburg was unwilling
to appear as the sole lawgiver. This language proved efficacious.

1 Bernstorff's Reports, April 2 and 3, 1820.
331

History of Germany

In a smooth answer (April I4th), WinUingerode announced his
assent to the views of the conference, and endeavoured to repre-
sent the whole dispute as a misunderstanding. In order to build
a golden bridge for the defeated enemy, the name " supplementary
act," which was offensive to the Wurtembergers, was then
suppressed, and it was further arranged that the final act should
not be formally ratified in Vienna, but that this ratification should
be effected subsequently in Frankfort, the act becoming a federal
law in virtue of uniform instructions to the federal envoys. King
William personally wrote a subservient reply to Emperor Francis,
and since he had nevertheless to find some vent for his spleen
on account of the reverse he had sustained, he overwhelmed
Trott with distinctions, and shortly afterwards recalled the
unhappy Mandelsloh with every sign of disfavour from his post
as envoy to Vienna, an action which the Hofburg took much amiss
as proof of ill-will.1

On May 24th the conferences were closed, and after the
conclusion of the Viennese drama it was necessary that the
satyrs of the Bundestag should begin their torch-dance. How
many pointed observations regarding their inactivity had these
unfortunates had to endure meanwhile from the liberal press.
On April loth, the prolonged recess having at length come to an
end, the Bundestag reassembled in private sitting, and resolved,
in accordance with instructions received from Metternich, that
it would continue for the present to hold private sittings only,
since the Vienna conference was not yet finished. Meeting again
on April 2oth, it was decided to hold a further private sitting a week
later. Goltz, however, sadly admitted that this was only done
" to palliate the enduring inactivity of the assembly in the eyes
of the public " ; the state of affairs was distressing and was
compromising before the world ; it would indeed be still worse if
it were to devolve on the Bundestag to complete what had been
left unfinished at Vienna, for then beyond question nothing
would be accomplished ! Thus things went on, in inviolable
privacy. Again and again the Prussian envoy complained of the
" entire lack of matter for discussion." - An opinion from Wiir-
temberg regarding the exterritoriality of the Mainz committee
of inquiry, a notification from Denmark that two censors had been
appointed for Holstein — such state-secrets constituted the only

1 Krusemark's Report, June 10 and 21 ; Kiister's Report, June 13 and July 4,
i Sao.

» Goltz's Reports. April n and 25 ; Kiipfer's Reports, May 12 and 23, 1820.

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subject-matter of these confidential deliberations. At length,
on June 8th, for the first time this year, the Bundestag held a
public sitting. The assembly " formed itself into a plenum,"
and the Vienna final act was read. After a brief presidential
address, the two great powers declared their assent, and subse-
quently the representatives of the remaining sixty-one votes
exhausted all the floral wealth of German official rhetoric in
saying, as previously arranged, precisely the same thing in various
different ways. Wiirtemberg alone was unable to refrain from
prefacing its assent by a few malicious observations regarding
the irregularity of the procedure. Wintzingerode felt that this
partial contradiction was an infringement of the pledge that had
been given, and therefore simultaneously assured the Austrian
cabinet that the declaration had previously been sent to Count
Mandelsloh in Vienna, but had unfortunately failed to arrive
in time. Metternich administered a sharp reproof to the eternally
quarrelling petty court, demanding why Wiirtemberg must once
again disturb the general harmony " in a case where all wished
the same thing." 1 Thus it was that on the fifth anniversary
of the federal act the second and last fundamental law of the
Germanic Federation was adopted.

The best criticism of the work was to be found in the
remarkable fact that, with the exception of the court of Stuttgart
and of the two ultras Marschall and Berstett, all the participators
were or appeared to be satisfied with it. Charles Augustus had
contemplated the Viennese negotiations with profound anxiety,
and had empowered Fritsch to withdraw under protest in case
of need, should the conference endeavour to interfere with the
internal life of the individual states. He now saw, however,
that in essentials everything remained as before. Thankfully
recognising the moderation of the great powers, in the spring
he went to Prague to visit Emperor Francis, who gave the duke
a very friendly reception, and seemed to have completely for-
gotten his former anger against the Old Bursch.2 The senates of
the free towns, which were in such bad odour at the court
of Vienna, also breathed more freely, and the ardent expressions
of gratitude which at the close of the conferences Hach directed
to the house of Austria were beyond question honestly meant.

1 Wintzingerode to Metternich, June 9 ; Metternich's Reply, June 19 ;
Kuster's Report. Stuttgart, June 20 and July 3, 1820.

2 Piquet's Report, Vienna, June 21, 1820.

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History of Germany

On his return to Munich, Zcntncr was overwhelmed with
favours by the king, and was immediately appointed minister of
state. ' The cabinet of Berlin was almost equally well satisfied.
Bernstorff's straightforward and amiable conduct had overcome
many of the prejudices against Prussia which the minor courts
had continued to cherish even after the wars of liberation.
The newly established friendly relationship with Bavaria seemed
to promise a tranquil course for federal policy, and Ancillon wrote
happily to Munich : " The final act has solved as successfully
as was possible in the circumstances the problem of reconciling the
sovereignty of the individual states with the power of the whole." 2
It was impossible for Metternich to look back with like satis-
faction upon the conferences at which so many of his most
cherished plans had been quietly buried. Often enough he had
had to learn what a tough passive resistance was offered in this
motley German community of states to any far-reaching resolve.
He knew that he was not speaking the truth when on May i7th
he wrote to the Emperor, quite in the arrogant tone of Carlsbad,
saying : "A word spoken in Austria becomes an inviolable law
throughout Germany. The measures adopted at Carlsbad will
now first enter upon their genuine life." Nevertheless he had
good reasons for considering his success by no means entirely
unsatisfactory. In the existing situation of Old Austria, in
appearance so mighty and enviable, and yet staggering under
the impossible task of ruling Germany, Italy, and Hungary, the
Hofburg must rest content if the Germanic Federation should
continue to make tolerably easy progress along the beaten track.
Metternich's masterful conduct in Carlsbad had served only to
alarm the minor courts, whereas his accommodating and con-
ciliatory behaviour in Vienna secured for him a confidence which
was far more valuable ; and at this moment, when the revolution
broke out in southern Europe, it was indispensable to avoid all
dissensions in Germany. In view of his personal character, and
in view also of his position as Austrian statesman, it was
impossible that he should ever cherish positive plans for the pro-
motion of our national welfare. It would suffice, therefore, that
at Frankfort, as of old at Ratisbon, the mill-wheel should continue
to turn with its regular murmur ; it mattered not to him whether
there was any corn being ground. In all seriousness, then, he
wrote to a confidant that the conference had completed a colossal

1 Zastrow's Report, June 7, 1820.

« Instruction to Zastrow, June 7, 1820.

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task in a very brief period of time. With unremitting diligence
he had delivered addresses and drafted articles ; nor had his zeal
been affected even by the death of a daughter to whom he
was profoundly attached. It was not given to a Metternich to
understand that all this empty verbalism was utterly futile.

After the conferences the nation found itself in a situation
neither better nor worse than before, and it accepted the final
act with great indifference. The edifice of the federal constitution,
marred in its very inception, was ripe for the hands of the house-
breakers ; a few well meant but belated improvements were
incompetent to render the structure secure. Yet how long a time
was still to ensue before this generation, which had again relapsed
hopelessly into particularism, was to recognise that what Ancillon
extolled as " the reconciliation between the sovereignty of the
individual states and the power of the whole" was neither more
nor less than the quadrature of the circle !

§ 2. STRUGGLE CONCERNING THE PRUSSIAN CUSTOMS-LAW.

The main business of the conferences ended in a colourless
compromise which was without any profound subsequent effect.
Far more influential was an episode of the Viennese delibera-
tions, the struggle concerning the Prussian customs-law. When
Hardenberg was giving Bernstorff instructions, he once more
impressed upon the latter that a federal customs system was
impossible in the existing posture of affairs in the German states.
He went on to repeat word for word the reply he had just given
to the delegates of List's Commercial Union, and had the following
statement published in the Staatszeitung : " The only solution
of the problem is that individual states which consider themselves
injuriously affected by present conditions should endeavour to
enter into agreements with those members of the Federation
through whose action, in their view, their troubles arise, and that
in this way uniform arrangements should spread from frontier to
frontier, aiming at the increasing abolition of internal barriers of
separation." l In this way the commercio-political programme

1 In the year 1865, when K. L. Aegidi, in his work The Days before the Customs-
Union, published for the first time this passage from Bernstorff s instructions,
the true history of the customs-union had already been utterly obscured by par-
tisan fables, and the information was generally received as an astonishing disclosure.
Yet the instructions contained no secrets, being couched in the precise words which
had previously been published in the year 1819 in most of the German papers,
as Hardenberg's official answer to F. List and his associates. Vide supra, p. 292.

335

History of Germany

of the Prussian government once again found unambiguous
expression. Prussia, while firmly maintaining the customs-law,
declared herself ready to grant access to her own customs system,
or to grant commercial advantages to other federal states, by way
of free conventions ; but she also recognised (and herein con-
sisted her superiority) that all complaints against internal tolls
would get no further than empty words so long as the German
states were unable to unite in the acceptance of a common
customs-law.

Bernstorff was prepared to encounter vigorous resistance, for
he knew that these sober-minded ideas of commercial policy,
which have to-day become current coin, were then utterly
incomprehensible to the great majority of the German courts.
But the passionate outbreak of " odious prejudices " which
he was fated to experience in Vienna exceeded his worst expecta-
tions. The frank ignorance of political economy characteristic
of the epoch, held its saturnalia at the conferences, and almost
the entire force of German diplomacy declared war against the
Prussian customs-law. As soon as commercial questions came
up for discussion, there was a complete change in party grouping.
In nearly all other matters the Prussian plenipotentiary was
supported by the majority of the assembly, but in the commercio-
political discussions he was as completely isolated as in the field
of military affairs, being regarded as the disturber of the peace
of German unity. The very same courts which in all other
respects eagerly endeavoured to restrict the scope of federal
activities, hoped by means of an illegal federal decree to annul
that valuable reform which had bestowed upon Prussian Germany
the advantages of free trade. The sophistical contention was
reiterated on all hands that the Prussian law conflicted with
article 19 of the federal act, although this article merely con-
tained a promise that the Bundestag was to " deliberate "
concerning commerce and traffic.

Even well-wishers did not hesitate to declare that this
unhappy law was the work of Prussia's evil genius, and that its
universal outcome was to inspire the other states with mistrust
and to alienate their affections. Prussia was sure to rue the day
of its adoption ! Strangely enough, the attacks of the incensed
advocates of German commercial freedom were directed exclu-
sively against Prussia, although other states of the Federation
were guilty of the same crimes. Bavaria, like Prussia, had quite
recently (July 22, 1819) promulgated a new customs-law, but no

336

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one troubled to censure this. Again, the Austrian prohibitive
system did not merely impose upon all commodities burdens far
greater than those imposed by the Prussian law, but it further
absolutely forbade the import of certain German wares, and in
especial of Franconian and Rhenish wines. Not one among the
German ministers took any exception to this. Metternich declared
roundly to Berstett, " I consider that Austria is quite unconcerned
in the commercial question," and the Badenese statesman
accepted this assertion as self-evident.1 The very passion of
the minor states in the matter served to show how closely their
interests were intertwined with those of Prussia, and how little
concern they had in Austrian affairs. Some of the ministers of
the small states advocated the idea of federal customs. Fritsch,
for instance, had been instructed by Charles Augustus to do his
best to secure the abolition of all customs-barriers at the federal
frontiers, while Berstett continued to hold the opinion that the
Federation could best allay the national dissatisfaction by
proclaiming general freedom of trade. Others desired merely
that there should be free trade in products of German origin, but
neither these nor the advocates of general free trade had any idea
how their designs were to be carried out. Against the foreign
world, said Berstett cheerfully, every one of the federal states
should be entitled to enforce whatever tariff it pleased, for it would
suffice if the internal customs-barriers were abolished. These
genuine enthusiasts were joined by certain members of the Federa-
tion who scarcely troubled to conceal their sordid motives. The
duke of Coburg appeared in person in Vienna, resolved to veto
the federal military organisation should he fail to secure unre-
stricted freedom of trade, but since the conference did not come
to an understanding about the federal military law, his ingenious
plan was frustrated. Still more arrogant was Marschall's
behaviour. With the keen instinct of hatred, he suspected that
the new customs legislation, the work of the " demagogic sub-
alterns" of the Berlin officialdom, might some day secure for
Prussia the hegemony of the north ; by the destruction of the
customs-law he hoped at once to humiliate this sinister state and
to cut off the head of the snake of revolution.

Like views animated the court of Cassel, which had opened
a tariff war against Prussia without even attempting to come to
an understanding with its neighbour. By the law of Sep-
tember 17, 1819, the import and transit of many Prussian goods

1 Berstett's Report to the grand duke, January 10, 1820.
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History of Germany

was prohibited or subjected to heavy dues. The surplus yield
of the increased duties was to be utilised for the advantage of tho
Hessian men of business who had helped to frustrate the
Prussian customs-law — a promise which, it is needless to say, the
avaricious elector never fulfilled. In Berlin there was at first
some thought of retaliation. The king, however, adhered strictly
to the promise that the Prussian customs were to apply chiefly
to commodities of non-German origin, and desired whenever
possible to avoid hostile measures against German states. More-
over, an opinion was issued by the ministry of finance that the
Hessian retaliatory duties were extremely injurious to Hesse
herself, but innocuous to Prussia, and " need therefore be opposed
for form's sake only." The envoy in Cassel privately expressed
these views to the elector. Meanwhile Prussia constructed the
high road from Cologne to Berlin by way of Hoxter and Pader-
born, avoiding the passage through Hessian territory. The trade
of the north-east with the south passed along the line from Hanau
to Wiirzburg, and the Hessian roads were gradually deserted.
The elector was forced to abate his retaliatory tariff, and all the
more obstinately therefore did he desire to secure the passing of
a federal decree which might destroy the customs-barriers of his
invincible neighbour.

Among the opponents of Prussia the most coarsely outspoken
of all was Duke Ferdinand of Coethen, a vain and frivolous
man, who in the year 1806 had been forced to leave the Prussian
military service on the ground of proved incapacity, and who now
hastened to the town on the Danube in order to avert " the
mediatisation of the ancient house of Anhalt." The real ruler
of his little country was his wife Julia, Countess of Brandenburg
by birth, and half-sister of the king of Prussia, a cultured and
intelligent woman, immeasurably proud of her rank, with the
strong Catholic predilections of the romanticist school. Since
Metternich did not underestimate the value of such an ally,
he had commissioned Adam Miiller to act as Austrian charge
d'affaires at the court of Anhalt in addition to being consul-general
at Leipzig, and the celebrated publicist of the ultramontane party
soon became the indispensable adviser of the romanticist duchess.
Miiller's hatred of his Prussian home was inspired with all the
fanaticism of the convert. His fertile brain conceived the design
of a magnificent artifice of petty princely statecraft, which was
to riddle the Prussian customs legislation from within, and was
at least to make it impracticable in the province of Saxony. The

338

The Vienna Conferences

Elbe, for a few miles of its course, flowed through the land of
Coethen, and the Elbe was one of the rivers concerning which
the Vienna congress had agreed that there was to be " complete
freedom of navigation." What a brilliant prospect opened for
Coethen's power if the conference could be induced to make the
freedom of the Elbe a federal affair at once and unconditionally !
In that case the duke, although his territory was completely sur-
rounded by that of Prussia, could initiate an independent Euro-
pean commercial policy, misusing the freedom of navigation on
the Elbe in order to establish a smugglers' alsatia in the heart of
the Prussian state, flooding the hated neighbour with contra-
band, and perhaps forcing it to change its customs system.
Eagerly did the petty sovereign pursue this friendly scheme. He
was undisturbed by conscientious scruples, and was quite unable
to grasp the distinction between power and impotence.
Repeated and well-meant invitations that he should voluntarily
join the Prussian customs system had been all bluntly rejected in
the vulgar and clamant tone characteristic of the despatches of
this court. " Anhalt," he proudly declared, " can seek its salva-
tion only in the general union of European states based upon
international law and in the resources which its geographical
situation offers in the matter of great rivers."

Most of the plenipotentiaries of the other states complained
more or less strenuously of " the selfishness of the only member
of the Federation which imposed obstacles upon the realisation
of the ideal of German commercial unity." The Hansa towns
alone, satisfied with their cosmopolitan commercial position,
coldly rejected all attempts at the initiation of a common German
commercial policy. Zentner, likewise, once more distinguished
himself by circumspection, refusing to sacrifice the new Bavarian
customs-law to the shapeless phantasm of a general freedom of
trade whose conditions were still entirely unknown. Metternich,
on the other hand, with an ill-concealed and malicious joy,
hounded on the minor states against Prussia. The Viennese court
was an adept in making use for its own purposes of that dread of
Prussian ambition by which they were all profoundly influenced.
In October, Count Bombelles, acting on express orders from
Emperor Francis, had threatened the grand duke of Weimar that,
unless the Carlsbad decrees were strictly enforced everywhere,
the two great powers would be compelled to secede from the
Federation, and that the emperor would then find it necessary
to secure for his Prussian ally " a more powerful position in

339

History of Germany

Germany." » No less unscrupulously did Metternich now utilise
the jealousy of the minor courts in order to resist Prussia's com-
mercial policy. He could not indeed venture to furnish open
support to the opponents of his indispensable federal ally, especially
considering that he did not desire to effect even the most trifling
alteration in the Austrian customs-system. But he secretly
encouraged the aggrieved parties, and instilled into theif minds
the idea that the Prussian customs-law was the work of a faction
whose aims had nothing whatever in common with " loyal federal
sentiment." - He had summoned to Vienna as commercio-political
adviser Adam Miiller, the originator of the Anhalt smuggling
scheme.

The nation was just as far as were its statesmen from having
attained clarity regarding the problem of customs unity. After
the Carlsbad experiences, it had no agreeable anticipations
regarding the political outcome of the conferences. It was only
the abolition of the internal tolls, and in especial of the Prussian
customs-barriers, which seemed to all parties a modest desire that
could readily be fulfilled through the exercise of a little goodwill
on the part of the governments. A pamphlet entitled Candid
Words by a German of Anhalt gave drastic expression to the view
held by nearly all non-Prussians regarding the commercial policy
of Berlin. The author, whose intentions were plainly good, con-
sidered that to describe as enclaves those states which were sur-
rounded by Prussian territory touched the honour of the regions
thus situated, and he declared that it was absolutely contrary to
law for Prussia to tax " foreigners." The condemnation of public
opinion must assist the cause of " truth and justice " to its inevit-
able victory.

List appeared at the conference as spokesman of the mer-
chants and manufacturers, attended by his faithful associates
J. J. Schnell and E. Weber, and submitted a memorial whose
lofty patriotic emotion seemed strangely out of place in the
atmosphere of narrow-minded particularist and self-seeking policy
characteristic of the Viennese assembly. In eloquent phraseology
he declared that the complete independence of the individual
states was incompatible with the unity of the nation ; the Federa-
tion must provide the blessings of free trade for thirty million

1 This information was given personally by Count Bombelles to his Prussian
colleague in Dresden, von Jordan (Jordan's Report, October 18, 1819.)

' At a later date Metternich was reminded of these utterances by Marschall
(Marschall to Metternich, September 10, 1820).

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Germans, and thus create a genuine federation of the German
nation. What, then, was the practical proposal which followed
these spirited words ? List demanded that the German states
should farm out their customs to a joint-stock company, and
guaranteed that the shares would be taken up ; this company
would found the German federal customs system, and would
relieve the governments of all trouble regarding vexatious details !
Strange indeed was the ardent patriot's splendid self-deception.
He maintained that Prussia was inclined to abandon her customs-
law, although he had just received an official assurance from
Berlin to the contrary effect. He was suspiciously shadowed by
the Viennese police, and wrote home saying, " We are surrounded
with spies on every side, quartered upon one spy, and served by
another." l He knew that Metternich had declared in the con-
ference that no negotiations were to be tolerated with the
individuals who gave themselves out to be the representatives
of the German commercial class, because the Bundestag had
already condemned the German Commercial Union as an illegal
and inadmissible undertaking. But none of these things dis-
turbed his touching confidence. When even Adam Miiller now
expressed a favourable opinion regarding a memorial by List
on German industrial exhibitions, and when, in an audience,
Emperor Francis assured the indefatigable agitator that the
Austrian government would gladly do all it could to advantage
the German fatherland, he imagined that he had now well-nigh
attained his end, and wrote : " The eyes of all are now turned
towards the imperial Austrian government. How Austria's noble-
minded and philanthropic emperor would renew the bonds of
attachment between the German-speaking peoples if so great a
benefit were to be received by them at his hands ! " When this
hope likewise proved delusive, he turned his sanguine expectations
towards the South German courts, considering that his cause
had only gained by the delay. 2 Thus it was that this distinguished
patriot grasped at every straw ; while the Prussian customs-law,
which was to prove the keystone of our economic unity, seemed
to him, as to almost the entire nation, a source of destruction.

In the conference, Marschall opened the campaign by a
memorial dated January 8th, which overwhelmed the Prussian
state with such coarse abuse that Bernstorff returned it to its
author. By the new customs institutions, declared this work,

1 List to his wife, Vienna, February 18, 1820.
8 List to his wife, March 15, 1820.

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History of Germany

an attack was made upon the property rights of hundreds of
thousands of individuals, whose property was thereby diminished.
The Nassauer went on defiantly to demand the abolition of all
dues that had been introduced since the year 1814, and the
immediate fulfilment of the decisions of the Vienna congress
concerning the navigation of inland waterways ; for the rest,
he demanded complete freedom for every German state to impose
what tariffs it pleased upon foreign imports, so long as no internal
tolls were enforced. The last proposal was preposterous, for no
isolated state could protect itself against the foreign world if
its interior German frontiers remained unguarded, but this manifest
truth escaped Marschall's notice. He was like a blind man
talking of colours, for Nassau had no frontier dues at all.

Then Berstett renewed his old complaints against the
internal dues, and distributed among his colleagues Nebenius'
brilliant memorial upon the federal customs. But a calm con-
sideration of the question could not fail to convince anyone that
a federal customs administration was impossible, and even the
Badenese minister dropped the plan of his talented subordinate.1
There followed new and savage attacks by Marschall, so gross and
uncouth that at the close of the conferences Bernstorff wrote to
the Prussian federal envoy : " It would be beneath the dignity of our
court to manifest any personal indication of wounded sensibilities
towards this man who in no respect whatever is deserving of
notice." Goltz, therefore, was indifferently to hold aloof from
his colleague of Nassau. Next Fritsch, in the name of the
Thuringians, entered a protest against Prussia's enclave system,
and demanded that every producer should be allowed to dispose
of his commodities freely throughout Germany, and that every
consumer should be permitted to supply his needs by the nearest
possible route. Meanwhile the duke of Coethen, whose arrogant
conduct Bernstorff found it impossible to describe in adequate
terms, intervened with repeated passionate protests.3 He com-
plained that he had to endure all the burdens of the Prussian
customs system while receiving none of its advantages, whereas
in fact all he had to do was to accept Prussia's offers, and all these
advantages would accrue to him. He threatened to appeal to the
foreign guarantors of the federal act for the protection of the
cause of the ancient house of Anhalt, " a cause sublime beyond
the possibility of attack." Ultimately, he absolutely refused to

1 Bernstorff's Reports, January 16 and February 6, 1820.
- Bernstorff's Reports, April 22 and May 7, 1820.

342

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subscribe to the final act unless the Federation would secure for
him " free communication with Europe," saying, " So long as the
dukes of Anhalt find themselves in a condition of oppressive and
involuntary tributary dependence upon a powerful neighbour
state, as far as this old princely house is concerned there can
be no federal act, and consequently no final act."

During this dispute Bernstorff maintained a distinguished
calm and an upright candour. He openly complained that by
its vaguely worded promises the federal act had awakened expec-
tations that could never be fulfilled. All dishonourable sugges-
tions were firmly and proudly rejected by the Prussian minister ;
there could be no question about the repeal of the new law. At
the same time he was never weary of reiterating in new circum-
locutions the ideas previously published in the Staatszeitung. It
was impossible, he said, that such a union should be secured in
any other way than as the outcome of gradual preparation, and
through the most laborious effectuation of a compromise between
conflicting interests. Nothing but treaties between the individual
states could put an end to the existing economic troubles. " If
this happens both in the south and in the north of Germany, and
if these endeavours are made with the co-operation and under the
aegis of the Federation, we may well hope that by this route
(doubtless a tedious one but perhaps the only one practicable)
we may arrive at the abolition of the existing barriers, and in
respect of trade and traffic may secure such a unity of legislation
and administration as is possible to an association of free and
distinct states like the Germanic Federation." To the invectives
of the duke of Coethen he dryly replied that in Dresden a con-
ference of the Elbe riverine towns had now been sitting for several
months, and it was there alone that the question of the freedom
of navigation upon the Elbe could be settled.

This was indeed a historic moment. The great struggle
of two centuries, the old irreconcilable opposition between
Austrian and Prusso-German policy was renewed in these incon-
spicuous negotiations, without the protagonists themselves being
aware of the profound significance of the dispute. Who can fail,
in this connection, to be impressed with memories of the Frank-
fort diet of princes of 1863 ? On one side was the house of
Austria, followed by the serried forces of the enthusiasts and the
particularists, receiving the jubilant approval of the liberal world,
uttering to the nation promises of some indefinite happiness,
promises whose only defect was that they were empty phrases,

343

History of Germany

On the other side was Prussia, bearing the ill-will of the nation,
and opposing a frigid negative to the high-flown plans of her
adversary. Yet behind this negative and apparently barren
attitude was the sole idea which could bring us salvation. The
whole future of German politics depended upon the triumph of
Prussia's clear-sighted honesty over this alliance between obscurity
and the spirit of untruth. And Prussia was victorious.

Since the opposition was united only in its hatred and was
not agreed upon any positive idea, in the oommercio-political
committee of the conference Bernstorff secured a decisive success
as early as February loth, inducing the committee to restrict its
proposals to certain resolutions " which shall be rather prepara-
tory than decisive, and which shall not prematurely occupy the
ground of any future federal decisions." 1 Consequently the
committee went no further than to propose that the Bundestag,
in accordance with article 19, should consider the furthering of
commerce to be one of its principal aims. It was only regarding
the freedom of the grain trade, which Prussia had advocated three
years earlier in Frankfort, that all members of the committee
seemed finally agreed, and the committee proposed that the
question should be settled by a speedy understanding. On
March 4th, when these propositions were read in the conference,
as soon as the name of the Bundestag was mentioned, one of those
present broke out into loud laughter, wherein the entire assembly
cheerfully joined. Yet these very statesmen, who thus so plainly
manifested their judgment regarding the functional capacity of
the Bundestag, had quite recently still arrogantly hoped to annul
the Prussian customs-law by a federal decision ! The committee's
proposals were adopted, and in order to gain over even the
refractory duke of Coethen a separate protocol was added, in virtue
of which the participating states pledged themselves to maintain
inviolably the decisions of the Vienna congress regarding river-
navigation, and to conduct vigorous negotiations to secure this
end.

A separate protocol was also added regarding the freedom
of the grain trade, but Metternich in the end frustrated this
solitary valuable design upon which all parties were agreed. He
continually postponed the final decision, and when at length the
conference desired to settle the matter, it appeared that Emperor
Francis, to the lively regret of his minister, had already left for
Prague. Bernstorff innocently reported a few days later that

1 Bcrnstorfi's Report, February n. 1820.
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The Vienna Conferences

his majesty's reply had still failed to come to hand.1 The con-
ference had to break up without coming to a decision upon this
protocol. It was not until the middle of June that the Austrian
answer reached the Bundestag. The good emperor, who had
spoken so paternally to List regarding the welfare of the German
fatherland, now laconically declared that the Vienna protocol " was
properly speaking intended solely to provide for the further
development of the principles therein expressed " ; consequently
no formal agreement to this protocol was necessary, but that
the postponed deliberations at the Bundestag should now imme-
diately begin. This therefore took place. In his presidential address
Buol sang the praises of free trade in grain, but expressed himself
in such extremely general terms that even the unsuspicious Goltz
immediately remarked that Austria had some secret design.2
The Bundestag therefore set to work with its usual assiduity, and
three months later (October 5th) resolved to ask for information
regarding the condition of legislation in the individual states.
Free trade in grain vanished into that mysterious abyss in whose
profound were stored the for ever uncompleted federal decisions.
Such were Austria's loving services on behalf of German free trade.

The course of the conferences confirmed in every respect
Bernstorffs prediction that it was impossible for a federation
devoid of political unity to pursue a common commercial policy.
In view of these experiences, some of the South German statesmen
at length began to lend a friendly ear to Bernstorff's counsels.
The economy of the German highlands, in their straitened
situation between the customs-barriers of France, Austria, and
Prussia, could hardly breathe any longer, especially since, with
the exception of Bavaria, not one of the South German states
possessed an ordered customs system. The question now became
pressing whether an attempt should not be made to unite this
dismembered area into a commercio-political sonderbund, to do
the very thing for which the Prussian state had just been
reproached as a breaker of the federal peace. Du Thil was the
first to suggest such a plan, and subsequently the court of Darm-
stadt was glad to plume itself on this service. 3 But it was through
Berstett's lively activity that the idea first gained energy. Like

1 Bernstorff s Report, May 31, 1820.

2 Goltz's Report, June 20 and 27, 1820.

3 Councillor von Hofmann, to President von Kraft in Meiningen, Darmstadt
March 20, 1828.

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History of Germany

du Thil, the Badenesc statesman cherished the honest hope that
" a whole would gradually arise " out of this sonderbund ; for
the present he had also in mind retaliations against the Prussian
duties, and gave a blunt refusal when Bernstorff assured him
that Prussia would gladly conclude commercial treaties with a
South German customs-union. Marschall, too, joined in the
scheme only because he anticipated that South Germany would
now with united energies initiate a tariff-war against Prussia.
Wiirtemberg, finally, toyed with trias plans, and hoped that the
commercial union would lead to a political league of constitutional
" pure Germany " — an idea which found favour neither in Munich
nor in Darmstadt.

Thus great being the differences of political aim, after tedious
confidential negotiations the success attained by Berstett was
but mediocre. On May igth, the two South German kingdoms,
Baden, Darmstadt, Nassau, and the Thuringian states, exchanged
pledges that in the course of the current year they would send
plenipotentiaries to Darmstadt, there to discuss the formation
of a South German customs-union upon the basis of a draft-
agreement. The cautious Zentner, who had to safeguard his
Bavarian customs-law, absolutely refused to go any further than
this. Still, a path had now been entered which might perhaps
provide an escape from the miseries of the internal tolls. The
liberal press gratefully hailed the patriotic action of its
favourites. List, the optimist, considered that the ideal of German
customs unity was now approaching realisation, and when shortly
afterwards he visited Frankfort he found his patron Wangen-
heim in an intoxication of delight, for pure Germany was at length
acting as torchbearer to the entire nation ! 1 Less sanguine, but
thoroughly friendly, was Bernstorff's view of the intentions of
the South German courts. He assured Berstett of his approval,
for if the middle-sized states should be able on their own initiative
to set their chaotic commercial life in order, it might be possible
subsequently for them to effect an understanding with Prussia.
He wrote to the king saying that although the undertaking was
not free from a number of hostile political and economic arrieres
penstes, Prussia had no reason to disapprove of it, especially seeing
that it was extremely doubtful whether it would be carried to a
successful issue.2

The attempt to annihilate the Prussian customs-law by an

1 List to his wife, Frankfort, August 22, 1820.

1 Bernstorfi's Reports, January 29, 1820, and subsequent dates.

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The Vienna Conferences

exercise of the federal authority had miscarried. Meanwhile,
however, the duke of Coethen cheerfully continued his smuggling
war against the Prussian tolls, thus at the same time hindering the
negotiations concerning the Elbe navigation. How often had
foreigners made mock of the furiosa dementia of the Germans,
who imposed tariffs to close their magnificent rivers to them-
selves ! Only since France had seized the left bank of the Rhine
had this proverbial trouble of Germany been somewhat mitigated.
In the year 1804, the oppressive Rhine-dues were replaced by
the Rhenish octroi, whose principal aim was merely to provide
for the necessary expenditure upon the upkeep of the banks and
the towing paths, and this new ordinance worked so well that the
Vienna congress extended its application to the other German
rivers upon which traffic was regulated by convention. Since
then navigation on the Weser had in fact been freed ; after a
long dispute with Bremen, Oldenburg had at length been induced
by the mediation of the Bundestag to abandon the illegal Elsfleth
tolls (August, 1819). The relationships between the ten riverine
towns of the Elbe were more difficult to adjust. Articles 108-116
of the Vienna congress act, which had been edited by W. Hum-
boldt, enunciated the principle that navigation was to be free
upon the rivers in which traffic was regulated by convention, this
meaning that no one was to be hindered from navigating these
rivers ; while the duty was imposed upon the riverine states of
initiating negotiations within six months to secure a uniform
and fixed navigation tax whose scale should approximately cor-
respond to that of the Rhenish octroi.

It was plain that these excellent promises could materialise
only if the levying of the navigation tax were, in accordance with
the express prescription of article 115, to remain completely
detached from the customs system of the riverine states, and if
there should be instituted a strict riverine police system to
prevent all concerned from misusing the privileges of free naviga-
tion in order to promote a smuggling traffic with their neighbours.
It was only upon such conditions that Prussia, who regarded the
above-mentioned article of the congress act as her own work,
could lend a hand to its being carried into execution. How was
it possible, as a Prussian state-paper subsequently asked, to expect
a powerful state " to tolerate a worm gnawing at its vitals, eating
away the inmost roots of its life ? " 1 Neither the promised free-
dom of Elbe navigation nor the proper yield of the Prussian
1 Instruction to Nagler, February 27, 1827.

347

History of Germany

import duties could be secured, unless Anhalt, which was com-
pletely surrounded by the province of Saxony, were to join the
Prussian customs system. After the Old Dessauer had pur-
chased all the landed estates of his domain, agriculture and
forestry had continued to prosper in the little land of Anhalt under
the careful supervision of its princes, and all the natural interests
of this area, in which agriculture and arboriculture flourished,
but in which manufacturing industry was still entirely lacking,
demanded that it should enjoy free trade with the adjoining
industrial regions of Prussia. The sole obstacles in the way of
an agreement were the insane sovereign arrogance of the duke
of Coethen, and the more far-sighted hostility of his counsellor,
Adam Miiller. The duke angrily rejected the " suggestions of
accession "to the Prussian customs made by the Berlin cabinet.
Was it impossible for people to see, he asked on one occasion,
" that the utter unnaturalness of such a state of affairs, the sub-
ordination of a sovereign prince to the customs administration
of a neighbouring state, was altogether unfavourable to the
existence of friendly relationships with the government of that
state ! " »

Since nothing could be effected with this court by the
influence of reason, Prussia contented herself for the present with
maintaining her enclave system against Anhalt. The Prussian
import duties were imposed upon all goods proceeding to Anhalt
by land, but the shippers upon the Elbe were allowed to furnish
security for the payment of the Prussian taxes, the charge being
remitted when evidence was produced that goods had been left
in Anhalt.

The outcome of the mitigation was shameless fraud. The
Anhalt smuggling traffic increased month by month, and the
Prussian financiers impatiently awaited the regulation by treaty
of these intolerable conditions ; until at length in June, 1819, four
and a half years later than had been prescribed by the Vienna
congress, the Elbe navigation conference was opened in Dresden.
There Hamburg and Austria zealously advocated the liberation
of the river, which could indeed bring them nothing but advantage,
for the Hansa towns imposed no taxes on navigation, while the
yield of the high taxes on the Bohemian section of the Elbe was
but trifling, since there was little traffic upon the uppermost
reaches of the stream. But Denmark, Mecklenburg, and Anhalt

1 Despatch from the ducal government of Coethen to Count Bernstorff,
March 27, 1823.

348

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were more difficult to deal with. Most obstinately of all did
Hanover defend the status quo, for the Guelph kingdom generously
left the trouble and expense of maintaining the waterway of the
Lower Elbe to the Hamburg senate, while in Brunshausen, near
Stade, a few miles above the mouth, Hanover itself exacted high
dues from all vessels entering the river. The Hanoverian pleni-
potentiary entered a formal protest against any attempt to inter-
fere with these property rights of the Guelph crown, on the ground
that this was a marine customs duty which had nothing whatever
to do with the question of Elbe navigation, and on the further
ground that it could not possibly have been the intention of the
Viennese assurances " to shatter the basis of all national happi-
ness, the right of property." Discussion was useless ; the con-
ference had to leave the Stade tolls quite out of the question,
and to confine its endeavours to facilitating navigation above
Hamburg. After the negotiations had lasted for two years,
during which the Prussian plenipotentiary had often been reduced
to the verge of despair, on July 23, 1821, the Elbe navigation act
at length came into existence — an inadequate compromise, whose
form and content displayed traces of arduous struggles. Still,
the navigation taxes were somewhat reduced, and traffic upon
the stream soon began to increase.

Throughout this intolerable dispute the Prussian govern-
ment maintained a conciliatory attitude, although Mauve, the
Prussian representative, was by no means distinguished for the
conciliatoriness of his methods. Prussia abandoned her transit dues
on the Elbe traffic, although these constituted an important asset
in her commercial policy, and was ready to reduce the navigation
taxes to a lower figure than her smaller neighbours desired to
concede. She declared, however, from the first that she would
not tolerate the existence of a smugglers' alsatia within the
interior of her own state, and that consequently she could not
subscribe to the Elbe navigation act unless Anhalt would adhere
to the Prussian customs system. The plenipotentiary added
warningly that it was to the personal interest of the minor
governments to support the customs system of their great
neighbour, " since in this way the disadvantageous consequences
of the existing disintegration of Germany will be mitigated in
their favour." Fierce was the wrath of the duke of Coethen when
he was informed of this unprecedented manifestation of Prussian
arrogance, and when simultaneously Bernstorff, in a new hor-
tatory despatch to the Coethen government, openly declared " the

349

History of Germany

North German states have to look to Prussia for protection of
their existence, of their welfare and independence, and of their
institutions for the common weal." l The duke, who was at
Carlsbad with his royal brother-in-law, immediately reported
everything to Marschall. " I flatter myself," he wrote, " that
all right-thinking persons are on my side, and that they will all
refuse to agree that Prussia can be] permitted to do anything
she pleases. I do not enter into the question whether confidence
can be placed in a cabinet represented by such a man." He scorn-
fully continued, " The most ridiculous feature of all is that the
king is just as friendly with us as usual," and he went on to beg
the Nassauer to bring influences to bear upon Wittgenstein,
" who is entirely well-disposed," to secure the overthrow of the
party favouring the customs-law. Marschall replied in a similar
strain: "Hitherto such phrases have indeed been heard in the
mouths of German revolutionaries, but never in that of the repre-
sentative of a German king. If Prussia protects northern
Germany and all Germany, conversely, northern Germany and
all Germany protect Prussia. Rights and obligations are
thoroughly mutual. Whoever maintains the opposite, infringes the
first and chief basis of the Federation, and moves to a region
outside its orbit. In especial, the most powerful of the German
federal states has on every possible occasion plainly expressed
the opposite principle, at once in the Federation and in Europe,
and has applied it in practice whenever opportunity has arisen." a
Meanwhile this most powerful of the federal states continued
to play a double game. Metternich, who was also in Carlsbad,
did indeed, in accordance with Prussia's desire, hold a few con-
versations with the duke, ostensibly in order to accommodate
the quarrel.3 But at the same time the Coethen government
sent in a complaint to the Bundestag, and demanded the release
of a ship employed in Elbe navigation belonging to a certain
Friedheim, a merchant of Coethen, this ship having been
impounded by the Prussian customs office at Miihlberg because
the captain had refused to furnish security for the payment of
the Prussian dues. It subsequently transpired, and Munch, the
Austrian plenipotentiary in Dresden, was forced to admit the fact
to the Prussian envoy, that Adam Miiller had incited Friedheim

1 Bernstorff to the ducal government of Coethen, June 30, 1820.

2 Duke Ferdinand of Coethen to Marschall, Carlsbad, July 22 ; Marschall's
Reply, August 3, 1820.

* Prince Hatzfeldt to Metternich, Carlsbad, July 10, to Bernstorff, July 14,
1820.

350

The Vienna Conferences

to this refusal in order that the dispute might be brought before
the Bundestag.1

Since Prussia remained firm, the three dukes of Anhalt ulti-
mately found it convenient to make a concession, and solemnly
promised the Dresden conference " to offer to come to an under-
standing with Prussia, in any possible way, to secure the payment
of the Prussian taxes." Trusting in this ducal word, Frederick
William regarded the dispute as settled ; he ratified the act
and released the unhappy Coethen ship (so that the complaint to
the Bundestag lost all substance). Bernstorff once more invited
the courts of Anhalt to negotiate in Berlin regarding the conditions
of their adhesion to the Prussian customs. Months passed,
however, and no plenipotentiary from Anhalt put in an appear-
ance. The duke of Coethen, who would take no denial, had suc-
ceeded in inducing his well-meaning cousins of Dresden and
Bernberg, who were desirous of keeping their word, to change
their minds. He led them to promise him not to accede to the
Prussian customs system unless he did the same, and meanwhile
he had arranged with Adam Miiller for a new piece of trickery.

Since the Elbe navigation act was to come in force in March,
1822, Klewitz resolved that in January the enclave system against
Anhalt should be temporarily suspended. The financial party
in Berlin had long demanded this step, but Eichhorn, benevo-
lently disposed towards the neighbour land, had hitherto prevented
it. Consequently the three dukedoms were surrounded with
Prussian custom-houses ; but navigation on the Elbe was freed,
as the act directed, Prussia contenting herself with the inspection
of ships consigned to Anhalt. Adam Miiller's sordid design
counted upon this fidelity to the treaty on the part of Prussia
Naturally the inspection of the ships on the Elbe became a mere
farce when the Anhalters had made up their minds to act dis-
honestly. Several great English export firms arranged with
Coethen merchants to undertake smuggling transactions in the
grand style, under the protection of the duke. The whole little
country became a smugglers' house of call, a place of assignation
for the rogues and thieves of the German north. The great
majority of the loyal Coetheners invoked blessings upon the head
of their sovereign prince, who provided for them cheap commo-
dities and rich profits through this unsavoury smuggling traffic.
It was astonishing to note the sudden increase in the consuming
capacity of the fortunate inhabitants, as if a shower of gold had

1 Jordan's Report, Dresden, November 12, 1821.
351

I listory of Germany

fallen over the country. While the ratio of the population of
Anhalt to that of Prussia was as nine to one thousand, the general
consumption in Anhalt of imported goods became, when com-
pared with that of Prussia, as sixty-four to one thousand, while
the consumption of cotton goods, which in Prussia were subject
to a high duty, became as 165 to one thousand. For drugs, on'the
other hand, which were but moderately taxed by the Prussian
customs-law the Anhalters displayed less inclination, for here the
ratio of their consumption to that of Prussia was no more than
thirteen to one thousand. In this unnatural consumption, the ducal
customs officials set a good example to the people. Customs
inspector Klickermann of Dessau, as Prussia learned from the
records of her Elbe customs offices, received during the
year 1825 for personal domestic consumption the following goods
which passed duty-free along the river : 53 hogsheads of wine,
4 hogsheads of rum, 98 sacks and one barrel of coffee, 13 sacks
of pigment and pepper — about 1,000 cwt. in all. In the course
of a year more than half a million thalers were withheld from
the Prussian treasury through the Anhalt smuggling trade ; when
Anhalt was finally subjected to the Prussian customs system,
the yield of the customs in the provinces of Brandenburg and
Saxony promptly rose from 3,135,000 to 4,128,000 thalers.

In the long run, the possession of a sovereign crown devoid
of power demoralises the wearer. How thoroughly must the
sense of rectitude of the minor courts, which now recognised no
supreme power competent to judge their actions, have under-
gone perversion, when this upright Ascanian house, which from
of old had enjoyed a well deserved respect and which had sent so
many of its valiant sons into the ranks of the Prussian army, now
heedlessly and audaciously ventured to undermine the legisla-
tion of its former loyal protector by these gross malpractices.
It was a misfortune that the honourable doyen of the united house
of Anhalt, Leopold Frederick Francis of Dessau, of imperishable
memory in his own land, had died shortly before. It is hardly
likely that he would have tolerated the twofold breach of treaty,
twofold because at the Vienna congress Anhalt had pledged her-
self to suppress smuggling, and because subsequently in Dresden
she had solemnly promised to come to an understanding with
Prussia.

In order to comply with this last obligation, ostensibly at
least, in January, 1822, Duke Ferdinand at length sent his court
chamberlain Sternegg to Berlin, instructing him to treat with

352

The Vienna Conferences

Hardenberg alone, for to speak to Bernstorff would be beneath
the dignity of the Coethener. The chancellor, however, bluntly
insisted that the envoy must apply to the foreign office, and
there it became apparent that Sternegg was not empowered to
make any offers concerning accession to the Prussian customs,
but had come simply to hand in a demand for indemnification.
By the reasonable standard of population, the damage to Coethen
amounted to about 40,000 thalers for three years. The duke's
figure was ten times this amount, and he expressed himself greatly
astonished when Prussia entered the damage caused by the Coethen
smugglers on the other side of the account. After prolonged
and acrimonious discussions, the duke at length advanced the
proposal that by a territorial exchange Prussia should provide
for the Anhalt enclave permanent free communication with
Saxony ; if that were done, the three courts were prepared to
adhere to the Prussian customs system experimentally for a few
years. Bernstorff immediately and sternly rejected this " pre-
posterous " suggestion, the negotiator was forced to withdraw,
and Anhalt was left surrounded with Prussian customs barriers. l
But the smuggling traffic continued to flourish as before, for the
frontier supervision of Prussia was powerless in face of the ill-
will of the ducal authorities. Although the court of Berlin was
precisely informed concerning Adam Miiller's intrigues, it was
quite unable to believe that Prince Metternich approved the
activities of his consul-general. Year after year the Prussian
eagle patiently endured the bites of the Anhalt mouse,
always hoping that the three dukes would at length fulfil their
pledges.

And in this dispute, which displayed all the egotism, all the
arrogance, and all the folly of particularism, the German press
rallied to the support of the Anhalt smugglers like one man. The
cry of distress of the free Coetheners was the cradle-song of Ger-
man commercial unity, that unity which two generations later
was to attain its final goal upon this same stream of the Elbe amid
the lamentations of the free Hamburgers. With unprecedented
blindness, the inhabitants of the petty states, at every turn in
the confused struggle, took an erroneous view of their own welfare
and of that of the fatherland, subsequently on each occasion, as
soon as the dreaded accession to the Prussian customs system

1 Bernstorff, Ministerial Despatch to the Anhalt governments, February 18,
1822. Reports of von Meyern, Badenese chargd d'affaires, Berlin, January 5
and 19, February 19, May 18, and October 22, 1822.

353

History of Germany

had at length been completed, to recognise with gratitude the
necessity of the change. No less regularly did the particularist
spirit conceal its egotism beneath the fine trappings of freedom,
taking for its excuse, now freedom of trade, now the right of
free and independent action on the part of the German tribes,
and now raising both these pleas at once, and just as regularly
was public opinion, dominated by liberalism, led astray by
these exalted words of power.

Ineradicable prejudices against the Prussian customs-law co-
operated with that thoughtless sentimentality which unreflectingly
regards it as mean, in a struggle between strength and weakness,
to take the side of the stronger. A contributory cause was the
legal formalism of our political culture, owing to which people
had no suspicion that in relationships between states, formal
right is null if unsupported by living force. Was not Coethen
just as much a sovereign state as Prussia ? How could it be sug-
gested to this sovereign state to accede to a customs system, which
could indeed bring nothing but advantages in its train, and whose
necessity was a logical consequence of the geographical situation
of the smaller state, but which would conflict with the latter's
right of free self-determination ? If Coethen chose to utilise
the freedom of the Elbe in order to inflict malicious damage upon
her neighbour, in which article of the federal act was such a step
forbidden ? The consideration that by the Vienna treaties Anhalt
had pledged herself to abolish smuggling, was tacitly ignored.
Bignon, the old advocate of the German minor states, also entered
the arena with an open letter upon the Prusso-Anhalt dispute.
He dolorously complained that France could no longer as in former
days exercise from the Lower Rhine supreme judicial functions
over Germany ; but, he said, " in the nature of things France
is destined always to rule, and if she has lost the sceptre of power,
she still wields the sceptre of public opinion." In the eyes of
the sceptre-bearer of public opinion, Prussia, as was natural, could
not find grace. It was by this path of usurpations, exclaimed
Bignon, that long ago the house of Capet had proceeded
step by step to effect the annihilation of the great vassals of
France. The German liberals faithfully echoed the Bonapartist's
warning.

The majority at the Bundestag likewise inclined a favourable
ear towards the Coethen court's complaint, which was not
withdrawn even after the liberation of Friedheim's vessel. In
the summer of 1821, King Frederick William, passing through

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Frankfort, protested in vigorous terms against the accusation
that he desired to mediatise Anhalt, but protested in vain. The
minor courts would not be persuaded out of their belief that Prussia
desired, as Berstett phrased it, " to round off her geographical
leanness at the expense of some of her smaller neighbours."
Blittersdorff, recently appointed Badenese federal envoy, and
the more intelligent among his colleagues, were well aware how
little possibility there was " in view of the well-known character
of the duke, or rather of the duchess," of reckoning upon a reason-
able arrangement ; but they considered that this was " the
opportunity for the Bundestag to display its staying power and
vital energy." l The point of importance was to humiliate Prussia
in face of a weakling neighbour ; to prove to the North German
great power that, to quote Marschall, Prussia was just as much
protected by Coethen, as Coethen by Prussia. Of the greater
federal states, Bavaria alone showed any comprehension of the
relationships of power, for after the Munich government had so
recently learned by personal experience the difficulty of intro-
ducing a new customs system, it recognised that there was a
trifling difference between a realm and an enclave. The others
judged the question as if it had been a civil trial, and since the
legal questions involved were certainly open to dispute, there
developed at the Bundestag a savage feud which, dragging out its
course for many years, continually afforded fresh and welcome
opportunity for the liberal newspapers to stigmatise Prussia as
the disturber of the peace of Germany.

Such was for Prussia the upshot of the commercio-political
negotiations in Vienna and Dresden. The new customs-law had
been maintained unaltered against the opposition of almost all
the other federal states ; the freedom of the Elbe had been
secured (if to a somewhat scanty degree) ; and the old view of
the Prussian government that the Federation could contribute
absolutely nothing to the advantage of German commerce, had
been once again confirmed. Equally well established, however,
was the recognition, that in the present mood of the individual
states negotiations with these offered no prospect of success.
What unteachable animosity had encountered Bernstorff, what
arrogant language had he been forced to listen to, first
in Vienna, and subsequently in Dresden ! After these dis-
couraging experiences, the reasonable decision had been formed in
Berlin that henceforward no further invitations should be issued,

1 Blittersdorff's Reports, Frankfort, January 30 and June 27, 1821.

355

History of Germany

but that Prussia should wait quietly until financial stress should open
the eyes of her minor neighbours. It was in these circumstances
that strict injunctions were issued to all the envoys in Germany to
adopt an extremely reserved attitude, and to every enquiry about
commercio-political affairs to answer simply that as early as the
year 1818 the king had declared himself prepared to negotiate,
that he continued to hope that other German states would accede
to his customs system, and that it was now left for his neighbours
to meet goodwill with goodwill. Eichhorn based this resolve
upon the consideration that the jealousy of the dynasties, as
experience had shown, would only be stimulated by further invi-
tations. " Such proposals may be misinterpreted, as being at once
demands that they should alter their internal legislative systems
and suggestions endangering their independence." l Against the
deep-rooted distrust of the minor courts there was but one weapon
available, equanimity, which would allow the nature of things
to do its own work. What did it matter, after all, if the press
unceasingly declaimed against Prussia's selfish and separatist
attitude ? Inasmuch as public opinion was more unreasonable
even than were the courts, the cause of German commercial unity
could look for no help from this quarter, and Prussia's best ally
was the increasing financial need of the minor states.

§3. THE MANUSCRIPT FROM SOUTH GERMANY. THE HESSIAN

CONSTITUTION.

The plenipotentiaries of the constitutional states returned
from Vienna feeling assured that for the present their constitu-
tions had nothing to fear from the Federation. Whereas Zentner
regarded this as a victory, Berstett was extremely displeased.
He had confidently anticipated that the Vienna assembly would
put his disorderly Carlsruhe Landtag to rout, but had now to
return with empty hands. At the close of the conferences he
directed a further urgent appeal to Metternich, saying that since
political assassination was now raging in France the time had
arrived for all the European powers to join in solemn guarantees
for the maintenance of the monarchical principle. " The episode of
the revolutions began with a declaration of the rights of the people.
Could it not be brought to a close with a declaration of the rights

1 Instructions to Otterstedt, November 2, 1822, February 20, 1825, etc. Eich-
horn's Opinion, April 21, 1824. Instructions to the envoys, March 25, 1828.

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of the thrones ? " This demand came at an extremely incon-
venient moment for the Austrian statesman. He now needed
tranquillity in Germany, even at the price of a truce with the
detested liberals, for he foresaw that Austria might soon need all
her energies to cope with the revolution in southern Europe. For
this reason, he considered it necessary to moderate his friend's
reactionary ardour.

In a long and unctuous despatch to Berstett (May 4th) he
first reiterated his old and cherished doctrine that in these
stormy times the maintenance of the existing order was the aim
of all well-disposed persons, adding the brilliant proposition,
" Upon this point, with which all may be saved, and with which
even that which has been lost may be in part reacquired, every
endeavour must concentrate." This axiom, which the entire
diplomatic world had long before learned to recognise as part of
the permanent linguistic equipment of the Austrian chancellery,
was succeeded by words which were unprecedented in Metternich's
mouth. " But when we speak of the existing order, we think
not only of the old order in the narrower sense of the term, that
order which has been left absolutely intact in very few states,
but we think also of newly introduced institutions, so soon as these
have acquired a certain degree of constitutional strength. In
such times as the present, the transition from the old to the new
hardly involves greater dangers than the return from the new to
that old which has become extinct. The attempt to do either
may lead to material disorders which must to-day be avoided at
all cost. The objection that among the constitutions hitherto
introduced in Germany there are some which are devoid of founda-
tion, and which consequently lack all standing-ground., must be
regarded as baseless. Every institution that has come into
existence (unless, like the Cortes constitution of 1812, it
be the work of pure caprice and senseless delusion) contains
materials contributing towards a better system." He went
on to remind the lesser courts of the harmony that prevailed
among the great powers, of the union between the German
federal states which had recently been consolidated in Vienna,
and exhorted them in conclusion to a strictly legal and constitu-
tional regime. In case of need there remained open to them
" an appeal for help to the community. If Austria, her internal
condition remaining undisturbed, still possesses a notable mass
of moral energies and material means, she will be prepared to
employ all these for the advantage of her federal allies as well

357

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as for her own." 1 Thus there was not a word about the
re-establishment of the old estates. In Carlsbad, Metternich
had damned the South German constitutions as demagogic ; but
he now proclaimed their legal foundation inviolable.

It was the good fortune of his life that all the work of his
own pen filled him with genuine admiration. This most recent
production produced a state approximating to ecstasy, and in a
covering letter to Berstett he could not refrain from saying :
" Every word in my despatch has been created out of the depths
of my intelligence. The repose which dominates it is the repose
of my own soul. I shall have attained an aim very dear to me
if by my words (and the term ' words ' seems to me too weak to
convey the value of my work),2 I succeed in showing your excel-
lent ruler what we desire, believe, and hope ! " When, shortly
afterwards, probably with its author's previous consent, the
despatch was published in several German and French newspapers,
Metternich hoped that all thoughtful politicians, all but the
wildest of the radicals, would thank him for his formal recognition
of the new constitutions. Soon enough was he to be disillusioned.
Since the great public now made its first acquaintance with a
private memorial by the dreaded statesman, and since it was as
yet unfamiliar with the remarkable flowers of speech of the Metter-
nichian style, the conciliatory sense of the content for the most
part escaped notice. The press found the kernel of the writing
in its phrases about the maintenance of the existing order, and
paid no attention whatever to the exhortations to fidelity to
the constitution, which had been the practical purpose of the
despatch. The note of May 4th acquired a European reputation.
For two decades it was regarded by the opposition in all countries
as " the programme of conservatism, the war-cry of the struggle
against the progressive movement of the age," whereas it was
really intended to warn the Badenese court against any reac-
tionary coup de main.

Berstett, for his part, rightly understood his master's inten-
tions, and bitterly complained to the faithful Marschall that

1 The version of the Note of May 4, 1820, printed by Welcker (Wichtige Ur-
kundcn, p. 335), completely agrees, except for a few words obviously misread or mis-
written, with the original preserved in the archives of the ministry for foreign affairs
in Carlsruhe. The memorial printed in Metternich's Posthumous Papers, III, p.
372, the wording of which differs in numerous respects, must therefore, like many
other documents in this collection, be no more than a rough copy.

2 Et le mot de paroles me semble bien faible pour exprimer la valeur de mon
travail. Metternich to Berstett, May 4, 1820.

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" our final act, edited in the purest German style" afforded so
little assistance to well-intentioned governments ; but, he said,
"if we can expect neither energy nor aid from without, we must
a tout prix endeavour to maintain peace within." 1 Thus,
strangely enough, it was in part thanks to Metternich's thoughtful
advice that the Badenese court effected a reconciliation with
the diet which had shortly before been so ungraciously dismissed.
This moderation did not, indeed, prevent the Austrian statesman
from personally supervising the persecution of the demagogues
in Baden, as throughout Germany. He could not deny himself
the pleasure of playing the part of his own sheriff's officer. Even
the Heidelberg executioner who had so devoutly preserved the
relics of Sand did not escape Metternich's paternal eye, and the
Badenese minister was exhorted in a long autograph letter to
take vigorous measures, " for if such proceedings are completely
ignored, the cancer will never be cured." 2

As long as the Badenese court could reckon upon Austria's
support, it prepared for open war against the diet. Certain
liberal officials were refused leave of absence to attend the sittings
of the Landtag, and the Mainz committee of enquiry was asked
to institute a political prosecution against Winter, the Heidelberg
bookseller, the valiant advocate of the freedom of the press.3
But by the time the Landtag met in June, and forthwith demanded
that all its members should be summoned, the government could
no longer count upon foreign aid ; moreover, news of the pro-
gress of the revolution in southern Europe alarmed the court.
The government therefore withdrew its refusal to grant leave,
Winter was set at liberty by a judicial decision, and Berstett met
the house with astonishing friendliness. Most of the members
of the Landtag had, moreover, been sobered by the painful
experiences of recent months, so that on this occasion more
caution was displayed. Several of the representatives had been
won over by proofs of favour from the court, and a few had been
definitely corrupted ; the grand duke openly admitted to the
Prussian envoy that to secure a good understanding with these
gentlemen was an expensive affair.* In a word, the close of this
Landtag was just as peaceful as its opening had been stormy.

After an outspoken address from Rotteck, the government

1 Berstett to Marschall, October 13, 1820.

2 Metternich to Berstett, June 23, 1820.

3 Berstett to Marschall, August 10, 1820.

4 Kiister'a Report, Carlsruhe, August 22, 1820.

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promised that its severe press edict, which permitted no more
than four political newspapers throughout the country, should
be mitigated in correspondence with the Carlsbad decrees ; an
agreement was secured regarding some excellent laws to effect
the abolition of certain manorial dues ; while in the matter of the
national finances a compromise was secured by voting a
lump sum. In September, the Landtag was peacefully dis-
missed, and, drawing a long breath of relief, Berstett reported
to his friend in Nassau that by his mild handling of the diet he had
secured a respite for a couple of years. The two ultras of the
Vienna conference now began to believe that, after all, the new
constitutions, adroitly manipulated, were quite endurable, and
might even be favourable to particularism. " The diets," said
Marschall, " individualise our states more and more, and increas-
ingly contribute to the annihilation of that principle of unity
which is the leading aim of the revolutionary party." Playing
the part of a faithful echo, Berstett wrote to Vienna : " The
similarity of the new constitutions in South Germany has by no
means led to a closer approximation of the individual lands in the
sense desired by our Germanisers ; there may rather be noticed
the continued increase of distinctive peculiarities." 1 Thus were
the Nassauer and the Badenese able to find common cause for
rejoicing in the thought how remote was the day of German
unity.

Even the dreaded Wurtemberg constitutional convention,
whose annulment Marschall had again demanded shortly before,
proved in the clever hands of King William a work of blameless
innocence. In January, 1820, the first ordinary Landtag of the
kingdom was opened. Lindner, who had been expelled from
Weimar, and who after a prolonged stay in Alsace was now
advocating King William's ideas in the Stuttgart press, had, in
emotional terms, prepared the nation for the grandeur of this
historic moment. Niebuhr's friend Count Moltke visited Wur-
temberg in order to study the constitutional system at the source
in this pattern land of German freedom ;3 and the crown did
not fail to remind the German world from time to time by some
fine-sounding catchword that the ruler of \Vurtemberg was ani-
mated with a liberal spirit. How the liberal press rejoiced when

1 Marschall to Berstett, August 18 ; Bcrstett to Metternich, September 12,
1820.

a Wangenheim to Hartmann, March 8, 1820.

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The Vienna Conferences

Maucler, the minister of state, solemnly assured the representa-
tive assemblies that the king favoured publicity ! The country
was indeed well pleased by the homage thus rendered by its
German neighbours, but the political exhaustion ensuing on the
passionate struggle for the good old law endured for many years.
The elections took place almost without a fight, even electoral
meetings and speeches by the candidates were quite exceptional.
Almost everywhere the high-bailiffs indicated to the electors the
names of the men in whom they themselves reposed confidence,
and neither force nor bribery was requisite to induce the peasants,
whose vote was decisive in most of the electoral districts, to
follow the suggestions of authority. The old bourgeois ruling
class, which had so long governed the duchy of Wiirtemberg,
likewise easily adapted itself to the constitutional monarchy.
The great majority of the second chamber was composed of
officials, and allowed itself to be led so docilely by its prudent
president Weishaar in accordance with the desires of Maucler,
that even Ancillon was moved to express his cordial approval
of the humility of this representative assembly.1 After the
leaders of the old-law party had made peace with the crown, an
opposition party was not reconstituted ; there were no more
than a few isolated independent deputies to draw attention on
their own initiative to the numerous unfulfilled promises of the
constitutional charter, to all the organic laws which that charter
had held in prospect. The liberal king was well pleased with the
meekness of the Landtag, and delighted to declare in the presence
of the foreign diplomats that the behaviour of his loyal estates
might well serve as an example to other lands.2 He considered
his work of reform temporarily finished ; legislation was arrested,
and the further development of the constitution was indefinitely
postponed. The constitutional regime, which had been so ardently
desired, proved in its opening years far more sterile than had been
the precedent epoch of royal dictatorship.

The nobility of the country was largely responsible for the
arrest of public life. No doubt it was difficult for the members
of these proud families which had been immediates of the empire
to overcome their ill-feeling against a crown which had done
them so much injustice, and to participate as subjects in the
inconspicuous labours of a petty Landtag. Yet in the end the

1 Ancillon, Ministerial Despatch to Councillor von Schoultz-Ascheraden,
March 10, 1820.

2 Kuster's Report, June 27, 1820.

361 2 B

History of Germany

constitution had conceded them all that it was possible to demand
in accordance with the Vienna treaties. Should they wish
in this democratic century to maintain their prestige, they must
recognise without reserve the new legal groundwork of society,
and must at least make trial whether it was possible upon so
narrow a stage to play the part of a popular aristocracy courageously
defending the laws of the country. To its own misfortune as well
as to that of its native land the high nobility of Swabia scorned
to attempt even this much. The Upper House showed itself dis-
inclined for business and hostile to all reform ; from the first it
excluded the public from its proceedings (a course permitted by
the fundamental law, but not enjoined), and soon became so
utterly estranged from the people that its reputation was almost
as evil as that of the Bourbon nobility. Through the resistance
of the privileged classes the urgently necessary abolition of the
feudal burdens, a reform strongly desired by King William, was
postponed again and again throughout an entire generation. In
the winter of 1820, when the first Landtag reassembled after a
recess of several months' duration, the members of the Upper
House did not appear in sufficient numbers to form a quorum,
and this remarkable spectacle was witnessed twice again during
the next eight years. Since the constitution had already made
provision for such an eventuality, the Lower House sat alone, and
the house that did not sit was assumed to give its assent. Within
a year after the fundamental treaty had been concluded, it was
already necessary to have recourse to an involuntary unicameral
system. A parliament thus mutilated could do very little effective
work.

In December, 1820, the parliamentary peace was suddenly
disturbed by the appearance upon the scene of Friedrich List.
The undismayed opponent of the scriveners' regime had with
tireless activity been carrying on the campaign in his paper, the
Volksfreund. He alone ventured to say in plain terms that the
old noble caste had come to terms with the new bureaucracy.
Unfortunately he lacked the caution and forbearance indis-
pensable to the publicist amid the narrow conditions of petty-
state life ; no one would forgive him for such cruel articles as
the Conversations between Minister Grand-Vizier and King's
Counsellor Brazenface. Twice before the bureaucracy had
succeeded in keeping their deadly enemy out of the Landtag, but
on this occasion he had been duly elected by the democratic
inhabitants of Reutlingen, and immediately raised a general

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uproar by the effervescent violence of his speeches, so rich in
ideas. But once again a means was found to get rid of the
disturber of the peace. List had issued an election address,
wherein, in harsh terms, he expressed his opposition to the
omnipotence of the officialdom : " Distress and poverty
everywhere ; honour nowhere, income nowhere, cheerfulness
nowhere — except for those in official uniform ! " All the
demands which he had previously voiced in the Volksfreund were
here reiterated. He asked for publicity of judicial procedure,
unrestricted freedom for the municipalities, a reduction in the
great army of the officialdom, and in addition, in accordance
with the newest articles of politico-economical doctrine, sale of
the domains and the introduction of a single direct tax.

The address was an extraordinary medley of good ideas and
immature impressions, but assuredly contained nothing of a
criminal nature. The ruling class, however, both within
and without the chambers, considered that the foundations of
its power were imperilled. The court in Esslingen was imme-
diately instructed to initiate a prosecution against List for
slandering the civil service, and Maucler then suggested to the
legislative assembly that the accused should be expelled the Landtag
on the ground that the constitution specified that no one could
be a delegate who was involved in a criminal prosecution. Vainly
did List show that he was accused only of a misdemeanour and
not of a crime ; vainly did Uhland and some of his friends issue a
warning to the effect that if such an interpretation of the funda-
mental law were accepted the government would be empowered
to expel any undesired member from the chambers. The majority
willingly complied with the minister's suggestion, which was sup-
ported with all the accessories of sophistical art, acting on
this occasion with the partisanship of a caste whose dominance
is threatened ; an address from Heilbronn which took the part
of the menaced man with the candour characteristic of the imperial
town was expunged from the records amid stormy speeches against
Jacobinism and sansculottery. The judges now demanded of
the expelled member that he should answer also to a charge
brought against him on account of the speech he had delivered
in the Landtag in his own defence, and when he refused to comply
they threatened him with the use of the forcible measures the
law placed at their disposal for dealing with persistent contumacy
of this kind, among which five-and-twenty lashes were prescribed
as a maximum penalty. List did not care to favour the master

363

History of Germany

class with the elevating spectacle of a popular representative
tied to the whipping-post. He consented to plead, was con-
demned to imprisonment in a fortress when the proceedings had
lasted for more than a year, and then eluded punishment by flight.

After this he spent two years abroad, always hoping that
at home a sense of shame would become active ; and in actual
fact even Wintzingerode was annoyed at the bureaucracy's thirst
for revenge. The king, however, was not to be appeased ; and
when the fugitive's wife besought pardon, he answered, with cus-
tomary arrogance, that List's enterprise might have involved
extremely serious consequences for the state, and that it therefore
did not matter whether it had been inspired by malice or simply
by stupidity. At length List believed he might venture to return,
but he was immediately seized and sent to Hohenasperg, and was
put to literary hard labour, that is to say, was employed in copy-
ing military documents. Not until the beginning of the year
1825 was he set at liberty, upon the condition that he should
renounce his civil rights and should immediately leave the country.
Thus was banished the most brilliant political intelligence to
be found at that time in South Germany, falling a victim, like so
many other distinguished Swabians, to the pettiness of his home-
land. A severe and yet benevolent destiny sent the impetuous
agitator just at the right moment to gain experience in the
new world of America, so that when he returned home with
the wealth of enlightenment produced by many years of travel
he was able to fertilise the parochial German world with
an abundance of new ideas. In Germany but little attention
was paid to this scandalous case, for List was not backed up by
any party. Such was the nature of this ardent spirit that he
was confined always to the formulation of bold designs, to the
indication of paths that were to be followed in the future ; and
the liberal press had unwillingly to make the best of the. disagree-
able fact that the most liberal-minded of German princes, with
the approval of his Landtag, had punished a great-hearted
patriot with a cruelty which could give points to the demagogue-
hunters of Berlin and of Mainz.

The expulsion of List was, for many years, of momentous
significance to the development of constitutional life in Wiirtem-
berg. There is no stronger bond between human beings than
injustice suffered in common. By their maltreatment of their
colleague, the majority of the deputies had signed away their
souls to the minister ; those of the minority were discouraged ;

564

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and the weakly indications of spontaneous will which were still
manifest in the opening days of the session gradually passed into
abeyance. The Landtag sank into an easy-going life of inactivity,
and among the people indifference gained the upper hand to such
an extent that before long the government found it necessary to
stimulate the electors to exercise the right of suffrage by the
payment of fees and by imposing penalties for abstention. Of
the extravagant desires for freedom which had greeted the
appearance of the constitution, few were fulfilled ; but the king
cared for material interests so efficiently that even the liberal
Wangenheim and his friend Privy Councillor Hartmann never
became completely alienated from the able and energetic ruler;
and the country secured one at least of the blessings which this
simple-minded age expected from constitutional life, namely,
a reduction of taxation. Amid the wider relationships of France,
and also in some of the German middle-sized states, people
learned soon enough that political freedom and thrifty adminis-
tration do not necessarily coincide. Almost everywhere the
constitutional state was forced to undertake a continuous enlarge-
ment of the sphere of its activities, being compelled to accede
to the innumerable claims of bourgeois society, which now began
to secure eloquent advocates in the chambers ; fulfilling more
extensive functions than the old absolutism, it was perforce costlier.
For the present the Wiirtembergers were spared this disillusion-
ment, for the excessive expenditure of the court was curtailed,
and the king insisted upon strict economy in all branches of
the administration. The country was by no means dissatisfied
with its strict bureaucratic regime and its mediocre Landtag.

Yet how was it possible for the restless ambition of King
William to remain content with the modest duties of the terri-
torial prince. He brooded over the defeat he had sustained at
the Vienna conferences, and felt it necessary to secure satisfac-
tion, were it under a mask. In earlier years, as long as Queen
Catharine was alive, he had still at times cherished dreams of
the German kingly crown. For long, however, these audacious
hopes had ceased to befool him. But that federation within a
federation which Wangenheim and Trott described so seductively,
now seemed possible, when some of the middle-sized states were
treating jointly with the Roman see, and when the great Darm-
stadt deliberation regarding the South German customs-union
was close at hand.

From September, 1820, onwards a writing, ostensibly pub-

365

History of Germany

lished in London, and entitled Manuscript from South Germany
by George Erichson , was busily circulated from Stuttgart. It was
the programme of the trias policy. All the malicious invectives
with which the Munich Alemannia had formerly incited its
Bavarian readers against the North Germans recurred here, but
more insidiously expressed, and therefore more dangerous :
Berlin had the best tailors, Augsburg the best silversmiths ; the
cunning and untrustworthy North German should in the field be
employed only as hussar and freebooter, for the sturdy peasants
of the South formed the kernel of the German army ; a political
union between the migratory commercial folk of the north and
the settled population of the highlands might perhaps become
feasible centuries hence, but was to-day as impossible to effect
as had been the union of the English and the Scottish in the days
of Edward I — and so on. But whereas Aretin and Hermann had
never concealed their particularist aims, this new preacher of
di sunion claimed to direct national policy. A Polish partition, he
declared, had imperceptibly been effected in Germany ; of the
twenty-nine million inhabitants of the Germanic Federation,
nineteen million belonged to the foreign powers, Austria, Prussia,
England, Denmark, and Holland ; the best federal harbours were
in the hands of the northern corsairs, of the Hansa towns ; a
hors d'ceuvre in the German body, they were the booty of a mer-
cantile caste in England's pay. There was therefore only one
means of salvation for the pure German states : they must
cut loose from the foreigners, and reconstruct by themselves the
free league of independent tribes which was Germany's primitive
constitution. The leadership of the league belonged to the
Bavarians and the Alemans, the two nuclear stocks, which had
just been reunited under their new kingly crowns. The great
statesmen of the south had been the first to recognise that Ger-
many's renascence could be effected solely through French help, and
it was out of love for Germany that they had become the friends
of France. When the warriors of Wiirtemberg and Bavaria, in
alliance with the French, had gained victories never to be for-
gotten, they served the spirit of the century and assured for all
time the independence of the fatherland. It was for this reason
that they continued to wear with pride the cross of the legion
of honour. To-day, moreover, Wiirtemberg had once again
become " the refuge of German liberty and independence " ; its
king had given the great and immortal example of a constitution
based upon a convention. The two kings of the south had

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recognised the god-given democratic principle ; in Carlsbad and
in Vienna they had been the protectors of German freedom ;
Germany reverenced them as the guarantors of her national
independence.

Between the lines, the hope found expression that Prussia
would cede her western provinces to the king of Saxony ; then
the league of pure Germany would be able to fulfil its natural
function, and as an " intermediate" state " would maintain the
balance between France, Prussia, and Austria.

Since the Germanic Federation had been in existence, no
such impudent attack upon the principles of the federal law had
hitherto been attempted. The advocate of the German trias
attacked the newly-fashioned constitution of Germany with as
much hostility as that formerly displayed by Hippolytus a
Lapide in his onslaught upon the decrepit Holy Empire. This
adroit epigone did not indeed possess the wealth of ideas or the
forceful rhetorical impetuosity of that passionate advocate of
the Swedish-French party, but in the arbitrariness of his historical
constructions and in the unscrupulousness of his raison d'etat he
strongly resembled the old publicist. The nauseous fundamental
principle of the foreign dominion came to light once more in the
Manuscript ; it was Bonapartist through and through, displaying
the basic idea of la troisieme Allemagne, voicing the old democratic
catchwords, breathing invectives against the Hansa towns, and
reiterating the proposal to thrust Prussia towards the east.
In former days, Dalberg had extolled the Confederation of the
Rhine in almost identical words, and it was manifestly
impossible for this new league of pure Germany to come into
existence in any other way than by French aid.

With how much anger would public opinion have received
such a book at the time of tHe peace of Paris ! But the great
epochs of our recent history have with sinister regularity been
succeeded by periods of discontent in which national pride has
almost disappeared amid the petty vexations of party life, and
in which the very men and the very actions which are beyond
all praise have been most certainly exposed to the ingratitude of
short-lived man. Five years after the War of Liberation, the
author of the Manuscript could confidently proclaim : " Prussia
belongs to Germany just as little as Alsace " ; and throughout
the minor states there were already to be found a few well-
meaning patriots to agree with the writer, men to whom it did
not seem ludicrous in the name of the vanquished of Dennewitz

367

History of Germany

and Wartenburg to deny the warlike efficiency of the victors. In
Frankfort, Borne had only one fault to find with the book, that
it did not tell the whole truth. Shortly afterwards, F. von Spaun,
the Bavarian liberal, a zealous advocate of the illuminati and
of Bavarian pride of power, declared in his Obiter Dicta on the
Course of Events that South Germany had rendered good service
to the allies, but had nothing to thank the allies for in return.
We Bavarians, he said, have no need of the Germanic Federa-
tion ; if " our Max " should call us, thousands of the heroes who
conquered at Leipzig would flock to the blue and white standard !

It was, indeed, only a few deluded persons who took so
extreme a view. Even Wangenheim was far from harbouring
the traitorous hidden thoughts of the Manuscript. He considered,
it is true, that if the independence of the minor states were
threatened it would be permissible to appeal to the foreign
guarantors of the federal act (though such an appeal " would
always be a doubtful step ") ; but he never had any thought of
forming a new Confederation of the Rhine. His league of the
lesser powers was to be built upon the foundation of the federal
act, was to come into existence peacefully, sustained solely by
the moral force of the South German crowns, held together by
the attractive energy of their free constitutions. In this diluted
form, the ideas of the Manuscript were seductive to many other
liberals. Behind the scenes, the sophistical work exercised an
enduring influence, nourishing among the South German liberals
a pride which was all the more injurious because it was grounded
upon a fancied political superiority, and not upon the genuine
merits of High German life, its ancient civilisation, its inex-
haustible poetic faculty, its charming, natural, and democratic
customs. It was from the turbid source of this writing that there
also issued the party legend which continued to find credence
for many decades, concerning the heroic struggle against the
reactionary great powers which had been made at the Carlsbad
conferences by the loyally allied liberal crowns of Bavaria and
Wurtemberg.

In Prussia, the glorification of the Confederation of the
Rhine seemed so incomprehensible that no one in this country
troubled to publish an answer, although the book aroused lively
anger in the literary circles of Berlin. The only rejoinder was
that entitled From North Germany, not a Manuscript written by
J. L. von Hess of Hamburg, the man who in the year 1814 had
written on behalf of The Freedom of the Hansa Towns. The

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worthy Hanseat still spoke altogether in the spirit of the broad-
minded patriotism of the War of Liberation, being free from
particularist sentiment, although, after the Hanseatic manner,
he was inclined to overvalue the "unrestricted freedom" of Ham-
burg commerce. He cherished the hope that the state which had
begun that national struggle would once again become " the
centre of German unification " ; and he shamed his adversary
by the incontrovertible reproof, that never had any North
German writer used such malicious and unamiable language
regarding his South German brethren — not even in the days when
Bavaria was fighting under the French flag.

At the courts of Vienna and Berlin, the open appeal to a
breach with the Federation aroused lively anxiety. Careful
enquiry was made regarding the authorship of the work, and
the first idea was that it had been written by Hormann or Aretin,
since the pamphleteer in his introduction referred to Bavaria as
his home ; moreover, Wangenheim declared at the Darmstadt
conferences that the book could not have proceeded from any
other source than Montegelas' party.1 Subsequently a strong
and unrefuted suspicion rested upon Lindner, and now it was
that the libel first appeared in its true light. Invectives against
the north on the part of such fanatical Bavarians were partly
the outcome of ignorance ; but this Courlander, who had been
intimately acquainted with North German life from childhood
upwards, could not possibly have drawn his repulsive caricature
of the North German people in good faith ; it must have been
his intention to incite the south against the north, and from the
days of Lindner to our own this evil practice has always been
pursued with peculiar zeal by North German renegades. It was
known that Lindner sometimes received literary commissions
from King William ; quite recently he had been conducting an
odious paper-war against Kessler, a liberal who had made himself
obnoxious to the court by a candid description of Wiirtemberg
conditions.2 But Wintzingerode, acting on the king's orders,
emphatically denied that King William had had any responsibility
for the issue of the Manuscript, and his co-operation in this matter
seemed indeed hardly conceivable. Who could have believed that the
hero of Montereau should now undertake to defend the Confederation
of the Rhine, and that with such unseemly and false self-praise
he should extol his own services to the nation ? But when

* * Nebenius' Report to Berstett, Darmstadt, November 14, 1820.
2 Kiister's Report, February 12, 1820.

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History of Germany

Wintzingerode asked that severe measures should be taken against
Lindner, because the proceedings of " this liberal lunatic " could
not fail to embitter the great powers, the king obstinately
refused ; and when the minister urgently renewed his application,
the king at length informed the astonished man that he himself
was the author of the Manuscript, that he had drafted the outlines,
and that Lindner had merely filled them in.1 Such were the means
by which King William had endeavoured to revenge himself for
the humiliation sustained in Vienna ! The count informed his
master that he would be unable to answer for the expenses of
the foreign office of little Wurtemberg if the confidence of the
great powers were to be mocked in so lighthearted a manner —
but he retained office. At this time the German ministers still
lacked a sense of personal responsibility, looking upon themselves
in almost all cases merely as the servants of their princes. Wintz-
ingerode considered it would have been unchivalrous to abandon
the king in so anxious a moment, and was therefore forced to do
his best to allay the suspicions of the German courts by mendacious
assurances. It was labour lost. The keen insight of F. Gentz,
which rarely failed him in literary matters, had enabled him from
the first to detect the primary author of the Manuscript.

The futility of the Wurtemberg trias plans was nowhere
condemned more sharply than at the court which had thought of
entrusting Lindner with the leadership of its own sonderbund.
Five years earlier the trias idea had made its first appearance
in the Bavarian press, but now, as then, the government remained
unsympathetic. The Bavarian state was after all too great, its
dynasty too proud, to indulge in such airy fantasies. How
happy was King Max Joseph when for three years in succession
he had again been untroubled by his loyal representative assem-
blies. The reconciliation with the two great powers which had
been effected by Zentner's prudence was thoroughly agreeable
to the good-natured king. His mistrust of the liberals had
increased yet further since the revolution in southern Europe
had continually extended in scope, and since in the course of the
summer the disturbance had even invaded Italy. When Gentz
visited Munich in August, the king could hardly find words enough
in which to express his devotion to the court of Vienna. He
loved constitutions, he declared, just as little as Emperor Francis,
and but for the unhappy Vienna congress would never have gone
to such a length ; God be thanked, however, he had got off safely

1 Wintzingerode. Count H. L. Wintzingerode, p. 69.
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with nothing worse than a black eye, and devil a step further would
he go now. Parliamentary institutions had effected no change
in the customary bureaucratic regime. Even the reorganisation
of the military system which had been promised the chambers
remained unrealised, although two of the ablest generals, Rag-
lovich and Baur, had for years been favouring the introduction
of a Landwehr system modelled upon that of Prussia. The liberal-
minded Lerchenfeld was entirely restricted to his work as a financial
expert, and in this department his persistent and circumspect
activities ultimately restored order, so that the price of the
public funds increased during a few years by more than thirty
per cent. The German policy of the court of Munich was
directed by Rechberg and Zentner, both of whom, each after his
own manner, were loyal to the great powers. At their instigation, 1
the Allgemeine Zeitung published a criticism of the Manuscript
which contained fierce mockery of all thoughts of a sonderbund.

Meanwhile the last of the South German states, which had
hitherto remained an absolute monarchy, adopted constitutional
forms. Punctually, as had been promised, Grand Duke Louis
of Hesse provided his land with a constitution by the edict of
March 18, 1820 ; he hoped by this cautious concession, as he
explained to the great powers, to fulfil all the expectations of the
Vienna congress, to keep his pledged word, and at the same
time " to secure the power of his government." 2 His confi-
dential adviser, Grolmann, the professor of criminal jurisprudence,
had recently with a heavy heart resigned his academic position
at Giessen in order to accept a ministerial portfolio, feeling it his
duty to throw his personal influence into the scale against the
threatening anarchy. He was a man of mild and conciliatory
disposition, professor rather than statesman, and considered that
to the representatives of the people " all had been conceded which
could be conceded without manifest danger of republicanisa-
tion." 3 On this occasion, however, the venerable prince, who
had grown grey in the views of benevolent absolutism, was utterly
deceived regarding the mood of his country. During the long
period of waiting, the people had been stirred up by nume-
rous petitions and meetings ; in the mediatised territories of

1 Zastrow's Report, November 15, 1820.

* Note from the grand-ducal Hessian chargd d'affaires, Baron von Senden, to
Ancillon, March 29. 1820.

3 Grolmann to Count Solms-Laubach, March 25, 1820.

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History of Germany

Odenwald the heavily burdened peasants had already come into actual
conflict with the troops over the collection of the taxes. And now
the long-desired constitution, which was to put an end to all dis-
tresses, contained little more than a few prescriptions regarding
the future Landtag. The genial patriarchal phraseology of the
edict failed to secure its end owing to the extreme exiguity of the
content. The rights of the representative bodies were very narrow ;
the suffrage was extremely restricted ; and in the entire state, apart
from the high officials, there were no more than 985 persons eligible
for election. To crown the disaster, this fundamental law was
promulgated at the very moment when the Spanish Cortes con-
stitution, which had just been resurrected from the tomb, was
published in the German newspapers and aroused the ecstasy of
the liberal world. " A constitution with two chambers is no
constitution at all," was a phrase frequently heard in the South
German taverns when people were discussing the welfare of the
Cortes and its hero Riego ; and F. von Spaun expressed the
opinion, " Our Max need only wag his finger to get rid of the
Upper House." How paltry seemed the liberties of Hesse in
comparison with these Spanish glories !

The whole country was in a ferment. Certain anonymous
pamphlets printed in Stuttgart, but proceeding from E. E.
Hoffmann in Darmstadt, subjected the edict to unsparing and
well-deserved criticism, and since the peasants had long been
complaining of the pressure of taxation, the majority of the elections
were adverse to the government. The Rhenish Hessians went so
far as to elect the French general Eickemeyer, the man who had
participated in the shameful surrender of Mainz, and who was
therefore regarded at court, though unjustly, as a dangerous
Jacobin. More than half the deputies immediately sent in a
petition to the grand duke, couched in respectful terms, but very
definitely expressing their view that it was impossible for them to
recognise in the edict the promised " comprehensive constitutional
charter," and stating that for this reason they were unable to
swear fealty to it. Vainly did Hans von Gagern implore the
dissatisfied representatives not to reject all possibility of under-
standing. The remarkable imperial patriot was now pursuing the
same path as many other diplomats of the petty states : formerly,
in the nebulous region of federal policy, he had been a mere
dreamer, but now, in the practical affairs of his homeland, where
he felt firm ground under his feet, he proved a thoughtful politi-
cian. Under his leadership, his colleagues among the lords of the

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manor and the minority of the remaining deputies sent in a
counter-declaration to the effect that they were prepared to take
the oath without hesitation, but only on the proviso that the grand
duke would lay before them additional laws " for the complete
development of the constitution."

The situation of the little state began to become extremely
insecure. The Prussian envoy, Baron von Otterstedt, known in
the diplomatic world as noire ami aux mille affaires, an illuminate
opponent of the liberals, who, in a state of continued excitement
and mystery, oscillated between the courts of Darmstadt and
Bieberich, depicted to his cabinet in the gloomiest possible colours
" the truly devilish spirit " of the Hessian demagogues ;* and it
was quite true that in Hesse a sense of pessimistic bitterness had
notably gained the upper hand. Some of the non- jurors secretly
hoped for a coup d'etat from above, anticipating that an outbreak
of popular anger would ensue, and that this would constrain the
court to make extensive concessions. The powerful mediatised,
to whom nearly a quarter of the grand duchy belonged, likewise
displayed a hostile spirit. Vainly had the government shortly
before conceded them all the rights promised in the federal act,
with a few more superadded, so that henceforward at the castle
gate of Biidingen an Isenburg body-guard could be flaunted.
The princes and counts were by no means satisfied, and they all
absented themselves from the Landtag, although some years
before they had fiercely demanded the summoning of the estates.2
Through Grolmann's prudence the danger was safely averted.
He induced the grand duke to give way, soberly enough to do
justice to the sentiments of the country, and modestly enough to
admit past errors. In a graciously worded reply, the old ruler
granted the request of Gagern's party, and promised that certain
organic laws in amplification of the March edict should be sub-
mitted to the representative assembly. After this concession,
several of the members of the more decisive opposition also gave
way, and on June 27th it was at length possible to open the
Landtag. The obstinate non- jurors were excluded from the
chamber, and the re-elections were effected everywhere without
opposition. The Landtag immediately secured the publicity of
its sittings, and therewith acquired great prestige, for the entire
populace watched the deliberations with breathless attention.
No misuse was made of the new powers ; the ministers displayed

1 Otterstedt's Reports, June 10 and 26, July 4, 1820.

8 Petition of the Nobles to the Grand Duke, March, 1816.

373

History of Germany

an accommodating spirit ; and under the able leadership of
President Eigenbrodt, the noted sylviculturist, the course of the
proceedings was at first peaceful.

It seemed that everything was going smoothly. Even
Marschall, who hitherto, after his manner, had abused the Darm-
stadt demagogues to all the courts, was now pacified, declaring
that the government had retained the upper hand, and that the
monarchical principle was adequately safeguarded.1 But Grol-
mann was soon to learn how difficult it was to come to terms even
with so reasonable a chamber. He found himself in an untenable
position, for the legislative proposals regarding civic rights,
ministerial responsibility, and the right of voting supply, which
he now laid before the Landtag, in reality involved, not the
amplification, but the repeal of the March edict, and among the
representatives there was voiced ever more plainly the demand
that Hesse, like the other South German states, should be granted
a formal constitutional charter covering the whole field of con-
stitutional law. How much simpler would it be to fulfil this
cherished wish of the estates. The minister engaged in secret
discussions with his brother-in-law, Arens, chancellor of the
university of Giessen, a distinguished jurist ; with Councillor
Hofmann, who ably conducted the finances of the state ; and
finally with a youthful liberal official, Privy Councillor Jaup.
Among these men, Jaup alone was inclined to the constitutional
doctrine ; the three others all regarded a constitution as at best
a necessary evil, and Arens was even a member of the ultra-
conservative party and was in ill-repute in Giessen as an inexor-
able persecutor of the demagogues. Nevertheless they all agreed
in the view that the ferment throughout the country could be
allayed in no other way than by the granting of a constitution.

The grand duke expressed his approval, and on October I4th
Hofmann astonished the Landtag by requesting it to lay before
the government proposals concerning everything that was still
desired in amplification of the March edict ; the points regarding
which agreement was secured would then be formulated in
a constitutional charter, and with its promulgation the
March edict would become inoperative. The success of this
measure instantly proved how accurately Grolmann had judged
the situation. The word " constitution," which exercised an
irresistible fascination over the hearts of this generation, worked
like a charm : now the Hessians were going to be just as free as

1 Marschall to the Duke of Nassau, June 30, 1820.

374

The Vienna Conferences

the Bavarians, the Badenese, and the Wiirtembergers ! Loud
acclamations of joy were heard on all sides. Eigenbrodt, the
president, profoundly moved, said : " We now witness the dawn-
ing of a glorious day, in which the bond of affection and confidence
between a noble prince and a stalwart people will be established
more firmly than ever before." He then closed the sitting, so
that the great day might not be desecrated by the conduct of
ordinary business. What a frenzy of applause greeted the grand
duke when he appeared that evening in the theatre among his
loyal people. Throughout the country the same enthusiasm was
displayed ; everywhere was manifested, to quote the current
catchword, the touching gratitude of happy children towards
their beloved father. .

At the courts the joyous intoxication of the Hessian people
met with little response. How severely had the king of Wiirtem-
berg been criticised because he had granted his constitution in
the form of a convention, although he at least had been able to
appeal in justification to the "good old law" of his Swabians.
But now a second German prince had voluntarily come to an
agreement with his estates, notwithstanding that these unques-
tionably had no historic legal right to demand anything of the
kind. Such an infringement of the monarchical principle seemed
extremely dangerous. The heir-apparent and his brother Prince
Emilius made no attempt to conceal their displeasure, and cen-
sured the minister because behind their backs he had abused their
aging father's good-nature. " If your brother-in-law desires to
make peace with the Jacobins," said Prince Emilius openly to
Arens, " I will declare war against him myself. It matters nothing
to me that Grolmann should roll in the mire, but I will never
forgive him for dragging my father down with him." l Of late
Prince Emilius had gradually abandoned the Bonapartist ideals
of his youth, and at the congress of Aix had effected a personal
reconciliation with the new rulers of Europe. An admirable
soldier, able, well-informed, and energetic, he was henceforward
for many years one of the pillars of the ultra-conservative party
in South Germany. Otterstedt, who enjoyed his especial con-
fidence, said of him : "He lives only in and by the monarchical
principle, knowing how to defend it like a true knight." The
prince's mood became gloomier because in these very days the
firmly established discipline of the little army, to which he was
devoted body and soul, seemed shaken. Lieutenant Schulz,

1 Prince Emilius of Hesse to Otterstedt, October 14, 1820.

375

History of Germany

that member of the Unconditionals who had disseminated his
revolutionary Question and Answer Booklet among the peasants
was acquitted by court-martial. So unjust a decision (and its
injustice was admitted even by Grolmann) would have been
impossible a year earlier. No one could fail to recognise that the
exciting intelligence of the mutinies among the Spanish and
the Italian troops had obscured the sense of military duty in the
officers of the court-martial.1

Du Thil, moreover, who had taken no part in the decision
of the ministry, was much concerned. He admitted, indeed,
that the existence of a constitution might have a tran-
quillising effect. Just as three hundred years earlier the whole
world had been fiercely taking sides for and against transubstan-
tiation, so now " constitution-mania is the fashionable disease."
Nevertheless he regarded it as " a piece of incredible heedlessness
to furnish a dreadful example of an assembly of popular repre-
sentatives negotiating with a government about a constitution." *
Otterstedt, finally, who was eternally in a state of excitement,
spoke in his reports as if the Jacobins were in control ; he implored
his government to express its formal disapproval in a ministerial
despatch, and to suggest that Grolmann, after giving such proofs
of untrustworthiness, must on no account be allowed to remain
minister for foreign affairs.

The old duke himself began to vacillate once more, and
promised his son Emilius, in profound confidence, that Grol-
mann should hand over the portfolio of foreign affairs to du Thil
as soon as the great powers should express a desire to that effect.3
The diplomats of neighbouring states looked with intense anxiety
towards " the theatre of intrigues " which now existed at Darm-
stadt. Goltz, in Frankfort, considered it certain that the sinister
Wangenheim must be taking a hand in this game ; Marschall
lamented the manner in which " a weak ruler and an inexperi-
enced and feckless minister had let the reins drop from their
hands."* The Prussian court, however, maintained on this
occasion, as always in connection with these constitutional
struggles in the south, an attitude of benevolent reserve. The
fussy envoy received strict instructions to avoid any

1 Otterstedt's Report, October 23 ; Grolmann to Otterstedt, October 19, 1820.

1 Du Thil to Otterstedt, October 23, 1820.

» Otterstedt's Reports, October 18, 23, 29 ; Prince Emilius of Hesse to Otter-
stedt, October 29, 1820.

* Goltz to Hardenberg, November 21 ; Marschall to Berstett, October 16,
1820.

376

The Vienna Conferences

interference. Bernstorff did not even think it desirable that
Grolmann should be deprived of his position as minister for foreign
affairs, for in that case he would pay even less attention to the
opinion of the great powers. l Such being the mood of the Prussian
statesmen, Metternich was likewise unwilling to take any decisive
step, although on one occasion he despatched an extremely
unfriendly note to Darmstadt, saying that as long as the averting
of the Italian revolution occupied his whole energies, it was
desirable that all complications should be avoided in Germany.

Meanwhile the ultras in Darmstadt had recovered from their
alarm, for the attitude of the chambers corresponded fully with
the minister's expectations. Appeased by the promise of a
constitution, the representatives henceforward showed them-
selves extremely amenable, and Grolmann was able to assure the
Prussian envoy with perfect justice that the grand duke's decision
had prepared a defeat for the radical party, and that the govern-
ment, now established upon popular confidence, was more
powerful than ever before. Arens, too, declared to the anxious
Prussian envoy that it was impossible to withstand the current
of universal opinion, suggesting that this might be a pointer for
Prussia herself ; while Gagern dictated to Otterstedt a despatch
explaining to the court of Berlin that the Hessians could
never consent to lag behind their South German neighbours, and
that for this reason nothing short of a constitutional charter could
content the Landtag.2 These discourses did not fail of their
effect ; and Otterstedt, being a well-meaning man, now considered
it his duty to appease the discontent of the Austrian envoy von
Handel, and also to exhort to circumspection the two princes,
who were still profoundly ill-humoured. Owing to his represen-
tations and to those of du Thil, the princes recognised that it would
not become them to make an open stand against their father, and
both of them therefore made conciliatory declarations in the Upper
House. Finally, in order to win his sons over, the grand duke
now summoned them to his ministry, thus proving once more,
as Prince Emilius wrote with gratification, that the old ruler
" desired vigorously to maintain the monarchical principle." 3

In the ministerial council general agreement was now secured
upon a good idea which deprived the doctrinaires of the

1 Instructions to Otterstedt : from Bernstorff, Troppau, November n ; from
Ancillon, Berlin, November 11, 1820.

2 Grolmann to Otterstedt, October 17 ; Arens to Otterstedt, October 15 ;
Memoire du Baron de Gagern, October 29, 1820.

* Prince Emilius of Hesse to Otterstedt, October 29, 1820.

377 2 C

History of Germany

monarchical principle of their ultimate formal objection. It was
decided that the constitutional charter should indeed be drafted
precisely in accordance with the accepted proposals of the estates,
but should subsequently be bestowed upon the country by the
crown without any further consultation of the Landtag, as a free
gift of princely grace. Thus the fundamental law, although in
reality secured by agreement with the Landtag, would take the
form of a constitution granted from above, and the spectre of a
political fundamental convention so terrifying to the rigid
monarchists would be happily laid. At the same time, Lieutenant
Schulz was dismissed the army, after Prince Emilius and the
officers of his regiment had urgently petitioned the grand duke
for " the removal of so unworthy a soldier " ; and when this had
been done the princes for the first time became completely recon-
ciled with the new order of affairs.1 Respect for their elderly ruler
induced the representative assemblies to accept with pleasure
even the form of bestowal of the constitution, since in essential
respects they had secured the fulfilment of almost all their desires ;
nor was any contradiction expressed when the minister maintained
the extremely debatable opinion that in the previous March the
wisdom of the grand duke had enabled him to foresee the precise
course of events. To sum up, by his skilful and firm manage-
ment of the affair, Grolmann had first of all defeated the radicals,
and had then completely disarmed the opposition at court, which,
in view of the commencing decrepitude of the grand duke, might
have caused incalculable damage. On December I7th the funda-
mental law was signed, and then, with a renewed outburst of
ardent delight, was accepted by the chambers.

The Hessian constitution was very similar to the Badenese,
but the Upper House, in accordance with the example set by Wiir-
temberg, consisted only of nobles with a few members nominated
by the sovereign prince. The landed gentry took their seats in
the Lower House beside the representatives of the great towns
and of the mixed electoral districts, so that " the aristocratic
principle shall not gain the upper hand to an excessive degree " ;
and since during the constitutional struggle experience had shown
clearly enough how small was the value placed upon a Darmstadt
house of peers by the old families which had been immediates of
the empire, this difficulty was met in Hesse as it had been in
Wurtemberg by the remarkable prescription that a chamber which

1 Petition of Prince Emilius and the Officers of the Chevauxlegers to the
Grand Duke, November, 1820.

378

The Vienna Conferences

did not form a quorum was to be regarded as assentient. In
respect of the quorum required for the conduct of business in the
Lower House, the Hessian constitution, like all the other new fun-
damental laws of the south, contained extremely petty provisions.
Since the bureaucracy regarded the legislative body as a govern-
ment office which must conduct business for certain official
hours, and since the popular representatives were salaried, the
South German constitutions demanded that at least half, and in
Bavaria and Wiirtemberg even two-thirds, of the representatives
should always be present — a pettifogging ordinance which has
ever since remained an unfortunate peculiarity of German parlia-
mentary life, and which has greatly lowered the popular prestige
of our representative institutions.

Taken as a whole, the Hessian fundamental law corresponded
with the country's needs. Even the Prussian government recog-
nised this, and expressed its warmest congratulations to the grand
duke and his loyal subjects. " By the happy turn in the progress
of this great affair," wrote Ancillon, " the monarchical principle,
the fundamental principle of all German representative consti-
tutions, has been maintained, inasmuch as his royal highness has
himself deigned to grant this fundamental law to his estates, and
since the freedom of his sovereign will and the lofty wisdom of
his determinations have been manifested equally in what has been
acceded to the wishes of the chambers and in what has been denied
to these wishes."1 The spirit of concord which animated this
Landtag prevailed unenfeebled until the close of the session in
the summer of 1821 ; nowhere did the honeymoon of constitutional
life run its course so smoothly as in Darmstadt. Certain impor-
tant laws were passed for the removal of the burdens on the
peasantry, and henceforward the freeing of the soil was furthered
with so much zeal that the complete economic enfranchisement of
the countryfolk was secured at an earlier date in Hesse than in
any other German state. The inhabitants of Hesse-Darmstadt,
from the altitude of their modern conditions of life, looked down
with intense self-satisfaction upon their neighbours in Electoral
Hesse, and were accustomed to say, " When the last trump sounds,
we will migrate to Electoral Hesse, for there they are always half
a century behind the times."

In this way throughout South Germany the constitutional
form of government had become predominant, and unquestionable
1 Ancillon to Senden, January 10, 1821.
379

History of Germany

as it was that this course of affairs was necessary and whole-
some, it was equally unquestionable that it introduced serious
obstacles in the way of national unification. It was by Napoleon
and by the victories of the Confederation of the Rhine that in
the dismembered fragments of the south there had been first
awakened a sense of community, a consciousness of High German
distinctive peculiarity, which in the eighteenth century had still
slumbered. Now, when the South Germans had begun to esteem
their beautiful homeland as the classic region of German free-
dom, and to despise the great national memories of the armed
north, this sense of separateness became accentuated. The
chasm between north and south widened during subsequent years,
and not until after painful disillusionments did the South Ger-
mans learn that nothing but the unity of Germany could safeguard
their political freedom

CHAPTER II
LAST REFORMS OF HARDENBERG.

§ I. THE NATIONAL DEBT EDICT AND THE TAX LAWS.

WHILST the Vienna conferences were engaged in Sisyphean labours
upon the federal constitution, in Berlin a task was concluded
which, though little regarded outside of Prussia, was to prove
of far greater importance to Germany's future than all the pro-
ceedings of federal policy. In his old age, the chancellor put the
finishing touches to the work of internal reform. He had regarded
life with renewed confidence since the overthrow of his detested
adversary Humboldt. He felt as if his youth had returned, and
all the proud hopes of the first years of his chancellorship were
revived. Just as then, a virtual dictator, he had twice emptied
over the state a cornucopia of new laws, so now he proposed to
terminate at a single stroke the reordering of the national economy.
In the interim, a committee of the council of state, under the
presidency of Klewitz and Billow, had completed the drafting
of the new tax laws ; another committee, under the personal
guidance of the chancellor, had examined the condition of the
state finances and of the national debt. In the former committee
J. G. Hoffmann was the leading intelligence ; in the latter
C. Rother. These two men were among Hardenberg's closest
intimates, and he regarded their achievements as his own.

In three long addresses, he expounded his financial design to
the king, and as soon as, on January iath, he had convinced
the monarch of the essential soundness of his views, he proposed
that all the new laws concerning taxation and the national debt
should at once be promulgated ; l subsequently, in the course of
the same year, were to be promulgated the new communes', circles',
and provinces' ordinances, and finally the national constitution.
In his impatience, he overlooked the fact that he had himself
some time ago annulled the dictatorial authority with which the

1 Hardenberg's Diary, January 10, n, and 12, 1820.

"

History of Germany

king had entrusted him in the early days of the chancellorship.
The new ministry of state and the council of state had now been
in existence for years, and the ordinance prescribing the consti-
tution of the last-named authority declared in unambiguous terms
that all proposals for new legislation and for the reform of existing
laws must be made to the king through the instrumentality of
the council of state. Hardenberg, indeed, who had grown grey
in the enjoyment of power, had long ceased to observe this
prescription, for it seemed to him absurd that in relation to his
own officials an absolute monarch should be thus restricted by
forms. The sixteen new laws of the year 1818 received the
royal sanction only after they had been discussed in the
council of state ; but in the following year, of twenty-seven
new laws no more than sixteen were laid before that body.1

Thus the chancellor had already accustomed himself to ignore
the council of state, and least of all in connection with the
extremely unpopular finance laws did he desire to renounce this
summary procedure. Since Humboldt's fall, the mood in official
circles had become even more embittered. The love of scandal-
mongering, the original sin of the capital, now became as con-
spicuous as it had been shortly before the battle of Jena ; everyone
indulged in criticism and complaint, doing this the more vigorously
in proportion to the exalted character of his station. What
abominable lies Varnhagen, filled with malicious glee, was now
enabled every evening to unload into the foul morass of his
diary ! After his recall he had been allotted a handsome pension,
in order to content him and to blunt the point of his sharp pen.2
Moreover, he did not dare to attack the government openly.
Instead, assuming the office of Acting Supreme Privy Knight of
the Pen (as he was termed by the apt wit of the town), whispering
and eavesdropping, he went stealthily about among the high
officials and the authors of the capital. Here he learned from a
most trustworthy source how scandalously General Knesebeck
(a man of inviolable probity) was misusing military funds, not
forgetting the while to line his own nest ; the no less honourable
Rother, who had recently bought an estate in Silesia, must
assuredly have obtained the funds for this purchase by pecu-
lation ; no treasury-note, it was said in these circles, should be

1 Such was the reckoning made in the year 1827 by Duke Charles of Meck-
lenburg, president of the council of state (Memorial concerning the Council of
State. March 8. 1827).

1 Ministerial Despatch to Kiister, August 7, 1819.

383

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

kept in the house overnight, for it was impossible to trust such a
government for as long as twenty-four hours. Amid this febrile
access of fault-finding, it did indeed seem a serious matter to
lay before the council of state the legislative proposal dealing with
the national debt, with all the disagreeable secrets which would
thus be laid bare. A passionate dispute concerning each individual
item in the account would inevitably ensue, and it would be
impossible to keep these dissensions quiet. Since political parties
did not as yet possess any other arena, almost all the important
discussions in the council of state had hitherto soon become known
in the upper circles of Berlin, always with detestable exaggera-
tions, and more than once the king had found it necessary to give
the members of the council a reminder of the duty of official secrecy.
The national credit was already insecure, and such gloomy
rumours could not fail to give it a fatal blow. With incredible
difficulty Klewitz was able to keep the quotation of treasury-
bonds at seventy to seventy-one ; in the following February,
however, liabilities to the Navigation Company would fall due,
to the amount of more than three million thalers ; moreover,
the deficit of the years 1817-19, a deficit whosQ existence Hum-
boldt and his friends had so persistently denied, was now unmis-
takable, and must immediately be met. The need of ready
money was crying ; Rother had begun negotiations for a loan
with several banks, and what would happen to these negotiations
if the promised regulation of the national debt problem were to
be once again postponed for many months, and if the public, which
was in any case inclined to take a gloomy view of the country's
financial straits, were to be further disquieted by partially true
reports derived from the council of state ? So pressing was the
pecuniary embarrassment that the immediate promulgation of
the tax laws seemed to the chancellor indispensable. Whilst
the ministry and the council of state might subsequently discuss
the laws, and propose a few amendments, it was impossible for
the state to wait a single month longer before tapping the new
sources of revenue. " What would your majesty think," wrote
Hardenberg to the king, " of the chief administrator of a large
town, faced by the outbreak of a conflagration threatening
universal destruction, and aware that the appliances for combating
such an outbreak were defective, if, instead of immediately turning
to account all the means at his disposal, he were first to propose
a discussion in the town council concerning the provision of
improved appliances ? "

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The king's sense of justice made it impossible for him to agree
to the use of such arbitrary measures. Frederick William was
afraid that the disregard of formalities would yet further increase
the disfavour with which the tax laws would certainly be received ;
he insisted that the council of state should be consulted as pre-
scribed by the regulations, and sent Witzleben from Potsdam with
instructions to talk over the impatient chancellor.1 As the king's
confidant explained, what was now essential was " to reduce to
order the finances of a state which resembled a dismasted ship
driven about by the winds and the waves of this stormy time, a
ship which could not merely be kept afloat by the wise captaincy
of a great statesman, but which would arise renewed like a
phoenix." In face of so comprehensive an undertaking, it would
never do to disregard the fundamental laws of the state, and
among these fundamental laws must be reckoned the ordinances
concerning the council of state and the ministry of state, which,
" until replaced, must be regarded as the national charter." In
the last resort, the deficit in the revenue which would arise from
the postponement of the tax laws, could now, as in the year 1808,
be covered by deductions from official salaries. " No other motive
actuates me," declared Witzleben in conclusion, " than my con-
viction of the importance of the matter, and my anxiety that
the lustre of a name which shines so brightly in the annals of
the fatherland should not be dimmed through the infringement
of laws which the bearer of that name had himself instituted." 2

Hardenberg was by no means convinced even by these cordial
exhortations, but he could not disregard the monarch's express
desire. The king, however, had also come to recognise that the
regulation of this matter of the debt would be impossible unless
inviolable secrecy were preserved, and consequently, upon Rother's
proposal, a compromise was adopted. It was determined that
the rights of the two highest authorities should be respected as
far as possible, and therefore that all the tax laws, which did in
fact require a detailed re-examination, should be submitted to the
ministry and the council of state, but the national debt edicts
were to be immediately promulgated.8

1 Albrecht to Hardenberg, January 13 and 16, 1820.

1 Witzleber, Humble Memorandum, January 16, 1820. C. Dieterici, in his
Geschichte der Steuerreform in Preussen, Berlin, 1875, quotes (on p. 235) certain
passages from this memorial, but erroneously describes it as a Royal Instruction
to the chancellor.

3 Rother to Hardenberg, January 16 ; Hardenberg to Rother, January 16;
Hardenberg's Diary, January 16 and 17, 1820.

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On January 17, 1820, the ordinance concerning the national
debt was therefore issued, giving a statement of liabilities, and
declaring this statement final. At length, four full years after the
conclusion of peace, Prussians were to learn the tragical legacy
of Napoleonic days. At the end of the year 1806, the entire
national debt had been a little less than 54,500,000 thalers ; the
debt now amounted to 180,091,720 thalers in interest-bearing
bonds, more than 11,000,000 thalers in paper money on which
no interest was paid, and nearly 26,000,000 thalers representing
provincial debts taken over by the state ; thus the total debt
was 217,248,762 thalers, about as much as the entire state revenue
for four and a quarter years. Of the interest-bearing debt, the
chief item consisted of 119,500,000 thalers. These bonds, intro-
duced by Hardenberg in the year 1810, had since July i, 1814,
regularly received interest at the rate of four per cent., and it was
proposed that all the state debt should gradually be converted
into treasury bonds. Twenty-four different varieties of debt
with which the state had been burdened amid the turmoils of
the time — Russian and Polish promissory notes, bills for arrears
of salary, vouchers given in exchange for army requisitions,
Kalckreuth-Danzig bonds, etc. — had already been converted into
treasury bonds. In this matter Prussia acted with a fairness and
honesty almost unparalleled in European financial history. For
example, King Jerome had written down to a third of their
nominal value the territorial bonds taken over with his Old Prus-
sian provinces. When the region was restored to its former ruler,
the matter had long ceased to rankle, and as far as legal obligation
was concerned it was unquestionable that all Prussia need do
was to assume responsibility for her share in the Westphalian debt
at current valuation. The king, however, desired the name of
Prussia to remain unsullied, and, notwithstanding the financial
need of the hour, recognised the outstanding debt at the full
original value of 7,200,000 thalers, and also paid the astonished
creditors the arrears of interest for the years 1814 and 1815.
Even this piece of meticulous honesty was rewarded with calumny
at the hands of disaffected members of high society, Marwitz
grumbling that the chancellor had thrown yet another gift into
the rapacious maw of his favourites the usurers.

In the financial statement it was explained that a portion
only of the treasury bonds was already in circulation, another
portion being reserved for the extraordinary needs of the near
future ; but the amount of this latter portion remained unspecified,

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and perforce. For, in January, 1820, of the 119,500,000 thalers'
worth of treasury bonds, the state had issued no more than
59,685,000 thalers, of which 4,000,000 had already been redeemed,
so that more than half of the total amount, 60,000,000 in all, was
reserved to meet the expenses of making roads and of building
fortifications during the next few years, and to cover items of
debt whose extent was still unknown to the authorities. The
published statement did not give an account of the true burden
of debt, but merely a preliminary estimate, which had been drafted
by Rother with astounding ability, for it was approximately
correct, although founded mainly upon surmise. It was still
impossible to secure a definite knowledge of the composite debts
which, with indescribable confusion, had accrued in these numerous
territories. Moreover, so profoundly depressed was the spirit of
enterprise in this impoverished and discouraged generation that
even the creditors displayed incredible dilatoriness in presenting
statements of what was owing ; vainly did the state again and
again declare time-limits for the presentation of old claims, for
the accounts were never completely rendered. Great was the
labour before it could be ascertained with certainty that the
debt of the duchy of Saxony amounted to 11,290,000 thalers.
When this had at length been decided, it was necessary to conduct
tedious negotiations with the crown of Saxony, which, as may
readily be understood, displayed an extremely unaccommodating
spirit, and, after that, the authorities had to come to terms with
seven feudal corporations, for every one of the seven territorial
divisions of Electoral Saxony had its own separate debt, and
enjoyed in addition a share in the central debt of the little king-
dom. Even as late as the year 1827, it was not yet precisely
determined how much Prussia had to take over of the central debt
of the kingdom of Westphalia ; for Hanover, Brunswick, and,
above all, the avaricious Elector of Hesse, continually raised
fresh difficulties in the negotiations.

In such circumstances, it was necessary that the crown should
retain a free hand for some years to come as regards the issue
of new treasury bonds, for otherwise the settlement of the matter
of the debt would be indefinitely postponed. It was for this
reason that Hardenberg so anxiously endeavoured to avoid the
discussion of the question in the plenum of the council of state.
In nations possessing a strong sense of the state and ripe economic
insight, public credit is best maintained by perfect frankness
on the part of the administration ; but among this people of

386

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

Prussia, which did not as yet seriously believe in its newly created
state, and which lent a greedy ear to every rumour, the whole truth
could not safely be divulged. " More than half of the treasury
bills still remain unissued ! " — if this unprecedented intelligence
had found its way into the market place from the council of state,
beyond question there would have been a panic in the business
world, there would have been a grave fall in the price of securities,
and the entire work of reform would have been nullified. For
the moment, complete reticence was indispensable ; but unfor-
tunately when the authorities had become accustomed to
working in secret, secrecy was maintained long after it had ceased
to be necessary. As late as the year 1824, Leopold Krug, the
political economist, who had once induced Baron von Stein to
establish the statistical bureau, and who under Hoffmann's leader-
ship was now playing an active part in this department, was unable
to secure permission for the printing of his History of the Prussian
National Debt. It was not until ten years later, not until 1834,
that the national debt administration for the first time permitted
the publication of an abstract from its official reports.

As security for the debts thus calculated, the state pledged
its entire property, and in especial the domains and forests. The
interest of the debt and cost of the sinking-fund were provided,
first of all, out of the income from the domains and forests, next
out of the sums received on account of sales of the domains, and
finally, in case of need, gut of the proceeds of the sale of salt.
Despite the fact that the dominant economic theories regarded all
state ownership of land as unsound, the financial administration
proceeded very cautiously with the alienation of the domains.
Due allowance was made for the alleviations obtainable for this
heavily taxed people out of the rich lands owned by the monarchy,
and as a rule only small areas whose administration by the state
was exceptionally costly were brought under the hammer, and
these, owing to vigorous competition among purchasers, secured
high prices. During the years 1821-7, such sales and amor-
tisations brought in more than 13,500,000 thalers, effecting a
reduction of annual interest amounting to 354,000 thalers, and yet
the greater part of the domains was retained in the hands of the
state, and the total revenue from this source was undiminished.1

The entire administration of the debt was entrusted to a
special central authority. What an uproar there was at court

1 Motz, Administrative Report of the ministry of finance for the years 1825-7,
May 30, 1828,

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History of Germany

and in the circles of the old bureaucracy when the king appointed
to this " chief administration of the national debt," in addition
to President Rother and three other high officials, an untitled
merchant, David Schickler by name, head of a great Berlin banking
house ; beyond question now, as Marwitz had always predicted,
the state had been hopelessly surrendered to the usurers ! The
new authority was completely independent, deriving its revenues
directly from the provincial treasuries, so that Rother, regardless
of the minister of finance, who was still unable to meet the deficit,
could proceed without delay to pay interest and provide sinking-
fund strictly in accordance with the original design. But the
machine of the financial administration was already cumbrous,
and the addition of this new wheel made it almost unmanageable ;
the dispersal of affairs among so many co-ordinated authorities
strongly recalled the chaotic conditions of 1806. Besides the
minister of finance, there was a minister of the treasury, Count
Lottum, who had just been commissioned to devote all the savings
and increases of revenue of the current administration to the
re-establishment of the long since dissipated public reserve ; sub-
ordinate to Lottum, but in reality altogether independent, was
Ladenberg of the audit office, the pitiless critic of the national
expenditure. Now came the new debt administration to deprive
the unhappy minister of finance of the domain revenues as well.

It is not surprising that Klewitz was unable to cover the
deficit, and that the chancellor found the ancient sin of his
officialdom, the quarrels between the departments, wellnigh uncon-
trollable. It was, indeed, far from easy to tolerate Rother's
irrepressible official zeal. He was always on hand, like the evil
one, when in any out-of-the-way corner of the monarchy some
fiscal obligation was to be remitted ; every available thaler was
demanded by him for his own department, on the ground that
the entire property of the state was security for the national debt ;
whenever a voucher for salary for the old South Prussian officials
came to hand, he insisted on additional authentication. On one
occasion, the entire ministry of state sent in a complaint to the
chancellor, to the effect that the sense of honour of the govern-
ments would be affronted if they were to continue subordinate
to the orders of the national debt administration. Hardenberg's
decision, however, was : " Honour is due not to individuals, but
to the confidence of the monarch, who, before the eyes of the
whole nation, has entrusted to these indviduals an important
part of the administration." Thus Rother carried on his work

388

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

in continuous conflict with the other authorities, but was able to
secure that the debt administration should discharge its liabilities
with scrupulous punctuality, whereas disorder long prevailed in
the budgets of the minister of finance.1

Contrary to expectation, the bourse accepted the statement
of the debt in a friendly spirit ; there was no fall in securities,
for after the poisonous rumours of recent weeks the business world
had anticipated far more serious revelations. Nevertheless the
national credit remained extremely insecure and sensitive. In
the summer of 1820, when it became necessary to issue thirty
millions of the reserved treasury bonds, Rother did not venture
to sell the paper openly on the bourse, for this would have led to a
sharp fall in prices. With the help of some of the German banks,
he instituted a premium lottery, and thus, adroitly availing
himself of the fluctuation in prices, was able on favourable terms
to place treasury bonds to the amount of 27,000,000 thalers in
the hands of the public. Again, in the year 1822, a new issue of
24,500,000 worth of treasury bonds could be effected only by
pledging the bonds with the London house of Rothschild through
the instrumentality of the Navigation Company, the king per-
sonally endorsing a bond to the amount of more than £3,500,000
sterling. All in all, there were never issued bonds for more than
115,000,000 thalers, nor were these ever in circulation all
at once. A considerable period was to elapse before a certain
confidence was restored in tjie discredited Prussian paper. From

1820 onwards, treasury bonds were regularly negotiable in Leipzig,
and after 1824 also in Hamburg and Frankfort, being entered
among the official quotations on the bourse. In 1821, the price
once more fell as low as 66 ; then an improvement set in, and
in 1825 the bonds were for a considerable period quoted at 90-91.
But shortly after this, owing to the commercial crisis, a fresh
decline occurred, and it was not until 1828 that the value of 1825
was regained. Finally, in December, 1829, Rother was able to
announce in triumph to the king that the trouble was over, and
that the bonds were quoted at par.

The settlement of this matter of the national debt rendered
possible, in addition, the settlement of the so-called Perdquations-
frage which had been a subject of passionate dispute for years.
The finance edict of 1810, rich in pledges, had promised an adjust-
ment of all the war debts of the provinces, but it speedily became

1 Hardenberg to the ministry of state, June 26, 1821 ; to Rother, February,

1821 ; to the minister of the treasury, February, 1821 ; etc.

389

History of Germany

apparent that this pledge could not possibly be fulfilled. Under
pressure of need, each region had appraised its losses from the
war after its own fancies, and often in an extremely arbitrary
manner. Where was there to be found a common measure to
harmonise these estimates ? Would it be expedient to offer new
cause of embitterment to the Rhinelanders, the Poles, and the
electoral Saxons, who did not yet feel themselves to be Prussians,
and who regarded the Prussian national debt as a foreign burden
imposed upon them by force, seeing that the adjustment would
have advantaged only the more severely afflicted region of Old
Prussia ? The sole course open was to revoke the inconsiderate
pledge, and to leave to the provinces and municipalities all the
genuinely local liabilities, with the sole exception of the French
contributions.1 In the year 1822, the municipalities of the
western provinces were ordered by law to undertake the deliberate
extinction of their debts and the payment of arrears of interest.
It was only in an exceptional case, and for reasons of equity, that
the state assumed responsibility for the war debts of certain utterly
helpless territories (Electoral Mark, Neumark, East Prussia, and
Lithuania), amounting to nearly 8,000,000 thalers ; of this amount,
1,100,000 thalers were allotted to the unhappy Konigsberg — a
mere drop in the ocean. The regulation of the Danzig debt involved
quite peculiar difficulties. During the seven years of republican
independence the town had become indebted to the extent of
nearly 12,000,000 thalers, its bonds were quoted at 33^, and no
one could say how much of this debt ought to be regarded as
national and how much as municipal. The community was utterly
impoverished, but it was impossible for the Prussian state to
increase its own national debt by one-twentieth for the advantage
of a single town. It was therefore determined in this case to
depart from the principle of unconditionally recognising all the
state debts. The Danzig debt was written down to a third of its
nominal value, the current quotation being accepted as the real
value for the interest and sinking-fund, the area of the former
free town paid 30,000 thalers per annum, while Prussia paid the
balance, amounting to 115,000 thalers per annum. A .

Taken all in all, in the year 1822 the national debt amounted
to 20 thalers per head of population, and the interest to 25 sgr.
her head per annum, no light burden for an impoverished people.
But the burden was endured. Down to the year 1848, 173,500,000

1 Protocols of the council of state, March 20 and 27, 1821, and subsequent
dates.

390

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

thalers had been paid in interest, 80,500,000 thalers had been paid
off, and in addition the collection of the new state reserve had
been begun, this amounting in the year 1835 to more than
40,000,000 thalers.

Of almost greater importance than the financial content of
the national debt law was it's political content, .for in Hardenberg's
view the measure was destined, not merely to restore order to
the national finances, but also to effect the conclusion of the con-
stitutional struggle. In the third article of the ordinance, the
statement that all the domains were security for the debt was
followed by the inconspicuous addition, " with the exception of
those domains which are requisite for the provision of the annual
sum devoted to the maintenance of the royal family, amounting
to two and a half million thalers." This casual reference involved
a momentous change in Prussian constitutional law. Hitherto
the crown had met the needs of the court at its own discretion
out of the income from the domains, but now it prescribed for
itself a definite annual income, a modest sum which could suffice
only if rigid economy were practised, for the expenses of the
court had been notably increased by the acquisition of the new
provinces. The absolute king henceforward received a legally
decreed civil list, just like the constitutional princes ; but the
discredited modern name was avoided, and the royal income was
not established (as in several of the South German states) merely
for the sovereign's lifetime? but was specified once for all, a
measure far more accordant with the dignity of the crown. Nor
did the princes receive any apanage from the state, the king
remaining, in accordance with Hohenzollern traditions, unre-
stricted chief of the royal house, allotting incomes to the members
of the dynasty in accordance with ancient prescriptions and testa-
ments which were a family secret. In this way was obviated a
serious constitutional difficulty, for Frederick William could never
have tolerated such unseemly proceedings as had taken place in
the Badenese diet concerning the income of the ruling house, while
he nevertheless reserved a genuine privilege for the future national
assembly, for without the approval of that body it would no
longer be possible for the crown to diminish the portion of revenue
from the domains devoted to the payment of interest and sinking-
fund of the national debt.

This whole matter of the debt was henceforward to be placed
in the hands of the national assembly, article 2 declaring that

History of Germany

the king could not issue new loans without the assembly's co-
guarantee. The rights of the national assembly were specified
in advance even in matters of detail. The debt administration
was instructed to render an account annually to the assembly.
When a vacancy occurred in the administration, the assembly
was to nominate three candidates for the post, and the king was
to appoint one of these. For the time being, the council of state
was to exercise the rights of the national assembly ; for the safe-
guarding of the cancelled bonds, a deputation of the Berlin town
council was summoned, to function until the national assembly
should be convened, for obviously this strange and arbitrary
measure could be no more than a temporary resource. All these
proposals were unreflectingly approved by the king, and the chan-
cellor believed that he had almost attained the goal of his
desires. After so many new promises, the completion of the
constitution seemed inevitable, and Berstett of Baden, Metter-
nich's confidant, contemplated with a heavy heart this unhappy
edict, which was liable to such grave misinterpretations.1 Beyond
question it was a dangerous venture that Hardenberg should once
more pledge the royal word to unspecified values, that he should
limit the rights of the crown in favour of his as yet non-existent
national assembly. But he now definitely hoped that the
assembly might be opened a year later, and until then it would
certainly be possible to avoid the issue of further loans ; even if
an unanticipated war should break out, the state would still
possess a last resort in the reserved treasury bonds. The pledge
that the assembly should co-operate was also dictated by financial
considerations, for this was the only way in which the debt edict
could be ensured a favourable reception from the business world.
Even Rother, who was by no means to be numbered among
liberal partisans, openly declared that it would be impossible to
maintain public credit for any prolonged period without a national

assembly.

The friends of the constitution now became animated with
fresh hopes. Marwitz, however, opined that in consequence of
the new civil list and the sale of the domains the king would "lose
his roots in the state," whereas Schon, the liberal, complained that
since the institution of the civil list (Kronftdeikommiss) the
king had been reduced to the level of first among the country
squires. The leader of the Brandenburg nobles considered that
the national debt should simply have been written down to

1 Berstett to General Stockhorn. January, 1820.
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Last Reforms of Hardenberg

one-third or one-tenth of its nominal value, for the interest served
merely to fill the purses of usurers. The worst of all was that
simultaneously with the promulgation of the debt edict the chan-
cellor carried out the long prepared and indispensable attack
upon the feudal institutions of Brandenburg. Since the state,
in taking over all the provincial debts, adopted responsibility
also for the Brandenburg debt which had hitherto been adminis-
tered by the estates of Electoral Mark, the Landschaft (represen-
tative chamber of Electoral Mark) was legally abolished, with its
various tax treasuries, administering the revenues derived from
numerous local feudal exactions. " The other representative
conditions," declared the king, " are not affected by this, but
must be dealt with later, as provided by the ordinance of May
22nd." When the landed gentry, in an extremely disrespectful
memorial, entered a protest on the ground of the alleged infringe-
ment of their rights, the monarch administered a sharp reproof.
The lord-lieutenant took possession of the Berliner Landhaus
(the place of assembly of the Landschaft of Electoral Mark) ; the
leaders of the landed gentry, led by the ex-minister Voss-Buch,
refusing all co-operation. Thus once again, as nine years earlier,
Hardenberg played the part of the relentlessly resolute controller
of the Mark nobles. Friedrich Buchholz, who had at an earlier
date sung the glories of the feudal liberties of the Mark, now con-
sidered it time to point out, in the Neue Monatsschrift fur Deutsch-
land, that the re-establishment of the old conditions was impossible
and that nothing but a genuine popular representation was
adequate to the new time.

The feudal particularism of the Rhenish Westphalian nobles
had also a cool reception. When, shortly before, they had
demanded the re-establishment of their privileged jurisdiction,
they had been met by the minister of justice with a refusal. Now
the estates of County Mark, led once more by the indefatigable
Bodelschwingh-Plettenberg, complained of the new taxes, and
demanded " fixation of taxation for County Mark, in order to
avert the most unfortunate immoralities, the destruction of so
many families and of agriculture, and even the ruin of the entire
province." The objection that the fixation of the spirit tax could
not be effected without prohibiting export from the province,
was countered by the simple assurance that owing to the high
price of grain in the region the export of spirit was " inconceiv-
able." The king rejoined that it was impossible to accede to
" the proposal which you have transmitted me from yourselves

393 2D

History of Germany

and certain other landowners and burghers of County Mark,"
and exhorted the petitioners " to make the sacrifices which the
needs and the well-being of our common fatherland render
essential." This answer led to a new petition, expressing the
"profound distress" with which the Markers for the first time
witness their " peculiarity as estates abolished." The chancellor
stood his ground firmly, and at length, as previously recounted,
on May loth enunciated as a general principle that the state would
not recognise any of the estates which had been abolished by the
foreign dominion.1

Thus the feudalist movement seemed to run counter to the
fixed determination of the king's majesty. Moreover, the unfor-
tunate mistrust which Metternich's and Wittgenstein's insinua-
tions had aroused in the mind of the monarch was gradually
passing away. When the municipal representatives of Berlin
proposed to found a great association to pay off the national debt
by voluntary contributions, the king (March 2nd) rejected the
ingenuous proposal as needless, but expressed his thanks in
moving terms : "I know that I can count with absolute confi-
dence upon the steadfast devotion of my faithful subjects, a devo-
tion which they have shown in recent years towards myself and
towards the fatherland, to the imperishable glory of the Prussian
name." In this depressed and embittered epoch the clear and
thrilling tones of the year 1813 once again became audible.

On the same day on which the national debt account was
settled, the utterly decayed Frederician Navigation Company
(Seehandlung) received a new charter. Henceforward it was to
function as an independent banking house, under guarantee of
the crown, to carry on the monetary transactions of the state,
and to give support to the latter in its credit operations. Since
Rother was appointed at the head of the institution, it was able,
in collaboration with the national debt administration, to render
valuable services in the floating of foreign loans. In respect of
overseas trade, with which the company soon began to concern
itself once more, it was also able to do useful work as long as
shippers and merchants had not yet recovered their spirit of enter-
prise. The ships of the Navigation Company were the first to
carry the Prussian flag round the world, for the vessels from the
German harbours on the Baltic had rarely voyaged further than
Bordeaux and Lisbon. The company took the initiative in

1 Petitions from the estates of County Mark, January 31 and April 30 ; the
King's Reply. February 27, 1820.

394

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

opening the important market of the south American colonies
to the weavers of the Riesengebirge, and since its sailors were
exempt from military service it preserved for the country a race
of tried native-born seamen. The seamy side of this state activity
was not displayed until a later date, when Rother, proud of his
success, had acquired for the Navigation Company a whole series
of variegated agricultural and industrial undertakings.

Whilst care was thus taken to re-establish the national credit,
the Bank of Prussia also began to recover slowly from its dis-
organised condition. How brilliant had seemed the success of this
creation of Frederick the Great during the smooth decade subse-
quent to the peace of Basle. But its prosperity was no more
than apparent. Under the heedless management of Schulenburg-
Kehnert, the bank had completely lost sight of its primary
purposes, the support of trade by advances, and the favouring
of monetary circulation. It had undergone transformation into
a great savings-bank, which took charge of the funds of minors
and of charitable foundations in order to lend them out to landed
proprietors, chiefly in the Polish provinces. Shortly before the
war of 1806, when Stein became minister of finance, he imme-
diately recognised the danger, and forbade the bank to invest
its funds on mortgage. The precaution came too late. The war
broke out, the Polish provinces revolted, and in a moment the
credit of the bank collapsed. Next came the ruthless coup de
main of the Bayonne convention. In manifest defiance of article
25 of the peace of Tilsit, Napoleon seized the claims of the credit
institutes of Prussia against Polish estates and sold them to the
Saxon-Polish government. The bank lost ten million thalers,
fully two-fifths of its entire assets, and its creditors suffered
nameless miseries. For years no interest could be paid ; and in
addition the state authority, in its financial need, on several occa-
sions, and even after 1815, forced the bank to make advances to
the treasury. It was not until November 3, 1817, that, upon
Rother's advice and in opposition to that of Billow, the bank
was detached from the financial administration, and was reor-
ganised as an independent credit institute under supervision of
the chancellor and a board of governors. But how desperate
seemed the position. The books, which, after the catastrophe,
had been very carelessly kept, showed a credit balance of 920,000
thalers. In reality there was a deficit of 7,192,000 thalers, for
the bank had to pay interest upon liabilities exceeding 26,000,000
thalers, and of the credits, which were reckoned at a round sum

395

History of Germany

of 27,000,000 thalers, it gradually became apparent that 8,000,000
t balers' worth must be written off as valueless, while for the
present as much as 15,250,000 thalers brought in no interest.
Everyone anticipated that the only outcome of the next few years
could be an honourable liquidation.

Friese, the new president of the bank, was alone free from
doubts. This man, one of the most liberal intelligences of the
East Prussian officials of Schrotter's school, had collaborated
in all the administrative reforms effected under Stein, Dohna,
and Hardenberg ; subsequently, as a member of Stein's central
administration, he had become intimately acquainted with the
German minor states ; during the occupation of Saxony he had
been in charge of the complicated financial affairs of this
kingdom, and had finally effected the difficult settlement with the
court of Dresden. Though not one of Hardenberg's intimates,
among all the high officials he was most closely associated with
the chancellor's constitutional plans ; he confidently looked
forward to the political and economic strengthening of the bour-
geoisie, which he regarded as the kernel of the nation ; and he
desired to play his own part in the great transformation. He
believed himself capable of restoring to this degenerate bank its
original economic functions. With a little courage the state
might well have ventured to furnish the bank with adequate
capital of its own, a thing this institution had always lacked ; but
mistrust of the bank's vitality was still insuperable, and it seemed
indavisable to increase the national debt for such a purpose. The
bank was therefore completely separated from the ministry of
finance, and though it was administered by state officials, it
was left exclusively to its own financial resources, so that
for an entire generation it was carried on almost entirely
without funds, with a deficit which was carefully hidden from
the public — for the disclosure of the real state of affairs would,
as least in these early years, inevitably have involved ruin.

Friese immediately reopened the deposit business, undertook
business relationships with the new corporation of the Berlin
merchants which had at this time (1820) just replaced the two
antediluvian mercantile guilds, and gradually established ten
provincial branches. He restricted the undertakings of the bank
for the most part to genuine banking business, the receipt of
deposits, and the discounting of bills of exchange, so that the
bank could at any time readily realise its assets, and he thus
strictly maintained its commercial character. Since the Naviga-

396

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

tion Company was responsible for the conduct of the national
borrowings, the bank refused on principle to make any advances
to the minister of finance, its only relationships with him being
that, in order to strengthen its cash reserves, it took charge of
the surpluses in the national treasuries. The outcome of this new
commercial business, ably and prudently conducted, surpassed
all expectations. The bank's turnover, which in the year 1818
did not amount to 44,000,000 thalers, in 1829 already exceeded
232,000,000 ; during the same period the cash reserve increased
from 938,000 thalers to 5,300,000 thalers, and the total of readily
realisable assets from something more than one million to nearly
thirteen millions. The immaturity of the economic conditions
of the day did, indeed, often make its influence felt. Throughout
impoverished Europe the rate of discount was very high, some-
times reaching ten per cent., and hardly anywhere were the
fluctuations in this rate so rapid as in Berlin, since lack of means
compelled the bank to proceed very cautiously. In the year
1821, the rate of discount varied between three and eight per cent.,
the oscillations within a few days being sometimes as great as two
or three per cent. ; it was not until some years later that the
institution became strong enough to prescribe for itself a maximum
rate of discount.

As late as 1824, the Rothschilds and certain other great firms
proposed the foundation, upon extremely alluring conditions, of
a joint stock undertaking to replace the Bank of Prussia ; but
Niebuhr enlightened the king regarding the hidden designs of
the bankers, and the scheme was rejected notwithstanding Witt-
genstein's and Billow's warm advocacy. By degrees the opinion
of the mercantile world became more favourable towards the
bank ; its new business activities underwent continual increase,
to the advantage of commerce ; and the belief was that
its safety was now assured. The real situation was very
different. While the new activities were making such favourable
progress, Friese was secretly engaged in discharging the confused
liabilities of Napoleonic days — a desperate undertaking which
pitilessly devoured all the gains of the new mercantile business,
pushing the bank from one embarrassment to another. It is true
that at the Vienna congress the Bayonne convention had been
formally annulled by a Prusso-Russian agreement. But how were
the debts amounting to 10,000,000 thalers to be collected from
the landlords of the former duchy of Warsaw, hardly any of whom
either could or would pay ? Even in Posen and West Prussia,

397

History of Germany

Friese was not able to make his claims good without severe
losses. The extreme measure of forced sale was useless ; in the
impoverished rural districts there were no purchasers, and all the
bank could do was to take over a portion of the mortgaged lands,
to administer this for the time being, and to await a more favour-
able opportunity for sale. But in the kingdom of Poland how
interminable were the disputes with hostile debtors, corrupt courts,
and swindling legal advisers ! The new Polish government
showed itself in these matters almost as antagonistic as had
previously the Saxon government in Warsaw. Here also Friese
was forced to administer large and complicated estates on behalf
of the bank, and must ultimately congratulate himself on being
quit of his bargain when in May, 1830, he disposed of the undesired
and expensive possessions to the Polish government at a derisory
figure, for almost immediately afterwards unhappy Poland was
once again shattered by a fresh uprising.

Under such conditions it was nevertheless possible by the
year 1828 to pay off the old debts, except for 2,000,000 thalers ;
but the real deficit of the bank at the time of Friese's death in
the beginning of the year 1837, still exceeded 4,750,000 thalers,
having been reduced in the interim by little more than 2,500,000
thalers. Nor had mistakes been altogether avoided, for the bank
had to make profits at all hazards, and had therefore for a time
undertaken dealings in metal and in paper which were out of
harmony with its general aims. But taking it all in all, the
affairs of the bank had progressed favourably since the unhappy
Polish lands had been disposed of, and it remains Friese's great
service that the Bank of Prussia, the oldest in Europe after the
Bank of England and the Bank of Hamburg, was able by its own
energies to recover from a situation of almost hopeless decay, whilst
so many other banks succumbed to less violent storms.

The second and more difficult portion of the work of reform
now began. Hardenberg had had the estimates repeatedly
examined by Rother and other financiers, and after striking out
numerous items had come to the final conclusion that the state
could not meet its regular expenditure with less than 56,000,000
thalers, this involving an apparent deficit of 12,000,000 thalers,
or, according to Rother's calculation, of 9,000,000 thalers.1 The
king could not endure the prospect of thus burdening his

1 Rother, Candid Remarks concerning the National Finances, December
12 ; Witzlcben Memorial concerning the State of the Finances, December, 1819.

398

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

impoverished people In December, 1819, acting on Witzleben's
advice, he appointed a new committee, of which the austere
Ladenberg was a member, and this body remorselessly deleted all
items other than those which seemed absolutely indispensable.
The total cost of the foreign office was reduced to 600,000 thalers.
The allowances to the diplomats fell below the level of decency,
and for many years after this a Prussian envoy rarely ventured
to send a courier ; urgent despatches were as a rule entrusted to
the couriers of friendly powers, or were carried by casual
travellers. The reduction of army expenditure to 23,000,000
thalers was personally undertaken by the king ; not only did he
abolish a number of superfluous posts (doing away, for example,
upon the suggestion of Governor Gneisenau himself, with the
provision for the Berlin military government), but also his paternal
conscientiousness induced him to cut off a considerable number
of items which were really essential to the efficiency of the army.
Vainly did the faithful Witzleben advise against this extreme
measure.1 Hacke, the minister of war, was deaf to all such
admonitions ; with the utmost pliability he agreed to reductions
in the soldiers' allowances and rations, and even promised that
in future recruits should be called up somewhat later than here-
tofore. Thus one of the pillars of the new military organisation,
the three years' term of service, was destroyed almost unnoticed,
and a return was begun towards that system of false economy
which had been paid for so terribly at Jena. Whilst in the new
province everyone was complaining of Frederick William's senseless
military extravagance, in the royal cabinet the exiguous budget
was being reduced by a further sum of 5,000,000 thalers, by means
of new excisions, fully half of which concerned army expenditure,
and the estimates account was declared closed simultaneously
with the national debt account.

A cabinet order of January I7th instructed the ministry of
state that the expenditure of the year of 1820 was not to exceed
the sum of 50,863,150 thalers ; the king hoped to effect yet further
savings by reducing the army of officials in the central positions.
Putting aside the sum of more than ten millions for the national
debt, the annual expenditure for genuine administrative purposes
amounted to 40,700,000 thalers, as compared with 26,000,000
thalers in the year 1805. But if to the 51,000,000 of the estimates
were added certain items of expenditure previously deducted,
including the cost of collecting the taxes, and if there were also

1 Hardenberg's Diary, January 28, February 3, November 9, 1820.

399

History of Germany

added the allowance for the royal household and the contributions
of the provinces and municipalities for national purposes, the
total national expenditure amounted to nearly 70,000,000 thalers,
and since the population was now 12,000,000, this was equivalent
to 5 thalers 25 sgr. per head. The burden was heavy, for in
the past fifteen years there had been a great decline in general
prosperity ! Nevertheless the activity of the state had in this
period exhibited enormous increase ; how much had been done
on behalf of educational institutions, previously provided for so
inadequately. In view of the functions now undertaken, the
total expenditure seemed extremely modest, and sufficient only
if the very strictest economy were observed. The king
commanded that henceforward a financial statement should be
published every three years, so that all could judge for themselves
regarding the need for the expenditure. In this manner, to the
delight of the constitutionalists, was introduced one of the most
important institutions of the constitutional state. Finally, the
ministry was commissioned to approve the tax law proposals,
as based upon the financial statement, within a fortnight ; then
the matter would be discussed in the council state.

Since the fall of Humboldt, the ministry of state had become
extremely subdued, and did not venture to offer any decisive
contradiction. Biilow was the only member who on principle
was opposed to the tax laws, and here, as previously in the tax
committee, he was completely isolated. In the council of state,
on the other hand, an embittered opposition manifested itself,
the attack being directed, not merely against the indisputable
portions of the proposals, but also against the necessity for the
entire work of reform. For seven years now the financial admin-
istration had been carried on without any precise statement of
accounts. In Prussia this was unprecedented ; many excellent
officials had consequently become disaffected ; the preposterous
fables current among the populace had even found their way to
the interior of the council of state. Moreover, the supreme,
deliberative authority of the monarchy felt affronted in its official
dignity. The king's command, legally incontestable, was that
the council was merely to give an opinion concerning the tax laws,
but was not to re-examine the budget. Thus the council of state
was not to deal with the question whether the increase in taxa-
tion was unavoidable, although this question was one with which
all minds were passionately concerned. Consequently, the pro-
ceedings of the council soon displayed great tension, and it was

400

in vain that Hardenberg, in repeated conversations with the crown
prince, endeavoured to allay the approaching storm.1

The victorious power of genius which had spoken so con-
vincingly out of the laws of Stein was, indeed, not discernible
in the new proposals. In his distinguished indolence, Harden-
berg, the man of happy thoughts, had troubled little about the dry
details of these tax laws ; whilst their real author, J. G. Hoffmann,
a man of undeniable talent, lacked the poietic spirit of the
reformer. Silesian by birth, firmly convinced of his own merits,
Hoffmann was fond of boasting of the practical experience which,
after thorough grounding in theory, he had gained in various
factories. At the age of forty, succeeding Kraus in a professorial
chair at Konigsberg, he had for a brief term been engaged in
academic activities. After the wars he accompanied the chan-
cellor to all the congresses, and by his marvellous memory and
his untiring industry he acquired among European diplomats
the reputation of a statistical oracle. Under his guidance, the
Berlin statistical bureau attained the position of an exemplary
institution, one whose labours were equally indispensable to the
men of the study and to those engaged in practical avocations.
Like most of his professional colleagues, he had studied in the
school of Adam Smith, and even before 1806 he had broken a
lance on behalf of free trade. But his knowledge of the world and
of business life preserved him from many of the exaggerations
of the pure theorist. He insisted that the aim of political economy
was not to secure the production of the greatest possible amount
of wealth, but to bring about human well-being, and that it was
therefore the duty of the state to safeguard the workman against
the excessive power of the employer. To the horror of all faithful
disciples of the English doctrine he declared that the Prussian
institutions of compulsory military service and compulsory educa-
tion were directly advantageous to economic life. All his thoughts
and all his actions were devoted to the welfare of Prussia. A
Prussian official to the core, he wrote every one of his scientific
books " with especial reference to the Prussian state," and the
elucidation of the laws and conditions of his native country was
always more congenial to him than the elaboration of theoretical
fundamentals. This lively appreciation of the realities of the life
of the fatherland was not, indeed, free from a tacit conservatism,
which led him, whenever possible, to make excuses for the estab-
lished order of affairs. The old truth that every tax is to a certain

1 Hardenberg's Diary, January 22 and 23, 1820.
4OI

History of Germany

extent passed on to others by those upon whom it is first imposed,
and that every established exaction necessarily privileges certain
members of the community at the expense of others, was one
altogether after his own heart. He knew that every tax is, econo-
mically considered, an evil, and nothing seemed to him more
preposterous than to encroach unduly upon established customs
in the attempt to secure an unattainable abstract justice. His
legal proposals were conceived in this spirit of cautious modera-
tion.

The new budget showed a deficit of over 4,000,000 thalers,
and since, further, Hardenberg purposed in various parts of the
country to annul impracticable old taxes to the extent of fully
6,000,000 thalers, it was necessary to provide 10,500,000 thalers
by fresh taxation. To raise this sum, Hoffmann revived the
suggestion of a graduated poll-tax, a proposal he had made in
1817, as an appendix to the wishes of the assembly of notables.1
But he did not venture to advocate the introduction of this tax
for the entire state domain. Since the days of the Great Elector,
the taxation of the rural districts had always remained distinct
from that of the towns, for in the former the land-tax and in the
latter the excise was the principal source of revenue. Only in 1810,
the year of Hardenberg 's great promises, were the authorities
bold enough to tamper with this deep-rooted dualism ; but a
year later the premature attempt was relinquished, and since
1811, in the towns of the old provinces, there had been once more
enforced a number of taxes upon articles of consumption, while
in the country districts a rude poll-tax prevailed.2 Hoffmann
wished to interfere as little as possible with these traditional condi-
tions, and therefore proposed that the incidence of the new
graduated poll-tax should be restricted to the rural districts, and
the minor towns ; in the great towns, on the other hand, the far
more lucrative taxes upon flour at the mill and on beeves were
to be established. In amplification of these two leading imposts
there was also to be introduced a moderate licence-tax upon
the most profitable trades.

The most serious obstacle to reform was found in the
inequality of the old land taxes, a subject of general complaint.
This inequality was especially obnoxious in Posen, where, since
the days of the Sarmatian nobles' regime, there had been in
existence a tax known as the podymna, payable in proportion to

1 Cf. Vol. II., p. 479.

1 Cf. Vol. I., pp. 40, 435, 440.

4O2

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

the number of chimneys, and falling with undue severity upon
the small occupiers. Equalisation of the land taxes was, how-
ever, impossible without a cadastral survey of the entire region,
and the impoverished state could not wait for its new income
until this survey had been effected. In these embarrassments,
Hoffmann recurred to the unlucky idea of the proportional allot-
ment of taxation which, mooted in the council of state three years
earlier, still found warm advocates among the dissatisfied Rhine-
landers and Westphalians. He wished to allot the entire total
of national taxes, the customs dues excepted, to the various
provinces proportionally to population, calculating for each
province in this way its land taxes, and its national taxes in
respect of wine, spirits, and tobacco, raising the balance only by
the new taxes.

In the council of state this weakly concession to misguided
public opinion was immediately resisted, and with good reason.
How unjust it would be to impose upon the exhausted old
provinces a higher graduated poll-tax than upon well-to-do
Rhineland. In Silesia, economic conditions were so desperate
that upon the right bank of the Oder numerous manors in which
the war had wrought havoc remained ownerless for years because
no purchaser was forthcoming. Moreover, was it certain that the
Rhinelanders were taxed as unjustly as they contended ? In
the lamentable condition of the cadaster, no definite answer could
be given. If the measure of population were employed, the one
which in the Prussian bureaus was regarded as the most trust-
worthy evidence of national prosperity, and the one which was
invariably employed in customs negotiations with neighbour states,
it was unquestionable that the land taxation per head of popula-
tion was fully fifty per cent, more in the province of Saxony than
on the Rhine ; forty years later, when the equalisation of the land
taxes was at length effected, it became apparent that the Silesians
and not the Rhinelanders had paid the highest percentage of the
net yield of the soil, the Westphalians coming next, and then
the Saxons. Such average calculations based upon the total
taxation of the provinces could not possibly afford a true picture
of the economic situation, for the grossest inequalities of the old
system of land taxation were displayed within the limits of the
individual provinces. Was it permissible that the peasants of
Pomerania and Mark, who already paid heavy land taxes, should
be further burdened with an increased poll-tax, because, in the
regions where these peasants lived, there were numerous manors

403

History of Germany

which paid no taxes at all ? Even more serious than these well-
grounded considerations was the danger which threatened national
unity. Should the taxes be proportionally allotted, a subsequent
increase would be possible only after hearing the views of eight
or ten provincial diets ; consequently, as before 1806, the national
economy would be subjected to the paralysing influences of par-
ticularism, and would relapse into that helpless stagnation which
had entailed so much disaster at the time of the revolutionary
wars. These considerations, expressly formulated by Billow,
proved decisive. The council of state rejected proportional
allotment by thirty-six votes to thirteen, and the chancellor had
to admit that the proposals of his committee would not abolish
existing inequalities, but were perhaps more likely to increase
these. 1 Thus the worst fault of the new scheme was fortunately
obviated, and the king noted with satisfaction that he had done
well to insist, undisturbed by Hardenberg's opposition, upon a
further consultation of the council of state.

The plan of the poll-tax, as hitherto drafted, also seemed
extremely unfinished, and even crude. Hoffmann was and
remained an opponent of income tax. Since in the year 1812,
in an epoch of extreme economic disorder, it had proved
impossible to institute this tax, he considered it thoroughly proved
that the income tax was detestable and unpractical. In actual
fact, the state of the national economy was not yet ripe for this
form of taxation. Fully nine-tenths of the peasants, still living
amid the customs of a traditional natural economy, were quite
unable to estimate their incomes in terms of money ; the upper
classes, on the other hand, must first become accustomed to
direct taxation, and they would never have endured that the
state should demand from them a precise account of income.
Hoffmann therefore contented himself with dividing the entire
population into four great classes, in accordance with the average
mode of life ; and, with doctrinaire assurance, he described these
divisions as " the four natural classes of German society." In
the first class, each household was to pay twenty-four thalers
per annum, while in the fourth class every adult was to pay half
a thaler per annum. Unsuspectingly the learned statistician thus
opened a path which was ultimately to lead to the detested income
tax. The four classes were so arbitrarily defined that grievances
regarding the allotment of taxation were inevitable ; if equal
justice was to be done, the only possible way was to effect
1 Hardenberg's Opinion upon Quotisation, April 19, 1820.
404

a more precise examination of the incomes of those liable to
taxation.

During the last six years, the idea of the income tax had
quietly made progress, and it still operated with all the charm
of novelty ; experience had yet to teach that income too, so long
as its various sources are not distinguished, affords a very uncer-
tain measure of real taxable capacity. Among wide circles of
the cultured bourgeoisie, and especially in Rhineland, income
tax was already regarded as the ideal tax, and it found many
zealous advocates even in the council of state. Among these
were certain men of the old school, such as Ancillon, who, desiring
to maintain the traditional system of indirect taxation, could see
nothing but the defects of the graduated poll-tax. How severe,
too, was the incidence upon the lower orders of Hoffmann's
sub-division into four classes ! It is true that the number of the
well-to-do was still almost infinitesimal. The council of state
calculated that in the whole of Prussia there were no more than
about 8,000 families competent to pay twenty-four thalers per
annum, but there were unquestionably 1,000 who could have paid
a far higher tax, and these were to be favoured at the expense
of the poor ! The royal princes censured this evil in severe terms ;
they all showed themselves to be permeated with the popular
sentiments of their house, to be imbued with the good old tradi-
tions of the " kingdom of the Beggars." To conciliate public
opinion, it seemed especially desirable that the highest officials
should be more heavily taxed, for throughout Germany it was
the common belief that the life of the high official was one of
enviable luxury ; he had an assured income, and how few in this
impoverished generation were in the like situation. Upon the
proposal of Prince Augustus, on April 24th, the council of state
decided to add to the four classes already proposed a fifth and
highest class, whose members should be taxed at the rate of forty-
eight thalers per household.1

With these individual discussions there was associated a
dispute which threatened to reopen the question of all Harden-
berg's financial designs. The reactionary party at court looked
askance at the work of reform which was manifestly intended
to pave the way for the introduction of the constitution. Not
long before, the members of this party had lent a hand to the
chancellor for the overthrow of Humboldt and Boyen. It now

1 Minutes of the council of state, April 22 and 24, 1820.

405

History of Germany

seemed to them that the time had arrived to open the campaign
against Hardenberg himself, the man who in Vienna, despite all
his pliability, was considered the leader of the Prussian Jacobins.
The onslaught was headed by Ancillon, with his former associates,
Duke Charles of Mecklenburg, Wittgenstein, and Knesebeck.
These were joined by the ex-minister Brockhausen, an old man
still entirely devoted to the ideas of the nineties ; and Lord-
lieutenant Biilow, a rigid conservative, also made common
cause with them. Even Vincke now drew near to this circle,
whose political aims were so remote from his own. Since the
promulgation of the Carlsbad decrees, the good man had been
in an extremely ill humour. ' Things go from bad to worse,"
he wrote despairingly to his friend Solms-Laubach ; " there is
simply no prospect of representative institutions of a kind
different from the detestable ones of Austria." On several occa-
sions he was on the point of resigning. Nothing but a keen sense
of duty held him to his post, saying, " One must discipline oneself,
and stay on." He regarded the high expenditure on the army
as irresponsible extravagance. Moreover, his Old Prussian sense
of order was profoundly affronted, for in the government of West-
phalia he had become acquainted with many instances of remiss-
ness dating from Hardenberg's regime, and he inferred from this
the probability that an increase of taxation had been necessitated
solely by the spendthrift ways of the chancellor.1

The five royal princes who sat in the council of state were
influenced by similar considerations. This was the case in respect
of the romanticist and emotional crown prince, who was so delighted
to hear praises of the good old time in the mouth of his former
tutor, that Hardenberg wrote angrily in his diary, " The crown
prince's attachment to the antique, per Ancillon ! " * But it was
equally true of the two princes William, the brother and the son
of the king, whose inclinations were far more liberal. Since the
Great Elector had with an iron hand established the foundations
of the Prussian tax-system, the fiscal policy of the Hohenzollerns had
remained conservative ; and whenever there had been any
deviation from this tradition of the house, as in the days of
Frederick the Great, great discontent had been manifested
among the people. To levy new taxes amounting to more
than ten million thalers was unexampled in Prussian history,

1 Vincke to Solms-Laubach, October 12, 1819 ; January 12, February 14, and
May 1 8. 1820.

2 Hardenberg's Diary, January 28, 1820.

406

and yet this was to be done immediately after the new customs-
law had completely transformed the levies upon foreign commerce.

However cautious Hoffmann might be in carrying out the
chancellor's design, Hardenberg's true intention was to effect
a thoroughgoing reform. Should he carry his plans into execution,
with the exception of the land tax not one of the traditional taxes
of the monarchy would remain unaltered. The unity of the
market, which the customs-law established as a principle, would
first be realised by the abolition of all the old excises and octrois.
Internal trade would at length be completely freed, except for
the few burdensome dues payable at the gates of those towns in
which the taxes upon flour at the mill and upon beeves were
enforced ; and in place of the old financial policy, which had
separated the widely dispersed provinces each from the others as
semi-independent territories, there came into operation an entirely
new system, a policy of national unity, which in course of time
must inevitably lead to the subjection also of the intervening
petty states. This venture was hardly less audacious than had
been the reforms of 1808 and 1810. To the non-expert, so radical
an innovation of necessity seemed undesirable, and indeed even
dangerous in view of the disaffection in the new provinces. More-
over the graduated poll-tax exhibited undeniable defects. Even
after the council of state had established a new highest class for
the well-to-do, the favouring of the rich was still very striking,
no household was to pay more than forty-eight thalers, simply
because Hoffmann was afraid of arousing the class antagonism
of the higher orders !

Thus it came to pass that a party strangely mingled of
honourable and of dubious elements gathered around Ancillon.
But the leader utterly lacked technical knowledge ; he did not
even attempt to put forward a counter-proposal, and contented
himself with those empty phrases which never fail of utterance
when amateurs vent their opinions upon financial matters. In
the very first plenary sitting (April 2Oth), he defended the pusil-
lanimous principle drawn from the domain of domestic economy,
a principle which had been the cause of so many errors in the old
monarchy, but whose enunciation now, on the eve of a comprehen-
sive financial reform, sounded like mockery — the principle,
namely, that expenditure must always be regulated in accord-
ance with income. He then proposed that the monarch should
be petitioned to authorise a fresh investigation in order to ascer-
tain whether the increase in taxation could not be avoided by

407

History of Germany

economies. How these economies could possibly be effected,
Ancillon was quite unable to suggest. The unaccustomed ani-
mation of the meek theologian showed clearly enough that his
shaft was not winged against the tax laws but against the person
of the chancellor. A thoughtful rejoinder by the finance minister
was fruitless, for Klewitz, carried away by oratorical zeal, advanced
the quite untenable contention that the budget was no higher
now than it had been in the year 1803. l The timid Altenstein,
who presided, could not in the end save the situation in any other
way than by ruling Ancillon's motion out of order. There was
no valid legal objection to this ruling, for by the old constitutional
law the financial statement was not itself a law but a draft-
proposal from the financial administration, and therefore the
council of state was not entitled to propose any alteration. But
what a thing to demand of his fellow members that they should
accept the financial statement exactly as it stood when several
of them hoped that by a reduction of expenditure an increase of
taxation might be rendered needless. The assembly could not
conceal its displeasure ; before the sittings Ancillon's proposal
was discussed in animated terms, and since the obligation of official
secrecy was once more disregarded, all the malicious tongues of
Berlin were soon repeating the assertion that the spendthrift
administration was in a pitiable position before the assize-court of
the council of state.

At length, however, the chancellor's eyes were opened. This,
then, was the true friend whom he had called to his aid against
Humboldt five months earlier ! He considered that Ancillon
was misleading the princes into the formation of a cabal, and on
April 27th, with the king's approval,2 he sent a despatch to the
president of the council of state which displayed to his unctuous
opponent all the superiority of the practical statesman. He
referred ironically to Ancillon's edifying commonplaces, adding
that it was easy to say, " expenditure must not exceed income,
and it is better to give than to take." But Prussia's burden
of debt was dependent upon the great misfortunes which had
befallen the country from 1806 onwards, and upon the glorious
struggles for freedom. It was now essential to fulfil the pledges
of the state in their entirety, to meet not merely the current
expenses but also the extraordinary expenditure which the restora-
tion of the monarchy demanded. After the new deletion of

1 Minutes of the council of state, April 20 ; Hardenberg's Diary, April 20, 1820.
a Hardenberg's^Diary, April 27, 1820.

408

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

5,000,000 thalers, any further reduction of the financial state-
ment was impossible. " In fact, the administration is censured
most unjustly if it be said in the assembled council of state by
those without thorough expert knowledge, ' no fresh taxes, econo-
mise, make the existing income suffice ! ' and if anxiety be
expressed lest dissatisfaction should be aroused by the new
burdens. I ask anyone who declares that an additional 5,000,000
can be economised to step forward and to inolicate precisely how
these economies can be effected without exposing the state to
the gravest danger of decomposition. An administration based
upon such a maxim is one in which I would not myself participate ;
I would forthwith sever my connection with it." When Ancillon
renewed his proposal in the closing sitting of April 2gth, Alten-
stein once more declared that he could not permit any discussion,
and left it open to every member to lay his personal wishes before
the king in an appendix to the protocol. To emphasise his own
words he then read the chancellor's despatch.

Thereupon the crown prince broke forth in fierce anger,
exclaiming to the president : " Tell the chancellor that the royal
princes were sitting in the assembly he attacked with such
severity ! " On May 3rd, Hardenberg replied to the prince in a
letter, using that winning mode of expression which so well became
him. He reiterated his accusations against the council of state,
but at the same time declared himself ready to make any desired
explanation regarding the financial statement, and also ready to
effect any economy if only the proposal were accompanied with
detailed figures. The irritable young prince was speedily appeased,
but in his friendly reply he expressly reiterated his request for an
additional examination of the financial statement. " In my
opinion," he wrote, " we live in times in which not every proposal
is permissible, and I considered and still consider that to impose
new taxes amounting to 5,000,000 thalers is an extremely serious
matter. My only purpose is to exercise a favourable influence
upon public opinion, for this is pre-eminently needed. A further
examination of the financial statement will either show that econo-
mies are really possible, or else will convince the people that, if
the worst come to the worst, they must put up with the new
taxes." The chancellor now felt that he must not strain matters
to the breaking point, although the fresh postponement would
have to be severely paid for by the state ; he desired to give the
princes an opportunity of satisfying themselves that their
anxieties were ill grounded, and promised that he would lay the

409 2 E

History of Germany

crown prince's wishes before the king, " although the examination
demanded has already taken place more than once." '

Meanwhile the council of state had concluded its delibera-
tions. In a minority report, eleven members of this body
petitioned for an additional examination of the budget : the
petitioners being the royal princes with the exception of the heir
to the throne (for the last-named had now been appeased by
Hardenberg's pledge), Vincke, Ancillon, and Ancillon's five ultra-
conservative associates. Wittgenstein's opinion was couched in
such general terms that no one could fail to see how little the
courtier was really concerned about these problems of taxation.
In moving terms, Ancillon depicted the disadvantages of the
graduated poll-tax, without offering any suggestion for a substi-
tute. Vincke insisted that the council of state was entitled to
deliberate, not alone regarding the expediency, but also regarding
the necessity of new taxes. The clearest of all the opinions was
that of young Prince William, who with military brevity pointed
out the defective feature of the proposals, respectfully asking his
royal father whether " it would not be possible to tax the wealthier
classes of the nation and the more highly paid officials more
heavily, in order to alleviate the burdens of the poorer members
of the community." 2

Since the great majority of the council of state (numbering
twenty-eight votes and including the leading financiers of the
monarchy) had in essentials approved the chancellor's plans,
the king now ratified the laws. He paid no attention to Ancillon's
long-winded phraseology. But in order to enlighten the princes
concerning " the true position of affairs " he commanded that a
new committee should go through the financial statement once
more, item by item, in collaboration with the members of the
minority. The upshot was what Hardenberg had predicted to
the crown prince. The doubters were forced to admit, not merely
that any further reduction of expenditure was simply out of the
question, but also that several of the already decreed economies
could not possibly be effected until after the lapse of a consider-
able time.3 This occupied two additional months, and the laws

1 Hardenberg to the Crown Prince, May 3 and 5 ; the Crown Prince's Reply,
May 4 ; Hardenberg's Diary, April 29, 1820, and subsequent dates.

2 Wittgenstein's Opinion, May 7, 1820. Some of the other Opinions are
quoted by Dieterici, op. cit., pp. 432 et seq.

3 Cabinet Order to Altenstein, May 30 ; Cabinet Order to Hardenberg, June 12 ;
Hardenberg to the Crown Prince, June 8 ; Hardenberg's Report to the King,
June 12, 1820.

410

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

subscribed on May soth could not be promulgated until August
7th. Injuriously as the state revenues were affected by this
postponement, the chancellor had nevertheless secured important
gains, for he had convinced the royal princes that the reform was
indispensable, while Ancillon and his reactionary followers had
temporarily been reduced to silence.

Amid such doubts and conscientious scruples, this absolute
crown, whose severity was decried in the liberal world, made up
its mind to an increase in taxation amounting to 5,000,000 thalers.
The law of May 3oth regarding the institution of taxation, estab-
lished the foundations of the fiscal system firmly for a generation
to come. Besides the customs-dues of 1818 and the taxes intro-
duced in the following year on spirits, malt, wine, and tobacco,
the following taxes were to be levied forthwith : the salt tax,
which on the fruitful January I7th was regulated anew by
equalisation of the price of salt ; the land tax ; the graduated
poll-tax ; the tax on flour at the mill and the tax on beeves ;
finally, as further resources, the licence- tax, and a stamp duty
to be subsequently arranged. All that remained of the old
octrois, excises, poll-taxes, and licence-taxes in the individual
territories was abolished at a single blow. Everything in this
fiscal system was new. Even the land tax, whose equalisation
was reserved for discussion with the provincial diets, immediately
underwent considerable alteration in those regions which had
formerly been under French rule, and in Berg ; under the foreign
regime they had been very arbitrarily imposed, and were never
henceforward to amount to more than one-fifth of the net pro-
duce. Since the complaints of the Rhinelanders were especially
vociferous, the cadastral survey was begun on the Rhine, and
was completed there in the year 1833.

By he decision of the council of state the poll-tax was to
be graduated so as to apply to five different classes : one for the
especially wealthy ; two for the well-to-do ; a fourth for the
lesser burghers and the peasants ; a fifth for wage earners, casual
labourers, and servants. But it speedily became apparent how
accurately Prince William had judged the mood of the country.
Complaints that the wealthy were unduly favoured were voiced
on all hands, and as early as September 5, 1821, two new upper
tax-classes and several intermediate tax-classes for the lower
orders were introduced, so that henceforward there were twelve
degrees of taxation, ranging downwards from 144 thalers to half

History of Germany

a thaler. The Rhinelanders were not content even with this, and
they continued to grumble until at length in the year 1830 the
concession was made to them of establishing eighteen classes.
By the nature of things the state was compelled to advance step
by step towards the income tax ; it was quite involuntarily that
Hoffmann did that for which his admirers subsequently extolled
him, leaving in the graduated poll-tax a legacy for coming
generations. At first the new tax found opponents almost
everywhere, and it was in conflict with these opponents that the.
stalwart young Ludwig Kiihne, who bad recently been summoned
to the general board of taxation, won his spurs. To quote his own
words : "It was a real advantage for the maintenance of this
tax that at this time I still fought with any weapon that came
to hand, laying about me lustily, and suffering no attack, whether
it came from the side, from above downwards, or from below
upwards, without undertaking a vigorous rejoinder, and one
which in respect of form may have at times been unduly rough.
When my opponents had been rapped once or twice smartly upon
the knuckles, they became somewhat more careful, and had per-
force to look more closely into the matter ; but I am convinced
that the graduated poll-tax, if weakly defended, would not have
endured for a single year." After the first stormy outbreak of
discontent had subsided, the tax, crude as it was, was successful
beyond all expectation, so that the arrears did not exceed 2^ per
cent., for the rate of taxation was moderate, and the total yield
during the next twelve years averaged only 6,800,000 thalers
per annum, while the land tax amounted to 10,000,000 ; and
the unpopular work of collection was undertaken by the communes
themselves, for the old officialdom, its self-satisfaction notwith-
standing, was well aware that the bureaucracy was not competent
to effect such a task by its own powers.

The graduated poll-tax applied to no more than six-sevenths
of the population. One hundred and thirty-two towns paid the
more lucrative taxes on flour at the mill and on beeves, among
these towns being all the great municipalities, but also some
decayed minor Jewish towns of Poland, such as Schneidemiihl,
which might perhaps have completely escaped the graduated
poll-tax — for the minister of finance had to take every possible
precaution to avoid the loss of any available revenue ! Even this
tax aroused lively opposition. Many devout taxpayers reminded
the pious king of the text in the Old Testament which forbids the
taxation of bread. But it soon became plain that a part of the

412

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

tax was met by an increase in wages, and that the lower classes
were less severely affected by it than the dominant economic
doctrine maintained. Finally, the new licence-tax left the
lesser manual workers, those who worked for themselves without
assistance, untaxed, but this did not result, as the timid Ancillon
had feared, in an immoderate increase in petty industry. Not-
withstanding freedom of occupation, and despite the extensive
transformations in political life, the state of petty industry
remained almost unchanged during these quiet years of renun-
ciation. In the year 1830, almost precisely as in the year 1800,
there was one master tailor for every 240 inhabitants, and one
bootmaker for every 200, whilst there were twice as many master
craftsmen as journeymen, so that all could still hope that they
would themselves become masters.

In the year 1822, to conclude the work of fiscal reform, certain
stamp taxes were introduced, and among these a newspaper stamp
duty whose yield in an epoch of political and economic exhaustion
was of necessity extremely modest. Even books were in the habit
of passing from the hands of the unfortunate owner through those
of one borrower after another ; as for the newspapers, the man of
education read these at the club or the coffee house, and anyone
who went further than this would share a newspaper with a dozen
neighbours. As late as 1835, m the whole of Prussia, of news-
papers and periodicals printed in that country barely 43,000
copies were sold, while the circulation of non-Prussian issues was
about 3,700, the total being less than that which a single great
newspaper prints to-day.

This exiguity of all the conditions of life exercised its influence
also upon the new coinage law which Hardenberg regarded as an
indispensable complement to the work of financial reform, and
which came into being on September 5, 1821, thanks chiefly to
Hoffmann. The Prussian thaler, helped by the natural energy
of the wide market in which it was legal tender, had long before
made victorious progress through Germany far beyond the boun-
daries of the Prussian state, although the East Prussians in their
daily intercourse still preferred to reckon in the familiar gulden
and diittchen, and the new provinces adhered to their old moneys
with that obstinacy which is nowhere more tenacious than in
respect of a coinage system. After due consideration the
government had finally resolved to retain this well-tried
standard coin ; more difficult was the decision regarding the
subdivision of the thaler, for the scientific advantages of the

413

I listory of Germany

neo-French decimal system already found numerous advocates in
Prussian financial circles. At length, however, it was decided
to divide the thaler into thirty silbergroschen, because this number
corresponded with that of the days of the month, and the common
people could therefore readily calculate on the basis of their
monthly income how much they had to spend each day. The
state had need of a thrifty population, for it too had to look at
every groschen twice before spending it, and in actual fact the
reckoning in silbergroschen promoted thrift throughout the com-
munity. As regards the new silbergroschen, the subdivision into
twelve parts of the old gutengroschen was retained, not only on
account of the convenient splitting up into halves, thirds, and
quarters, but also, and chiefly, for the benefit of the poor, most
of whose petty purchases were made in dreier (i£ farthings).

A momentous defect in the new tax legislation, one entirely
overlooked at the time, was to be found in the prescriptions
regarding municipal taxes. To the theory and practice of those
days, municipal taxation was still a completely unknown field,
for the costliness of the new self-government became apparent
only as the years passed. Stein's town's ordinance had left the
communes almost unrestricted freedom in fiscal matters ; on rare
occasions only, when grave errors were committed, did the super-
visory boards intervene. But now the new tax law provided
in section 13 that the municipalities, with the approval of the
district governments, might impose additions to the graduated
poll-tax and also to the tax upon flour at the mill and to the tax
upon beeves ; but other taxes than these could be levied only if
they were already in existence or if they were expressly approved
by the king. Thus supplements to these leading national taxes
were actually prescribed as the rule. The governments never
refused their assent in such cases, for they hoped that in this way
the yield of the new taxes would be more effectively secured. The
municipal authorities, which consisted for the most part of house-
owners, accepted the suggestion with the secure instinct of class
egoism. The convenient supplements saved them the trouble
of any further reflection regarding a just allotment of municipal
taxation, while taxation fell with disproportionate severity upon
tenants and lodgers. The landowners, on the other hand, to
whom the municipal institutions were most directly profitable,
considered that the high national land tax already burdened them
sufficiently. There thus began a dangerous perversion of the
system of municipal taxation. The state, taking to itself the

414

Last Reforms of Harclenberg

greater part of the land tax, cut off the municipalities from their
natural source of income, while the town councils transferred the
heaviest part of the communal burdens to the shoulders of the
comparatively poor, those who derived least advantage from
municipal activities. Should this development continue, should
the supplements gradually increase to the level of the national
taxes or even beyond, the consequence might readily be that the
state would be unable to effect any increase in the graduated poll-
tax, its only certain resource in time of war. For the moment,
however, the municipal supplements remained modest, and no
one suspected how precipitous a path had been entered.

For the capital alone, since Berlin had heavy burdens in
respect of billeting, the state had tapped a special source of income.
Since 1815, Berlin had levied an inhabited house duty, paid by
houseowners at the rate of 4 per cent, and by tenants at the rate
of 8£ per cent. Even when, seven years later, the impost on
tenants was reduced to 6f per cent, of the rent, this distribution
of taxation remained extremely unjust, but it was based never-
theless upon a bad old tradition of Berlin, and no Prussian
commune would voluntarily depart from sacred custom. Fortu-
nately the total yield was still very low, for of the 41,047 tenants
in the capital, in the year 1824 more than half (20,743) paid a
rent of 50 thalers or less, and there were no more than 115 dwell-
ings for which a rent of 1,000 thalers and upwards was paid. But
if the lack of adequate housing accommodation, which was already
making itself painfully felt in Paris, should come to affect Berlin
also, the rent tax could not fail to become a curse to the poor.
Thus unsuspectingly was the foundation laid for those unfortunate
defects of the Prussian system of municipal taxation which afford
to-day so glaring a contrast to the mildness and justice of our
national taxation.

The financial reform had been completed, and despite all
its defects it was a good and sound piece of work, although the
blind venerators of the Old Prussian order were as ill satisfied
with it as were the doctrinaire advocates of a scientifically perfect
system of taxation. This great power which had suffered more
severely than any other under the bludgeonings of the war had
re-established its credit with valiant determination, whilst the
wealthier and better protected Austria stood for years to come
upon the verge of bankruptcy. Although Prussia still remained
the kingdom of extended frontiers, she had created for herself a
customs system at once free and protective which \vas an example

415

History of Germany

to put to shame other powers with better compacted dominions.
Finally, she had instituted a new system of taxation, one which
availed itself of the taxable capacity of the impoverished people
in every possible way without falling into the immoderate dis-
integration of the old excise ; one which secured for the state its
existence, its efficiency for defence, without interfering with the
healthy development of national economic life ; and one which
within a few years was admitted to be tolerable even by the
grumbling Saxons and Rhinelanders. All this Prussia owed in
especial to the veteran chancellor, to the man so profoundly
despised by the barren statesmanship of Vienna. On the edge of
the grave, mocked by all the world as suffering from senile decay,
Hardenberg had stood erect once again with youthful elasticity,
to enter a circle of ideas remote from those in which he had grown
to maturity, to choose the right men for the various tasks,
Maassen, Rother, Friese, and Hoffmann, with a clear certainty of
vision, and finally, now by cajolery and now by force, to over-
throw all opposition and to secure a victory possible only to one
of his pliability and resourcefulness. Here may certainly be
found one of his most valid titles to enduring fame.

§ 2. LOCAL GOVERNMENTAL PROPOSALS.

After such successes, Hardenberg might well confidently
believe that he would attain the ultimate goal of all his reforms
and would complete his life-work with the summoning of the first
Prussian Landtag. By the new finance laws the promise of 1815
had been formally renewed and strengthened, the national debt
had been placed under the guardianship of the national assembly,
and the provincial diets had been invited to co-operate in the
equalisation of the land tax. It seemed that withdrawal from
such solemn pledges would be impossible. Not only had the king
approved the laws of his own free will, but further during the
deliberations of the last few months he had almost invariably
decided in accordance with the chancellor's views, and had
definitely supported the minister against the royal princes. Every-
thing seemed to be progressing favourably. In a private letter
which speedily made the round of the press Hardenberg exhorted
people to feel more confidence " in the slow but sure progress of
the government." It was unquestionable, he declared, that the
constitution would come into existence. All the more assurance

416

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

did he feel of gaining a victory over the whisperers and prophets
of evil who went up and down the court, because the king had
bluntly rejected the petitions of the feudal particularists, and with
the exception of Klewitz (a man of little influence) no statesman of
note, not even Metteirnich, had openly taken the field against the
design for a constitution.

It was undeniable that the financial deliberations had shown
once again that there were objections to the summoning of the
national assembly, objections which were not mere prejudices,
but some of which were well-grounded upon serious consideration.
How was the secrecy essential to the safety of the Bank of
Prussia and to the conduct of the affairs of the national debt
to be maintained after the meeting of the assembly ? Was it
not, further, extremely probable that the Landtag, inspired with
sentiments of petty particularism, would impose difficulties in the
way of those customs negotiations with neighbour states which
were indispensable to the safety of the new tax-system ? The
balance of consideration, however, inclined very strongly in favour
of the resolute carrying out of Hardenberg's plans. The Prussian
people was intimately associated with the Prussian crown, and
how staggering a blow would be dealt to monarchical sentiments
if for the first time in the history of the country the angry ques-
tion were to be asked, whether a king's pledges could be lightry
broken. Moreover, how could a great power whose national
debt account was legally closed, go forward confidently to encounter
the incalculable future ? In quiet times its credit might perhaps
be maintained ; but should storms recur, then, in accordance with
the most definite pledges, no further loans would be possible
without the summoning of a national assembly. A dangerous
attack on the part of this body upon the unity of the state was
hardly to be feared any longer, for during the last five years the
crown had utilised its absolute power wisely to effect reforms in
almost all departments of legislation — reforms which could have
been carried through by a dictatorial will alone. Army organisa-
tion was established upon a secure foundation, and the same was
true of the subdivision of the provinces and of the new forms of
provincial administration, also of the fiscal system, the customs
system, the national debt, and of the allowance for the maintenance
of the royal house. As regards the negotiations concerning the
rights of the Catholic church, which Niebuhr was conducting in
Rome, Hardenberg's diplomatic insight enabled him to foresee
that they would soon be brought to a tolerable issue, although

4»7

History of Germany

the pessimistic Prussian envoy continued to fear the worst.1
Should this task also be safely carried out, should the organisation
of the communes and of the circles be completed as Hardenberg
designed, by the unaided authority of the crown, and should,
finally, the constitution too be granted by the king alone, then
severe political struggles need hardly be anticipated during the
next few years.

As far as human foresight could tell, Prussia was about to
enter one of those epochs of quietude which always follow great
periods of reform. Presumably her first Landtag, which would
have deliberative powers merely, would lead an inconspicuous
existence, and would have to be content with detecting isolated
mistakes in the new laws and with suggesting remedies. It might
perhaps pass through a period of peaceful instruction such as was
essential for this inexperienced people, might accustom East
Prussians and Rhinelanders, Markers and Westphalians, to live
side by side engaged in sober work, might gradually construct a
vigorous sense of the state out of the sullen particularism of the
estates and the provinces, and its very existence might serve to
appease the disaffected public opinion of Germany. Such were
the chancellor's views regarding the immediate future of Prussia.
Who can to-day say with any certainty whether the course of
affairs would really have been as harmless as this, whether the
abstract anarchistic ideas of neo-French liberalism might not
have found their way also into the Prussian Landtag. But the
balance of probabilities is greatly in favour of the accuracy of
Hardenberg's forecast. What the South German states had done
with tolerable success, was not impossible for Prussia ; a Prussian
Landtag summoned at the right time might well have spared
the crown the shame of the year 1848.

The king, too, seemed weary of the long hesitation. Having
in the cabinet order of January I7th reminded the ministry of
state of the need for the speedy elaboration of the communes'
ordinance, on February I2th he commanded the formation of a
special committee which was within a month to complete the entire
first half of Hardenberg's constitutional plan, dealing with the
communes and the circles, and was then to lay its work " con-
cerning the inner connection with the general representative
constitution " before the constituent committee. The new com-
mittee was entirely composed of excellent officials, Friese being
president, Daniels, Eichhorn, Bernuth, and Streckfuss the other

1 Hardenberg "s Diary, December 19, 1820.
418

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

members, Kohler and Vincke subsequently joining the body.1
But its work miscarried, and the consequences of this failure were
momentous ; as soon as the foundation of the constitution proved
defective, the entire edifice collapsed. Even in the eighteenth
century, the reforming will of the great king had always worked
cautiously in any dealings with the feudal organisation of the
rural districts. In these broad levels of the state, the untamable
love of the Germans for local peculiarities had ever had free play ;
here was the last and strongest bulwark of feudal power ; here an
antediluvian tradition was still dominant ; nor was it by mere
chance that the stubborn inertia of this parochial and petty life,
which had so long defied the old and absolute monarchy, proved
the rock upon which the first attempts at constitutional reform
were also to be wrecked.

Once again was Prussia to suffer bitterly the disastrous
consequences of Stein's premature overthrow. When the great
reformer fell, he left behind him, almost completed, the draft
proposal for a rural communes' ordinance. If this scheme had
then become operative, a reform which nothing but Stein's iron
will could have carried out with success, the communal life of the
older provinces would by now have been in tolerable order, and
there would have been a firm basis for further legislative reforms.
But, as things were, the committee was faced with a hopeless and
incalculable multiplicity of peculiar local rights and customs,
with a situation which was, in a word, chaotic. In the eastern
provinces there were about 25,000 rural communes and 15,000
manorial districts. Among this colossal number there were
indeed many populous and semi-urban regions, such as Langen-
bielau and the other industrial villages which stretched for miles
along the valleys of the Riesengebirge ; but the great majority
of the rural communes of the north-east had hardly advanced
beyond the simple conditions of the early days of German colonisa-
tion. The little village of settlers clustering around the baronial
castle still constituted the rule ; communes containing no more
than a hundred and even no more than fifty inhabitants were
by no means rare ; a hamlet with four hundred inhabitants was
accounted here a large village. This state of affairs had sufficed
for the needs of the countryfolk as long as the rural commune
was pursuing the economic aim of communal agriculture, and
as long as the church provided, however scantily, for education

1 Cabinet Order of February 12, 1820.
419

History of Germany

and for poor relief. But after the Reformation, when the schools
and the system of poor relief had been secularised, and when the
niral commune had been gradually transformed from an economic
co-operative organisation into a political community, the dwarfed
communal structures of the north-east proved utterly helpless.
With the exiguous means at their disposal, how was it possible
for them to construct roads, to maintain schools, to undertake
all the other functions on behalf of the common weal which the
state, as it gained strength, now came to demand of them ? In Old
Prussia and in Poland, above all, where the average population
of the villages was barely two hundred, there was hardly any
trace as yet of communal organisation of the modern type.

The great landowner, it is true, who here in the east still
almost everywhere possessed patrimonial jurisdiction, the rights
of low justice, and ecclesiastical patronage, gave certain help
in these respects ; in his own manor he himself was the local
authority and appointed the headman of the village. This
patriarchal relationship, which in the civil code was still regarded
as the normal village organisation, had nevertheless begun to
vanish since the introduction of the new agrarian legislation. The
abolition of the burdens and services heretofore imposed upon
the peasants, had rendered the village economically independent
of the lord of the manor. The ownership of land was now no more
than a form of private property, this ownership imposing the duty
of bearing the greater part of the communal burdens in a free
neighbour commune, and carrying with it the rights of local
suzerainty. How often since the year 1808 had the king declared
that these vestiges of the feudal order must be abolished as
speedily as possible. Not only did the combination of suzerain
rights with the ownership of the soil conflict with the elementary
principles of modern equality before the law, but, further, the
landowners could no longer exercise their judicial duties adequately
now that factories were being established in the rural districts
and now that freedom of domicile brought many homeless people
into the villages ; without the help of the national gendarmerie,
the local suzerains would have been unable even to cope with
vagabondage. Whilst the increasing freedom of movement made
continually more extensive demands upon the activities of the
rural police, the landowner was entirely immersed in his own
economic cares. Whoever wished to maintain himself upon his
indebted and impoverished family lands, must work hard and
must acquire a thorough knowledge of the new methods of national

420

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

agriculture. The old saying that in the country anyone can get
along with a trifle of good luck and good sense, had long ceased to
be valid. The care of a manorial estate demanded a man's full
energies, especially now that, thanks to the new spirit tax, distilling,
skilfully practised, brought large profits, and many a man of
noble birth who arrogantly despised the commercialism of the
towns, had himself, without being aware of it, become a busy
manufacturer. How had such men time or energy to spare for the
duties of local suzerainty ?

How rarely, moreover, did the peasant now display towards
the landowner that cordial confidence Which alone could make
the powers of local suzerainty tolerable ! Even at an earlier date,
amid the perpetually recurrent distresses of war, the impoverished
nobles of the north-east had seldom maintained themselves long
in possession of their estates, and it was regarded as remarkable
that some of the old races, such as the Bredows of Havelland
and the Brandts of Lindau in Electoral Saxon Brandtswinkel, had
maintained themselves for centuries upon their tribal lands. Of
late years, since the alienation of manors had become legally
possible, change of ownership had been still commoner, and the
superiority of bourgeois capital was soon perceptible in the rural
districts as well. First of all, the farmers of the domains, and subse-
quently other bourgeois, established themselves in the old manorial
seats ; in East Prussia, the majority of the great estates were by
this time in bourgeois hands, and in certain regions professional
land speculation had already begun. In many instances, the
new owner remained utterly estranged from his peasants, and if
he happened to be a hard-hearted man he would endeavour by
all possible means to rid himself of the local poor, and would even
buy out those of his smaller neighbours who might possibly become
burdensome to him.

Nevertheless these distorted conditions were by no means
disagreeable to the people. The peasant clung tenaciously to
tradition, and found it convenient to have law court and police
so close to his own door. He indifferently overlooked many grave
defects in manorial administration now that the landowner could
no longer demand anything of him, but had simply to bear burdens
on his behalf. Even as late as the forties, the peasants of the
Brandenburg provincial diet expressed their heartfelt gratitude
to the king because he had left their ancient communal constitu-
tion undisturbed. The noble, on the other hand, regarded the
ownership of land as a precious and honourable right of his order,

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I 1 is tory ot Germany

and this view was not the mere outcome of junker arrogance.
The landowners were justified in boasting that it was in virtue
of daily and severe sacrifices that they reacquired their position
of power in the rural districts. Many of them felt a genuine
impulse towards freer activity on behalf of the common weal, for
this impulse is ever present in the aristocracy of a healthy nation.
In the year 1809, the estates of the Mohrung circle, led by Counts
Dohna and Donhoff, angrily protested against the proposed aboli-
tion of manorial police powers, on the ground that it was unworthy
to suggest that the landowner should henceforward lead an
otiose life upon his income. If the legislator understood how to
direct this honourable sentiment towards a desirable end, if he
would resolutely abolish the privileges of the landed noble, offering
in exchange a new and fruitful sphere of activity upon the founda-
tion of the common law, it might well ensue that the prejudiced
junkerdom of the north-east would still become a firm prop of rural
self-government .

How different was it in the rural communes of the western
provinces. Here the legislation of France and her vassal states
had abolished all legal distinction between town and country,
between manorial land and peasant land. Along the Rhine, the
great estates had almost all been broken up. In Westphalia,
indeed, there still existed a few manors, but they were communes
just like the others, the only difference being that the office of
local authority accrued to the landowner, but he exercised no
seigneurial right over the neighbouring villages. The levelling
of all social inequalities corresponded to the economic conditions
of these thickly populated regions, where urban industry had
long before made its way into the villages. The abstract idea of
French municipalism had here penetrated far among the people ;
when a West German wrote of German communal organisation,
as did Pagenstecher of Nassau in 1818, he invariably referred
simply to the " commune " without recognising any difference
between the village and the town.

The rural communes of the west had come into existence out
of the powerful Teutonic co-operative associations of the march.
To start with they were larger than the settlers' villages of the
east, having an average population of from five to seven hundred,
and having been compacted under the foreign regime to form
larger joint communes. When Rudler and his associates were
establishing the French administration on the left bank of the
Rhine, they were unable to shark up a sufficient number of mayors

422

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

who spoke French, and for this reason in many cases several
communes were arbitrarily combined under a single burgomaster.
This procedure, which was contrary to law, and only secured
approval of the consuls after the event, was subsequently con-
tinued by the imperial prefects for the sole reason that the bureau-
cracy could get on so much more easily with a small number of
burgomasters. In Berg, too, since 1808, there had come into
existence joint communes similar to the Amtsverbdnden of the
good old time. Thus it happened that the innumerable insigni-
ficant communes of the east had as their counterpart in the western
provinces no more than five and a half thousand rural com-
munes, compacted to form about one thousand burgomasterships
and bailiwicks. The Rhenish burgomaster and his subordinates
were appointed by the state, and governed in accordance with the
leading principle of Napoleonic administrative law, in virtue of
which administrative functions were vested exclusively in the
state official, the ruled having merely the right to tender deferential
advice. The bureaucratic power of such officials was often more
stringent than the patriarchal regime of the Pomeranian land-
owners.

Nevertheless this non-German institution had speedily taken
firm root in the Rhenish region. It seemed just as convenient to
the new Prussian Landrats as it had before to the sub-prefects.
Moreover, the burgomaster appointed from above was less acces-
sible than an elected headman to the suggestions of the clergy,
and was less influenced by the caprices of public opinion. It is
thus readily comprehensible that, with three exceptions, the
governments of the western provinces were all in favour of the
continuance of burgomasterships. The populace, also, esteemed
its communal constitution highly, simply because it was Rhenish.
" We want to stay as we are," was the cry whenever it was
reported that " the Prussian " contemplated any change. The
Rhenish countryman, devoted to horticulture and to the hazards
of viticulture, was well satisfied that the strict burgomaster
should relieve him of all trouble and anxiety about communal
concerns ; besides, great burgomasterships could do far more
for the general welfare than had been possible to the dwarf com-
munes of the old provinces. This practical advantage was so
undeniable, and public opinion was so determined, that even Stein
and Vincke, declared enemies of the French legislative system,
were unwilling to interfere with the burgomasterships and
bailiwicks.

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History of Germany

Contrasts no less glaring existed in the urban system. In
the old provinces, Stein's towns' ordinance, after it had success-
fully passed through the severe trials of the War of Liberation,
had gradually become endeared to the burghers, and Stein hoped
to see his well-tested work applied with trifling alterations, and
speedily, in the new provinces as well, for he considered self-
government the best school for the development of a Prussian
sense of the state. But the Rhinelanders could not be induced to
believe that the towns' organisation of the despised east was much
freer than their own. They were satisfied with the formal equality
of the French municipalities. " With us," they said proudly,
" all classes of the community share a common citizenship."
The burgomaster and his subordinates appointed by authority
were according to the Rhenish view just as superior to the German
town councillors of the east as was the Napoleonic prefect to
the Prussian governmental colleges. The Rhenish burgher was
delighted to be spared the numerous and burdensome honorary
offices of Stein's towns' ordinance, and no one noticed that a
communal council without administrative powers was unable to
exercise any effective control over the all-powerful burgomaster
Elected local authorities were considered undesirable, if only for
the reason that people dreaded a return of the cliquism and the
nepotist regime of Cologne. The profound conception of the state
and its duties which underlay Stein's towns' ordinance was alto-
gether incomprehensible here in the west, where all were enthusiasts
for the ideas of '89. As late as 1845, L. Buhl, in a writing upon
the communal organisation of Rhenish Prussia, maintained that
the example of " France, the archetypal land " sufficed to show
that freedom of the state and freedom of the commune were
mutually exclusive, and that, faced with these alternatives, liberal
Rhineland must prefer freedom of the state. The good publicist,
one of the ablest liberals of the Rhenish Palatinate, here expressed
the heartfelt sentiments of almost all the inhabitants of the left
bank of the Rhine. People animated with such views., and at
the same time proud of their liberal spirit, were manifestly even
harder to win over to the severe duties of German self-government
than had formerly been the browbeaten petty bourgeoisie of the
eastern towns.

In the circle organisation, the contrast between east and west
was likewise manifest on all hands. The old-established Branden-
burg circle-subdivision and the Landrat official districts were
incorporated in the new domain simultaneously with the provinces

424

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

and the governmental districts, and in the year 1816 the king once
more permitted the circle estates to nominate from the landowners
of the circle three candidates for every vacant post of Landrat.
According to the letter of the law, the Landrat henceforward was
only a state official, and Hardenberg expressly declared that
though the Landrat was appointed from among the residents in
the circle, this institution was " nowise based upon the idea of
representative institutions, but only upon the idea that local land-
ownership afforded guarantees that the Landrat would know and
further whatever was for the advantage of the residents in the
circle." *• In actual fact, however, the Landrat remained in the
east, as of old, at once the instrument of the government and
the trusted representative of his circle. The peculiar duplex
position which gave its distinctive character to the principal office
in the old provinces could not, unfortunately, be transferred
straightway to the western regions of the country. Here the
number of educated landowners was so small, that it became
necessary to appoint " other fit persons," and especially military
officers, at the head of the circle administration. It was impos-
sible that such official-Landrats could be anything very different
from successors of the Napoleonic sub-prefects. A few of them,
indeed, gradually became at home in their new surroundings ;
as for instance Barsch, the associate of Schill, who ruled strictly
in the poor Eifel circle of Priim, and whose writings concerning
agriculture in Eifel soon showed that he was better informed about
this rude mountain land than were those who had been born in
the region. Many of the Landrats, however, remained estranged
from their circles, regarding the office they held as a mere
stepping-stone to higher positions. Here, as in France, the radical
destruction of all aristocratic forces led to a purely bureaucratic
administration. After the king had suspended the unhappy
gendarmerie edict, nothing had been settled about the circle
assemblies ; but everyone felt that the constitution which the
circle estates had been given in the aristocratic old provinces was
not suitable for the bourgeois west.

How little did the king and the chancellor know about these
complicated relationships when they expected the draft of the
communes' ordinance to be completed within a month. Six
months elapsed before the committee had found it possible to

1 Such was Rother's answer, acting on the chancellor's instructions, in reply
to an enquiry from Governor Wissmanns dated November 28, 1815.

425 2 F

History of Germany

deal with the extensive problem inadequately and hastily, and
on August 7th the plan for the organisation of the circles, towns,
and rural communes was submitted.1 Most of the work was
drafted by Friese, the president of the committee ; many of his
proposals of 1811 were reproduced almost verbatim in the new
scheme. At the earlier date, he had expressed his opposition
to the suzerainty of the local landowners. A liberal through and
through, he recognised in the crass contrasts of class one of the
principal reasons for the disaster of 1806, and he considered that
an indispensable precondition of a free communal life must be
the abolition of all the economic and political privileges of the
landed gentry.

Meanwhile the council of state had in fact vigorously carried
forward the agrarian legislation of 1811. On September 25, 1820,
appeared an edict, some of whose items were almost too revolu-
tionary, decreeing the abolition of burdens upon the peasantry in
the regions between the Elbe and the Rhine. On June 7, 1821,
after lengthy and laborious deliberations,2 there followed the
far-reaching law dealing with the partition of the communal lands,
the last great reform of the Hardenberg epoch. Since Frederick
the Great had begun the partition of the communal lands, more
than two and a half million morgen [approximately, acres] had
been dealt with. Now the partition was carried on more exten-
sively, and was placed under the supervision of the general
committees which since 1811 had been concerned with the relief of
the burdens on the peasants. The new legislation started from the
bold proposition that, in default of proof to the contrary, every
partition of communal land must be regarded as desirable for
agriculture ; on the other hand, complete guarantees were afforded
for a strictly legal procedure, for the general committees con-
tained assessors of gentle birth, and were furnished with judicial
powers. This was a daring coup, but it was rendered indispensable
03' the needs of agriculture, and gradually almost all the German
states followed Prussia's example, Wiirtemberg at length following
suit in the year 1854. Here again it was plain how greatly the
economic culture of the officialdom was in advance of that of the
nation.

Discontent was rife. Not merely did Marwitz and his
friends storm against the pedants of the general committees ;

1 Proposals for the organisation of the rural communes, towns, and circles,
with elucidations ; covering letter of August 7, 1820. See Appendix XIII.
8 Minutes of the council of state, May 22, 1821.

426

Last Reforms of Harden berg

not merely did they accuse the state of leading the people astray,
when, perchance, some cunning peasant who was assigned a
plot of land far away from the village took advantage of the
new system of fire insurance and burned down his house. The
peasants themselves, who in former days had so often com-
plained " many herdsmen, bad herding ! " frequently opposed
the partition of the communal meadows, and mistrustful and
cantankerous, rendered the work of the authorities difficult.
The state went on with its work undisturbed, and by 1848 nearly
43,000,000 morgen of communal lands had further been subdivided
or freed from the obligations of villeinage. Almost everywhere as
soon as the work was completed the peasants were ashamed of the
resistance they had offered, and the general committees, at first
detested, gradually acquired widespread respect. The country-
folk began to recognise that the partition of the communal lands
was an indispensable link in the long chain of reforms which were
to raise the serfs to the level of free peasants. The communal
corve"e disappeared with the partition of the communal territory.
It now became possible to cover the village lands with a reason-
ably arranged network of roads and irrigation channels, though
the straight lines of these were often injurious to the beauty of
the landscape. The peasant was able to abandon the traditional
threefold rotation of crops, and to attempt the more intensive
culture of his well-rounded land. He was now completely master
of his own property, and with industry and good fortune could
count on increasing prosperity. Should ill luck befall him, he
had indeed to experience all the hardships of the system of free
competition ; there were no longer any communal savings to
which he could turn for assistance, and since the agricultural credit
institute would come to the assistance of the great landowners
alone, the peasant ran the danger of being bought out by neigh-
bouring landlords. Partition of the communal lands cut off one
source of eternal quarrels between the landlords and the
peasantry ; and, further, most of the disputes about boundaries
which litigious peasants had freely engaged in were done away
with by the compacting of the peasant farms. The partition had an
effect upon the communal life of the country districts similar to
that which the abolition of guild privileges and prohibitions had
had in the towns. The village could now become in reality a
political community. :• -'•:•

The proposals of the committee had been based upon the
expectation of this great transformation in rural conditions. It

427

History of Germany

had taken very seriously the fundamental proposition of Harden-
berg's plan for a constitution, " we have nothing but free
proprietorship." Nor could the reform have been carried into
effect without an ardent zeal for the common good. But respect
for the historic past, for the endless complexity of communal life,
was also indispensable, and the liberal officialdom from which the
committee was chiefly constituted, was largely lacking in such
understanding. Friese, in especial, was inclined to push to an
extreme the reasonable idea of the unity of the state ; nine years
earlier, he had actually suggested the abolition of the provinces
on the ground that the provincial spirit killed the sense of the
state. At the opening of the discussion, the urgent question was
mooted whether a communes' ordinance for the entire state, such
as Hardenberg desired to institute, was at all possible. Vincke
declared on the ground of his knowledge of land and people that
the west could not dispense with its burgomasterships and
bailiwicks.1 There was a sharp conflict between historical
sentiment and bureaucratic rule-of -thumb methods. The
majority, however, found a way through all difficulties with the
aid of the doctrinaire assertion (by no means theoretically sound)
that the commune was the microcosm of the state and must there-
fore be organised on identical lines with the state. No less
doctrinaire was the further contention that the difference of culture
between the various provinces was not particularly extensive,
as if communal organisation were determined by culture and
not by economic relationships. The majority therefore decided
to elaborate a single rural communes' ordinance for the entire
state, although it was necessary to admit that this general law
was incomplete, and needed supplementation by provincial laws.
Through this serious error, the foundations of Hardenberg 's
plan for a constitution were fatally destroyed, and not merely the
caste spirit of the privileged classes, but also the reasonable
particularism of the provinces, were incited to embittered quarrels.

In matters of detail the proposals contained many excellent
ideas, such as these competent officials might be expected to
adduce. The contrast between town and country which was so
marked a characteristic of German life was accepted by the com-
mittee as an established fact. The desire was to deal with all
that concerned the peasant, conveniently, in a single law; and the

1 Vincke. Separate Opinion on the rural communes' ordinance (Appendix
to the proposals).

428

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

proposal to force village and town, after the French manner, into
a single framework was rejected, although many of the govern-
ments of the western provinces strongly favoured this idea. The
draft of the rural communes' ordinance assumed that the
continuance of the extant individual communes would be the rule,
but left it open for adjoining petty districts to combine by
mutual agreement to form larger communes ; and the naive
expectation was expressed that this course would frequently be
adopted as soon as " the general representation of the state "
should have awakened the spirit of community. Thus the thick
ice of peasant particularism was to thaw before the spring breath
of constitutional life ! The Rhenish burgomasterships were to
be abolished, but the governments were empowered to constitute
joint communes to deal with special purposes such as road-
building, education, poor relief, and the like, and the burgo-
masterships could likewise be utilised for these aims. In every
commune, a headman and assessors were to be elected, these
appointments being subject to confirmation by the Landrat ;
and there was to be a communal assembly, consisting in smaller
districts of all the burghers, and in larger districts of representa-
tives. The right of communal burghership was widely extended,
so that as a rule every independent head of a family who was
neither a farm-hand nor a casual labourer was to be enrolled.

The proposals regarding the rights associated with land-
ownership were more guarded. The committee did not venture
to demand the simple abolition of the police powers of the landed
gentry, and in any case it had no concern with the question of
patrimonial jurisdiction ; moreover, its members recognised that
since the village community had so recently been subject to
the landowner, it was not permissible without further ado to
constrain the landowner to enter the community. On the other
hand, the re-establishment of the suzerainty of the landed gentry
was impossible in the western provinces, and the appointment
of headmen by the landowners would now be a manifest injustice,
for while the settlement of affairs was still incomplete the interests
of the village and those of the lord of the manor were often con-
flicting. For these reasons, a middle course was adopted. For
the present the landowner was to retain what was still left to
him in the way of jurisdiction and police powers, but in police
matters the Landrat was empowered to issue orders directly to
the village headman. The lord of the manor was also privileged
to veto appointments as headman, and for the maintenance of

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History of Germany

his rights he could demand a reference to the communal register ;
finally, if his land had not previously constituted part of the village
territories, he could claim that it should be set apart as a special
administrative area under his personal control. The declared
aim of these proposals was " to facilitate in the future the
complete union " of the villages and the manors. But how
profoundly were the men of the boardroom deceived regarding the
sentiments of the landed gentry, when the committee could thus
hope that before long the landowners would come to regard
their police powers "as an unprofitable burden."

The proposals of the committee in the matter of the town's
ordinance were less far-reaching. Here all that was requisite was
to remedy certain defects in Stein's law, defects which experience
had brought to light and whose existence was not denied even
by Stein himself. Everyone agreed that the towns' ordinance
regulated with excessive uniformity the fundamentally diverse
relationships of the various urban communes, and for this reason
the committee demanded that, subject to the approval of the
state, every town should have the right to draw up local by-laws.
Further, since the introduction of freedom of occupation, the
right of burghership had completely lost economic significance ;
all were now free to ply any craft they pleased, and all might
acquire urban land. Henceforward the right to participate in
local government was the only important privilege of burgher-
ship. Consequently the committee demanded that in future the
so-called notables, the state employees, the clergy, and the men
of learning, who had hitherto for the most part ranked as denizens
merely, should be given facilities for the acquirement of the full
rights of citizenship ; they would hear nothing of the high
property qualification, the introduction of which was demanded
by the ultra-conservatives.

Another grievance of the conservatives was that in their view
state-supervision was defective. " Our towns have become
petty republics," was the phrase current in the camp of the
feudalists. The state did in actual fact leave the great munici-
palities free to act as they pleased, and even permitted the town
councils to infringe the law grossly ; in one case twenty years
elapsed without any fresh writs being issued for elections to the
municipal council. In this matter likewise the majority in the
committee remained impervious to the desires of the conserva-
tives. In the deliberations concerning the towns' ordinance,
Privy Councillor Streckfuss usually spoke the decisive word.

430

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

Streckfuss, a Saxon by birth, was a distinguished official who
had learned to despise the secrecy and nepotism which had
brought the towns' system of his homeland to ruin and decay ;
he considered the energetic bourgeois life of Prussian towns to be
ideal. How proud was he of this " Prussian freedom " ; " very
strange," on the other hand, seemed to him French liberty, which
permitted the nation to dismiss ministers, while denying all
co-operation in the more intimate affairs of civic life. He was an
ardent advocate of Stein's towns' ordinance, and eight years later
waged a lively paper war against F. von Raumer. Upon his
advice, the committee determined to impose a strict limit to state
supervision ; for, they thought, it would be better by far that
the communes should commit a few errors than that the govern-
ment should exercise a hateful despotism ; the communal
administration was not, however, to be allowed to interfere with
the agrarian law or with the fundamental ideas of the new system
of taxation. It was left to a subsequent generation to discover
that these general propositions were not sufficient to delimit the
boundaries between the state and the commune. The right of
the commune to impose taxes needed precise legal adjustment, for
otherwise, in the long run, the state would be unable to keep its
own system of taxation secure and elastic. Such considerations
were, however, quite outside the circle of vision of the time.

Debates became very vehement when an omission in the
towns' ordinance which had long been a source of grievance came
up for discussion. In his law, Stein had not specified in what
way disputes arising between municipal authorities and town
councillors were to be settled ; he now keenly desired that such
cases should be referred to umpires for arbitration, Streckfuss,
however, considered the town councillor to be merely the servant
of the burghers, and recognised the danger that a new communal
bureaucracy might be created from among the paid officials of the
municipal authorities. In these circles, declared the high
officials of the committee with unwonted innocence, may very
readily arise " the official spirit, which but too frequently mis-
leads, in part inducing utter inertia, and in part causing a sacrifice
of substance to form, of reality to officialdom." It was therefore
proposed that the municipal authorities should merely carry out
the decisions of the town councillors, and only in cases of loans,
sales of communal lands, or any extra-legal exactions, might the
authorities refuse to obey such decisions. The proposal overshot
the mark, and it was vain for Privy Councillor Kohler to utter

431

History of Germany

the warning that the democratisation of the communes would
filch from the municipal authorities any power they might
possess.1 Such revolutionary views certainly lay far from the
thoughts of the majority ; these were of opinion that the short
tenure of office in municipal posts discouraged many of the finer
spirits from participating in communal administration, and
subjected the town officials too much to popular favour. They
therefore suggested that salaried councillors should retain their
posts for life.

Among all the clauses of the towns' ordinance there was none
more passionately attacked than the classification of the towns
as local districts. The fashionable preference for the traditional
German classes and corporations led people to see nothing more
in this prescription than mechanical arbitrariness. In 1819,
Ancillon, in his memorial on the constitution, had severely cen-
sured the towns' ordinance for " throwing all burghers without
distinction into a single category." But Humboldt, J. G. Hoff-
mann, and even the liberals Dahlmann and F. von Raumer
desired that the old industrial co-operative corporations should
be reanimated in freer forms, and that the urban suffrage should
be granted to these corporations as such. Niebuhr's doctrine,
" without unions and corporations, urban elections and burghers'
assemblies cannot thrive," harmonised with the average views of
this romanticist epoch. Stein himself sometimes inclined towards
Niebuhr's opinion, but his statesmanlike instinct showed him all
the difficulties in the way of its being carried into effect. The
committee, however, maintained the local urban districts of
Stein's law, for its members recognised that communal organisa-
tion should unite burghers as burghers, and should not separate
them as distinct kinds of craftsmen. In fact, the towns' ordinance
had established itself most effectually in the large towns
where neighbourhood is of such little significance ; and subse-
quently every attempt to base communal organisation upon indus-
trial corporations invariably failed owing to the extraordinary
complexity of modern urban industrial life.

All these proposals displayed a lively understanding of Ger-
man self-government. In striking contrast was the bureaucratic
spirit of the draft for the circles' ordinance, which was strongly
reminiscent of the unhappy gendarmerie edict. When after
the year 1807 the reform of the circles' organisation first came up

1 Kohler. Separate Opinion on the Towns' Ordinance.
432

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

for consideration, Stein, Vincke, Schrotter, and Friese were agreed
in considering that the inhabitants of the circle must be them-
selves concerned in the administration of that area. They all
desired that the circles should be divided into smaller districts,
for an area containing on the average 35,000 inhabitants was
manifestly too large for effective action on the part of officials
whose authority was based upon local self-government, and in
these districts a part of the administrative business was to be
handed over to indwellers of the circle. This fruitful idea, the
only one which could lead to further progress, was now unfor-
tunately abandoned. How marvellously enduring is the efficacy
of genius. Stein's vigorous will had so ineradicably imposed upon
the towns' system the principle " self-government involves spon-
taneous initiative," that none of his successors could here effect
any notable alteration. But the circle organisation, which he
had not himself been able to reform, remained for half a century
the sport of mutable legislative attempts ; in this domain nothing
was fixed, not even the leading principles.

By the gendarmerie edict, Hardenberg had endeavoured to
destroy almost entirely the self-government of the circles. Now
that this erroneous measure had been rescinded, Friese and his
committee contented themselves with recommending the consti-
tution of circle assemblies which should deliberate concerning
the affairs of the circles, point out errors and defects, assess the
land taxes, and deal with institutions for the common weal, but
which should definitely be withheld from all intervention in the
circle administration. Such a Kreistag (circle assembly), lacking
independent initiative, was well-nigh as powerless in face of the
sole effective authority of the Landrat as was the French depart-
mental council vis-a-vis the prefect. Moreover, quite after the
French manner, the Landrat was henceforward to be purely a
state official. Hitherto, continued the committee, Prussia had
known nothing of " genuine popular representatives," and had
therefore given the Landrats some of the rights accruing to popular
representation. Now, however, since, by the constitution, the
government was " giving away a portion of the general authority
it has hitherto exercised," it was necessary that, in accordance
with the example of all other constitutional states, the government
alone should appoint its officials. Consequently the Landrat
was no longer to preside in the Kreistag, but was simply to attend
the proceedings without any vote in that body. The sharp
distinction between action and deliberation which was the

433

History of Germany

fundamental principle of Napoleonic administrative organisation,
was, with all its consequences, to be taken over into Prussia.
The whole power was to be placed in the hands of the Landrat,
and the circle assembly was to be a mere deliberate body.

Thus the living reality of self-government was abandoned,
and what did it avail that the composition of these powerless
Kreistags should correspond to all the desires of liberalism ?
Apart from territorial suzerainty, the nobles of the east esteemed
none of their class privileges so highly as those they possessed
as circle estates. Reluctantly enough had they witnessed the
admission of men of bourgeois origin to the status of the landed
gentry ; they would never willingly abandon their integral votes
at the Kreistags — herein all landowners were agreed, in the old
provinces, in Saxony, and in Hither Pomerania. The committee
now struck a bold blow against this old-established right of the
landed gentry. Their integral votes were to be abolished, and
the great landlords were to retain merely the right of electing
one-third of the circle representatives. The remaining two-
thirds were to be elected by all the communes of the circle,
proportionally to population. In addition to the landowners and
to the governmental or the communal officials, all residents in
the circle with an income of 500 thalers and upwards were to be
eligible for election, and since the electors' choice was not restricted
to men of their own order, the " peasants' advocates " especially
detested by the nobles might readily find their way into the
Kreistag. The proposal was as rash as it was crude ; for if at a
single blow the landed gentry, who had hitherto completely
dominated the Kreistags, were to be placed in the minority on
these bodies, prudence and justice alike demanded that the
possibility be preserved for the great landowners to maintain
their well-justified influence in the rural districts by the tenure of
the honorary offices of the circle administration. But the liberal
bureaucracy lacked all understanding of the vital conditions of
rural self-government, which is everywhere aristocratic. And
was it permissible, by a simple legislative decree, to extinguish
the contrast between town and country, which still unmistakably
persisted in the majority of the circles ?

How arbitrarily mechanical was the endeavour to enforce
everywhere upon the great landlords the same third of
the votes, notwithstanding the enormous differences in social
conditions. To carry out these artificial ideas on paper merely
the committee had to reckon as great landowners all those who

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paid land tax to the amount of not less than 100 thalers, for unless
the level had been fixed as low as this, in many circles of the
western provinces there would have been found no great land-
owners at all. The disastrous proposal afforded incontrovertible
proof that a uniform circles' organisation for the east and the
west was just as impossible as was a uniform rural communes'
organisation for the entire state domain. At the close of its
labours, the committee frankly expressed the fear that the people
might perhaps believe that " herewith the whole proposal for a
representative system falls to the ground, that your majesty's
pledge has been rescinded, and that there is no longer any
question of establishing a constitution for the monarchy." To
dispel such doubts, a closing article was appended wherein the
king declared that the relationships of the Kreistags to the
future estates of the monarchy would be more precisely defined
" in the constitutional charter."

§ 3. REACTION AT THE COURT. THE CROWN PRINCE.

The work of the committee had miscarried. This body had
not succeeded in creating a finished and harmonious structure,
which might serve as a firm foundation for Prussia's constitution.
The two most important parts of the scheme, the rural com-
munes' ordinance and the circles' ordinance, were based upon
erroneous fundamental ideas, while the less notable proposals for
the reform of the towns' ordinance were also open to objection,
although to a minor degree. In view of the powerful enemies who
were attacking the whole design for a constitution, it was difficult
now to atone for past errors. Stein, in his ill-humour, was convinced
that Hardenberg's subordinates were not competent to produce
anything better than " a work of buralism and liberalism." As
early as February, when the committee had hardly begun its
work, another committee, that of the East Prussian estates, under
the leadership of the Alexander Dohna, forwarded an address to
the king vehemently attacking the Carlsbad decrees, but also
demanding that in the reform of the communes' system " every
existing institution at once historically noble and deeply rooted
in the popular life should be treated with extreme tenderness,"
and asking that " native-born residents " of the provinces should
be summoned to take part in the constitutent deliberations. This
onslaught was repulsed by Hardenberg in a sharp reprimand,

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for unquestionably the committee was acting ultra vires.1 But
now that the proposals were presented in their entirety, a general
storm arose at the court, among the nobility, and even in the
ministry itself. One of the members of the council of state said
to Varnhagen that the law was " a fire-brand to start the revolu-
tion." The abolition of the right of the landed gentry to integral
votes in the circle diets, the curtailment of manorial rights, the
vigorous attacks upon the distinctive vital characteristics of the
provinces, the repeated use of the forbidden term " popular
representative" — these things, taken in conjunction with the
undeniable defects of the draft proposals, afforded all too abundant
occasion for passionate complaints. The principal objections of
the ultra-conservative party were subsequently formulated in two
propositions. First of all, it was said, " the proposals shuffle all
classes of the inhabitants indiscriminately together, and can
therefore constitute the basis of a general popular representation
only, and not of a representation of estates " ; further, " they wish
to endow the communes with legislative authority and to make
them constitutional assemblies." 2

At this critical juncture, Benzenberg, the chancellor's loyal
admirer, played his patron a trick more harmful than any that
could have been designed by Hardenberg's worst enemy. In
Brockhaus's Zeitgenossen he published an anonymous writing
discussing the chancellor's administration, a brilliant panegyric
which demonstrated with substantial accuracy that throughout
all turns of policy Hardenberg's ultimate aim had ever been the
constitution. " A new communes' ordinance," wrote Benzenberg
in sanguine mood, " has practically been completed ; the founda-
tions of the constitution are already showing above the ground."
He sagaciously predicted the peaceful social transformation which
could not fail to follow upon Hardenberg's laws ; by the year
1850 a free estate of peasants would exist throughout Prussia,
and the population would have increased to 16,000,000. The
warm-hearted publicist, who had so often been misunderstood
by the great mass of liberals, was by no means intending on this
occasion to patter the current liberal creed ; rather it was his aim
to warn " unreflective liberals " against ill-timed zeal which might
disturb the profoundly conceived plans of the old and experienced
Fabius Cunctator. " Since some of the constitutionalists are

1 See the Documents in Schon's Papers, vi, pp. 624, et seq.
8 Minute edited by Schuckmann, " Reasons why the Proposals for the Com-
munes' Ordinance should not be carried into effect " (May, 1821).

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Last Reforms of Hardenberg

in fact rather thick-headed," he wrote in a private letter, " it
seems well that some one should explain to them how much this
septuagenarian has done for king and commonwealth." l For
this reason he was sharply taken to task even by the liberal press,
and Gravell replied in an Anti-B-z-b-g, saying that not every
temporiser was a Fabius, and pointing out that in the enlightened
kingdom of Westphalia the work of fiscal reform had been com-
pleted with .incomparably greater celerity. The very publisher of
Zeitgenossen, Brockhaus himself, also published the Anti-B-z-b-g,
and subsequently severed his friendship with Hardenberg 's admirer
on the ground that the latter was suspect of conservatism, and
because " my periodicals are consecrated to liberalism and its
dissemination." Nevertheless Benzenberg had not been able to
refrain from applying to his patron some of the half-true catch-
words of the day. He spoke of the towns' ordinance and the
agrarian laws as " democratic." He described the chancellor as
" a definite liberal," one who had " realised in Prussia the prin-
ciples of '89," and whose recent yielding to the current of reaction
had been no more than apparent. He even contended, in flat
contradiction to Hardenberg's own opinion, that the representation
of the people promised on May 22nd was of necessity something
altogether different from a representation of estates. In history,
he prophesied, the king's regime will be spoken of as " the bour-
geois regime " ; for the sake of her constitution Prussia must
not even shun war with Austria, a war which will secure for
Prussia the hegemony of Germany !

This ill-conceived eulogium was hailed with delight by the
enemies of the constitution. New material was now provided
to nourish the profound hostility felt by the Brandenburg nobles
towards the chancellor, a hostility still traditional in these circles.
It was now proved that Hardenberg allowed himself to be
extolled as a Jacobin, and that he purposed to establish a demo-
cratic representative system, and not a representation of estates.
The chancellor could not but feel that his admirer had opened the
door to attack. He immediately sent a signed letter to the papers,
repudiating all responsibility for the writing, and declaring that
he did not know its author ; and he commissioned Scharnweber
to elaborate a rejoinder, which proved, however, so unsatisfactory
that it was quietly interred unpublished among the archives.1

1 Benzenberg to Count Solms-Laubach, August 10, 1820.

2 Hardenberg's Diary, November i, 1820. Scharnweber's manuscript is still
extant in the Prussian archives.

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No one believed his assurances ; in his good nature he could not
even make up his mind to break off his customary correspondence
with his admirer.

A writing against Benzenberg entitled A Dot upon the I was
published by E. von Biilow-Cummerow, a Mecklenburger who
had settled in Pomerania, a man of keen practical understanding
who did not in truth belong to any party, but who zealously advo-
cated agrarian interests, and was therefore soon considered by the
liberals to be tainted with junkerdom, whilst the members of his
own class regarded him with suspicion as a man of restive intel-
ligence' He was by no means an unconditional opponent of the
chancellor, and approved part at least of the new legislative reforms.
Now, however, he considered that the legitimate powers of the
landowning class were endangered. He protested against a
bureaucratic policy which would deprive the landed gentry of
their majority in the circle diets, and declared, in conclusion, that
Benzenberg's essay proved how far advanced already was the
Prussian revolution, progressing with the assistance of the
administration itself.

All these enemies could have been overcome if the king had
firmly supported the chancellor. Frederick William had often
been anxious regarding the consequences of the over-hasty
promise of a constitution. Yet ultimately he had always recon-
ciled himself to Hardenberg's policy, and indeed had quite recently
solemnly renewed the old pledge and had strengthened it by fresh
promises. The failure to carry out these would seriously impair
the national credit. The chancellor felt quite secure of his posi-
tion ; and as late as the end of August, when the rumour became
current that the government was going to content itself with
the institution of provincial diets, he had a strongly worded
contradiction published in the Staatszeitung, declaring the
report an ill-natured fiction. But almost at this precise
moment the king received the unhappy proposals of the
committee on the communes' ordinance. He recognised immedi-
ately that the Prussian constitution could not possibly be estab-
lished upon so precarious a foundation, and from this hour he
began once more to turn away from Hardenberg. The severance
was final.

He was profoundly annoyed by Benzenberg's writing. He
perused it with great care, jotting unfavourable comments in the
margin, which were subsequently reported to the chancellor

438

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

by Wittgenstein.1 The closer the approach of the oppressive
nightmare-image of a national assembly, the more vehemently did his
whole nature revolt ; to the retiring Frederick William, auspicious
speeches from the throne and grateful addresses from the chambers,
such as rilled the cheerful Max Joseph of Bavaria with delight,
were utterly distasteful. His suspicions of the demagogues had
not yet been allayed. Whilst assuring Count Groben, who had
been exposed to unjust suspicion as an acquaintance of Gorres,
of his unfailing regard, the king could not refrain from
remarking, " not even your earlier association with a man of
untrustworthy sentiments can serve to diminish my confidence in
you."8 When General Stockhorn, the Badenese envoy, referred
to the beneficial influence of the Carlsbad decrees, the king
rejoined : " What you say is doubtless true, but this is not the
end of the matter. The evil is deep rooted, and the youth of
the country has already been profoundly infected by erroneous
teaching. In many states, not excepting Prussia, state servants
of all classes and even ministers have been infected thereby ; but
now I mean to take the affair seriously in hand." 3 With each
post there now arrived bad news of the progress of the revolution
in Spain and Italy, and everywhere the magic word " constitu-
tion " had led the military forces to break their oath to the flag ;
was such an abomination to become possible under the black-
and-white banner ? Since he lacked an intimate knowledge of
the sins of the Bourbon regime which furnished a ready explana-
tion of all the follies of the revolution, the king could see in this
wild movement of a despairing people nothing but a depraved
revolt against established authority, and he considered it
perfectly right that Austria should restore order in Italy. Nego-
tiations were already in progress for a new meeting of the monarchs
in Troppau. More frequently than ever before during the
cheerless days of his solitary widowhood did he now suffer from
accesses of profound mental depression. He was weary, and at
fifty already felt an old man. What great tribulations had he
had to bear during the quarter of a century of his reign. Again
now at times, as in earlier days, he had serious thoughts of relin-
quishing the burden of the crown, and of passing the evening of
his days in a life of rural repose which would be far more accordant
with his personal inclinations.4 He often found business extremely

1 Hardenberg's Diary, November 9 and 10, 1820.

2 King Frederick William to Groben, February 15, 1820.
* Stockholm's Report, April 25, 1821.

4 Hardenberg's Diary, November n, 1820.

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History of Germany

irksome, and it was by no means easy to induce him to under-
take the journey to Troppau.1

In such a mood, harassed and discouraged, shortly before
Hardenberg set out for Troppau, the king sent an autograph
despatch to the chancellor, commanding him to express his views
once more regarding the constitutional question.2 This was the
first definite intimation received by Hardenberg that the king
had now begun to have misgivings about the constitution ; for
if the communes' ordinance fell to the ground, the national
assembly would fall with it, unless the whole work were to be
recommenced with resolute will. Recognising all that was at
stake, the chancellor replied in a detailed memorial. He wrote
in French, doubtless foreseeing that in Troppau the king would
discuss the question with the two emperors. 8 Once more he unfolded
his design for a bicameral system. The upper house was to consist
of the mediatised nobles (Standesherrn) , church dignitaries, some
representatives of the landed gentry, and a certain number of
members specially nominated by the king. The second chamber
was to be subdivided into three benches, each representing one
of the three estates. On ordinary occasions, the two houses were
to deliberate separately, and were to hold joint session for matters
of special importance only. To allay the anxieties of the
feudalists he further suggested that the provincial diets should be
harmonised as far as possible to the old territorial delimitations.
In conclusion he wrote : " The general representative assembly
would have nothing to do with administrative affairs, but would
concern itself solely with general laws and other matters laid
before it by your majesty. The initiative in everything would
remain in the hands of the president, to be nominated by
the crown. The sittings would be private, the results only
being made public. Purely military affairs, police matters, and
foreign affairs, would be outside the competence of the assembly.
The royal ministers and state officials could be censured
and held accountable only before your majesty's throne. In
this way a general representative assembly could be beneficial
and could not possibly prove disadvantageous." For the
moment no answer was vouchsafed to this despatch, for

1 Hardenberg's Diary, October 25, 1820.

2 Hardenberg's Diary, November 5, 1820.

• The original of this memorial has recently been discovered by A. Stern
(Researches in German History, pp. 26 and 321). Its principal contents
were previously known, for the main clauses, in literal German translation, were
reproduced by Hardenberg in his report of May 2, 1821.

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Last Reforms of Hardenberg

Frederick William now held practically no intercourse with his
chancellor.

The more reticent the king, the more strongly did Harden-
berg recognise the influence of the young crown prince, who now
began to intervene actively in the working of the state. The natural
antagonism which unceasingly recurs in powerful ruling houses
between a prince and his successor, safeguards the conservative
power of dynastic tradition from spiritless rigidity ; it is to
this that monarchy owes the energy of rejuvenescence. In the
higher levels of life there is no position so joyless, none so exposed
to temptation, as that of the crown prince in a powerful state ;
nowhere is the spirit of contradiction more strongly stimulated,
nowhere more painfully felt that inevitable difference between
the older and the younger generation which are never able to
understand one another completely. In the house of the Hohen-
zollerns, since the days of George William and the Great Elector,
no heir to the throne had ever been perfectly at one with the
reigning monarch. How wide now seemed the separation between
the old and the new time, the former typified in the inconspicuous
and sober-minded king who, notwithstanding his heartfelt piety,
nevertheless derived his entire outlook on the world from the
rationalist enlightenment of the previous century ; the latter
typified in the enthusiastic disciple of romanticism, effervescing
with genius and wit.

Among the chivalrous princes, whose " vivacity, spirit, and
nobility" the youthful Heinrich Heine in his letters from Berlin
could not sufficiently admire, the eldest seemed to deserve the
palm. All the world spoke of him as the most accomplished prince
in Europe, and his tutor Niebuhr hoped that with him would
come a happier time for Germany, and the completion of every-
thing which still remains inchoate and imperfect to-day. In
conversation he was brilliant and irresistible, especially in these days
ot early youth when, still unsoured, gracious, and receptive, he
absorbed everything which the earth could provide of beautiful
and of good ; no domain of knowledge was strange to him ; in
eloquent words, ever talented, ever original, he could deal with
all the heights and depths of life A born orator, when he spoke
in public he charmed everyone by the agreeable tones of his clear
voice, by the impetus of his thought, and by the nobility of his
carefully chosen language. His humour found vent just as
readily in biting sarcasm as in harmless jests, and it was already

441 2 G

History of Germany

the habit of the Berlinese to father upon the crown prince every
good joke that made the circuit of the town. At picnics on the
Pfaueninsel he could still romp just as uncontrollecQy in childlike
amusement with his brothers and sisters as he had formerly done
with young Argelander in the little garden at Memel. In the
presence of strangers he displayed a strong sense of dignity,
a vivid consciousness of his royal station ; men of soft nature,
like Steffens, were completely overwhelmed by the bold assurance
of his demeanour. But when he opened his heart to a kindred
spirit, the intimacies of personal experience flowed freely from
his lips — a powerful stream of love, piety, and enthusiasm. When
Bunsen journeyed for a few days through Italy alone with the
prince, what a joy to him was the wealth of this royal and child-
like disposition. Upon the entry into his service of Count Groben,
newly appointed chief of staff to the crown prince, the two
left Charlottenburg in a carriage one fine summer evening, and
when they stopped at Konigsberg in Neumark at five the following
morning, the talk had never ceased even for a moment, and the
new companion had been won over to his young master for the
rest of life.1

Yet this brilliant spirit, which exercised an elemental influ-
ence over so many men of note, lacked innate creative faculty,
and lacked also the secret of all human greatness, inner harmony.
Amid the abundance of his talents, there was not one which
attained the true force of genius, not one which dominated all
the rest, and which might have compelled a straight course
throughout life. In the mirror of history, his character appears
to us, not like a bronze statue in which many metals are molten
together to form a homogeneous whole, but rather as an artificially
composite mosaic. Since the days of the elector Frederick
William, the greatness as rulers of the members of the house of
Hohenzollern, the minor and major personalties alike, had
been that they were all men of simple temperament who amid
the confusion of German affairs tenaciously strove towards the
attainment of a clearly perceived goal — for even in the duplex
temperament of Frederick the Great, the German statesman was,
after all, incomparably stronger than the French wit. Now for
the first time there appeared in this royal house a contradictory
and enigmatical character, whose tragical destiny it was to remain
a riddle to himself and to the world, to misunderstand and be
misunderstood by his own time, one of genuinely German nature
1 Count Groben's Memoirs (1824).
442

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

in whom, unfortunately, promptness of decision was paralysed
by excess of thought, a prince capable of arousing the highest
possible expectations and yet unable to fulfil any of these.

Great care had been bestowed on his education. Niebuhr
was his preceptor in political science, and Wolzogen in military
history. But neither of these two tutors, nor Delbriick the gentle
theologian, nor yet subsequently the courtly Ancillon, had been
able to constrain the wilful mind of the prince to self-control by
rigid discipline. Not that he was ever inclined to succumb to
the ordinary temptations of courts. All his life he remained,
not only a strict moralist, but a man of true inward purity, a
thorough idealist, and one whose senses were wholly directed
towards the eternal goods of life. What was wanting in him was
the concentration of mind which is indeed especially difficult of
attainment to those who are most richly gifted, but which for
them no less than for others is the prerequisite of all great
poietic work. Across the wide flowery meadows of ideal enjoy-
ment his spirit fluttered like a butterfly from blossom to blossom.
Never was he happier than in some " divine midsummer night's
dream," musing of Hellas, of the eternal city, or of the unity of
the Evangelical church; then he painted for himself the images
of his yearning in such vivid colours that he became hardly
capable of distinguishing appearance from reality. The first time he
visited Rome he instantly felt at home there, so realistically had
he pictured in his dreams the colosseum, the obelisks, and St.
Peter's. To so versatile a mind, unstably reaching out into
the distance, the danger of dilettantism was ever imminent ; and
just as so many poets of the romanticist school were talented
connoisseurs rather than creative artists, so the special gift of this
statesman of romanticism was found rather in the provision of
a stimulus to new ideas than in moulding and completing.

The religious sentiment was the strongest power of his soul.
Intimately acquainted with dogmatics and ecclesiastical history,
he bowed humbly before the Christian revelation. To him life
seemed valueless without personal communion with his Master
and Saviour. When he was filled with religious devotion it
seemed at times as if the spirit of his favourite book, the Book
of Psalms, was speaking through his mouth, and as if the tones
of King David's harp could be heard in his inspired words. He
longed for the day when the Christian faith would hold sway
throughout the entire world, when everywhere a single church
would rule, a Protestant church with no visible head, but free and

443

History of Germany

wide enough to tolerate different confessions ; then should the
bishops be re-established in their ancient sees, and then should the
old biblical office of deacon be revived. Nothing seemed to
him more detestable than constraint of conscience, or the inter-
mingling of spiritual and temporal affairs ; he looked forward to
the time when he himself would be able to restore the supreme
episcopal authority to the hands of the church, and did not conceal
his opinion that the existing organisation of the Evangelical
national church was no more than transient. " Since the reign
of King Frederick II," he wrote in these days, " the attempt has
been made to regard the clergy as no more than state servants
and it is to this unfortunate perversity that I chiefly ascribe the
unspiritual lives of so many! of our clergy." 1 The best hours
of the crown prince were occupied with this ideal picture of
ecclesiastical freedom ; the question how the sovereign state was
to maintain itself side by side with the free church, seemed to
him of subsidiary importance.

This force of religious sentiment was inseparably associated
with Frederick William's rich artistic endowments. Many
regarded him as a veritable artist. But how could the upbringing
of a court provide him with that which is breath of life to the
artist, nature and freedom ? He had indeed, with delight, seen
an abundance of the beautiful ; but the golden soil of handicraft,
from which healthy art springs, was unknown to him, and the
artist's ecstasy, joyful vagabondage, knapsack on back, was denied
to the king's son. The consequence was that in his artistic
endeavours there were soon manifest traces of hypercultured senses ;
his architectural designs and his drawings were all individual,
many of them were extremely tasteful, but many of them also
crochety, overladen with intellectualised details which did not
permit the emergence of any general impression. Nor was his
aesthetic judgment free from this tendency to the bizarre. He
greeted with enthusiasm all new work of artistic distinction, and
entered into Schinkel's plans with an understanding which
astounded that master ; he enthusiastically furthered the restora-
tion of the Marienburg ; and it was a treat to him when he was
able to send Niebuhr to Greece to disinter the marvels of Hellenic
art from the ground in which they were slumbering. But his
favourites among the works of art of all ages remained the basilicas
of Ravenna, those sombre edifices erected in an age of transition,
which to a simple taste may well appear venerable and historically

* Separate Opinion of the Crown Prince, February 14, 1820.
444

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

interesting, but never truly beautiful. He felt so happy there in
the lonely church of St. Apollinaris, where the saints and prophets
figured in the early Christian mosaics looked down stiffly and
solemnly from the gold background of the walls ; in this twilight
world, heathendom and Christendom, east and west, Goths,
Byzantines, and Romans, seemed to pass in fantastic medley
before his imagination.

His political views had been acquired in the sorrowful years
of his youth, and for this reason they had become a very part
of his being. Never did he forget how his mother, beloved
beyond power of expression, had once upon the perron of the
castle of Schwedt imparted to her sons the terrible news of Jena,
and how subsequently she had inculcated upon them the need
that they should wield the Prussian sword in order to exact
vengeance for their unhappy brothers the Austrians. All the
humiliations which his father had suffered at the hands of the
arrogant conqueror remained indelible memories to the son.
Vainly had the Imperator, at the Dresden meeting of 1812,
played the good uncle, and told the prince how like he was to
Frederick the Great. The heir to the Prussian throne regarded
Napoleon as the hero of the Revolution, as the representative of
that " lying spirit " which, denying faith and justice, had drowned
the old and happy European order in a sea of blood and tears,
and Ancillon's teachings were hardly needed to confirm the prince
in this conviction. Such was his mood when he took part in the
War of Liberation, and he never observed that what the awaken-
ing nations detested in Bonaparte was the despot, that what they
desired from victory was not the return of the old conditions, but
the vague happiness of national freedom. Now the ancient
kingship by God's grace stood once more erect, and the dragon of
revolution lay fettered before the shining shield of Christian legiti-
mate monarchy. Never again must a usurper mount the throne
of St. Louis, and it was essential that the league of the four powers
should be maintained for a long period, under the wise leadership
of Metternich, in whom the crown prince reposed unlimited con-
fidence. Thus, perhaps, after the great shipwreck of recent years,
something might still be re-established of the ancient forms of
the Christo-Germanic world.

Of the old Holy Empire the prince had constructed for himself
an image which was as inspired and iridescent, but also as arbi-
trary, as the bewitching description given by the romanticist
enthusiast Novalis of " the beautiful and brilliant times when

445

History of Germany

Europe was a Christian land, and when a Christian spirit still
animated this humane continent." He dreamed of an emperor of
the old archducal house, freely elected by the serene highnesses
his colleagues, and saw no reason why the electoral chamberlain of
Brandenburg, despite his kingly title, should not still proffer the silver
basin to imperial majesty. Under the emperor, " free princes would
rule over free peoples " ; everywhere would be a powerful nobility,
governing the peasants patriarchally, and exercising a decisive
influence at the assemblies of the loyal estates ; the burghers,
finally, would be subdivided into craft corporations, and would
rejoice in their old guild customs. Such were the dreams to which
his heart clung, living in times that had passed away for ever.
He saw the bull of Lusatia and the lion of Jiilich, the trefoils of
Cleves and all the white, red, and green griffins of the Pomeranian
duchies, a brilliant medley of time-honoured territories, united
under the aegis of the black eagle ; and he hoped to revive the
wealth of their historical life, and in every region of the realm to
reanimate the lost class-divisions. He was never weary of visiting
the sites of great memories, and of searching out the traces of
ancient national customs. Now, in the Marks, he would visit the
tombs of the Ascanians, or in Quedlinburg, the cradle of the
Saxon kings ; now he would take pot-luck at the table of a West-
phalian farmer, delighting in the traditional Cheruscan customs.
He was especially fond of visiting the Rhine, and the Old Prussian
provinces, passing his time in the precincts of the magnificent
Gothic fanes or in the fortresses of the Teutonic knights.

These images of ancient German splendours left but little
room in his mind for the living Prussian sense of the state. The
genius of King Frederick, the man of action, had conceived the
course of German history as if the two previous centuries had
been filled with unceasing, if vain, endeavours towards one single
goal, which was now at length to be attained through the Silesian
wars. Before the artist's vision of this young prince, on the other
hand, the lineaments of his country's past assumed forms so
marvellous and so beautiful, that in comparison the contemporary
state and the proud hopes of Prussia's future faded into insig-
nificance. The crown prince was first a legitimate Christian ruler,
in the second place a German, and last of all a Prussian. He
was doubtless fascinated at the thought that he would some day
ascend the throne as the seventeenth of his line, as successor to
the illustrious series of sixteen electors and kings. But apart
from the wars of liberation, the Prussian annals offered few inci-

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dents which he could contemplate with unmixed joy. This utterly
modern and secular kingdom had arisen out of the contest with
the archducal house of Austria and the mendacious forms of the
imperial constitution, out of the struggle against the ambitions
of contentious theologians, out of the struggle against the par-
ticularist spirit of the territories and the unbridled excesses of
feudal licence. Not one of his great ancestors could be very dear
to the heart of this descendant. The roughness of Frederick
William I repelled him ; and however sincerely he might appreciate
Frederick's personal greatness, he had little in common with the
ideas of this royal freethinker who had first ventured to undertake
the destruction of German dualism — for the crown prince could
imagine nothing more desirable for his nation than peaceful dualism.
Nor could he do full justice to the two chief pillars of
Prussian kingship. Officialdom with its regular ordering of affairs
seemed tedious, and he cared little for intercourse with the old
privy councillors. The formalism of the board-room was cen-
sured by him with a severity which he did not apply to the sins
of aristocratic arrogance, and of all the sciences there was none
which had less attraction for him than law, although he followed
with interest the inspired researches into the history of juris-
prudence that were undertaken by his friend Savigny. He was
estranged from the army by his unmilitary inclinations. It is
true that he spoke with pride of this army, " the first in the
world " ; and that he often declared, " I feel myself to be a
Prussian officer through and through." He had shown his mettle on
the battle-field, and on one occasion, under heavy fire, when the
officers exhorted him to caution, he answered indifferently, " What
would it matter if I were hit ? My brother William would then
be crown prince." After the war he remained in supreme com-
mand of the Pomeranian army corps, and learned much from his
aide-de-camp Colonel Schack, the favourite of York, cut off
prematurely. But it soon became obvious that the precision
and the monotony of the service were irksome to the prince.
Plain-spoken generals declared that he did not really understand
how to get on with veteran soldiers ; and those who knew him
more intimately were well aware that he detested war, that this
son of the Hohenzollerns was dominated to excess by the love of
peace characteristic of his house. He was attracted to the officers
he preferred, C. von Roder, Groben, Willisen, and L. von Gerlach,
rather by common views on ecclesiastical and political matters
than by military comradeship.

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The crown prince had a contempt for bureaucratic coercion,
and since he gave candid utterance to his views regarding the
timidities of the police and the mistakes of the administration,
the imperfectly informed were inclined to credit him with liberal
views, and his uncle, Ernest Augustus of Cumberland, a stubborn
conservative of the old school, even blamed him for his Jacobin
tendencies. Nor was it by any means the prince's purpose to
attempt the imposition of simple barriers against the time-current.
Rather did he regard it as his vocation to mediate sagaciously
between the two extreme parties which were convulsing the world.
He was fond of illustrating his position by quoting the aphorism
of de Maistre : " We desire neither the revolution nor the counter-
revolution, but the obverse of revolution." But Gneisenau wrote
to the chancellor saying : " The crown prince would rather guide
the waters back to their source than regulate their flow in the
plains." l The military commander's insight was profounder
here than Frederick William's self-knowledge. The political
ideas of Niebuhr and Savigny were accepted by the prince with
docility, but were so profoundly metamorphosed by the historic
longings of his emotional nature that he ultimately attained a
position far more remote from the liberal world than was that of
his straightforward father. The king had not been afraid to
venture that " revolution in a good sense," that social transfor-
mation which after all had much in common with the discredited
" ideas of '89," and even though many manifestations of the time
filled him with concern he still clung firmly to the fundamental
notions of modern political unity and equality before the law.
The heir to the throne, on the other hand, loathed the revolu-
tion, regarding it as a power of darkness which must absolutely
disappear from history, even though it had so long been inscribing
its name in the annals of Europe with a brazen stilus.

More and more did he incline towards the views of Haller,
and of the latter's pupils, the brothers Gerlach. Thus his state
of contradiction with the progressive ideas of the century was
no less tragical than had in former days been that of his ancestor,
Joachim I, whom moreover he strikingly resembled in personal
appearance. However divergent the two characters may appear
at the first glance, that of the hard, sober-minded and practical,
narrow-hearted Joachim, and that of his inspired, amiable, and
indefatigably benevolent descendant, nevertheless intellectual
arrogance, and contempt for the living forces of a striving and

1 Gneisenau to Hardenberg, February 6, 1821.
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Last Reforms of Hardenberg

fermenting epoch, were common to the two men. Just as from
the secure fortress of his canonical learning Joachim looked down
contemptuously upon the rude monk of Wittenberg who had the
audacity to tamper with the ingenious work of so many centuries,
so in the powerful influx of liberal ideas Frederick William could
see nothing but stupidity and malevolence. Indisputably, his
general view of the state was more profound, and in essence also
freer, than the insipid doctrines of the liberal law of reason. In
many political questions, too, his judgment was more accurate
than that of his opponents. He recognised the fragility of party
structures based merely upon opinions and not upon real interests,
nor was he ever under any illusion concerning the worth of the
much-belauded constitutional liberty of France. But he did
not see that behind the speeches of the liberal orators and
publicists, senseless as these often were, there nevertheless stood
a vigorous social force, one full of promise for the future, that
of the middle classes, whose wealth and culture increased with
each succeeding year of peace. He did not recognise that the
power of history, which had long ago created the old class divisions,
had three hundred years before deprived the leading order, the
clergy, of its dominant position, and had since then been irresis-
tibly at work upon the mitigation of the other class contrasts.
And just as Joachim, despite all his caution and severity, had
not been able to prevent the Protestant doctrine from making its
way into the Marks immediately after his death, so now Joachim's
descendant was to suffer the still more distressing destiny of being
forced with his own hand to open the gates of his state for the
admission of the constitutional ideas which he so profoundly
scorned.

Who can contemplate without painful emotion the figure
of this prince foredoomed to martyrdom ? Born, as it seemed,
for all that was great and glorious, nature had with a spendthrift
hand equipped him lavishly with good qualities of head and of
heart, and yet those simple and massive endowments which make
the statesman were denied him. He lacked the instinct for reality
which leads a man to see things as they are, the straightforward
understanding which renders it possible to distinguish the essential
from the accessory. How difficult it was for this artist in speech,
whose spoken words exercised so wide an influence, to convey
definitely in his memorials and letters what he really desired to
say. By the excessive use of notes of exclamation and by double
and triple underlining he attempted to supplement that which,

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despite his rare command of language, he was unable to express.
The man of clear intelligence has no need of such crutches, for he
constructs his sentences in such a manner that the reader is
compelled to emphasise the words correctly. He lacked also the
primal energy of will. The officers soon observed that he did not
know how to command, and that his orders were badly obeyed.
His mood would change all of a sudden from easy-going com-
placency to effervescent violence, and his scintillating wit was
often reminiscent of the faineant humour of Hamlet. Such doubts
already found expression, and General Wolzogen voiced them
courteously and comprehensively when he said : " He is certainly
a genius, but I question whether Prussia can endure a genius."
For us of a later generation, an enigmatical pathological factor has
to be taken into account, one which the candid historian cannot
pass over in silence, even though he need touch on it but lightly.
It is possible that the sinister disorder with which this highly
endowed man was affected in the evening of his days, had already
given transient traces of its existence in earlier years. This much
at any rate is proved, that from 1848 onwards traits became
apparent in the life of Frederick William which are explicable in
no other way than as the outcome of transient paroxysms of
mental aberration. It will doubtless ever remain obscure at
what date the first indications of this terrible visitation became
manifest.

At this time two new political writings made the round of
ultra-conservative circles in Prussia. The " restorer of political
science " now furnished the practical application of his great
work, and in his book Regarding the Spanish Cortes Constitution
declared war so unsparingly upon all constitutional endeavours
that the authorities of his native land thought it expedient to
suppress the edition. But when the Spanish charge d'affaires
in Vienna asked Austria to prohibit the circulation of Haller's
book in that country, Metternich answered imperturbably that
it would be better to wait until the Spanish press had been for-
bidden to make attacks upon Austria.1 Metternich had good
reason to protect the Bernese writer, for the ideals of the liberal
doctrinaires had never before been so cruelly maltreated. It would
have been well if a certain amount of historical justice had been
combined with this cheap criticism of radical follies. Not a word
did Haller say to show that it was at a time when King Ferdinand
had faithlessly abandoned his country that this monarchical

1 Krusemark's Report, September 27, 1820.
450

Last Reforms of Hardenberg

constitution had been originated without monarchical authority;
not a word about the scandalous deeds of the restored despotism,
deeds which cried to heaven, and which had stimulated the loyal
populace to their outburst of rage. " The sophists' guild, the
powerful sect which in France murdered the heir to the throne,"
this and this alone had brought the Spanish fundamental law
into being, not for the law's own sake, but in order to establish its
own sovereignty — and to this sect belonged also the literators
who in Germany, screaming and scribbling, were attacking
the thrones. Haller did not recoil from the open advocacy
of perjury ; an oath which pledged the king to contempt
for all divine and human laws was, he said, a scandal, a blas-
phemy, and consequently was not binding. At the same time he
reiterated his view that his " God- willed " state was to be no more
than a private association, and was to renounce all undertakings
for cultural purposes. He rejected general taxation, conscription,
and a national system of education, complaining that by these
institutions, " a sect simultaneously deprives us of property, body,
and soul ! " In conclusion, he addressed himself to the kings of
Europe, and especially to those of Germany, saying : " Shun the
word ' constitution ' ; it introduces poison into monarchies, for it
presupposes democratic principles, organises internal strife, and
creates two elements which struggle against one another to the
death." It is only " territorial or provincial estates, just as they
are created by nature " which are becoming to a monarchy, in
order that the idea of power may be adorned by the free and joyful
assent of the immediately loyal. An invective against the Prussian
Kronfideikommiss was included, the author exclaiming: " Rid your-
selves of your ancestral lands, which are by no means an ornament
to your house." Above all, however, he demanded : " War, holy
war against the sophists, who have detached themselves from your
nation by their principles and their league ! " Every sentence
seemed designed to widen the chasm between the German parties,
and Haller did in fact contribute more than any other publicist
to the poisoning of our political life.

The refined sentiments of the crown prince made it impossible
for him to accept such fanatical principles without reserve ; the
callous advocacy of perjury was necessarily repulsive to him.
Nevertheless he failed to recognise that this " restorer," who
utterly rejected the three great civic duties of Prussia, military
service, the payment of taxes, and school-attendance, could not
have any notion of the vital conditions of the Prussian state. The

History of Germany

distinction between natural estates and democratic constitutions
was congenial to his mind, and he seriously believed in the
existence of a sophists' conspiracy ramifying throughout Europe.
At the very time when Haller had just published this furious libel
his name stood high in honour in the palace of the crown prince, and
it appears certain that in court circles the proposal to summon
the great Bernese patrician to Berlin received serious consideration.
Fortunately, however, at this juncture Haller's secession from the
Protestant chyrch was reported, and thereafter no one ventured to
suggest the appointment to the king. Nor would the crown prince
have now tolerated the restorer in his entourage, for although he
inclined far in the direction of many Catholic ideas, the Protestant
church remained sacred to him.

Still more remote from the thought-world of the Protestant
north was Joseph de Maistre's Du Pape, a book composed eight
years earlier, presumably designed for the conversion of Czar
Alexander, but not published in Paris until 1819, and only now
becoming known in Germany. This is unquestionably the finest
work of the newer ultramontane political school, written in a
masterly style, pitilessly logical in its conclusions, and glowing with
a warmth of conviction which enforces respect even from oppo-
nents. The terrible doctrine of papal infallibility was here
expounded in plain terms, a doctrine which arises by logical neces-
sity out of the whole history of the Roman church, but one which
no one had ventured to formulate openly amid the national eccle-
siastical structures of the eighteenth century. Since every human
law is imperfect, and subject to exceptions, there must exist an
infallible supreme authority, endowed with the right to bind and
to loose. To temporal sovereigns directly established by God this
infallibility is humanly assigned, but it is actually vested solely in
the vicegerent of Christ. Consequently a bond of obedience ties
all legitimate sovereigns to the holy see, the arbiter of the world
of states, and a healthy political life is conceivable on no other
basis than that of Catholic unity of belief. What mattered to this
fanatic the incontestable fact that the political development of the
Protestant nations had hitherto run a tolerable peaceful course,
whereas the Revolution, born in Catholic France, had visited the
Catholic states with especial severity, and at this very time was
affecting with countless spasms the two Catholic peninsulas of
southern Europe. On his side the writer had the dialectical
energy of the maxim : Whoever speaks of authority, speaks of the
pope, or speaks of nothing at all.

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Last Reforms of Hardenberg

Terror of the revolution dominated the German courts so
completely that many intelligent Protestants swore by the wisdom
of the Savoyard philosopher without noticing the way in
which almost every sentence of this well-compacted doctrinal
structure was dependent upon the principle of papal infallibility.
Gentz, although in the centre of his being he always remained a
Kantian, declared that de Maistre's writing was the leading book ot
the century, and exclaimed in delight, " This is the man for me ! "
Some of the dazzling paradoxes of the brilliant ultramontane were
joyfully colported throughout the polite world, as for instance the
celebrated catchword which is almost identical with Haller's expres-
sions, to the effect that the princes have to thank their peoples
merely for vain glitter, but the peoples have to thank their princes
for everything, for social existence. Even the crown prince of
Prussia became intoxicated with the incense-fumes of these half
truths.

Egoistic monarchs usually incline to keep their successors aloof
from public affairs. King Frederick William, however, looked
with fatherly pride upon his promising heir, who in turn always
regarded his father with filial affection. The mistrust which the
king so often felt towards talented natures was completely in
abeyance as far as concerned his son, although in the latter's
character there was much which might be called talented in a
somewhat critical sense. Upon Hardenberg's advice the crown
prince was introduced into the ministry of state immediately after
the war,1 and since there, as subsequently in the council of state,
he was by no means sparing in the use of his tongue, the modest
king soon believed he could discern in "his Fritz " great talent
for statesmanship, although in reality he himself possessed far
more political acumen than the heir to the throne. The crown
prince was fond of conversing with the able old chancellor, and
in social intercourse he invariably availed himself of the fine
privilege of royal impartiality, encountering on friendly terms
the statesmen of all parties, as long as they were men of
intelligence — W. Humboldt, for instance, Schon, and Niebuhr
During the struggle for fiscal reform he wrote on one occasion to
the chancellor : " This one thing you must believe of me, that
the words friendship, confidence, respect, are in my mouth no mere
empty sounds, and that in truth I know of no other terms to use
when I speak of my relationship to yourself." At the moment
of writing, being readily subject to emotional influences, he may

1 Hardenberg's Diary, December 28, 1815.

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doubtless have been inspired by such sentiments, but it was
impossible for him to repose a firm and permanent trust in the
man who was in all things a child of the eighteenth century. The
bureaucratic-liberal tendency of Hardenberg's policy remained
suspect to him, and he expressed himself in bitter terms regarding
the chancellor's distasteful domestic life.

The promise of a representative constitution filled the crown
prince with glad expectations, for he had never regarded the rigid
absolutism of old days, as anything more than a temporary
expedient. But he was convinced that in the reconstituted diets,
representing the distinctive classes of the community, the nobility
must maintain the predominant position, and the prince intervened
actively on behalf of the future of the nobility. In one of the few
memorials which issued from his pen during these years there is
a detailed discussion of the question whether the heads of those
families that had been immediates of the empire were entitled to
be spoken of as " ruling princes." He answered this question
in the affirmative, rejecting for these houses the unhistoric name of
Standesherr, which, he said, should properly be applied only to
members of the privileged baronage of Silesia and Lusatia : " Now,
more particularly, when the representative system is under con-
sideration, no confusion must be allowed to prevail regarding
the character of the great families of the country."1 No less
firmly was he convinced that the new provincial diets ought to be
associated with the traditional territorial areas. He therefore
welcomed the feudalist movement of the nobility of Jiilich-Cleves
and Mark, expressing his thanks to its leaders for having " directed
their attention to the provision of a secure foundation for the
innovation." He was little troubled by the problem as to how
these ancient territorial estates were to harmonise with the new
sub-division of the provinces. For the rest, he was by no means
disposed to permit to subjects presumptuous intervention in the
constitutional question, for now as in later years he wished to
reserve for the crown the postion of providence ; the people were
to await in silence the king's dispositions regarding the provincial
diets. For this reason he bluntly rejected the before-mentioned
impetuous writing by Gorres, although the author was inspired
by good feudalist sentiments. The crown prince at this time still
honestly desired the summoning of a national assembly, but the
assembly, in accordance with the ordinance of 1815, was to proceed
" organically " out of the provincial diets. Hitherto, however, the

1 Separate Opinion of the Crown Prince, May n, 1822.

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Last Reforms of Hardenberg

heir to the throne had not manifested himself as an opponent
on principle of the chancellor, for the dispute in the matter of fiscal
reform had concerned only the question of fact, whether the new
taxes were veritably indispensable.

But now all at once the proposals of the communes' ordinance
committee forced the prince to abandon his expectant attitude.
How was it possible that these proposals could fail to seem to
him altogether unacceptable when with bureaucratic broom they
so vigorously attacked the territorial peculiarities of the country,
and when they threatened the foundations of the time-honoured
preponderance of the nobility, without, after all, establishing a
vigorous self-government for the circles ? It was no longer
possible for him to follow the chancellor, and it was in accordance
with the nature of things that he should endeavour to come to an
understanding with the feudalist party, whose aims in any case
corresponded with his own inclinations. His tutor Ancillon, and
also Wittgenstein, and Schuckmann, spoke in the same sense ; and
if the communes' committee had erred gravely in its attempts
at excessive centralisation, there was now mooted in the opposing
camp an equally dangerous suggestion that it might be preferable
to leave the organisation of the communes and circles in the
individual provinces to the entire discretion of the future pro-
vincial diets. Thus old and new opponents of the chancellor
coalesced to constitute a powerful opposition. The wind was
favourable to the enemy, and it would not be difficult to ensure
that the old statesman's last reforms, begun under such promising
auspices, should remain a patchwork.

Prussian affairs were in this serious posture when Hardenberg
once more found it necessary to devote his attention to European
questions.

455

CHAPTER III.
TROPPAU AND LAIBACH.

§ I. THE REVOLUTION IN THE LATIN COUNTRIES.

MODERN history owes its peculiar wealth, not to the nobility of
a superior civilisation, but to the extent of its circle of vision, to
the lively intercourse of its free society of nations. Nationalism
and cosmopolitanism, patriotic and universally human ideas, have
since the days of the Reformation supplemented one another and
become intertwined in such manifold transitions that the severe
national uniformities of antiquity and the theocratic restrictions
of the Middle Ages appear in comparison almost monotonous.
Now some new religious or political conception will divide the
world of states into two great camps, so that national contrasts
seem almost to disappear, while now the nations endeavour to
isolate themselves one from another in crude self-sufficiency ; now
modern nations become rejuvenated through the acceptance of
foreign ideas, while now again they steel themselves in the struggle
against extraneous forces.

Barely five years after the overthrow of the Napoleonic world-
empire, the cosmopolitan power of the revolution resurged with
unanticipated strength. From South America, where a young
world of peoples was struggling for existence, the revolt in the
beginning of 1820 reacted upon the Spanish motherland, the
disturbance spreading soon to Portugal as well, all the old catch-
words of the revolutions in North America and in France exercising
their alluring influence. Six months later Italy also was in flames.
When an additional year had elapsed Greece took up arms against
her Turkish masters, and in this national struggle also there
resounded the world-conquering ideas of '89 : the Greek song
\fvrt nalSfs TWV 'EXA^t/wi/ (" Sons of the Greeks, arise ! ") was the
last stormy echo of the Marseillaise, Suppressed in the chief
countries of Europe, the revolution, as if through the enigmatic
natural force of a subterranean conflagration, suddenly broke

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Troppau and Laibach

forth from the ground at all the outposts of the civilised world.
The witchery of the immeasurably remote, the sheen of the
southern sky, the blazing passion of hot-blooded and half-civilised
peoples, served to increase yet further the romantic stimulus of
the grandiose drama.

With all the impetuosity of their fervour and their inspiration,
the two leading political poets of the age, Byron and Moore, the
spokesmen of cosmopolitan radicalism, flung themselves into the
vortex of this wild movement, greeting intoxicated with delight
" the first year of the second dawn of freedom." Thomas Moore
saw the ice palace which the Holy Alliance had built for itself on
the wintry floes of the Neva melting away in the rays of the
southern sun, he saw the nations as in a torch-dance passing on
the light of freedom from hand to hand, and hoped that he would
live to witness the day when this sacred fire would flame upon all
the altars of the world, when the league of princes would yield
place to the brotherhood of free nations. In Don Juan Byron
clamorously declared that the revolution alone could liberate the
world from the excrement of hell, and the time soon came when he
could triumphantly announce that on Athos' heights, beside the
tranquil sea, in two hemispheres, the same flag was floating on
the breeze.

How was it possible that the Germans, whose minds were
still permeated by the aesthetic view of the world order, should
fail to be delighted at the strange spectacle of this volcanic
convulsion ? Discouraged by the sad disillusionments of the first
years of political apprenticeship, the nation was inclined once more
to turn altogether aside from the problems of political life ; nothing
but the romantic charm which played around these distant
struggles could have availed to shake it out of its slumber. It
was indeed impossible to derive genuine ideals, sound political
notions, from the revolutions of the south. In rapid succession,
a refulgent period of literary creation and an epoch of military
glory had been traversed by Germany. After all these won-
derful experiences, the quiet years of peace seemed vapid and
empty, and in the brave generation which had fought the battles
of the War of Liberation was now often heard the despairing
complaint that this was a decadent age, stamped with the curse of
barrenness. How natural therefore was the joy when great
struggles and great passions seemed once again to break the
monotony of existence. The newspaper readers of Germany avidly
swallowed all the wonderful news from the south, and in the very

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lifetime of Stein and Gneisenau these readers gave themselves up
to enthusiasm for the often dubious heroism of the popular leaders
of the Latin nations ; even Rehberg, the sober-minded Lower
Saxon, opined that the occurrences in Spain were perhaps the
greatest the world had known for thirty years. The Christo-
Germanic ideals of the students, the proud memories of Leipzig
and Belle Alliance, paled more and more into insignificance.
Cosmopolitan enthusiasm for the ideas of '89 was revived, and
this cosmopolitanism sported French colours, for from the aureoles
which surrounded the heads of the southern fighters for freedom
a splendour was radiated back upon the birthland of the rights of
man. By the uprising of the peoples of the north, the Napoleonic
world-empire had been laid in ruins ; after the revolutions of
1820, the political ideas of the Latin-Catholic world once more
made the round of the globe.

Suppression and prosecution had visited our press when it first
attempted to criticise home political conditions ; the newspapers
now turned their attention abroad, filling their columns with
reports from Spain and Italy, borrowed from the wealthier
periodicals of England and France. Thus readers grew accus-
tomed to allow their thoughts to roam aimlessly through distant
fields, and they habituated themselves to pass judgment upon
matters they did not understand. The name of revolution now
became part of a cult, just as it had been in former days when
Klopstock was singing the dawn of Gallic liberty. It seemed as
if nothing but the sudden awakening of free national energy could
show the Germans a way out of their miseries, and many a radical
hotspur passionately exclaimed that every nation had had its
revolution, the sluggish Germans alone excepted ! The admirers
of neo-French liberty seemed altogether unaware that the boldest
and most fruitful of all modern revolutions had proceeded from
the land of Martin Luther ; still less did they recognise that the
revolutionary uprisings of the south were not the outcome of any
exceptional heroic energy on the part of the southern peoples, but
were due to the crimes of despotic governments whose yoke pressed
upon the masses far more heavily than did the futilities of the
Germanic Federation. Thus it was that the revolutionary tenets
of the vanquished began once more to permeate the country of
the victors, and a mass of combustible material was gradually
accumulated, preparing the way for the conflagrations of 1830
and 1848. Discontent was still weak and devoid of danger, being
restricted to certain circles among the cultured classes where the

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Troppau and Laibach

force of revolutionary will was completely lacking ; but this dis-
content was bound to increase as the years passed, since by the
federal political system the nation was forbidden all legislative
co-operation, and since anger at the mistakes of the governments
was continually increased by the shameful consciousness of the
disintegration of Germany.

For more than two centuries the motley racial compost of
Spanish America had remained an unknown world to Europeans,
suspiciously secluded by a somnolent ecclesiastico-political regime
which did not seriously oppress the colonies, but endeavoured to
keep them in a condition of perpetual childhood. It was not until
the secession of the North American states from England had
announced to the young continent the dawn of a new day, while
simultaneously the reforms of King Charles III had granted the
motherland and the colonies certain increased commercial facilities
and a moderate degree of freedom in intellectual life, that in these
growing nations an American consciousness began to stir. Then,
when the Spaniards were fighting against the French conqueror,
the colonies too raised the banner of revolt, expelling the viceroys
of Joseph Napoleon, and constituting juntas after the Spanish
manner. But out of the common struggles for national inde-
pendence there gradually emerged a spirit of resistance against
Spain herself. The motherland, devastated by war, was forced to
leave the colonies to their own devices, although the Cortes of
Cadiz believed itself justified in legislating " for the Spaniards of
both hemispheres." As early as 1810, the grito de dolores was
voiced from Mexico, and a terrible revolt nearly overthrew the
Spanish dominion in Central America. A year later, Venezuela,
" the first-born of American freedom," proclaimed, almost in the
words of the North American declaration of independence, the
natural right of the peoples to dissolve every tie which failed to
correspond with the original aim of the social contract.

The Mexicans' " cry of distress," which was subsequently
incorporated in the vocabulary of revolutionary propaganda,
was at first little regarded in Europe ; so long as Spain
was engaged in a life-and-death struggle against Napoleon,
a revolt against this much-admired nation could secure little
moral support in the old world. When King Ferdinand returned
to Madrid he would have been able by a few trifling concessions
to suppress a movement which was manifestly premature. But
the blind arrogance of the Bourbons caused the dying fires to break
afresh into flame. In the year 1817, the Chilians, the most

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vigorous people of the southern continent, rose in revolt. After
this the revolution made effective progress, and separation from the
motherland was now openly admitted to be its aim. The nation-
building energy of war first gave a great meaning to the life of
these young communities, awakening in them a common hatred
and a common pride, providing them with common serious
memories, and thus furnishing them with a consciousness of their
common peculiarities. Upon a race without a history, which
had never lived actively and independently for the state, and
which had so recently accepted as a new revelation the French
doctrines of equality, the brilliant example of the neighbouring
United States exercised an irresistible influence. It could already
be plainly foreseen that as an outcome of the horrors of war a
number of republics would arise, and that in America for a long
time to come the republican would remain the standard form of
government, like the monarchical is in Europe and the theocratic
in the east.

The citizens of North America impatiently awaited the day
when their new continent was at length to be fully emancipated
from European tutelage. English commercial policy had
indifferently abandoned the Spanish ally as soon as Spain had
served England's turn against Napoleon ; and England now con-
templated with obvious satisfaction the progress of a movement
which promised to throw an illimitable market open to her trade.
Although neither the United States nor England had formally
abandoned neutrality, their benevolent attitude towards the
Spanish American revolt sufficed to frustrate the design of
European intervention which was more than once suggested in
St. Petersburg. A number of English volunteers, impelled by that
clear-sighted national instinct which ever distinguishes the Britons,
joined the rebel armies ; Uslar, the valiant Hanoverian, and
many other officers of the German legion, who could no longer
find any use for their good swords in Europe, acquired new war-
like renown in conflict with the very Spaniards beside whom they
had once fought shoulder to shoulder. Now, in the year 1819,
came the wonderful news of Bolivar's audacious campaign across
the Cordilleras, and of the foundation of the republic of Columbia ;
the newspapers of both continents rivalled one another in extolling
Bolivar the liberator, the second Washington, the Hannibal of
the Andes. In the contradictory character of this Creole hero
there was indeed no trace of the mental repose and the states-
manlike clarity of the great Virginian. Bolivar oscillated unstably

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Troppau and Laibach

between rashness and pusillanimity, between patriotic self-
sacrifice and theatrical vanity, between revolutionary opinions and
despotic desires. Yet the warlike impetuosity of these half -formed
peoples, their staying power amid poverty and deprivation,
greatly excelled anything that the North Americans had ever
done in the struggle for independence. They earned their free-
dom by severe sacrifices. However dismal the conditions might
appear at the outset in the new republics, no one who took long
views could possibly fail to see that world history was once more
holding one of her great assizes and was once again uttering the
harsh verdict sic vos non vobis ! The work of the conquistadores,
the discovery of the new world, could not come to fruition until
this colonial empire lay in ruins, for not until then was it possible
for the influences of European civilisation to flow freely across the
young continent.

By the rare favour of fortune it now happened that the same
revolutionary ideas which inflamed the courage of the leaders of
the Creole rebels served to paralyse the resistance of the mother-
land. With the assistance of Czar Alexander, King Ferdinand
had built a navy and had assembled an army in the vicinity of
Cadiz, these forces being intended for the subdual of the American
revolts. But the issue was decided by an outbreak of mutiny in
this very army on New Year's day, 1820, for after this Spain no
longer possessed the power requisite to enforce obedience on the
colonies. The disturbance among the soldiery was merely an
expression of discontent on the part of sadly neglected troops ;
and when Colonel Riego, the prime mover, proclaimed the Cortez
constitution of 1812, he secured but partial approval even from
the army. It was owing solely to the hopeless weakness of King
Ferdinand, who, as if shaken by a bad conscience, let his opponents
do as they pleased, that the feeble initiative had unexpected
consequences. Its success was assured as soon as it spread to
the north and involved the stalwart Gallegos. On March 9th,
before the revolutionary town-council of the Madrid commune,
the king swore to observe the constitution of 1812. The very
constitution which six years earlier Ferdinand had abolished amid
popular exultation, was now hailed by the intoxicated nation as
a revelation of freedom. The sacred charter was borne through
the streets and was venerated everywhere with genuflexions as
if it had been the host ; in the elementary schools, the children
were taught the catechism of the divine law-book. In the newly

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summoned Cortes was displayed all the magniloquence of the
melodious Spanish oratory ; still more passionate were the big
words used in the radical club of the Cafe" Lorencini, which soon
vociferated no less powerfully in the Spanish capital than had of
old the Jacobin club in Paris. The works of Voltaire, Diderot, and
Rousseau were now imported in large quantities across the liberated
frontier, in order to impregnate the people with the saving
doctrines of the Revolution. For several months the country
bathed in a sea of happiness. The Madrid press triumphantly
declared that what other nations had failed to obtain after many
years of struggle, had been secured by Spain through six years
of patience, one day of fulfilment, and two days of joy.
" Foreigners will before long visit our land in order to become
acquainted with genuine freedom and human dignity. Nations,
admire Spain ! Armies, imitate our courage ! "

It sounded like a fable from the world of topsyturveydom
that this self-sufficient nation, which had ever secluded itself most
stringently from contact with other lands, and had therefore,
among them all, least possessed propagandist energy, should now
claim to give to Europe the law of freedom. Nevertheless the
least known among the countries of Europe was for a time actually
hailed by the press of the rest of the world as the focus of political
wisdom. The Spanish name was still irradiated with glory as a
legacy of Napoleonic days. Just as this heroic people had formerly
risen in revolt against the Imperator, so now to the slumbering
world it seemed to be giving the signal for the struggle on behalf
of constitutional liberty. The complete and almost bloodless
success deceived even thoughtful observers regarding the essential
powerlessness of this revolution, and all the sins of the movement
seemed innocence itself when contrasted with the detestable mis-
government of recent years. Even the repulsive spectacle of the
military conspiracies aroused little criticism, for the liberal world
was dominated by hostility towards standing armies, and in
soldiers false to their oaths could see no more than unfortunates
demanding a restoration of their human rights.

The leader of the rebellious army, a futile, vainglorious dema-
gogue, became the hero of the hour. In Paris and London, in
Vienna and Berlin, people wore cravats a la Riego. Just as the
Spanish party-name of " liberal " found its way into all the lan-
guages of the civilised world, so everywhere were to be encountered
credulous admirers who discovered in the Spanish sacred charter
the most universally valid constitutional law of reason — and this

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although no other constitution of that day bore so unmistakable
an imprint of the peculiar circumstances of its origin. Amid the
storms of the war, without any co-operation on the part of the
king (who had then fled the country), and yet filled with dread
concerning the malice that would animate the Bourbon monarch
on his return, had the Cortes of Cadiz discussed the new funda-
mental law in the name of the sovereign people, collecting therein
everything which to the Spaniards of that emotional and
inexperienced generation seemed at once great and venerable, so
that it contained side by side with the revolutionary propositions
of the neo-French doctrine all kinds of obscure reminiscences of the
feudal Fueros of mediaeval Spain. Nothing but these complicated
conditions, barely comprehensible to a foreigner, can explain how
it was that the loyal Spaniards came to mutilate their ancient
monarchical institutions in so barbarous a manner. The Cortes
received sovereign powers ; it was re-elected every two years
independently of any action on the part of the crown, and could
never be dissolved by the latter. If it prorogued itself, it left a
committee to supervise the throne. A decision renewed for the
third time could not be vetoed by the king. To the Cortes alone
was even reserved the right of excluding incompetent or unworthy
persons from succession to the crown. In fact the representatives
of the sovereign people possessed all the powers of a Convention,
their omnipotence being limited solely by the ingenuous prescrip-
tion : " The Spanish nation is pledged to uphold and to protect
liberty by means of wise and just laws."

It was obvious to the statesmen of the great powers that under
such a constitution, with a worthless king, a fanatical clerical party,
and a perjured army, Spain was on the way to endless confusions
Especially dangerous seemed to the cabinets the power of the
numerous secret societies which had unmistakably contributed to
bring about this revolution. In its German Protestant homeland
the order of freemasons had never diverged from its humanist
aims and had always remained a free league of fraternal societies,
for here it was tolerated by the state, and in Prussia and some
of the minor German principalities was even favoured by the
authorities. The German lodges held aloof from all political party
struggles, although they naturally numbered a few revolutionaries
among their members, and sometimes a conscienceless adventurer
like Wit von Dorring would misuse his knowledge of masonic symbols
to secure entry into the secret societies of foreign lands. In the
Catholic world, on the other hand, since Pope Clement XII had

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condemned the order, it had frequently been visited by ecclesias-
tical and political persecution, and had thereby, in contradiction to
its original character, been forced into the ranks of the opposition.
The hierarchical sentiment of the Romance nations, which demanded
a stricter organisation in the state and in society, and the bad
example of the Jesuits, favoured the growth of revolutionary
secret societies, which invariably flourish in the morass of despotism.
The Mediterranean lands were covered with a network of secret
political clubs, a number of which were associated with the free-
masons, or at least used masonic signs. It was unquestionable
that the Spanish lodges had played a part in bringing about the
revolt of the army. This news affected the court of Vienna like
a thunderclap. Now was at length disclosed the world-wide con-
spiracy which had been burrowing underground, and of whose
intrigues Prince Metternich had so often warned the blinded
governments. The prohibition of the masonic order, which had
long been in force in the other crown-lands, was now hastily
extended by Emperor Francis to the Lombardo- Venetian king-
dom. What a delight it was to Haller that he was at length able
to demonstrate the purpose for which the revolutionary sophists'
guild had created its enigmatic power. To the end of his days
he continued to assure the world in passionate writings that the
demagogic intrigues of the freemasons were responsible for all
the titanic disturbances of the last decades : Philippe Egalite of
Orleans had once been Grand Master of the order in France, and
many of the Girondists had been freemasons. These wretched
fables could hardly prove convincing to the king of Prussia, who,
like Frederick the Great, had himself become a mason. Never-
theless at all the courts the impression was left that away in the
south a secret elemental force of destruction was at work

Anxiety increased when a second Riego, General Sepulveda,
made his appearance in Portugal. Here also the army mutinied,
and here, notwithstanding the ancient enmity between the two
neighbour lands, the sacred charter of the Spaniards, with a few
revolutionary embellishments, was utilised as the basis of the fun-
damental law. In Portugal, moreover, the movement displayed
a resistless and spontaneous energy, for here it pursued a justified
national aim. The foreign dominion of the English, which had
hitherto sapped the political life of the unhappy country
and had unscrupulously exploited its economic energies, now
collapsed, and its brutal representative, Lord Beresford, was
dismissed.

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Troppau and Laibach

Meanwhile the revolution had raised head and made victorious
progress even within the dominions of the court of Vienna. With
what supreme self-satisfaction had Metternich, as recently as the
previous year, received the homage of the Italian courts. How
confidently had he then built upon the inertia of this timid nation,
how boastfully had he written to Consalvi " the gates of hell
cannot prevail against the harmony between the pope and the
emperor ! " Quite recently the portal of the Albergotti palace
in Arezzo had been adorned with a servile inscription informing
the world that here the year before the glorious emperor Francis
had sojourned. Now came the terrifying intelligence that on
July 2nd the Neapolitan army had risen in revolt. By a
natural reaction, the humiliation of the nephew in Madrid shook
the throne of the uncle in Naples. After his last return, King
Ferdinand of Naples had indeed ruled less cruelly than his Spanish
relative. But when under King Murat the maltreated populace
had experienced for the first time the blessings of a strictly ordered
bureaucratic administration, the stupid absolutism of the Bour-
bons, vacillating between laxity and the arbitrary exercise of
power, a regime which for the dear love of peace was willing to
make treaties even with robber bands, could no longer regain its
former prestige.

A gloomy spirit of suspicion, the disastrous legacy of centuries
of foreign dominion, lay upon the land like a curse. The Sicilians
could not forgive the Bourbon for having rewarded their tried
loyalty by destroying the ancient independence of their celebrated
crown, by annulling their recently established new constitution,
and by illegally amalgamating the island with the detested conti-
nentals to constitute the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The
cultured classes of the capital still remembered with irreconcilable
rancour the horrible year 1799, the treachery and the wholesale
murders which had disgraced the first return of the Bourbons,
and they assigned all the blood-guilt of the crime to the royal
house, for the prime instigator, Nelson, had been forgotten. Here,
as in Madrid, among the personages of the court there was manifest
that dull-witted futility which so frequently characterises the later
members of ancient princely houses, the only difference being that
the angler, Ferdinand of Naples, always seemed somewhat manlier
than the embroiderer, Ferdinand of Spain. No word was now
heard of all the constitutional promises which the Bourbon had
despatched from Palermo to his Neapolitans. Under Napoleon's
banner the army had given this people their first taste of the fiery

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cup of military renown. It was now despised and neglected, its
finest memories were treated with scorn, its tried leaders were
regarded with hostility or were driven from their positions by the
favourites at the court. Legal sentiments were impossible in a
country which within a few years had seen so many masters come
and go. The sectarianism of the secret societies flourished
luxuriantly. The masonic association of the carbonari, which
was introduced from France, and which in Italy speedily assumed
the character of a revolutionary secret society, competed with the
reactionary conspiracy of the calderari in evil demagogic arts.

The Bourbon autocracy, thus undermined from all sides, col-
lapsed pitiably when the dragoons in Nola raised the standard of
revolt. Amid the delighted acclamations of the people, the
revered squadron of the rebels then entered the capital, and
the Spanish Cortes constitution was immediately proclaimed,
although no complete reprint of the sacred charter could be dis-
covered anywhere in the country. The masses, even when they
mutiny, always demand an indubitable authority, a banner to
which they can rally, and this unknown fundamental law was now
regarded as the evangel of liberty. The king gave way before
the triumphant uprising as contemptibly as his nephew in Spain.
When swearing fealty to the constitution he invoked the lightnings
of heaven upon his head should he ever break his oath ; but
secretly, like the Spaniard, he awaited with impatience the happy
day of vengeance.

The insurrectionaries met with no resistance, and in their
victory used every precaution to safeguard life and property. The
German newspapers could not express enough admiration at the
wisdom of this people which had so suddenly attained its majority ;
for the third time within a few weeks the revolution had triumphed
without bloodshed. Liberal merchants in London and Paris
offered loans, Napoleonic generals drew up plans of campaign on
behalf of the cause of freedom. The revolution was centred in the
army and the cultured classes, and did not as in the days of the
Parthenopean republic take origin simply amid a handful of dis-
satisfied noblemen and professors ; even the rude waterside
labourers of the capital, whom the Bourbons had so often incited
against the upper classes, showed themselves on this occasion by
no means hostile to the cause of the signori. Nevertheless this
irresistible movement was no more than the holiday excitement
of children, and was almost weaker than its Spanish prototype.
The masses broke forth into rejoicings (just as they were accus-

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Troppau and Laibach

tomed to do at the miracle of the liquefaction) when the newly
elected popular representatives passed through the gaily decorated
streets on their way to church, and when swarms of liberated birds
rose on a sudden from the streets. Parliament resounded with
the racy expressions of revolutionary oratory, but its decisions
displayed neither insight nor resolution. The noisy new national
army of the Samnites, Marsi, and Hirpini suffered from all the
defects of an improvised arming of the people ; and from the
very outset the revolution was weakened by the fierce hatred of
the island against the mainland. The Sicilians too had risen in
revolt. So irresistible was the power of radical idolatry in this
time of tumult that instead of re-establishing their own work, the
well-considered Sicilian constitution of 1812, they accepted the
unknown sacred charter of the Spaniards. But since they also
demanded an independent parliament for their island, and since
the bands of assassins from the galleys in Palermo began a war
of rapine, a confused and bloody struggle commenced between
the two halves of the state, a struggle whose real purport was
profoundly obscure.

To this southern half of the peninsula, which for centuries
past had led a self-satisfied separate life, the thought of Italian
unity was still almost repugnant ; it was not the national tricolor
of the kingdom of Italy but the black-blue-and-red party flag of
the carbonari which now waved from the battlements of St. Elmo.
It was only the two high-spirited brothers Pepe, and perhaps a
few other Napoleonic veterans, whose secret hopes still reposed
upon the federal state of Ausonia, the old dream of patriotic
enthusiasts. Nevertheless, amid all this fantastic activity, a keen
observer like Count Adam Moltke could already discern the first
immature cry of a nascent great nation ; he refused to censure
the Italians, seeing that they were now fighting for the same good
things the Germans had fought for from 1806 to 1815. Throughout
the peninsula the secret societies carried on their subterranean
labours. The number of their members was still small, but these
few worked with all the feverish restlessness of southern con-
spirators, and the fine perceptions which this nation continued to
preserve even in times of political debasement had long before dis-
closed the source of Italy's sorrows. The foreign dominion
pressed heavily upon the disintegrated land, where all the petty
despots supported themselves with the aid of Austria's arms. To
the unhappy nation, the black-and-yellow banner was the symbol
of servitude, although Austria's conduct in Italy was by no means

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more arbitrary than that of the native princes. D'Agh'6, the
Piedmontese conservative, declared frankly to the French states-
men that the centre of disturbance in northern Italy was the
Austrian provinces. Even the Hofburg was dimly aware of this.
Soon after the outbreak of the Neapolitan rising, Emperor Francis
set on foot a hunt in Lombardy for real and alleged conspirators.
Giorgio Pallavicino, the poet Silvio Pellico, and many other
faithful patriots, were arrested, and were given the opportunity
for years to come of meditating upon the philanthropy of their
good emperor in the fierce heat at the prison of I Piombi in Venice,
or in the abominable cells of Spielberg. If the foreign dominion
were to be maintained, the leaden slumber which had formerly pre-
vailed in the peninsula under the rule of the Spanish viceroys
must not be disturbed ; the court of Vienna could not possibly
tolerate in its vassal states the existence of constitutional forms
which were impossible in Milan and Venice. Every revolutionary
movement in Italy was a declaration of war against Austria, even
though the nationalist aims of this movement were not as yet
clearly recognised by those who initiated it and guided it.

The danger seemed the more serious when the trouble again
began to smoulder in the old focus of the European revolution.
In France the year 1819 had passed in tolerable quiet. Decazes
had induced the king to summon to the upper house sixty new
peers, for the most part dignitaries of the empire, and for a
moment it seemed possible to hope that the old and the new
time would at length become reconciled, and that the struggle of
parties would assume milder forms. At this time general admira-
tion was aroused by Madame de StaeTs Considerations sur la
Revolution francaise, the political testament of Necker's daughter,
a work which reiterated with the self-righteousness of French
doctrinairism the old constitutional saving truths which had been
so dear to the heart of the writer. Only through the unconditional
adoption of English institutions could the nation regain health,
thus only could it experience a new blossoming of the arts
and sciences ; then women would become more virtuous, and
the ambitions of men would no longer be directed towards
mammon, but would aspire to the attainment of the nobler laurels
of patriotic renown. Choose, she wrote in conclusion, between love
of fame and greed for money ! These prophecies of the excellent
woman, who obviously had no inkling of the growing power of the
bourse and of its influence upon parliamentary delegates, secured

468

Troppau and Laibach

enthusiastic believers. The powerful party of the doctrinaires,
to which the great majority of the talented writers of the nation
belonged, gave itself up to the honourable expectation that parlia-
mentary forms would awaken in the French a new idealism.

Yet this people lacked the first prerequisite of constitutional
freedom, respect for the law. France was predestined to parti-
cipate with especial passion in all the great struggles by which
Europe was shaken. Legitimists and radicals now faced one
another with the same fierce hostility which had once animated
Leaguers and Huguenots, neither party strong enough to become
dominant, both strong enough to alienate the middle party of the
masses of the people which remained faithful to the constitution.
Whilst the comite directeur of the revolutionary clubs continued
to weave its plots, the ultras of the Pavilion Marsan, equally
unteachable, waged secret warfare against the Charte. The
emigres had not yet received compensation for their losses, and so
long as no atonement had been made for the plunderings of the
revolution, the party which was so fond of describing itself as the
pedestal of the throne, could not straightforwardly recognise the
new order of affairs. They had long been accustomed to engage
in treasonable intrigues with the foreign world, and now again
Chateaubriand and some of the other ultras besieged the great
powers with petitions and advice. In October, 1819, an adherent
of the Comte d' Artois came in profound secrecy to Berlin, presenting
there and also in Vienna a memorial which adjured the courts of
the Grand Alliance, availing themselves of the assistance of the heir
to the throne, to open the eyes of the infatuated monarch, and to
induce him to undertake a coup d'etat ; in case of need the reason-
able portion of the nation would even welcome foreign intervention
in favour of the royal absolute supremacy. l

Both the German powers rejected the senseless proposal.
But the partisan rage of the ultras remained unmitigated, and it
broke out at length into absolute fury when on February 13, 1820,
the Due de Berry, the only scion of the royal house who still
possessed youthful vigour, was assassinated by a revolutionary
fanatic, Louvel, the locksmith. It was speedily apparent that the
assassin had no confederates, but this discovery, instead of allaying
fear, served merely to increase the sinister impression produced by

1 Memoire sur la situation de la France et sur les moyens de sauver cette
monarchic. October, 1819. Observations on the same subject despatched from
Austria, October, 1819. Rejoinder by the author of the Memorial, Berlin.
November 8, 1819. I am unable to give the name of the author, who was unques
tkmably in close relationships with the Pavilion Marsan.

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History of Germany

the crime. What a deadly hatred against the Bourbons must animate
the masses of the capital when a simple manual worker, a reader
of radical newspapers whose only associates were members of his
own class, could conceive the design of saving the fatherland by
the annihilation of the tyrant race. The royal house seemed near
to extinction ; the ultras breathed vengeance, and accused the
moderate ministry of complicity. Five days after the murder the
king was forced to yield to the petitions of the heir to the throne
and of the princesses, and to dismiss his favourite Decazes.
Chateaubriand hurled at the overthrown minister the horrible
accusation, " his feet have slipped in the blood, and he has fallen ! "
Richelieu now resumed leadership of the cabinet, honourably
intending at once to frighten the radical conspirators and to
moderate the fury of the ultras. The suffrage was modified so
that the most highly taxed received the hateful privilege of a
double voting power, and freedom of the press and of the individual
was greatly restricted. Meanwhile the aging king had discovered
a new favourite in the Countess du Cayla, and thereafter inclined
to the side of the ultras.

The great powers noted these changes with grave anxiety,
considering that the well-meaning minister was not powerful
enough to lay the storm. 1 In actual fact his measures served merely
to increase the embitterment of the factions. In Paris and other
towns the masses assembled in disorderly concourses, and on
several occasions blood flowed in the streets. In August, an
alarming military conspiracy was discovered in several of the
garrisons. Everyone felt that the threads of this conspiracy must
extend widely through the circles of the Napoleonic officers, to
reach the mysterious web of the comite directeur, but it was not
possible to lay these relationships bare. Once again passionate
ultras like Sosthene de la Rochefoucauld appealed to the foreign
powers for aid. Bergasse, the wretched creature who even before
the Revolution had been pilloried in Beaumarchais' comedies, and
who in '89 had been privy to all the court's designs for a coup
d'etat, now (September ist) despatched a memorial to Czar
Alexander which recalled the worst effusions of the old days of the
emigres. He solemnly demanded that the great powers should
declare war jointly against the hellish sect which from the first
had made its nest in France ; to begin such a war would not be
to enslave a nation, but to free an enslaved nation from the yoke.
What else was the Charte but the constitution of Sieyes ? In

1 Krusemark's Reports, Vienna, February 21, March 5, 1820.
470

Troppau and Laibach

conclusion, the entire fabulous world of the reactionary visionary
was conjured up, and figured in crude colours, the writer declaring
that the masonic order, the parent of all the revolutionary sects,
had ever regarded the Bourbons with especial hatred as the oldest
of the royal houses, and that Cagliostro had inscribed upon his
masonic pocket-book the letters L.P.C., signifying Lilia pedibus
calca.1

Against such fanatical enemies, even the moderate parties
could no longer be restrained. The entire opposition press broke
forth into a chorus of malicious laughter when Auguste Thierry
and Guizot now attempted to prove in two brilliant essays that
for thirteen centuries the French nation had been split into pro-
foundly hostile races, that of the Prankish nobility, and that of
the Gallo-Roman tiers etat — a dazzling half-truth which certainly
opened a new circle of ideas to historical research, but which amid
the party struggles of the day seemed almost like an appeal to
civil war. The instinctive hatred of the bourgeois classes for the
restoration, which was regarded by them as incorporating foreign
rule, now found scientific justification, when France's greatest
treasure, her indestructible national unity, was placed in question.
Just as little as the other liberals did these gifted historians recog-
nise the most profound cause of the inveracity of French parlia-
mentarism. Both, indeed, perceived what a powerful influence
Bonapartism still exercised in moulding the views of every
Frenchman, and Thierry went so far as to refer in cordial terms
to communal freedoms, but he did not grasp that the Napoleonic
bureaucracy, although indisputably national, and although it was
becoming ever more closely associated with the habits of the
people, could never be frankly accommodated to constitutional
forms of government.

Amid all these party quarrels there now fell suddenly like a
bomb-shell the astounding intelligence that on September 2Qth
the widow of the murdered duke had given birth to a son. As
by a miracle, a new shoot had appeared out of the antiquated
Bourbon stem. The ultras saw the finger of God piercing the
clouds, and hailed the child of France, the child of Europe, with
the same preposterous flattery which ten years earlier had been
voiced round the cradle of the king of Rome. Charles Rodier
wrote : ' ' The first smile that illumines his lips upon the day of his
baptism will announce a titanic deliverance ! " The opposition
papers betrayed their ill-humour by hinting doubts as to the

1 Bergasse, Memorial to Czar Alexander, Paris, September i, 1820.

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History of Germany

authenticity of the young Bourbon, and by spitefully recalling
the history of the Stuarts upon whom fate had bestowed an unex-
pected heir shortly before their final discrowning. In truth all
Europe believed that an unprecedented stroke of good fortune
had firmly re-established the foundations of the French throne.
It was left to the future to show<how little the restricted vision of
contemporaries is competent to grasp the significance of current
events. This " wonderful stroke of good fortune " was a grave
disaster for France and for the cause of the monarchy. If the
old dynasty had died out, the house of Orleans, whose views were
more in harmony with the ideas of the new century, would have
succeeded to the throne, and then perchance a national monarchy,
one approved by all parties, might have struck fresh roots, thus
at length restoring the continuity of affairs. But the birth of this
heir to the throne reawakened the old dislike of democratic society
for the royal house, and stimulated the secret ambitions of the
Orleans branch to sinister designs.

For the moment, indeed, the advantage was on the side of
the ultras, and since in France no one willingly remains for long
in the ranks of a hopeless minority, in the new elections the parties
of the right secured a great success. Before the close of the year,
Richelieu was compelled to summon to the ministry two leaders
of the ultras, Villele and Corbi£re. The disunited cabinet could
with difficulty maintain itself in the see-saw of parliamentary
struggles. Whilst German newspaper-readers were indulging their
admiration for the brilliant eloquence of the Paris chambers, the
French state was being so greatly weakened by the fierceness of
party struggles that the voice of France no longer exercised any
notable influence in the councils of the great powers.

At this juncture, the situation in England seemed hardly less
serious. The neglect of the lower classes, the original sin of British
parliamentary government, had at length borne fruit. The
hungry masses, to whom the greatly desired peace had brought
nothing but fresh miseries, were champing the bit ; sanguinary
affrays in the streets foreshadowed the approach of a serious social
movement ; and instead of averting the peril by the repeal of the
oppressive corn-laws and by other indispensable economic reforms,
the tory cabinet acted with relentless severity. The six acts
against the press and public meetings (the " Gagging Acts ") were
passed almost simultaneously with the promulgation of the Carls-
bad decrees. While the nation was still filled with resentment

472

Troppau and Laibach

on account of this last serious infringement of constitutional rights,
it began also to realise how profoundly reduced was England's
power in the society of states. Protected by " the silver streak,"
English commercial policy had of old been accustomed to exhibit
with cynical unrestraint that inborn egoism which is characteristic
of all states, but in which no continental country ventured to
indulge to the same degree. Consequently the world had long
regarded it as a natural law of politics that every ally of faithless
Albion would infallibly be betrayed. Ultimately, however, even
for this unassailable island, the day came on which she had to
realise that moral forces are at work even in international
relationships, and that by excess of perfidy a state destroys its
own influence. In Spain, in Portugal, in Sicily, in Prussia — every-
where England had sacrificed or overreached her loyal companions-
at-arms. The English name, which during Napoleonic days had
been resplendent throughout the world, was now the object of
universal execration. On the continent, Lord Castlereagh was
regarded as merely the subservient train-bearer of Metternich,
and far from unjust was Brougham's reproach to the incompetent
minister that under his leadership Great Britain had declined to
become a power of the second rank.

During this time of general discontent, the insane old king
died in January, 1820. The last and most ineffectual of the four
ineffectual Georges ascended the throne, and immediately showed
that he was in truth, as Byron had said of him when prince regent,
compounded out of the bloody dust of the headless Charles I and
the heartless Henry VIII. His heart was set upon the destruc-
tion of the unhappy Queen Caroline. The man whose whole
private life was nothing but continuous adultery had the effrontery
to accuse his consort publicly of unfaithfulness. Not even the
discovery of Thistle wood's dangerous conspiracy against the lives
of the ministers could induce the king to devote serious attention
to affairs of state. His own advisers and all the friendly courts
saw with alarm that a European scandal was imminent, and
urgently advised against the proposed step ; it was even discussed
whether Metternich had not better go to London in order to take
part in the delicate negotiations.1 But as soon as it became
apparent that George IV was not to be dissuaded from his long-
cherished design, the Austrian statesman showed himself
unreservedly willing to lend a hand to his old ally. For years
past emissaries of the prince regent had tracked the persecuted

1 Bernstorff to Ancillon, May 20, 1820,

473 2 i

History of Germany

princess upon her journeys, and men of distinguished name,
members of the English and Hanoverian nobility, had not scrupled
to question the chambermaids in the inns where she had
spent the night. Now the well-tried Austrian police were
brought into play, and in Milan a whole posse of lackeys,
couriers, and serving maids was got together, ready to testify
against the queen in London, while the elector of Hesse, with
officious zeal, despatched his court-equerry to England as a
witness.1

In August the trial of the queen before the house of peers
began, and the Germans followed with an interest hardly less
intense than that of the English the unparalleled scenes of this
" royal brothel-comedy." For it was a prince of the Germanic
Federation who thus showed himself utterly shameless, and it
was the daughter of a German ruler upon whom this ignominy
was inflicted. What had not this princess of Brunswick had to
endure since she had first set foot upon the shores of the inhos-
pitable island, ill-bred, bumptious, tactless, and capricious, and
despite all these defects an honest German child of nature, upright
and intrepid, in a humane environment competent for human love,
too genuine for the pharisaism of this court. From the first
coarsely insulted by her husband, and then calmly abandoned,
betrayed, and misused ; forcibly separated from her daughter
Charlotte, who nevertheless, with the secure instinct of the true
woman, continued to long for her mother ; shunned, calumniated,
bespattered with foul abuse by the polite world — such had been
her lot for years. When at length she shook the dust of England
from her feet, doing so with similar sensations to those which
inspired Lord Byron, the queen, like the poet, took a malicious
pleasure in provoking the horror of English critics. Impatiently
did she demand from fate compensation for all the dolorous years,
and upon her adventurous journeys she drained the goblet of
pleasure with eager lips down to its most nauseous dregs. At
times her sound nature continued to manifest itself ; in the east,
quite unalarmed by the plague, she devoted herself to providing
consolation and care for sufferers from the disease. At length,
however, she became hardened by her wild career. When her
husband came to the throne she returned to claim her rights as a
queen, and now she stood before the subjects who were to pass
judgment upon her, beyond question a guilty wife, no longer worthy

1 Piquet's Report, Vienna, April 17 ; H&nlein's Report, Cassel. August 28,
1820, etc., etc.

474

Troppau and Laibacli

of a crown ; but what were all her sins in comparison with the
crimes of the man who had poisoned her life ?

It was not merely hatred for the contemptible monarch, but
an honourable human sentiment which led the masses of the
capital to espouse the queen's cause with so much enthusiasm.
Even the widower of Princess Charlotte, the cautious Prince Leopold
of Coburg, considered it his chivalrous duty to visit his mother-
in-law, for which action in Gentz's letters there was bestowed upon
him the honorary title of " lord of the mob." Day after day
the populace went through Hyde Park in crowds to pay homage
to the queen ; and before the gates of the house of peers they
threatened Lord Castlereagh, who with unmoved countenance
and with leisurely pace passed on his way through the raging mob.
Savage lampoons overwhelmed the king with ill wishes. A con-
temporary caricature shows him being driven in a float to the
knacker's, with the legend " cat's meat." For three months, with
the circumstantial thoroughness of English procedure, all the
filth of the court was turned over before the eyes of Europe, and
its effluvium smelt to heaven. In Brougham's skilful mouth, the
queen's defence was converted into an overwhelming accusation
against her spouse, who was forced to hide his rage and shame in
solitude at Windsor. The verdict was at length given in November,
and the Lords voted for the divorce by a majority of nine only.
The king gave up the game as lost and had the bill withdrawn, for
it was quite impossible that the Commons should ever pass it.

A monarchical state would have been shaken to its founda-
tions by such a dishonouring of the crown. The powerful edifice
of parliamentary aristocracy was unaffected, for its centre of
gravity was now remote from the crown. The trial of Queen
Caroline served merely to set the seal upon the process which had
been going on for so long of the destruction of the old independent
monarchical authority, and demonstrated to the entire world that
the king of England retained barely as much power as that of a
Venetian doge. But the defeat was momentous in its effect upon
the dominion of the tories. In former years they had with stub-
born courage led the nation in the struggle against the Napoleonic
world-empire ; but since then the age had stridden dver them,
and all their earlier services were as nothing in face of the utterly
barren and ill-considered policy of the last five years. The general
dissatisfaction with the system of conservatism increased to the
point of contempt, and if the detested government still held
together, it was only because for the moment no one was prepared

475

History of Germany

to accept its disastrous inheritance. The whigs, who had for so
long been discouraged and divided, began to gather strength once
more, and quietly to concentrate their forces upon the programme
of parliamentary reform. In such a situation, Castlereagh could
not venture to give free rein to his reactionary inclinations, or to
endorse unreservedly the European policy of his friend Metternich.
Thus weakened by internal struggles, the two constitutional powers
of the west looked on helplessly at the revolutions of the south.

Modern science, differing from the political doctrine of anti-
quity, no longer seeks the greatness of monarchy in the personal
superiority of a God-given ruling race, but in the independence
of a state-authority established upon its own right, and therefore
unbiased and beyond the influence of social covetousness. In
popular sentiment, however, political institutions acquire meaning
and life only in the personalities of the individuals who wield them.
So shameful a self-inflicted degradation of kingship as this genera-
tion witnessed in Spain, Italy, and England, inevitably destroyed
throughout wide circles all respect for monarchy. In connec-
tion with such princes, the doctrines of legitimism seemed like a
cruel mockery ; and since amid the sorrows of the present the
nations invariably tend to forget the gloomier features of the
past, the glances of many began to turn backwards yearningly
towards the towering figure of the man who had inflicted such
signal humiliations upon the legitimate ruling houses. Nor had
the assiduous secret activities of the emissaries from St. Helena
remained altogether without influence. During the last years of
his regime, the heir of the revolution had shown himself only as
the despot ; but now, in its evil hour, Bonapartism once again
turned towards the world the democratic visage of its Janus' head.

All the letters and memorials with which the exile had flooded
the European bookmarket, related in moving terms how throughout
life he had followed but a single aim, to dower the French with
freedom as soon as order should have been re-established ; in the old
days he had desired to surround himself with a circle of enlightened
philanthropists, and to send these as espions de vertu into the
provinces in the train of the empress, to mete out justice to the
complaints of the poor and oppressed ; unfortunately the war-lust
of his envious neighbours had again and again forced the prince
of peace to draw the sword and to postpone the execution of his
most cherished plans. These preposterous fables found many a
willing ear. In France and Poland, thousands repeated Beranger's

470

Troppau and Laibach

fierce plaint, adieu done pauvre gloire ; throughout the vassal lands
of the Imperator, Napoleonic memories were revived. Even in
England were to be found malcontents who could see in Napoleon's
overthrow merely the triumph of brute force over genius, and
Byron did not hesitate to glorify the legion of honour and the
tricolor as the star of the brave and the rainbow of the free.

Meanwhile Eugene Beauharnais and his sister H or tense of
Bavaria carried on active intercourse with Napoleon's envoys.
Frau von Abel and the widow of Marshal Ney were the means of
communication with France ; while notwithstanding the repeated
exhortations of the great powers, the good king Max Joseph was
unable to make up his mind to prohibit the enterprises of his
darling Eugene.1 Outside this narrow circle of the Napoleonides
there did not indeed now exist a Bonapartist party definitely
aiming at the restoration of the empire. Aware of its weakness,
Bonapartism made common cause with the radical parties, sowing
discontent everywhere, and fostering anger against the existing
order ; Napoleonic veterans played an active part in all the revolu-
tionary secret societies of France, Italy, and Poland. The press
had at length become weary of diatribes against the Corscian,
inclining now rather to publish sentimental complaints about
the hard lot of this " prisoner of the millions " — for from the lying
reports from St. Helena it was impossible to gather how unworthy
this man was of sympathy. At other times the papers, with
mordant humour, would compare the genius of the discrowned
with the heirs of his world-dominion. A caricature circulated in
South Germany pictured the three rulers of the eastern powers,
and beside them a beast with three bodies and a single head ;
above the monster rose the form of Napoleon ; beneath was
written, " Solve now the riddle, to which of us three does the one
head belong ? " When, finally, in the summer of 1821, tidings
reached Europe that the exile had passed away, death exercised
its hallucinating charm, and many who had cursed the man while
he was alive felt shaken by the tragedy of his fate. Even Pope
Pius VII, who had suffered so severely at the rough hands of
the Imperator, sent a warmly worded letter of condolence to
Napoleon's mother, Letizia Buonaparte, declaring in moving terms
how indelibly the image of their great fellow-countryman was
graven upon the hearts of the Italians.

Involuntarily, people's thoughts turned to the boy who was

1 Instruction to Zastrow, August 12, 1818 ; Zastrow's Reports, November 29,
1818, September 28, 1819, May i, 1822, etc.

477

History of Germany

growing up in Austria, deliberately estranged from his house and
his fatherland. At the second peace congress of Paris, the states-
men of the five powers had agreed in the desire that for the sake
of the future tranquillity of Europe Napoleon's heir should be
educated for the priestly profession. Now that the talents of the
precocious child were unfolding themselves, the court of Vienna
was speedily forced to recognise how little this fiery spirit was fitted
for the priesthood. But the determination that the Imperator's
stock should die out was maintained, most firmly of all by the
Berlin cabinet, which always displayed itself utterly implacable
towards the Napoleonides. When Emperor Francis created his
grandson Duke of Reichstadt, on Prussia's urgent representations
he expressly restricted the dignity to the person of the prince, for
it was not to pass to descendants.1 In such circumstances did
the son of the world-ruler grow towards manhood, suspiciously
guarded by the deadly enemies of his race. In the terrible tragedy
of this house what a part was played by the shallow woman who
during the four years of Caesarean splendours had repudiated all
the memories of her homeland and had even almost forgotten her
mother tongue ! As if nothing had happened, while her husband
was still alive Marie-Louise led in Parma a frivolous widowed life,
and Byron, enraged at the heartlessness of the Austrian woman,
asked why should one expect princes to spare the feelings of the
people when their own feelings were so superficial.

The new order of the society of states was already beginning
to crumble to pieces ; the congress of Vienna had but half
attained the aim of its great work of peace, for the age of revolu-
tions was not yet closed. A revolutionary breeze was now passing
over the world ; the sins of the re-established ancient authorities
had reopened the bag of y£olus. Haller, therefore, immediately
sounded the alarm, and in his fierce work upon the Spanish con-
stitution demanded a war of extermination against the revolution.
Haller was answered by his fellow-countryman Troxler, who
published (1821) a German translation of Buchanan's and Milton's
works upon the right of resistance, and in a vigorous preface
declared that Haller's party derived its ultraism, not from convic-
tion, but from selfishness and greed. This, too, was a sign of the
times, that Troxler's book, entitled Prince and People, quickly
ran through two large editions, although the abstract tyran-
nophobia of these two bold monarchomachists appertained to a

1 Instruction to Krusemark, January 24 ; Krusemark's Reports, February 4
and ii, 1818.

478

Troppau and Laibach

long since superseded doctrine, to the ecclesiastico-political radi-
calism of the century of the wars of religion. And as if it were
essential to provide formal justification of the teachings of
Buchanan and Milton, the clericalist council of Lucerne promptly
deprived the translator of his professoriate. Almost everywhere
the revolutionary doctrine and the legitimist law were in sharp
and obstinate opposition. A struggle was inevitable, and for a
long time to come reconciliation seemed impossible.

§ 2. THE CONGRESS OF TROPPAU.

The very first intelligence of the disturbances in the south-
west filled the courts of the great alliance with grave anxiety.
" Liberalism goes on its course," wrote Metternich after the
assassination of the due de Berry " ; "it rains murder, here is
the fourth Sand in nine months ! " For a few weeks the rulers
continued to flatter themselves with the hope that the flood of the
revolution would ebb once more, and the whole extent of the
danger was not realised until the king of Spain accepted the Cortes
constitution. All the five powers were agreed that this funda-
mental law was abominable. Bernstorff and Ancillon expressed
the general opinion when they declared that King Ferdinand had
subscribed to his own disgrace ; from a constitution of this
character, extorted by revolt, nothing could come but a bad republic
with a shadow king. Frederick William was especially disturbed
in mind. Hardenberg desired that the envoy to Spain, Baron von
Werther, an able diplomat, who had been on furlough for a con-
siderable period during which he had been represented in Madrid
by a charge d'affaires, should immediately be sent back to his
important post, but the king firmly refused to take this step,1
manifestly because he did not desire to show politeness to the
revolutionary government.

Neither in Berlin nor in Vienna was any doubt felt that the
league which had been renewed in Aix-la-Chapelle against the
French revolutionary parties was also indirectly valid against other
countries as well, and that the great powers were therefore justified
in protecting the house of Bourbon in Spain just as they had pro-
tected the same house five years earlier in France. But was it
advisable, was it even possible, to enforce this alleged right imme-
diately ? Of all the courts, that of St. Petersburg was alone

1 Hardenberg's Diary, March 28, April i, 1820.

479

History of Germany

prepared to answer this question straightway in the affirmative.
Since Czar Alexander persistently played the part of guardian to
the Madrid cabinet (though indeed with little success), and since
he had been partially responsible for the assembling of the troops
round Cadiz, it seemed to him that the revolt of the Spanish army
was a slap in his own face. On March 3rd, even before the victory
of the revolution had been secured, he requested the powers to
instruct their envoys in Paris to deliberate concerning Spanish
affairs, and when on several subsequent occasions he had confiden-
tially exhorted them to take joint measures, he finally, on May 2nd,
advanced the proposal that the allied courts should demand from
the Spanish Cortes the solemn repudiation of the revolution and
the establishment of a more moderate constitution.

The German great powers were unable to accept this sugges-
tion, which could not fail to affront to an extreme degree the
irritable national pride of the Spaniards. In Spain, even Napoleon
had found the limits to his power ; at this juncture a war against
the Iberian peninsula opened an utterly hopeless prospect, for
King Louis XVIII, amid the confusions of domestic party struggles,
could neither venture upon armed intervention himself nor yet
grant passage to German or Russian troops. Even had the
cabinet of the Tuileries been able to screw itself up to so rash a
resolution, England, in accordance with the old traditions of her
commercial policy, would never have allowed it to be carried out ;
the tory government would have been hopelessly defeated in
parliament had it advocated a Franco-Russian campaign against
England's former ally. Lord Castlereagh immediately recog-
nised this, and from the outset obstinately opposed the czar's
desire to intervene. It was not permissible, he declared to King
George IV on April 3oth, that the true purposes of the Grand
Alliance should be generalised in this manner, that it should be used
in order to embarrass a constitutional government. At the same
time, Wellington reminded the allies of his own Spanish experi-
ences, and warned them of the anti-foreign passion of this unap-
proachable people. Nor could the old leader of mercenaries
renounce the opportunity of once again expressing his rancour
against the Prussian national army by the use of an extraor-
dinarily inept comparison. In a letter to Richelieu he declared
that the mutiny of the Spanish troops was an awful example for
the German states, whose armies were constituted on the like model !
Such being the attitude of the western powers, the two German
courts had also to abandon the idea of European intervention,

480

Troppau and Laibach

although Hardenberg offered no objection to joint deliberation on
the part of the envoys in Paris. Both Prussia and Austria now
regarded Spain as a lost position ; quiet in France was worth more
to them than these remoter questions. In Vienna, the fussy
activities of the czar had reawakened the old mistrust of Russia,
nor had the ambiguous attitude of the St. Petersburg cabinet after
the Carlsbad decrees been forgotten by the Hofburg, while dis-
quieting news had again come to hand from the Balkan peninsula
regarding the intrigues of Russian agents.1 Metternich therefore
recommended, as he had done two years earlier,2 the formation
of a secret sonderbund between the German powers, which in case
of need could be directed against Russia. But, on this occasion
also, Prussia firmly rejected the suggestion, for the king held
inalterably to the belief that the peace of the world could be
secured in no other way than by the alliance of the three eastern
powers, while Bernstorff considered Metternich's proposal both
unwise and dishonourable. " Towards Russia," he wrote to Ancillon,
" we must pursue a thoroughly upright policy ; we must have
neither to conceal nor to acknowledge an unrighteous action. Our
friendships with Austria can never become too intimate or too
strong, but it must be perfectly free, a simple relationship of
mutual confidence. The advantage we hope to secure from it
would be frustrated by the first written word which should impose
upon us any formal and definite pledge.3

After this rebuff in Berlin, Metternich tried his luck with the
czar, and in May sent to Lebzeltern, the Austrian envoy in St.
Petersburg, a lengthy memorial intended for Alexander in person.
Bernstorff spoke of this work by his Viennese friend as utterly
obscure, feeble, and confused, and in truth a more wretched docu-
ment had seldom issued from Metternich's fertile pen. Since he
shared with his liberal opponents a fondness for doctrinaire pro-
positions, he based his opposition to European intervention, which
was merely the outcome of the momentary situation of the great
powers, upon certain general political maxims, and thus unwittingly
committed himself to a theory of non-intervention which was in
flat contradiction with the principles he had so often reiterated
of the policy of stability.4

1 Knisemark's Reports, January 16, April 10, May 15 and 22, 1820
* Vide supra, vol. II, p. 374.

3 Bernstorfi to Ancillon, April 16, 1820.

4 Metternich's Memorial concerning the Spanish revolution (to Lebzeltern,
May, 1820). Bernstorff to Ancillon, May 20, 1820.

481

History of Germany

Metternich's imagination had no more than five metaphors
at its command, all relating to the danger of revolution, and all
by this time well known to the diplomatic world : the volcano,
the plague, the cancer, the flood, and the conflagration. This
time the volcano opened the ball. " Europe is sleeping over a
volcano," began the memorial dolorously; "the whole vicinity
of France is still covered by the lava-masses of the first revolution,
and the so recently re-established principle of legitimacy is already
threatened once again . . . The task seems to have been too
difficult for mortals ; it is within God's competence alone to rule
the world, and by a single act of will to establish firm and inviolable
laws." Of the revolutionary states, France, Italy, Spain, and
Germany, it still seemed to the Austrian that Italy was the hap-
piest land — and this a few weeks before the revolution broke out
in Naples. In Italy, he said, thanks to the wisdom of the govern-
ments, tolerable quietude prevailed. Among the conservative
powers, Austria naturally occupied the highest place in his
esteem, for this state " guards against its neighbours the privilege
of its ancient laws, the force of its variegated composition (la force
de ses subdivisions), and the power of tradition." With the aid
of his image of the conflagration he passed from this gloomy
description of existing conditions to draw yet more tragical con-
clusions. " In conflagrations it is often impossible to save the
burning buildings, and our precautions must be restricted to
attempting to prevent the spread of the fire." There followed an
assurance whose use byMetternich seems well-nigh incredible. The
history of all nations taught " that foreign intervention has never
prevented or regulated the effects of a revolution, except perhaps
where very small countries are concerned." At the moment,
therefore, the only course was to establish a firm moral bond
between the courts, to continue an active interchange of ideas,
to take common precautions against the spread of false doctrines.
A shower of flattery for Czar Alexander brought the document to a
close. This could not conceal from the czar that Austria was for
the time being unwilling to interfere in Spanish affairs. Since
the court of Vienna made a formal declaration to this effect on
June 5th, and since Prussia replied in the same strain in the begin-
ning of July, Alexander had to abandon his design. Through the
favour of her geographical position and through the weakness of
France, Spain was temporarily safeguarded from attack.

The peaceful mood of the Viennese court was suddenly and

482

Troppau and Laibach

completely transformed when on July 22nd tidings came of the
beginning of the Italian revolution, terrible news whose effect was
all the greater because the Austrian envoy in Naples had just
reported that everyone there was incensed at the folly of the
Spanish rebels. l All the unctuous asseverations that God alone
ruled the world and that foreign intervention was never effective
in stemming a revolution, were now forgotten. In a vociferous
article, the Oesterreichische Beobachter announced to loyal subjects
that the spirit of corruption had overpowered a happy and wisely
governed country, and Metternich forthwith declared to the Prus-
sian envoy his fixed determination to subdue this rising at all costs.'
Not merely did he see that Austria's power was threatened in one
of her two mid-European bulwarks, but he was able in addition to
lay stress upon the breach of treaties, for the Italian Bourbons,
in the secret treaty of Vienna of June 12, 1815, had promised to
make no change in their ancient monarchical institutions. He
prepared his counterstroke with indefatigable zeal. Not even
the loss of a second daughter, which occurred this spring, could
paralyse his energies, although in domestic life he was not devoid
of feeling, and the second affliction cut him to the heart. Owing
to the lamentable condition of the army and the finances, the
military preparations went forward very slowly ; many weeks
passed before the garrisons in the disturbed regions of northern
Italy had been adequately reinforced, and not until months had
elapsed could the crusade against southern Italy be hazarded.
Metternich could not fail to know this, but in his case falsehood
had become second nature, and he could not refrain, even in a
private letter where the lie was utterly purposeless, from boasting
of the quiet but speedy advance of Austria's equipments. At
Leipzig, he continued, this modest old Austria had placed two-
thirds of the allied army in the field — whereas in reality there had
been no more than about 100,000 Austrians among the forces of
the allies, numbering 255,000 in all. As a worthy close to his self-
praise, he added, " but we puff our wares poorly ! "

Yet what mattered it if the military preparations were some-
what delayed ? The issue of a war against Naples was all the less
dubious inasmuch as the feeling of the great powers was in favour
of the Austrian plans. At all the courts the Italian revolution
was from the first judged far more severely than the Spanish rising,
if only for the reason that the government of Naples was in far

1 Krusemark's Report, May 8, 1820.
* Krusemark's Report, August 2, 1820.

4*3

History of Germany

better odour than the universally despised Madrid camarilla.
Amid the competing interests and mutual jealousies of our society
of states, it is only by the accomplished fact that any nation can
establish its right to existence and enforce respect from its neigh-
bours. Since the edifice of the Vienna treaties was founded upon
the political nullity of the two civilised nations of southern Europe,
the statesmen of this generation continued for decades to regard
it as an article of faith that the Italians were utterly incompetent
for national independence. Unfortunately the Prussian diplomats
also did their best to foster this universal prejudice, ignoring that
all foreigners, for the like reason, passed the same unamiable and
unjust judgment upon the political capacity of the Germans.
Although the disturbance at Naples originated among the possessing
classes, the English envoy described it as an uprising of the mob
against property. In Rome, Niebuhr was so profoundly disgusted
by the demagogic wiles of the carbonari, that he compared the
revolt to a negro rebellion, and could not find terms strong enough
in which to describe the bestiality of these Italians ; even his
youthful secretary, Bunsen, opined that genuine freedom was
inconceivable among this debased people.

Much trouble was created, in especial, by the conduct of
Francis, crown prince of Naples, whom Ferdinand, desiring to
reserve his energies for the hour of retribution, had appointed
regent. The son was worthy of the father ; he wore the carbonari
colours and played the part of popular prince solely in order to
effect more securely the destruction of the liberals. Abroad, how-
ever, the double game of the successor to the Bourbon throne was
not yet understood. He was regarded as a friend of the liberal
crown prince of Bavaria, and a despatch by the accomplished prince
Christian of Denmark (who had been present in Naples during the
disturbances and had accurately estimated King Ferdinand's
character) gave definite assurance that Francis held serious consti-
tutional views, and had not adopted his present course from weak-
ness.1 What a prospect if a young king animated by liberal
sentiments were to place himself at the head of a national move-
ment of the Italians ! But the most sinister phenomenon in the
revolution was the power of the secret societies, which on this
occasion was so strikingly manifest; nothing seemed clearer than
that the terrible conspiracy had ramifications extending into

1 Despatch from Prince Christian of Denmark, Naples, July n, 1820. The
addressee was probably the king of Denmark, but the document went the round
of the courts.

484

Troppau and Laibach

France, Germany, and England.1 Consequently all the five
powers considered vigorous intervention essential, and none of
the others contested the right of Austria, as the one especially
menaced, to take the lead in the movement.

The envoys of the new Neapolitan government were not
received by any of the five courts. The king of Prussia (whose
example was followed by Emperor Francis) left unopened a
despatch from King Ferdinand announcing the change that had
been effected, and Bernstorff declared that his Sicilian majority
would some day have good reason to thank the king of Prussia for
this. To strengthen the courts in their abhorrence, Metternich
circulated among them the report of his private conversation with
the revolutionary envoy, Prince Cimitille. How formidably had
he hectored the poor fellow, how artfully had he utilised the third
of his favourite metaphors, the plague. Against a country thus
devastated with the plague, he said, all its neighbours were com-
pelled to establish strict quarantine ; the only hope was that the
honest men in Naples should beg their king to resume the reins
of government. " Try General Pepe by court martial, and you
can count on the support of 100,000 Austrians."2

On July 25th, the lesser German governments were informed
that Emperor Francis, who was pledged by treaties to supervise
Italy, had determined in the last resort to suppress armed rebel-
lion by force, and that meanwhile he reckoned upon absolute
repose in Germany. The exhortation was hardly needed. The
petty states remained blamelessly dutiful, the majority from dread
of the revolution, and the remainder from fear of the great powers.
The king of Bavaria expressed his indignation with the Jacobins
of the south just as fiercely as did the elector of Hesse, who
repeatedly offered the use of his troops for the campaign against
the Italian rebels. The carbonari had had great hopes of the court
of Stuttgart, for the fabulous report of Swabian freedom had made
its way into the distant south. Two Neapolitan agents came to
Stuttgart to swear friendship with free Wurtemberg and to study
its institutions. But Wintzingerode turned them the cold
shoulder, dryly observing : " We have nothing to expect from
Naples, but much from the great powers." The new Neapolitan

1 See, for example, the Memoire de la cour de Prusse. October 7, 1820. designed
for the courts of Paris and London.

* Ministerial Despatch to Krusemark, September 9 ; Conversation between
Prince Metternich and Prince Cimitille, lithographed for the allied powers, Sep-
tember, 1820.

485

History of Germany

government was regarded with contempt by the society of states,
and in all Europe was recognised by only two powers. One of
these was the untrustworthy court of Brussels, which received in
consequence a sharp reproof from Czar Alexander. The other
recognition was secured from Madrid, where the government was
of like mind with that of Naples ; the triumphal progress of the
Cortes constitution had aroused an outburst of joy, Spanish pride
was exuberant, and the radical parties gained fresh courage.1

The views of the great powers diverged widely, however,
concerning ways and means for the overthrow of the revolution.
Austria would fain have a free hand for her negotiators and for
her arms, in order to secure the re-establishment in Naples of the
old conditions, as specified by the treaties ; it would be best
therefore from her point of view if the co-operation of Europe, with
which she could not entirely dispense, were restricted to "moral
support," if the envoys of the great powers in Vienna, like those
in Paris at an earlier date, should meet in permanent conference,
and, while Austria alone actively intervened, should sustain her
with their unauthoritative counsels. The Prussian court, which
from the first contemplated the Italian question through Viennese
spectacles, shared this opinion. " More than ever the cause of
Austria is now the cause of united Europe," wrote Bernstorff as
early as August I2th, and Niebuhr immediately received instruc-
tions to come to an understanding with the Austrian envoy in
Rome. Everything must be avoided which could in any way hinder
the avenging arm of the Hofburg in Italy.2 It is true that
Prussia's attitude was not dictated solely by friendship, but also
by a sober political consideration which for months to come
remained hidden from the court of Vienna. On no account would
the king have his exhausted state burdened with new duties ; not
a man nor a thaler was he willing to sacrifice to these southern
complications. Prussia would come most safely out of the game
if Austria were granted a perfectly free hand in Italy. The
English government, too, would now gladly have prevented any
formal agreement among the great powers, for not even Metternich
could desire to subdue the revolution more earnestly than did
Castlereagh, and since European intervention could not be safely

1 Hanlein's Report, Cassel, December 17 ; Kuster's Reports, Stuttgart, Sep-
tember 23 and November^ ; Capodistrias to von Phull, Russian envoy in Brussels,
October, 1820.

1 Ministerial Despatches to Krusemark, August 12, 19, and 30, and September 9,
1820.

486

Troppau and Laibach

proposed owing to the difficult temper of parliament, the tory
cabinet wished that the chastisement of the carbonari should if
possible be left to the Hofburg alone. To the ancient ally of the
house of Lorraine, the circumstance that this would serve to
reinstate Austria's power in the peninsula could not but be
welcome.

To the court of the Tuileries this danger seemed all the more
serious. Richelieu, too, execrated the revolution, which was
directed against the cousins of the Most Christian King, but no
minister of France could assist in strengthening the preponderance
of Austria in the south ; and who could stand security that
England would not avail herself of the Italian complications to instal
herself once more in Sicily? Consequently, in the first days of
August, Richelieu proposed to the Hofburg the summoning of a
European meeting, after the prototype of the congress of Aix-la-
Chapelle.1 In a circular to the great powers, Austria rejected the
suggestion, on the ground that the proposed conference would
merely waste time and would alarm the English court (August
28th). The cabinet of St. Petersburg, on the other hand, ardently
espoused Richelieu's idea. The czar was still dominated by his
dream of a great Christian league. He hoped that if the high
tribunal of Europe should assemble, the revolution might perhaps
be subjugated in both the peninsulas, but also that Austria's
peculiar power might be bridled, and that alike in Naples and in
Madrid a moderate regime might be installed under the supervision
of the great powers. Alexander had not yet completely discarded
the liberal ideals ol earlier years ; he anticipated that the
radicalism of war, if matters once came to blows, would almost
inevitably lead to a vigorous reaction in both the peninsulas, and
his soft nature rose in revolt against such an outcome. Since the
Hofburg held to its refusal, the czar finally had recourse to a means
often tried before, and in an affectionate letter to the king of Prussia
begged his royal friend not to refuse this heartfelt wish. Frederick
William was rarely able to withstand an emotional appeal, except
where questions of conscience were concerned. He agreed to the
summoning of a meeting, though very unwillingly, and without
any change in his personal opinion regarding the Italian question.2
Metternich had now also to give way if he wished to avoid
affronting the czar, and since Alexander was in Warsaw on account
of the diet, the three monarchs agreed to meet in the middle of

1 Bernstorff's Instruction to Krusemark, September 17, 1820.

2 Krusemark's Report, Vienna, August 5, 1820.

487

History of Germany

October in the conveniently situated Troppau. Like the Nether-
lands under William III, Austria now constituted the centre of
gravity of the society of states, and just as in those days all the
great congresses, from that of Nimeguen to that of Utrecht, had
been held upon Netherland territory, so during this epoch it
became the rule that the masters of Europe should assemble round
Emperor Francis, in the latter's crown-lands.

To the western powers the change of plans of the three rulers
seemed extremely inopportune. Richelieu was terrified at the
consequences of his own proposal, for he began to perceive what a
distressing role the two constitutional courts of the west would
have to play in Troppau beside the three eastern powers. But it
was too late to withdraw. In his perplexity he adopted an unfor-
tunate half measure, resolving that at least he would not put in
a personal appearance at the congress. Castlereagh, who was
detained in London by the queen's trial, commissioned his brother
Lord Stewart, British envoy in Vienna, to follow Emperor
Francis to Troppau. In case of need this step could be excused
to parliament, and Metternich was not left in doubt regarding the
real opinions of his British friends, for they selected this as the
moment in which to send a fleet to Naples for the protection of the
royal family. Whilst the three potentates of the east with their
leading ministers thus appeared in person at Troppau, England
was represented only by a statesman of the second rank, an
insignificant and crotchety eccentric. The perplexity of the
French court was reflected almost more conspicuously in the
choice of its representatives. What could the sagacious and
upright Comte la Ferronays, a man animated by straightforward
constitutionalist sentiments, hope to effect at Troppau, when he
appeared merely as subordinate to the marquis de Caraman, his
declared political opponent, a man closely associated with the
ultras. Thus from the first the position of the western powers
was feeble and insecure. It was only the two German courts which
knew precisely what they wanted, namely, the destruction of the
revolution by Austria alone.

Czar Alexander also had occasion before long to feel this
superiority of a definitely conceived aim. The czar willed the end
without willing the means ; he vacillated once more between the
councils of Nesselrode and those of Capodistrias, and the experi-
ences he had just been through at the second session of the Polish
diet were hardly likely to strengthen in him the force of resolution.
What a repulsive spectacle of political folly had been displayed !

488

Troppau and Laibach

A whole series of well-designed laws had been rejected amid
crazy speeches ; the galleries had been filled with noisy and
threatening students ; the country was permeated by the impal-
pable and yet universally perceptible activities of the nationalist
freemasons ; while the new national army was simply a gigantic
conspiracy. The infatuated populace drove irresistibly forward
towards a new revolution. Nevertheless Alexander would not
abandon the hope that liberty would find a home here under the
pinions of the white eagle. He closed the sittings of the barren
diet with a few reproachful yet amiable words. " You have,"
he exclaimed to the delegates, " received good for evil. Poland
has re-entered the ranks of the states. I shall adhere firmly to
my intentions. Consult your own consciences and they will tell
you whether you have rendered your country the services which
it expected from your wisdom." He immediately despatched
this address from the throne to the embassies, with an auto-
graph circular, once again extolling constitutional institutions,
such as were demanded by the almost unanimous wish of the
nations. For all that, the harassing affair rankled. Although
Alexander by no means fully trusted the Viennese court, he gave
an extremely cordial reception to Lebzeltern, who came to Warsaw
with confidential proposals from Emperor Francis. Through
the instrumentality of Capodistrias, he let the Hofburg know how
great were the blessings he anticipated from the harmony of the
powers. " Twice before, the nations and the princes have had
occasion to bless the league of the most mighty of rulers ; this
time they will do the same." He simultaneously begged the
English government to participate in the meeting with perfect con-
fidence. 1 For the time being he no longer thought of intervention
in Spain, since he recognised that the scope of the congress must
at first be restricted to Italy.

Such was the situation when, on October 2Oth, the representa-
tives of the powers came together in the quiet capital of Austrian
Silesia. Here, in the out of the way valley of the Oppa, it was
possible for the congress to devote itself exclusively to business,
secure from interruption by all the quidnuncs and place-hunters
who had thronged round the monarchs at Aix-la-Chapelle. With
the coming of the autumn rains a certain provincial tedium became
apparent. Except for the accomplished Countess Urban, a friend

1 Capodistrias to Metternich, Warsaw, September 26 (October 8) ; to Prince
Lieven in London, September 26 (October 8), 1820.

489 2 K

History of Germany

of Gents, a lady was rarely visible in the salon of the hopelessly
ugly castle, and most of the assembled statesmen considered they
were making great sacrifices on behalf of an important cause by
enduring for week after week the monotony of this diplomatic
conventual life. The representatives of the western powers
persistently maintained so timid a reserve that, from the first
common action on the part of the five courts seemed almost
impossible. Lord Stewart had been commissioned by his brother to
confine himself wherever possible to the formal noting of resolu-
tions, for the English government did not consider the provisions
of the great treaty of alliance applicable to the»Italian question.1
He refused in the very first sitting of October 27th to subscribe
to the minutes, and the congress had to make shift with a journal
kept by Gentz. Consequently there were but few formal sittings.

Decisions were reached through confidential conversations,
and Metternich's perspicacity led him at once to formulate a definite
aim, shortly after the opening of the congress, by saying to the
Prussian chancellor : " We, the eastern powers, must take the
lead, since we are all agreed in matters of principle ; we must lose
no time over negotiations which can subserve no purpose, either
in London or in Paris." z Thus the primary aim was to win over
the czar completely to the Austrian view, and to secure a unani-
mous decision on the part of the three freest and healthiest states
(as Metternich termed the eastern powers). If this could be
effected, it seemed at least possible to obtain the tacit assent of
the two other cabinets, which were fettered by parliamentary con-
siderations. Prussia contented herself with the modest role of
mediator between the two imperial states. To the king, in the
gloomy mood which now dominated him, the constraints of courtly
society seemed even more intolerable than of yore ; it was with
manifest reluctance that he made his first appearance at Troppau
as late as November 7th, and he speedily alleged indisposition, to
enable him to quit the congress a fortnight later. Bernstorff was
kept in bed by an attack of gout ; while Hardenberg, far more
concerned about his Prussian affairs than about the Italian con-
tentions, confidingly left the leadership of the discussions to his
Austrian friend, without dreaming of the suspicion with which
he was himself regarded by Metternich.

Metternich's hour had now come, the hour for the display

1 Castlereagh, Instruction to Stewart, October 15 ; Hardenberg'e and Bern-
storff's Report, October 27, 1820.

2 Hardenberg's Diary, October 25, 1820,

490

Troppau and Laibach

of all his diplomatic astuteness. Some days of arduous labour
were requisite before, in repeated private conversations, he had
been able, to some extent, to undermine the czar's preference for
the liberalising Capodistrias. The Austrian still regarded this
Greek as "an utter fool " ; the reciprocal hatred of the two
statesmen led the differences of opinion between the imperial
powers to appear greater than was really the case. To prove his
devotion to the czar, Metternich hastened to bring forward the
old and cherished plan of St. Petersburg policy which the Russian
statesmen had recommended to the allied powers at Aix-la-
Chapelle and on several subsequent occasions, offering to sub-
scribe a European treaty of guarantee, in accordance with which all
the sovereigns should mutually undertake to maintain the status
quo against any forcible disturbance whether from within or from
without, so that the visionary Holy Alliance could at length
acquire a tangible content.1 But the unimpassioned Austrian
wished to see the practical question of the moment, that of
intervention in Naples, decided first of all, whereas the leading
desire of the imaginative czar was to perfect the structure of his
Holy Alliance before proceeding to apply to Italy these new
principles of international law.

In the first conference Metternich read several letters in which
King Ferdinand of Naples described his difficult situation in vivid
colours, and entered a formal protest against the compulsion to
which he had been subjected. The prince who had just sworn fealty
to the new constitution and had invoked lightnings in case of
disloyalty, now declared that he had been forced to open parlia-
ment with a knife at his throat. Even among these biased
auditors, such shameless duplicity aroused general disgust, and
the conference resolved that the letters should not be recorded
in the journal, " lest the unhappy king should be yet more
gravely compromised." This was followed by the reading of a
long Austrian memorial which cited the secret Viennese treaty of
1815. Metternich's intention was, with the assent of the allied
powers, to come to the assistance of the king who had just
explained that he had acted under compulsion, to occupy Naples,
and then to allow the Bourbon ruler to restore order under the
protection of Austrian arms. What mattered it to Metternich
that the Neapolitan minister, the duke of Campo-Chiaro, had
four weeks earlier assured von Menz, the Austrian charge
d'affaires, that his government would be delighted to see the

1 Bernstorfi's Report, October 21, 1820 ; Vide supra, vol. Ill, p. 114.

491

History of Germany

insolent radical sects cowed by the great powers ? In Metter-
nich's eyes the Muratic-constitutionalist sect which now sat in
the Naples cabinet was no better than the carbonari.1 This
opening made a painful impression. The Prussians alone agreed
with Metternich. The other plenipotentiaries maintained an
embarrassed silence, for the secret Viennese treaty had hitherto
been entirely unknown to the French court, and probably also
to that of Russia ; and by appealing to this treaty the Hofburg
gave clearly to understand that Austria regarded Naples as a
dependency, and that she did not contemplate the establishment
of a moderate government in this region, but the restoration
of absolutism, of " the ancient monarchical institutions. On
November 2nd, the czar replied to the Austrian memorial. He
considered it repulsive that the great powers should pay any
attention to the complaints of the perjured Bourbon ruler, and
he desired by a proclamation to allay the anxieties of the
Neapolitans concerning their political independence. In any case
it was essential to avoid giving ground for the belief that inter-
vention was suggested, not for the sake of Europe, but for the
advantage of one single power.

The Prussian statesmen were not slow to divine how little
power of resistance there was behind this well-meaning scruple ;
they zealously continued their efforts at mediation, and on
November 6th Bernstorff, who was still indisposed, had the satis-
faction of witnessing at his bedside a tolerably complete recon-
ciliation between the statesmen of the imperial courts. Next
day, Russia declared her essential agreement with Metternich 's
plans, and henceforward the representatives of the three eastern
powers engaged in confidential negotiations from which the western
powers were excluded. Austria, Germany, and Russia were not
yet fully agreed as to terms. The czar once more offered to
attempt mediation in Naples, but the two German powers rejected
the proposal, on the ground that Russia must throughout act
hand in hand with her allies (November loth). After the Russians
had left the room, Metternich astonished his Prussian friends by
a fresh suggestion, designed to build a golden bridge for the czar.2
How would it do to invite King Ferdinand to appear in person
before the congress ? Should his ministers not allow him to come,

1 Austrian Memorial, October 23 ; Menz's Report Naples, September 28, 1820.

2 Prussian Memorial, October 28 ; Russian Memorial, November 2 ; Harden
berg's and Bernstorff's Report, November 4 ; Bernstorff to Ancillon, November 8 ;
Hardenberg's Diary, November 7 and 10, 1820.

492

Troppau and Laibach

it would be manifest that he was under duress, and the interven-
tion of the Austrian army would be justified before all the world ;
but should he accept the invitation, he could reconcile his unfor-
tunate country with the European powers.

What an idea ! This perjured Bourbon, despised by all the
members of the congress, the man who had just passionately
accused his own subjects before the great powers, was to play the
part of mediator between his country and Europe ! Yet the
cunning plan proved ingratiating through its assumption of the
mask of benevolence. It had so philanthropic a sound ; and
moreover, to decide the future of Naples in co-operation with the
sovereign especially concerned was in literal accord with the
stipulation of Aix-la-Chapelle.1 Utterly blinded by hatred of
the revolution, the courts hardly noticed that Metternich's " non-
partisan proposal" was tantamount to hearing only one side of
the case. To the dramatic inclinations of the founder of the
Holy Alliance, it was an alluring idea that the high assize of
Europe should solemnly cite a king before its bar. But King
Frederick William and his advisers inconsiderately agreed to
participate in the farce of a proceeding which was utterly pre-
posterous from the standpoint of international law, and the like
of which would never for a moment have been tolerated by
Prussia herself. It is the curse of great political assemblies that
they blunt the sense of justice, because responsibility for action is
so widely distributed ; parliaments and diplomatic congresses are
far more likely to act unscrupulously than are individual states-
men. Since the Prussian court would not in any case share
directly in the intervention in Naples, it was not considered
necessary to make strict enquiry regarding the uprightness of
the proposed measure.

In fine, first the Prussians and then the Russians approved
the Austrian suggestion, and a good understanding having thus
been secured, vigorous preparations were made for common
diplomatic action on the part of the eastern powers. At this junc-
ture, on November I5th, the czar received tidings from St.
Petersburg that the celebrated Semenoff regiment of the guard
had refused to obey the orders of its detested colonel. The mutiny
was quite devoid of political significance, and General Witzleben
acted with his usual good sense when he advised Alexander, in
order to avoid the recurrence of such breaches of discipline, to
ensure that the soldiers should be more humanely treated, and

1 Vide supra, vol. Ill, p. 109, et seq.

493

History of Germany

to put an end to the dishonesties of the army administration. In
the newspapers, however, the affair was represented to be a
dangerous conspiracy, and since for the last two years the czar
had with good reason been suspicious about the morale of his
army, he was profoundly disturbed by this distressing intelligence,
and his anti-revolutionary sentiments were correspondingly rein-
forced. 1

On the iQth, the eastern powers came to an agreement regard-
ing a provisional protocol, which opened with the momentous
sentence : " States in which a change of government has taken
place in consequence of revolt, and when the consequences of this
change threaten other states, spontaneously cease to participate
in the European alliance, and remain excluded therefrom until
their situation offers guarantees of legal order and stability."
If, continued the protocol, as a result of such changes, direct
dangers for other states should ensue, the powers pledge them-
selves " to lead back the guilty state into the bosom of the Grand
Alliance," either by peaceful means, or, in case of need, by force
of arms. How great had been the advance in two years along
the downward path of reaction ! What hostility had this legiti-
mist party doctrine aroused even at the congress of Aix-la-
Chapelle, when first enunciated there in Ancillon's memorial. But
now it was eagerly accepted. The eastern powers actually pro-
claimed that the Grand Alliance did not desire to defend the right
against all assaults — but merely to protect the thrones against
revolt ; how terrible must be the increase of radical bitterness as
soon as the world came to realise that the great league on behalf
of the peace of Europe had degenerated into a league of the princes
against the peoples. To the doctrinaire preliminaries, succeeded
the practical conclusion that an Austrian army was to enter Naples
in the name of the powers, but " for the sole purpose of restoring
freedom to the king and to the nation." Next day, in identically
worded despatches from the three potentates, King Ferdinand
was invited to appear before them in Laibach, for the congress

1 According to a legend which has been again and again repeated, and which
has been adorned with numerous romantic details, Metternich was the first to
receive the news from St. Petersburg, and by making adroit use of it was able to
take the czar by surprise and thus win him over to the Austrian designs. But
since the publication of Metternich's Posthumous Papers it has become necessary
to regard this story as fabulous. Metternich himself tells us (vol. Ill, p. 355)
that the czar was the first to inform him of the affair, and the Austrian treats it
as of little moment. Besides, the understanding between the imperial courts was
substantially secured at an earlier date, on November 6th and 7th.

494

Troppau and Laibach

was to remove thither in the interim, in order to be nearer to the
arena of revolution. The Austrians scarcely doubted that the
Bourbon would accept the invitation, but should the worst come
to the worst the charge d'affaires in Naples was to declare that
the monarchs held every individual Neapolitan responsible for
the safety of the royal family.1

All this was effected without the collaboration of the western
powers. They were fobbed off with the consolation that the
rapid procedure would facilitate their subsequent participation.
The position of the English and French plenipotentiaries became
more mortifying day by day ; in actual fact, as Tierney mockingly
declared in parliament, they resembled the strangers in the House
of Commons who had to withdraw whenever a division was taken.
The protocol of November igih was in truth an insult to England,
for the modern English constitution was itself the outcome of a
" revolt," and the right of the house of Hanover to the throne
rested upon the revolutionary principle that the lawful king,
James II, had broken the original contract between prince and
people. The eastern powers went on their way regardless of the
ill-humour of the constitutional courts. They spoke of them-
selves as " les puissances deliberantes," and announced to the
minor courts, in a pompous circular which speedily found its way
into the newspapers, all that had hitherto been effected at the
congress, declaring that every change of government resulting
from revolt was a breach of European treaties, and expressing a
confident expectation that the western powers would make common
cause with them. The French court did, in fact, hesitatingly,
begin to follow in their tracks, for King Louis also decided to
invite his Italian relative to travel to Laibach. Ferdinand, for his
part, joyfully accepted the invitation of the powers, and the
effusively grateful tenour of his answer manifested very clearly
all that was in his mind.

Many serious obstacles had still to be overcome, even within
the narrower league of the three courts. The czar desired, above
all, to avoid bloodshed. He was inspired with compassion for
the Neapolitan people, for these, like their king, had been enslaved
by the despotic power of the revolution ; and he therefore recom-
mended that the misguided men should be once more admonished
by the pope, since the great powers could not personally treat
with this revolutionary government. Faithful to the traditions of

1 Protocole pr61iminaire, November 19 ; three Instructions from Bernstorff
to Ramdohr in Naples, November 22 ; Hardenberg's Diary, November 19, 1820.

495

History of Germany

Russian policy, which had ever been friendly to the petty Italian
states, he went on to demand that Piedmont, Tuscany, and the
pope should also be invited to send plenipotentiaries to Laibach.
Willingly or unwillingly, Metternich had to accede to both these
proposals, if only for the reason that Austria could not possibly
accept the kindly offices of the court of the Tuileries, which had
just proposed mediation. On December I2th, therefore, the two
emperors wrote personally to the pope (the king of Prussia had
meanwhile returned home), and from the wording of their letters
the conflict of views was plainly perceptible. Emperor Francis
expressed the expectation that the spiritual arm would assist the
secular arm in chastising the revolution ; Czar Alexander hoped
that the spiritual exhortations of the prince of the church might
effect a reconciliation between the Neapolitans and the great
powers. Metternich and his Prussian friends foresaw the inevit-
able failure of this strange proposal for mediation, and the folly
of the southern radicals justified their anticipations.1

The cause of the liberals in Naples was not yet hopeless, for
apart from Austria all the great powers, not excepting Prussia,
desired that certain reforms should be effected in this distracted
kingdom. Even at the Italian courts it was generally considered
that at least certain vestiges of the Neapolitans' new institutions
ought to be maintained.2 Should the parliament in Naples,
before it was too late, decide to adopt a reasonable fundamental
law in place of the impracticable Spanish constitution which was
inacceptable to the great powers, a reconciliation might still be
possible. But the news from Troppau provoked a fierce outburst
of revolutionary passion. The chamber, intimidated by the
threats of the carbonari, resolved to maintain its sacred charter
as inviolable, and forced the Muratist ministers to yield place to
a radical cabinet. While thus irreparably affronting the great
powers, they simultaneously furnished these with a terrible weapon
by permitting the king, who could not leave the country without
their consent, to journey to Laibach — after he had, for the third
time, solemnly sworn to uphold the new constitution. Such was
the relationship between this ruling house and the people. King
Ferdinand willingly acceded to the humiliating proposal, and

1 Opinion of the Russian court regarding the means of reconciliation, Novem-
ber 24/December 6 ; Caraman, Comment on the Protocol, December 7 ; Letters
from the two emperors to Pope Pius VII, December 12 ; Bernstorff to Niebuhr.
December 13, to Count Truchsess in Turin, December 24 ; Hardenberg's and
Bernstorff's Reports, December i and 6, 1820.

3 Truchsess's Report, Turin, December 4, 1820.

496

Troppau and Laibach

the orators of the parliament assumed a belief in his word, desiring,
by this pretended confidence, to discourage the great powers.
The Austrian statesmen, however, perceived that now, as so often
before, the southerners would overreach themselves in cunning,
and that they would be outmatched by the brazen-faced
Bourbon ; the Austrians knew what line this triple perjurer
would take in Laibach, and saw that the game was already
half won.

Metternich did not fare so well with his proposals for the
European treaty of guarantee. In a lengthy memorial of
November 28th he first of all trotted out his fourth metaphor,
the great flood, emphasising the necessity " of erecting at all costs
dams against this revolutionary current, which threatens, if its
progress be not restrained, ultimately to engulf everything." Con-
sequently, lawful sovereignty must be placed under the guarantee
of the European powers by a general convention, in accordance
with which the powers would be justified in intervening without
further parley whenever a revolution should be effected by the
presumptuous exercise of force ; but if the revolutionary change
were brought about by the rightful sovereign himself, then inter-
vention on the part of the powers would be permissible only if
the change should endanger neighbouring states.1 In essentials,
this work served to give more precise expression to that which
had been provisionally indicated in the protocol of November
i gth. Meanwhile, however, the czar had become anxious regard-
ing the consequences of his own proposal ; he could not conceal
from himself that neither the western powers, nor even the
constitutional petty states of Germany, could subscribe to a
convention which would subject their constitutions to the supreme
jurisdiction of European congresses.

Alexander displayed so much concern that Metternich thought
it advisable to bring up his heavy artillery. With the approval
of Emperor Francis, and in profound confidence, he submitted
to the czar his Political Confession of Faith, a verbose historical
and philosophical dissertation upon the epoch of the revolution.
How brilliantly and accurately at this very time did General
Clausewitz, likewise a conservative opponent of the revolu-
tion, in his Transformations, a Political Essay, describe all the
extensive changes in economic and spiritual life by which

1 Austrian Memorial, Sur quelques mesures gen6rales, etc, November 28,
1820. Many of these Troppau and Laibach documents have already been utilised
by Gervinus, History of the Nineteenth Century. VII, pp. 783, et seq.

497

History of Germany

the centre of gravity of society had gradually been shifted
downwards. How poor in comparison seemed the historical
wisdom of Metternich, who on this occasion, utilised his
fifth metaphor, that of the cancer, with as much persistence
as if he had been a specialist in malignant tumours. The
moral cancer, of course, had its real seat in the middle classes ;
it was solely out of the false philosophical doctrines of the old
century, out of the inconsiderate reforms of its " enlightened "
monarchs, out of the presumption of ambitious rascals, and out of
the cancerous growth of secret societies, that the revolution had
arisen. When in Italy as well as in Germany the frail pillars
of the Viennese treaties had for some time been manifestly
trembling before the onslaught of nationalist ideas, Metternich
maintained in all seriousness that the doctrine of nationality had
already been erased from the catechism of the liberal parties ;
the liberals were aiming at the destruction of all political and
religious distinctions, at the release of the individual from all
restraints ; and on the day of revolution their two sections, the
levellers and the doctrinaires, were always to be found standing
shoulder to shoulder. When such passions were afoot it was
impossible to dream of reforms, and all that could be done was
to maintain the existing order ; la stablite n'est pas 1'immobilite.
Such was the world as figured in the distorted vision of the man
who at this very moment was boasting, " Were I upon the tribune
of the Capitol, I should use very different language from that
which I am able to permit myself inTroppau. I need wide spaces,
and cannot do myself justice within small and narrow confines."
A kindly destiny had placed him in one of the most fruitful epochs
of world history ; but to him the times seemed petty, because he
was himself too petty to read its signs ; and he complained,
" To-day I have to devote my life to the support of crumbling
edifices. I should have been born in the year 1900, and have
had the twentieth century opening before me ! " The gruesome
historical images of the " Confession of Faith " were well calcu-
lated to influence the suggestible temperament of the czar. Never-
theless they did not entirely convince him. He insisted that a
general treaty of guarantee could not but arouse mistrust, and
that it was impossible to count on securing the agreement of all
the powers. At his wish the unlucky idea, which he had himself
been the first to moot, was finally abandoned.1

1 Russian Memorial, December 5/17 ; Hardenberg's and Bernstorff's Report,
December 20, 1820.

498

Troppau and Laibach

Not without concern did the court of Vienna look back upon
the outcome of this second great meeting of the princes. How
different now would have been its position before the world if
boldness instead of cunning had held the tiller, if in August
Austria had suppressed the revolution in Naples upon her own
initiative, and had subsequently secured the approval of the
great powers — an approval which would certainly not have been
withheld had reasonable moderation been displayed. But the
deplorable condition of the Austrian army had enforced post-
ponement of a decision. It might still be possible within the next
few months to make up for lost time, but Metternich's diplomatic
victories had been purchased at a heavy cost. The old harmony
of the Grand Alliance had been disturbed. From Aix-la-Chapelle
the five powers had spoken to Europe with one voice ; the Troppau
circular of December 8th was subscribed by the eastern powers
alone, and the loudly expressed delight of the liberal press showed
that the world understood the change in the situation. The French
court, indeed, still vacillated helplessly between the two parties.
While the ultras demanded the re-establishment of the Bourbon
power in Naples, the opposition newspapers preached a crusade
against Austria, and the latest coiffure of the Parisian ladies was
known by the significant name of " chemin de Mayence." At
Christmas, the French plenipotentiaries furnished a timid note,
which sounded like a half assent to the course adopted by the
eastern powers, but which reserved freedom of decision for the
Most Christian King.1 Simultaneously, however, a secret instruc-
tion had arrived from Paris, couched in far less friendly terms.
Marquis de Caraman on his own responsibility communicated this
despatch to Prince Metternich, and now it was possible for the
Austrian to prove to the czar in black and white how little
dependence could be placed upon the opinion of this double-
tongued cabinet.

At length England showed her hand. On December iQth
Lord Stewart read a note from Lord Castlereagh which declared
in all friendliness, but with extreme definiteness, that England
could not pledge herself in advance to the principles of a policy
of European intervention, but held fast to her old opinion that
when the general peace was endangered the powers must come
to a free understanding in each case on its merits Hardenberg's
comment in his diary apropos of this British note was simply,

1 Note of the French plenipotentiaries, December 24, 1820.

499

History of Germany

"how petty!"1 Upon the czar's initiative, a dignified answer
was made to the English government, to the effect that the note
had been placed on record. The eastern powers were in reality
gravely disquieted, for they recognised that Castlereagh's cautiously
worded refusal had driven the first wedge into the firm structure
of the Grand Alliance. The fissure was as yet small, but a change
of ministry in London could not fail to widen it. It was plain
that the tory cabinet had yielded solely to the irresistible pressure
of public opinion. All parties in the country were united like one
man in condemning the Troppau circular ; the whigs termed
the league of the eastern powers a three-headed monster, and
asked whether this apocalyptic policy aimed at the resurrection
of the fifth monarchy of the puritans.

In the minor German states, the dictatorial attitude of the
three powers was also regarded with anxiety. It was easy enough
in Troppau to take prompt measures against the press of these
lands. Hardly had the Oppositionsblatt of Weimar permitted
itself a few pointed remarks about " those monarchs who were
best provided with heirs," when the two German great powers
complained. At the desire of Austria, the czar also gave a hint
to his brother-in-law in Weimar, and the unlucky paper, which had
been extremely docile since the issue of the Carlsbad decrees,
was immediately suppressed.2 A more serious matter was the
ill-humour of the minor courts themselves. It could easily be
foreseen that the royal author of the Manuscript from South Ger-
many would be displeased by the news from Troppau. As early
as the days of the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle he had secretly
endeavoured to move the court of Brussels and some of the lesser
German cabinets, to a joint protest ; now court circles in Stuttgart
toyed with the visionary prospect of a counter-congress of the
lesser powers, to be summoned perhaps at Wiirzburg, but the
inviting project did not get beyond the stage of animated
discussion. Bignon, faithful champion of particularism, appeared
once more in the lists, describing in a pamphlet upon the congress
of Troppau how bright a day had dawned over Bavaria, Wiir-
temberg, and Baden, and how dark in comparison appeared the
eastern powers.

Even the loyal court of Carlsruhe was not free from mistrust
of the great powers. Blittersdorff, the new federal envoy, the

1 English Note, December 19 ; Harclenberg's Diary, December 19, 1820.
1 Russian ministerial Despatch to Canicoff, charg6 d'affaires in Weimar,
October, 1820.

5OO

Troppau and Laibach

man who at the Vienna conferences had laboured so zealously on
behalf of an increase in the authority of the Germanic Federation,
had in Frankfort entered into confidential association with the
Russian envoy Anstett, the friend of Capodistrias. Considering
that the very existence of the minor German states was now
threatened, in numerous and urgent memorials he impressed
upon his court the need for the formation of a sonderbund.
Endowed with too much sobriety to be intoxicated by the ambitious
dreams of the Manuscript from South Germany, he judged the
bastard existence of the middle-sized states with a modesty
rare in these circles. " There is a sort of contradiction," he
admitted, " in speaking of the policy of such a state as Wurtem-
berg." This was felt in Stuttgart, and the endeavour was there-
fore made " to elevate the particular interests of Wurtemberg
to the level of a genuine policy." But he also regarded it as
desirable that a union of the minor states, at least of those in
South Germany, to constitute a common political system should be
effected without a formal treaty of alliance. The five powers
were " no longer pursuing a single aim " ; this rendered it possible
to the smaller states to maintain " the relative independence "
which was their right, and thus to become " the cement of the
system of states." 1 When an ultra-conservative centraliser made
use of such expressions, what might be expected from the par-
ticularist liberals ! For the moment this ill-feeling at the minor
courts was harmless, but it might readily become dangerous should
the dissensions in the Grand Alliance persist. When the Troppau
conference terminated at Christmas, its members separated in
a state of mind which was far from cheerful. The legitimist policy
required strong nerves. At this season of general rejoicing, and
during the prevalence of intensely cold weather, the two emperors
and their diplomatic trains undertook the laborious journey to
Vienna, intending after a brief rest to conclude in Laibach the
difficult work of peace.

Nevertheless Metternich brought away from the congress
two encouraging thoughts : he could definitely reckon upon a
fortunate solution of the Neapolitan complication ; and he was
now almost certain that the dreaded Prussian constitution would

1 Blittersdorff s Memorials : to Baron von Fahnenberg in Munich, November
16 ; Concerning the probable Outcome of the Congress of Troppau, November 24.
1820. Observations upon the present Policy of Wurtemberg (undated, but unques-
tionably belonging to this period). Observations upon the Present Political
Position of Europe, February 27, 1821.

501

History of Germany

not come into existence within any time that could reasonably
be foreseen. When King Frederick William arrived at Troppau
he was in a mood of depression which the Austrian could turn
to his own account just as readily as he had formerly been able
to do in Teplitz. The king was dissatisfied with the defective
proposals for the communes' ordinance, and since the appearance
of Benzenberg's writing he had been so much out oi humour with
the chancellor that during the congress Hardenberg was scarcely
admitted to the king's presence. Hardenberg, it is true, had
several serious conversations with General Witzleben, the faithful
advocate of the constitution, discussing the composition of the
future national assembly, the secret reaction at court, all the
hidden obstacles in the way of Hardenberg's designs. But the
king sent a dry message to the chancellor to the effect that he
would not consider the affair of the constitution until after the
return to Berlin.1 Meanwhile Wittgenstein, the familiar of the
Hofburg, was the monarch's daity companion, while Metternich
secured a second devoted friend in the crown prince. This young
man had come to Troppau a few weeks earlier than his father,
to receive here his initiation into the high school of European
politics. The Austrians had immediately taken possession of
him, and he delighted the Viennese diplomats no less by his live-
liness than by the soundness of his principles. He was himself
enraptured by all the marvels of Christo-legitimist statecraft
which he witnessed here, approving every step taken by the great
Viennese magician, not excepting the invitation to the king of
Naples. Hardenberg also endeavoured to come to an under-
standing with " his future master," sending the prince the docu-
ments relating to the design for a constitution, and inviting
criticism, but the crown prince followed his father's example in
referring the chancellor to the time of their return home.2

Notwithstanding this favourable posture of affairs, Metternich
would not be misled into any incautious step. It is true that he
held an unduly low estimate of the king's character, this being
a part of his general contempt for everything Prussian. Never-
theless he had sufficient knowledge of Frederick William's simple
nature to know that he could not venture to advise the king
straightway to a formal repudiation of the pledge of 1815. F°r
this reason, neither at the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle nor in the
momentous Teplitz conversation had Metternich directly opposed

1 Hardenberg's Diary, November 9, 13, and 20, 1820.
* Hardenberg's Diary, November 5, 8, and n, 1820.

502

Troppau and Laibach

the design for a Prussian constitution, but had contented himself
with counselling against the system of popular representation.
Nor here in Troppau did he show his cards too soon, but he
handed Count Bernstorff a cautiously worded memorial which
he had probably shown the king in Teplitz the previoiis year.1
This second Austrian memorial concerning the Prussian consti-
tution referred to the Memoire of Aix-la-Chapelle, and repeated
for the most part the advice given in that document, but it was
better expressed, while all the slips and blunders of the Aix
memorial had now been removed. Diets of the estates were sug-
gested for the provinces, and a general diet proceeding from the
provincial diets, this being the very plan which Hardenberg had
endeavoured to carry into effect five years earlier. The tone of
the writing showed clearly enough that its author hoped to post-
pone, and even to prevent, the summoning of a general diet.
How vague was the sentence : "If the interest of the state and
of the administration should demand a centralised representation
in direct consultation with the government, this can be constituted
in no other way than by deputies from the provincial diets." The
unsuspicious chancellor failed to see the snare.2 He did not
know how dangerous a game was being played behind his back.

No precise information is available regarding the confidential
conversations which the king held in Troppau with the two
emperors and with Metternich, but the upshot showed that the
Austrian had known where to insert his lever. His plan was
to postpone the Prussian constitution to the utmost, in the hope
that the long procrastinated undertaking would at length be
entirely abandoned. How easy was it, almost child's play, to secure
this end, now that the king and the heir to the throne were both
extremely critical of the proposals for the communes' ordinance ;
how obvious was the idea that this defective first portion
of the constitutional design should be seriously reconsidered. It
was in this sense, doubtless, that Metternich expressed himself
at the congress, and it was merely necessary for him to strengthen
the king in a resolve which the latter had ere this probably formed.

On December igth, shortly after his return from Troppau,
the king commanded the appointment of a new committee
to examine these proposals 3 Beyond question the proposals

1 Published by E. Bailleu, HistoriscUe Zeitschrift, 1883, pp. 50 and 190
Details regarding the date of origin of this memorial will be found in Appendix VII.

2 Hardenberg's Diary, December 31. 1820.

3 Cabinet Order of December 19, 1820.

503

History of Germany

required a thorough redrafting, but the composition of the new
committee showed that the redrafting was not to be effected in
accordance with the desires of the chancellor. This was the
fourth committee formed to take part in the unhappy constitu-
tional struggle, the other three still remaining in existence. The
crown prince was chairman ; Wittgenstein, Schuckmann, Ancillon,
Lord-Lieutenant Biilow, and Cabinet Councillor Albrecht, were
the members, all feudalist or absolutist opponents of Hardenberg.
Under the leadership of the heir to the throne the two parties
of the conservative opposition had thus secured an initial victory
over the chancellor. A few days after this decision had been
taken, Metternich sent to Wittgenstein from Troppau (December
24th) a memorial intended for the king, once more recommending
the summoning of provincial estates and a central assembly
constituted from these.1 In a covering letter, the Austrian
recommended the formation of a new committee " composed of
enlightened and loyal men devoted to the genuine monarchical
principle " ; this committee should examine " the communes'
ordinance, which is inseparably connected with the said prin-
ciple."8 The advice came to hand after it had been adopted,
and we may readily infer that at the congress Metternich must
already have spoken in the same sense.

The king did not even think it necessary to give the chan-
cellor, who was still at Troppau, any official intimation of what
had been done. Hardenberg had completely forfeited the king's
confidence, and was retained in office solely because Frederick
William did not desire to inflict too profound a humiliation upon
a man who had performed such great services. The issue was
easy to foresee. The fate of the communes' ordinance was sealed.
As soon as this lay in ruins, a long respite would have been
secured, and then it might be possible for those who had destroyed
the foundations of Hardenberg's constitution to erect a feudalist
edifice after a new design.

§ 3. THE CONGRESS OF LAIBACH. THE GREEK WAR OF INDE-
PENDENCE.

How different was the greeting which this new year gave to
the chancellor compared with that which he had received from

1 Cf. p. 503, note i.

* Published by A. Stern, Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, pp. 26, 321.
Further details in Appendix VII.

504

Troppau and Laibach

the year that had just closed. Then, filled with youthful con-
fidence, he had ventured to anticipate that he would put a finish
to his life's work with the establishment of the Prussian consti-
tution ; now he began to be aware that a tragical doom was
hastening to overtake him. Humboldt, Boy en, and Bey me, the
only real friends of his constitutional plan, had quitted the
ministry, and the reactionary party which had helped him to effect
their overthrow was now threatening to overwhelm him also.
At the new year, in Vienna, he received a command through
Wittgenstein to accompany Bernstorff to Laibach ; the king, who
found the busy idleness of congress life more repulsive the more
he knew of it, would not leave Berlin. The aim of these orders could
not remain hidden from the chancellor, all the less when he learned
from Bernstorff that it was Ancillon who had induced the king
to adopt such a decision. It was plain that the crown prince's
party desired to keep the originator of the constitutional design
far from the monarch and from the capital for so long as the
decision regarding the communes' ordinance still hung in the
balance. Obviously mortified, Hardenberg replied on January
5th that Frederick William's absence would certainly be misin-
terpreted, but if the king would not appear in person, the chan-
cellor's presence would be needless, whether as regards influencing
opinion or as regards the real business in hand. Count
Bernstorff, who had now fully recovered his health, was entirely
competent to deal with the affairs of the congress, which con-
cerned Prussian interests no more than indirectly. He urgently
begged permission to return to Berlin, " so that I may render
your majesty the trifling services which still remain within my
power." There the constitution, the communes' ordinance, and
many other important proposals, were awaiting his attention.
" I should indeed like to have the carrying out of these subjected
to further exhaustive consideration, but, so long as your majesty
continues to honour me with your confidence, I am unwilling that
they should be entrusted for execution to various hands outside
my own direction." l

Nevertheless he obeyed the king's command, and did not
venture, after such a proof of royal disfavour, to beg that he might
be allowed to resign. Instead of staking his office against his
constitutional plans, he allowed himself to be pushed on one
side into a subsidiary position ill-fitted for a leading statesman,

1 Hardenberg to the king, Vienna, January 5 ; Hardenberg's Diary, January i,
3, and 4, 1821.

505 2 L

History of Germany

consoling himself with the hope that by tenacity he would be able to
outweary his opponents. The last cheerful flicker of his old vigour
in the previous spring had exhausted his energy of will. He was
overcome by the weakness of age, but could not make up his mind
to relinquish the office which had become a part of his very life,
or to abandon the semblance of power. He journeyed obediently,
to Laibach, rinding there that Prussian policy was so little
involved that four weeks later he found it possible to write
home that the king's presence had now become quite super-
fluous. 1

The members of the congress reassembled at Laibach during
the first days of January. This charming town, encircled by
the snow-capped mountains of Carniola, was certainly a more
agreeable place than the dull Troppau ; but to those accustomed
to the life of great towns, their stay here necessarily seemed a
corvee, nor did the political cares which had troubled the closing
days in Troppau speedily disperse. For meanwhile, just as the
Troppau assembly broke up, Lord Stewart had received a yet
more strongly worded despatch from his brother, under date
December i6th. Castlereagh decisively rejected the principles
of the Troppau protocol, declaring himself " horrified at the
very idea of admitting in a formal charter that the Grand Alliance
could rightly claim to exercise so unprecedented an authority " ;
and he entered a solemn protest against the possibility that these
principles might ever, " under any conceivable circumstances,"
be used against England herself. On January igth, he sent a
third despatch to the envoys at the minor courts, wherein he once
again rejected the Troppau principles as opposed to the laws of
England. The right of intervention, said this document in con-
clusion, must be expressly demonstrated in each particular case,
and could only accrue to a state directly concerned, and upon the
ground of peculiar circumstances.2 Meanwhile the English parlia-
ment was resounding with fierce speeches against the Grand
Alliance. Lord Grey and Lord Holland showed how irrecon-
cilable with the English traditions of insular independence was
the existence of a league of princes which desired to control the
internal affairs of all the states ; while, amid whig jubilation,
Mackintosh exclaimed that after the Troppau conversation it might

1 The king to Hardenberg, January 31 ; Witzleben to Hardenberg, January
31 ; Hardenberg to the king, February 6 and 8, 1821.

2 Castlereagh to Stewart, December 16, 1820 ; Castlereagh to the embassies.
January 19, 1821.

506

Troppau and Laibach

well some day come to pass that Croats and Cossacks would enter
Hyde Park as members of a European police force.

Many of the minor courts, which had in truth good reason
to tremble for their independence, might well read these speeches
with quiet satisfaction ; but only one of them, that of Stuttgart,
ventured to thank the English government, and even then with
extreme circumspection. It was pretended that Castlereagh's
opinion coincided absolutely with the intentions of the eastern
powers, and a joyful agreement was expressed solely under the
mask of this malicious presupposition. According to the terms
of Wintzingerode's reply to the English envoy, King William
felt assured " that the liberators of Europe could not possibly
intend, after having freed the nations of the continent from
the yoke, to impose upon them another yoke no less heavy than
the former. No, it is the king's firm conviction that this cannot
have been the design of the Troppau conferences." The king
expressed his sentiments yet more plainly in a personal interview
with the Prussian envoy. He did not, he said, care for any inter-
vention in foreign affairs, and would like everyone to remain
master in his own household ; while Wangenheim triumphantly
announced in Frankfort that the decisive struggle between abso-
lutism and constitutional liberty was now about to begin. But
the German powers had long known what was the significance of
these Wurtemberg pinpricks, and Wintzingerode gave the Prus-
sian envoy the unmeaning assurance that as a constitutional prince
it had been impossible for the king to use any other language,
but that he retained his old veneration for the eastern powers.1
Even England's opposition, which at first evoked lively con-
sternation, and induced Count Bernstorff to make a friendly
remonstrance in London, appeared after all, when quietly con-
sidered, to be quite harmless. For the angry protests of the tory
government were invariably accompanied by the assurance that
England would not separate from the Grand Alliance nor yet
offer any hindrance to the court of Vienna in its campaign against
Naples. Castlereagh's strong words, as he himself admitted to
the Prussian envoy, were intended rather to appease parliament
than to bear on the matter in hand. His acts showed how far
from his mind was any idea of mortifying his Viennese friends. He
sent a cautiously worded exhortation to the king of Naples, urging
him to accept the invitation of the eastern powers, and placed an

1 Cockburn to Wintzingerode, January 29 ; Wintzingerode's Reply, January
31 ; Kuster's Report, Stuttgart, February 26, 1821.

507

History of Germany

English ship at Ferdinand's disposal. Captain Maitland, who
had once had charge of Bonaparte as a prisoner on the " Belle-
rophon," now conveyed the Bourbon ruler northward.1

If England displayed so feeble a resistance, it was obvious
that the court of the Tuileries, which from the first had been far
more sympathetic towards the designs of the eastern powers, would
adopt a still more discreet tone. The two French plenipoten-
tiaries had now been joined by Count Blacas, a rigid ultra, pro-
foundly impressed with the dignity of the Most Christian King.
He could not keep silent when Metternich, in a published declara-
tion, assured the world that France had assented to the Troppau
decisions with certain reserves, and on February 20th joined with
his colleagues in handing in a note expressly directed against the
system of European intervention ; but this was followed by the
modest assurance that France agreed to the invitation to King
Ferdinand, and would merely endeavour, should matters come to
blows, to mitigate the severities of the war.2 Even this declara-
tion, modelled on the English protests, filled the eastern powers
with annoyance Ancillon, in virtuous indignation, described it
as the bad imitation of a bad original. Yet the separate position
of the two constitutional courts could not become threatening
unless they should hold firmly together, and in view of the sharp
divergence of their respective interests in the Mediterranean such
a union was inconceivable. Matters remained much as they
had been in Troppau : the Grand Alliance, though somewhat
weakened, was by no means dissolved. The eastern powers alone
came to definite decisions, although on this occasion, in order to
spare French susceptibilities, they no longer held formal separate
conferences. The French as a rule gave a subsequent assent,
and Lord Stewart for the most part merely took formal note of
the resolutions.

Metternich had gradually come to be on confidential terms
with the czar. Almost every evening he drank tea in tete-a-tete
with Alexander, a distinguished mark of imperial favour ; and
although Capodistrias was still able to place various difficulties
in the Austrian's way, and to raise a number of counter-proposals,
the star of the Greek statesman was manifestly setting. Nessel-
rode, the friend of the Hofburg, again won Alexander's ear, and
since Prussia gave a ready assent to all matters in which her own

1 Bernstorff. Instruction to Maltzahn in London, February n, 1821 ; Malt-
zahn's Reports, December 19, 1820, February 27 and March 6, 1821.
* Verbal Note of the French plenipotentiaries, February 20, 1821.

508

Troppau and Laibach

state was not directly concerned, the tragicomedy which Metter-
nich had designed for the advantage of the house of Bourbon was
played entirely in accordance with the idea of its originator.

Meanwhile the hero of the piece had appointed his son regent,
and, after the crown prince, equipped like his father with an
easy-going Bourbon conscience, had also sworn fealty to the
Spanish constitution, Ferdinand took leave of his beloved people.
As long as the ship was still sailing the high seas, he continued
to wear the colours of the carbonari, for how readily might a storm
drive him back upon the shores of his own land ! But as soon as
he was safely arrived in Leghorn harbour, he tore off the badge
of revolution and trampled it under foot. Then, in letters to the
five monarchs, he proceeded to pour out the feelings which inspired
his heart as a paternal sovereign. "At length I am free," he
wrote to the king of Prussia ; "at last I am again my own
master. Without your protection my life would have suc-
cumbed to the outrages that compelled me to recognise decisions
against which I have incessantly protested before God, and before
those men who still ventured to approach me." While thus
renewing his protest, he begged that the letter might be kept
secret, lest his children should fall victims to the vengeance of
an abominable faction.1 This was the person who was to inter-
mediate between the great powers and his people ! The tall,
lean, and sinewy old man produced the impression of a robust
country gentleman, and the innocent young princess Amelia of
Saxony, who made his acquaintance on this journey, was delighted
with his good-natured frankness. But the statesmen in Laibach
were horrified when the Bourbon appeared before them, just
refettered by solemn oaths, condemning everything, railing at
everything which he had himself done and sworn, and so incom-
petent that he could hardly read a despatch to the end. Since
they did not recognise the revolutionary government, they would
not receive Ferdinand's companion, the Neapolitan minister, the
duke of San Gallo. In place of this rejected subject, the king
summoned Prince Ruffo, a fanatical reactionary, who in all matters
of business proved no less impracticable than his master. Since
the issue was still uncertain, they both demanded that the congress
should act on their behalf, and without their participation.2

After prolonged deliberations, the assembly resolved to refuse

1 Letter from King Ferdinand to King Frederick William, from Leghorn.
- Circular to the Prussian embassies, Febiuary 12 ; Bernstorff to Ancillon
January 30, 1821.

509

History of Germany

recognition to the Neapolitan fundamental law, and to send an
Austrian army to restore the king's authority, peaceably or by
force of arms. Ferdinand rejoined that since the only choice open
to him was between war and repudiation of the revolution, he
preferred the latter, and in a letter he ordered the crown prince
to submit to the orders of the congress. Now the unhappy duke
of San Gallo, who had meanwhile had to remain in the neighbouring
town of Gorz, was summoned to receive the judgment of Europe
(January 30th). Before the assembled congress, Metternich
announced to him the decision of the powers, and threateningly
added that should the Neapolitans fail to hearken to the paternal
voice of their king, then those men who, inspired by fanaticism,
or by yet more reckless motives, had blinded the eyes of the loyal
people, would bear the sole responsibility, and would themselves
be the first victims of the disaster that would visit their father-
land.1 While this was going on, Prince Ruffo was concealed
close at hand in Metternich's closet, watching, through a hole
which his patron had had bored in the door the humiliation of
his constitutionalist fellow-countryman. The latter, however,
preserved the unabashed self-possession of the southland buffo.
He smiled courteously, as if flattered by Metternich's contemp-
tuous reproaches, and promised with great good-humour to
report matters faithfully at home. Not one of those present
appeared to perceive how scandalously the cause of legitimism
had here been disgraced by its own adherents.

Nor did the Prussians show any distaste for the unworthy
business, but they allowed their Austrian friend a free hand,
offering no opposition until he demanded the guarantee of the
Grand Alliance for an Austrian war-loan. Hardenberg would not
accede to this proposal, for if granted it might readily have led
to the increase of the national debt whose account had so recently
been closed, and the king expressed his special recognition to the
chancellor for this service. In the final deliberations2 the repre-
sentatives of the minor Italian states also participated, quite in
accordance with Metternich's wishes. In especial, the minister of
Duke Francis of Modena displayed himself a rigid legitimist.
Francis was an evil little despot, regarded as the leader of the
Italian reaction. Even the Piedmontese plenipotentiary, Count
Saint-Marsan, the man who had once behaved so honourably as

1 Allocution du Prince de Metternich, January 30, 1821.

1 Hardenberg's and Bernstorff's Report, February 6 ; Albrecht to Hardenberg,
February 17, 1821.

510

Troppau and Laibacli

Napoleon's envoy in Berlin, considered the campaign against the
carbonari essential. Terror of the revolution was stronger than
the old mistrust of Piedmont towards her Austrian neighbour ;
and in fact the Hof burg did not at the moment cherish any thought
of conquest, and she also sagaciously avoided bringing up for
discussion her Italian federal plans which had so often aroused
uneasiness at the court of Turin. The papal legal, Cardinal Spina,
contented himself with a few perplexed and non-contentious
utterances, for the pope desired to defend against all comers
the sovereignty which had so lately been regained; and just as
he rejected all counsels from the great powers for the adminis-
tration of the papal states, so also did he desire to maintain the
neutrality of his country, immediately exposed to the attacks of the
revolutionary army. This was the traditional policy of the papacy,
which had never favoured the acquisition by any single power of
supreme dominion in the peninsula ; but the curia did not dare
to bar the Austrians' only road to Naples.1 The great powers
went on to discuss with the Italian envoys the elements of the
future Neapolitan constitution. The proposals sounded reason-
able : a consulta with modest powers was to supplement the royal
authority both in Naples and in Palermo. Unfortunately, how-
ever, Bernstorff was unable to secure that definite instructions
should be given the king as to his actions after his return, and
thus the destiny of southern Italy was left entirely to the fortune
of war and to the incalculable caprices of the thrice perjured
Bourbon.2

The primary aim of the congress had been attained, and the
formal deliberations were closed on February 26th. Hardenberg
had left Laibach a few days earlier. He did not return to Berlin,
although urgent business was awaiting his attention there, and
although he had just heard from the faithful Rother that all pro-
gress would be arrested unless the chancellor could work hand in
hand with the king.3 With incredible levity he dismissed these
cares and undertook a recreative journey in Italy, an accessory
aim being to bring to a formal conclusion the understanding with
the holy see, now almost complete. The other statesmen remained
for the present with the two emperors at Laibach, to await the issue

1 Hardenberg's and Bernstorff's Report, January 30 ; Journaux de la Con-
ference, February 20 and 21 ; Bernstorff to Count Goltz in Paris, February 28, 1821.

2 Prussian Comment, February 22 ; Bernstorff's Reports, February 20 and 24,
and March 5, 1821.

3 Rother to Hardenberg, January 31, 1821.

History of Germany

of the military intervention. The opening of the campaign was
unpromising, and showed that Austria owed her brilliant position
at the head of the European powers, not to her own strength, but
simply to Metternich's diplomatic skill and to the perplexities of
the other courts. General Frimont's army moved cumbrously
southwards, and when the Austrian forces at length arrived before
the gates of Rome it became apparent that after seven months'
preparations the financial resources requisite for this insignificant
war were not forthcoming. The army administration was pain-
fully embarrassed, for no one would lend it any money. Then
Niebuhr came to the rescue, drawing bills on the Prussian bank
in his own name, which were at once honoured by the Roman
bankers. The humiliating occurrence was soon forgotten, for
immediately afterwards the revolutionary house of cards fell to
pieces. The Landwehr of the Samnites and the Marsi had marched
enthusiastically against the minions of the tyrants, and the
crown princess had decorated the banners of the rejoicing soldiers
with carbonari streamers stitched by her own fingers. But
Guglielmo Pepe allowed the Austrians to make their way unresisted
through the difficult pass of Antrodocco in the mountains of
Abruzzi ; and when Frimont attacked Pepe on March 7th at
Rieti, the army of freedom made a tolerably firm stand for barely
four hours, and then fled in hopeless and shameful disorder. All
were deaf to the exhortations of the valiant leader ; overcome by
irresistible home-sickness, each man hastened to his own village.
The war was over ; the whole country lay at Austria's feet.

The monarchs had not received tidings of the victory when,
on March I5th, there came to hand other and unanticipated news
whose effect upon the Laibach assembly resembled that which
the intelligence of Napoleon's return had exercised upon the
Vienna congress. All the minor misunderstandings which still
separated the two imperial courts were instantly dispersed when
it was learned that a revolution had broken out in the loyal land
of Piedmont. This was the fourth revolution within a year, and
to the court of Vienna it seemed far more alarming than the revolt
in Naples, for it affected the one brave and national army in the
Italian peninusla, and occurred in the state which already began
to perceive its kinship with upward-striving Prussia, its vocation
as champion of Italian unity. Count Santa Rosa and other
efficient officers belonging to leading families, and even a son of

1 Bernstorff to Ancillon, March 13. 1821.
512

Troppau and Laibach

Count Saint-Marsan, took part in the conspiracy. They did not
flock round the partisan banner of the carbonari, but raised the
renowned tricolor of the kingdom of Italy. A manifesto issued
by the rebels recalled the example of York, who by glorious dis-
obedience had delivered his kingdom from the foreign yoke. With
visionary indistinctness, and yet unmistakably, there loomed in the
background of the fantastic design the idea of the national
monarchy of the house of Savoy. Bernstorff immediately divined
that " this hydra must have been conceived in France,"1 and
unquestionably the conspiracy had ripened in those liberal circles
of Turin which held converse with the French embassy. The
original aim of the conspirators was to secure a charter analogous
to the French charte, and it was only because they had need of
a popular war-cry that they ultimately declared in favour of the
unhappy Spanish constitution.

Thus it was that this nationalist uprising assumed the sem-
blance of being merely one link in the chain of a world-embracing
revolutionary conspiracy. Everything that Metternich had pre-
dicted concerning the plans of the parties that were working
underground, seemed confirmed by the issue, and the czar now
unreservedly joined forces with the infallible prophet of Vienna.
On March I5th, the eastern powers determined to suppress the
revolt promptly ; the Austrian troops in Lombardy were to be
reinforced without delay, and a Russian army of 80,000 men was
to be summoned by way of Hungary. The two emperors expected
from Prussia also the promise of armed help, at least in case of
extremity. Bernstorff, however, rejoined in plain terms that
he must reserve freedom of decision for his court, as the king
would not impose any burden upon his people which exceeded the
obligations of the treaties. At the same time he announced his
approaching return home, and he actually left a few days later.
The emperors offered no opposition to his departure, hoping that
at home he would be able to give more effective help to the
common cause ; but Bernstorff's aim in leaving the congress was
to prevent Prussia's becoming involved in the Italian complications
more deeply than the king would approve. General Krusemark,
who remained as solitary Prussian plenipotentiary, could readily
evade all " further burdensome or unreasonable demands " on
the ground that he must always seek instructions from Berlin.2

1 Bernstorff's Report to the king, March 15 ; to Hardenberg, March 21 ;
Secret Minute concerning Bernstorff's Comment, March 15, 1821.

2 Bernstorff to Ancillon, March 15, 1821.

5«3

History of Germany

Thus at the Prussian court there was a strange conflict between
the feeling of duty to the fatherland and the anti-revolutionary
sentiment. Frederick William would on no account sacrifice the
forces of his people on behalf of the Italian plans of Austria, and
yet heedlessly assumed before all the world co-responsibility for the
dictatorial manifestos of the Viennese interventionist policy, since
in the league of the eastern powers he saw a guarantee for the
safety of his own state. His attitude showed that the sobriety of
his judgment remained stronger than his friendship for Austria,
but it was one ill-suited to the dignity of a great nation.

The two western powers, indeed, were far more hopelessly
embarrassed. Pasquier, minister for foreign affairs, the most
liberal member of the Paris cabinet, was filled with profound
anxiety as the moment approached in which the Austrians would
advance to the French frontier. Metternich recognised that this
jealousy was intelligible, and for some days deliberated seriously
whether it would not be better to leave the occupation of Piedmont
to the Russians. But if the French court desired to maintain
its interests in Italy, it was necessary that France, anticipating
Austrian action, should herself restore order in Piedmont, and this
bold step was impossible, for the French government distrusted
its own army. Thus time slipped away without any decision
being taken by the Tuileries.1 Finally, Lord Castlereagh's
Austrian inclinations had been strengthened by the news from
Turin, and he gave private assurances that all his protests had
been nothing more than moves in the parliamentary game.

Metternich alone was sure of his aim, and he was once more
marvellously favoured by fortune. The dreaded Piedmontese
revolt was soon disclosed to be a premature and ill-prepared under-
taking. Part only of the army had taken the side of the revolu-
tion, and the majority of the people eagerly awaited the king's
decision. The upright Victor Emanuel, who had grown grey amid
the absolutist ideas of the old century, desired neither to begin
a hopeless struggle with the great powers nor yet to call in foreign
armies for help against his own troops. At length, therefore, he
took the same resolution as had been taken by several of his
dutiful forefathers when the burden of government proved too
heavy for them. Laying aside the crown, he appointed Charles
Albert, Prince of Carignano, regent until Charles Felix, the heir
to the throne, should return from Modena to take the reins into
his own hands. What a task for the inexperienced and ambitious

1 Krusemark's Report, March 24 and 29, 1821.

Troppau and Laibach

prince, who had long been in communication with the con-
spirators, and had sometimes dreamed of the Italian crown for
himself ! He immediately had the Spanish constitution adopted
by an assembly of notables, hoping in his youthful innocence to
secure the subsequent assent of the new king. But Charles Felix,
who was of the same way of thinking as the duke of Modena,
issued a vigorous manifesto rejecting all innovations, and in this
country the die was cast as soon as the king had spoken. Charles
Albert obediently gave up his regency. Meanwhile General Bubna
had entered the country with an Austrian army. The loyal
section of the Piedmontese troops joined forces with him ; and
on April 8th, after a brave resistance, the rebels were defeated at
Novara. A few students from Tubingen and other young liberals
who had come to Piedmont from neighbouring countries found on
their arrival that the revolutionary army had been completely
dispersed. A secret society in Lombardy, which was already
prepared to take action, broke up in discouragement.

Russia's help had now become superfluous. With two trifling
blows, and within a month, Austria, single-handed, had effected
the suppression of the revolts in the south and in the north of the
peninsula ; her will prevailed from the Alps to the Ionian Sea ;
and the statesmanlike greatness of the victorious Metternich was
revered by all the world — not by diplomats alone (for these had
indeed anticipated rapid success), but yet more perhaps by his
liberal opponents, who had been so greatly deceived regarding
the strength of the revolution. With arrogant and malicious
delight Gentz recounted in the Oesterreichische Beobachter how on
the day of battle the only arts displayed by the heroes of freedom
were those of " Pulcinella." He closed his article by saying with
satisfaction : " The good citizen gladly makes common cause
with the protecting power, to purge his fatherland from the foul
excrement of the last of the factions, from those who find no salva-
tion but in universal misfortune, from those who have no hope
but a solitary dominion in the theatre where they have wrought
destruction."

For this work of purging, the foreign Bourbon rulers
certainly needed to employ more vigorous remedies than were
required by the national princely house of Savoy. At first the
half-enforced abdication of Victor Emanuel seemed to the eastern
powers an inadmissible onslaught upon the strict principles of
legitimism. The two emperors even attempted to induce the old
king to change his mind, and Frederick William wrote a letter

515

History of Germany

exhorting him to resume the royal power. But his purpose was
fixed, and in the end the monarchs accepted the situation, doing
this all the more readily since his successor proved an uncom-
promising legitimist, and had in Lai bach an eloquent advocate in
the person of the duke of Modena. Under the stiff, bigoted, stupid
regime of the new king, the rebels were visited with severe punish-
ment, and Metternich hastened to demand the co-operation of the
Swiss confederacy, on the ground that hospitality towards Pied-
montese refugees was "a moral infringement of neutrality."
Nevertheless Charles Felix avoided manifest illegality and cruelty,
and with patriotic zeal endeavoured to secure a speedy evacuation
of the country by the Austrians, so that the old-established cordial
relationships between prince and people were not permanently
disturbed.1 The court of Vienna was especially delighted by the
degradation of the prince of Carignano, who now stood nearest to
the throne. The unfortunate prince had hitherto been the hope
of the patriots, but now all the courts were pitiless in their censure
of his vacillating and ambiguous conduct ; the Austrian officers
mocked him to his face as " the King of Italy " (an insult which
the proud man never forgot) ; while the liberals, who, after the
custom of the Latin races, could explain their defeat in no other
way than as a betrayal, sang of him the cruel verse, " Through
all the nations thy name is laden with curses, Carignano." It
seemed that he must remain the object of universal contempt, and
the reactionary party had already conceived the plan of excluding
him from the succession, and of ensuring that upon the death of
Charles Felix, the crown should pass to Francis of Modena.

In Naples, meanwhile, there had been established a reign of
terror, hardly less atrocious than that characteristic of the earlier
Bourbon blood-assize of the year 1799. King Ferdinand had post-
poned his return until the subjugation of his country had been
fully assured, so that he should no longer need to trouble himself
about the advice of the great powers. Then ensued an endless
series of imprisonments, floggings, and executions ; many of the
best men languished in the shadeless and insect-ridden penal
islands, herded with common criminals ; thousands lived as
refugees in England, Switzerland, and the Barbary States. The
old conscript army was disbanded, and replaced by a new army,
levied by recruiting. In the clericalist primary cantons of Swit-
zerland, Ferdinand employed a notorious old mercenary, General

1 Bernstorff's Report, March 20 ; Krusemark's Reports, May 2, June 2, July 7.
14, and 28 ; Metternich to von Schraut, Austrian envoy in Berne, April 18, 1821.

5I6

Troppau and Laibach

Auf der Mauer, to beat the recruiting drum, and although many
a good confederate adjured " the valiant men of Schwyz " to hold
aloof at length from the national sin of foreign mercenary service
so long before denounced by Zwingli, nevertheless several regi-
ments of stout fellows were got together to keep watch upon the
uneasy capital from the hill fortresses across the bay. The
unbridled cruelty of this reaction compelled the powers to inter-
vene more than once with serious warnings, and even Emperor
Francis, whilst still at Laibach, wrote twice to the king.1 But
what could be the use of such exhortations when the good emperor
allowed his own soldiers to do police duty for the Bourbon's blood-
thirsty judges, and when the hospitality of the loathsome prisons
in the Moravian fortresses was offered, not merely to the Lombard
patriots against whom criminal prosecutions had recently been
reinstituted, but also to Neapolitans convicted of high treason ?
Naples was still a mere satrapate of the Hofburg ; the old union
between the royal house and the French Bourbons became less
and less binding. The Austrians remained six years in the country,
the court overwhelmed their leaders with gold and honours, and
in a few years the national debt was increased fourfold by the
costs of the foreign occupation. A fierce hatred against the white-
coats increased year by year ; in Palermo a secret society was
discovered which had designed to poison the entire Austrian garrison.
This hatred was reflected upon the Germans outside Austria, for
to the Italians every Croat, Rascian, or Wallachian who wore
the emperor's uniform was a " tedesco " ; and others, too, held
the German nation responsible for the sins of the leading power
in the Germanic Federation. In wrathful verses Casimir Delavigne
spoke of the Germans as " ces esclaves d'hier, aujourd'hui vos
tyrans," and towards the end of the poem (Parthenope et I'Etrangere)
described how the defenders of Liberty had appealed to Virgil :

" Assis sous ton laurier que nous courrons defendre,

Virgile, prends ta lyre et chante nos exploits ;
Jamais un oppresseur ne foulera ta cendre."
Us partirent alors, ces peuples belliqueux,
Et trente jours plus tard, oppresseur et tranquille,
Le Germain triomphant s'enivrait avec eux
Au pied du laurier de Virgile.

Few foreigners were capable of so just a discrimination as Byron,
who wrote frankly : "I love the Germans, the Austrians excepted,

1 Krusemark's Reports, April 4 and May u, 1821,
517

History of Germany

for these I hate and loathe." The majority noted with tacit
pleasure that the state whose increase in strength all dreaded was
now in as evil repute as Russia, and the subserviency of the Prussian
court to Austria afforded considerable justification for the dis-
favour of public opinion. It is true that the European world
inclined to judge the unhappy Neapolitans still more harshly, for
since the day of Rieti they had been stamped with the curse of
ludicrousness. The satirical song of " The Great Retreat " was
heard on all hands, and many a disillusioned German liberal
named his dog " Pepe." The more joyfully people had so recently
greeted the liberation of this people, the more hopeless now seemed
its fall. " Where shall we bury our shame ? " was the opening
line of Thomas Moore's new Neapolitan national air ; and in his
Lines on the Entry of the Austrians into Naples, 1821, addressed
to the carbonari leaders (carbone notati), he writes,

For if such are the braggarts that claim to be free,
Come, despot of Russia, thy feet let me kiss

Far nobler to live the brute bondman of thee,
Than to sully ev'n chains by a struggle like this.

Thus deplorable had become the situation of the two great nations
of Europe : upon the neck of one was set the foot of the Austrian ;
while the other was chained to this same enemy of her unity by
a false and yet indissoluble alliance, and in words at least rendered
Austria docile assistance.

By Austria's successes the western powers had been disarmed,
and Gentz wrote, intoxicated with delight : " Paris and London
lie at our feet ! " How could France resist the victorious Hofburg
when King Louis trembled for his own throne ? The ultras inces-
santly fed his terrors with alarming rumours. To intimidate the
monarch, this infatuated party had just arranged for an explosion
of gunpowder in the Tuileries ; in Laibach it was represented by
a secret agent named Jouffroy, who handed the czar a fresh letter
by Bergasse, and who once again described in the gloomiest colours
the state of affairs in the motherland of revolution. Co-operation
between the two great constitutional courts was out of the
question, for the tory government would on no account permit
the French any encroachment in the Mediterranean lands. When
the revolution in Piedmont had been brought under control, Lord
Castlereagh could no longer repress his heartfelt sentiments. He
sent congratulations to his Viennese friend, and expressed the
hope that the occupation of the subjugated country would not

518

Troppau and Laibach

be entrusted to French troops. Metternich was charmed at
this manifestation of political innocence ; but the czar inquired
with a smile, " What do these people take us f or ? " l

Fate, however, had now intermingled a bitter draught in the
Austrian statesman's cup of joy. The doctrinaire basis of "the
immutable European Grand Alliance ' conflicted so obviously with
the multiplicity of opposing interests and unsolved problems
characteristic of European life, that this alliance was necessarily
disturbed by every great metamorphosis in national history.
Before the close of the Laibach congress, a fifth revolution broke
out, one which was at first less heeded than the others, but which
was destined in the end to prove more injurious to the Grand
Alliance than any of the others. The Greco-Slav world began
to awaken, and the eastern question, the most thorny of all
European problems, once more became pressing. For hundreds of
years the realm of the Osmanli had persisted in the western world
solely through the mutual jealousies of the European powers, for
its native energies would no longer have sufficed to maintain it.
A national migration had, like a tremendous avalanche over-
whelming all civilisation, overflowed that happy region of the
south-east where in former days Christianity had established a
second Rome and the commerce of two continents had found its
centre. The whole region had lapsed into profound slumber, and
all which in this world of vestiges still lived and laboured on behalf
of moral progress, was Christian. The master race, which, with
sure grasp of the oriental art of rule, had firmly imposed the
yoke of servitude upon the rayahs, remained, despite all the glory
of its stolen wealth, nothing but a horde of oriental horsemen who
never became settled in Europe, and never got beyond the outlook
of fighting nomads. It was inevitable that in the case of the
Turks, as previously in the case of the Polish nobles' republic, the
historical law should find fulfilment that in this century of bour-
geois industry there was no longer any place for a nation of robber-
knights and idlers.

The rayah nations had never become reconciled to their
pitiless masters, had never ceased to invoke God's vengeance for
that day of shame when the conquerors had ridden into the
cathedral of Hagia Sophia, and when the hoofs of the horses
had defiled the most beautiful temple of Greek Christianity.
Amid the foulness and misery of their enslavement, they still

1 Krusemark's Report, April 19, 1821.
519

History of Germany

retained that inexhaustible energy of rejuvenescence and spon-
taneous renovation which everywhere distinguishes Christendom
from the spiritless inertia of Islam. When the cosmopolitan
doctrine of salvation that issued from the French revolution
gradually made its way into the remote east, accompanied by the
ideas of national freedom which found expression in the Spanish
and the German wars of independence, they promptly exerted
an influence upon the most alert of the rayah nations, the one
which suffered least under the economic pressure of Turkish rule.
Since the peace of Kutchuk-Kainarji the Greeks had captured
almost all the trade of the ^Egean Sea. From the memories of a
glorious past they derived the self-confidence of an indestructible
nationality which, though bespattered with all the sins of many
centuries of slavery, was still vigorous enough to preserve the
ancient speech in marvellous purity, and strong enough to absorb
the numerous Albanian and Slav elements which had found their
way into the Greek area of civilisation and to fulfil them with
Greek culture.

The thought of re-establishing the Byzantine empire had
never completely disappeared. Even in the hard seventeenth
century, Milton had dreamed with a Hellenic friend of the renas-
cence of Greece, and a hundred years later the emissaries of the
czarina Catharine had made their way among the Greeks to fan the
flames of hatred against the Ottoman overlords. But not until
Rigas had in fiery verses sung the freedom of the Greeks did the
waves of the nationalist movement begin to increase in strength.
Koraes and his friends introduced the modern Greek tongue into
the circle of the languages of civilisation and created the first
beginnings of a national literature. The literary Philomusic
League of Athens promoted an interchange of ideas among the
Greeks who were dispersed in all the harbours of the Balkan
penisula and Asia Minor ; and simultaneously, from 1812 onwards,
the political Hetairia (Society of Friends) of Odessa established
its secret associations throughout the Greco-Slav lands.

Whereas in most of the other wars of independence in modern
history the protagonists did not become conscious of their ultimate
goal until comparatively late in the day, this conspiracy was con-
sciously directed from the first towards the complete liberation
of the country, since intermediation between the cross and the
crescent seemed utterly impossible. Independence of all Greeks
was the watchword, and the struggle was not to end until the cross
had been re-erected upon the dome of St. Sophia. The co-operation

520

Troppati and LaibacK

of the Protector of the Orthodox church seemed all the more
certain to the conspirators because a favourite of the czar, the
phanariot Alexander Ypsilanti, was their leader, and because
numerous Russian agents were at work in the peninsula.
Capodistrias, too, held secret intercourse with the Hetairia. In 1819,
unquestionably with other aims than those which appeared on the
surface, he visited his home in Corfu and encouraged the Friends
by half-promises when they announced that the rising was fixed
for the following year. Although there was no direct connection
between the Hetairia and the lodges of the carbonari, the con-
templation of the revolution in the two neighbouring peninsulas
necessarily stimulated the impatience of the conspirators, and
could not fail to accelerate the outbreak of the war. In December,
1820, occurred a rising among the Suliots in the Albanian moun-
tains. In Europe the news was barely noticed. The struggle
was regarded as no more than one of those innumerable local
revolts which had for so long constituted the entire internal history
of the Turkish empire, and no one imagined that this savage moun-
tain tribe could be privy to the designs of the Hellenic conspirators.
Great, however, was the commotion at the congress when it was
learned that at Jassy, on March 7th, Ypsilanti had proclaimed the
freedom of the Greeks and had promised the rebels the czar's help.
With what certainty must he have counted upon this assistance
to venture raising the Greek standard of revolt upon the Russian
frontier and among the indifferent Roumanians. A few weeks
later, the tribes of Peloponnesus also took up arms, the Greeks of
the /Egean islands followed the example, and now the horrible
struggle of the Hellenes, the most savage race-war of the century,
was in full progress — inhuman fury, treachery, and breach of
faith on both sides.

Metternich's judgment of this fifth revolution was formed
in an instant, for of all his political axioms none was more firmly
held than the inviolability of Turkey. Not for a moment was he
disturbed by such questions as whether the rule of the crescent
could be maintained for ever in the Christian west, whether Austria
ought not to attempt to re-enter the victorious paths opened by
Prince Eugene, and whether, in view of the imminent destruction
of the Turkish empire she might not be able to secure for. herself
a strong position in the Balkan peninsula, and perhaps even
to acquire dominion over the mouths of the Danube. To
Metternich the sultan was a lawful ruler like any other. In the
Oesterreichische Beobachter Gentz proved with holy zeal that the

521 2 M

History of Germany

dominion of the Porte rested upon the title of conquest universally
recognised as legal by the world. Moreover, this legitimist state
was distinguished by a constitution in complete conformity with
the political ideals of the Austrian statesman. Here, still
untouched by the disintegrating doctrines of the revolution, was
displayed the renowned " force des subdivisions" ; here was estab-
lished a loose juxtaposition of lands secured by plunder, whose only
common tie was passive obedience to a master. Entangled in the
arid pragmatism of the eighteenth century philosophy of history,
devoid of all understanding of the elemental energies of that
national instinct which is alone decisive in crises of national life,
Matternich discovered the cause of this discharge of ancient racial
hatreds in the evil arts of a rout of ambitious rascals, and measured
the eastern question by the petty yard-stick of his doctrine of
stability. The Hellenic movement, like the rest, could arise
solely from the intrigues of factions working underground, and
from the first he assumed that the Hetairia and the carbonari
were members of the same sect. Moreover, these sinister Greek
demagogues seemed to him the tools of the dreaded Russian
policy. He saw plainly enough that he could not openly assist
the Porte, unless he wished to drive the rebels into the very arms
of the Russians. But in his fear of all inovation he could not
make up his mind to provide, by joint intervention of the great
powers, a tolerable existence for the rayah peoples, and thus
perhaps to secure for the Turkish empire a new lease of life.
From these perplexities he could see but one exit. If the great
powers would express in plain terms their detestation of the
Greek uprising and would then leave the oriental confusions to
themselves, the forces of the Porte would soon be able to
suppress the revolt, and the Ottoman scimitar, as Metternich
confidently hoped, would restore the old order within the
sultan's realm.

In this rigidly conservative view, the Austrian statesman found
himself at one with the ideas of the English court, for England
dreaded lest the Greek rising might lead to the destruction of the
customary English trade routes, while the court of St. James felt
even more anxiety than the Hofburg regarding the secret designs
of Russia. The idea that the first naval power of the world could
not fail to gain by the liberation of the economic energies of the
Balkan peninsula, lay quite outside the circle of vision of these
high tories. The Prussian statesmen were likewise of the same
opinion as Austria, although Bernstorff did not share Metternich's

522

Troppau and Laibach

hopes, and considered that the Greek rising had considerable
chances of success.1

But how was it possible to gain the czar over to a view which
conflicted with all the traditions of Russian policy and with
the most powerful national passions of the Russian people ?
Capodistrias still sat in Alexander's council, and, as Bernstorff said,
the Greek " would deny his most natural and most indubitable
sentiments " if he did anything to hinder the liberation of the
Hellenes. But on this occasion also, as throughout the days
of Laibach, fortune favoured the Austrian court. Ypsilanti's
despatch announcing to the czar the beginning of the rising reached
Laibach during the very days when Alexander was gravely
perturbed by the news from Turin. In profound alarm, he saw
everywhere the spectre of the great demagogic secret society, and as
he knew little or nothing about the intrigues of the Russian agents,
it seemed to him that his phanariot friend was only an infatuated
man who had allowed himself to become entangled in the nets of
the carbonari. It was in this mood that Metternich found him,
and it was not very difficult for the Austrian to play upon the
czar's nerves — on this occasion with the aid of the conflagration
metaphor. The Greek rebellion, declared Metternich, was the
torch of dissension which the demagogues had thrown between
Austria and Russia in order to sever the two imperial powers and to
maintain the liberal conflagration. Alexander was fully converted,
and showed himself so firm in the new faith that Metternich
could write, " If anyone ever changed from black to white, it is
he." Gentz said exultantly, " God fights on our side ! " He
might well rejoice, for in this case Metternich's success seemed
almost miraculous. The unlucky Capodistrias was in danger of
forfeiting the confidence of his imperial master, and of thus being
deprived of his fulcrum for the support of his fellow-countrymen.
He pliably adapted himself to circumstances, and personally
composed the vigorous response in which the czar's displeasure was
conveyed to the Greek rebel leader (March 26th). Ypsilanti's
name was erased from the Russian army list. Alexander remained
in the same mood until the close of the congress, and his Austrian
mentor did not lose the chance of writing additional verbose
memorials in order to impress upon the czar's mind the principles
of the only genuine statecraft, which might be summed up in the
single idea " ne rien innover ! "

In the 0 ester reichische BeobacMer, meanwhile, Gentz opened a

1 Bernstorfi's Report, March 20, 1821.
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paper- war against the Hellenes, completing henceforward in
regular succession those famous reports " From Zante," describing
with frantic exaggeration the iniquities of the rebels, their dissen-
sions, and their cruelty. Metternich himself, in a memorial dated
May 7th, was able to sum up the common judgment of the two
emperors, declaring them to be convinced that the Greek nation
had declined to the lowest depth of degeneration. When, on May
I3th, the monarchs bade farewell, after living together for six
months, their friendship seemed more closely cemented than ever
before. They shook hands pn the pledge that neither of
them would ever take separate action by intervening in the
eastern troubles, declaring they would invariably be guided by
the joint decisions of the Grand Alliance. In the following year
they expected to meet King Frederick William at a new congress
in Florence ; in the interim they would watch the course of the
movement closely and would never fail to effect a friendly inter-
change of views. When taking leave of the Prussian envoy
Alexander once again extolled the league of the eastern powers
as " Europe's bulwark against revolution," and, much moved,
expressed his recognition of God's will in the wonderful dispensa-
tion which at this precise juncture had led him into such close
association with Emperor Francis. No less unctuously wrote
Ancillon : " WThen we see how the very existence of the Porte is
threatened, how Spain hastens with rapid strides towards civil
war, how America outbids Europe in following the latter 's per-
nicious and destructive example, and how the old continent is
menaced with moral and political infection of an entirely new kind,
we have a redoubled sense of the inestimable value of the union
of the allies, and we thank heaven for bestowing upon the power
of the czar of Russia a counterpoise in his heart and in his
principles." l

At the close of the congress (May I2th), in a grandiloquent
manifesto, the eastern potentates announced the results of their
labours. The design for a general overthrow of the established
system had been frustrated by the allied armies, which had come
to the assistance of the oppressed peoples. " Providence has
stricken the consciences of the guilty with terror ; and the dis-
approval of the nations, whose happiness was imperilled by the
originators of the disturbances, has struck the weapons from the
hands of these." An accompanying circular to the minor courts

1 Krusemark's Report, May 15 ; Minutes of the Congress, February 26 ;
Ancillon, Ministerial Despatch to Krusemark, May 28, 1821.

524

Troppau and Laibach

went on to give assurances that the three powers judged the Greek
revolution in accordance with the same principles as those applied
to the Italian risings, and reiterated the declarations that all
reforms secured by revolt were null and void. To remove any
possible doubt, the czar also issued a special circular to his own
embassies, giving solemn assurances that Russia would strictly
observe the rules of international law vis-a-vis the Porte, and
that she pursued no other aim than the maintenance of general
tranquillity. The court of Berlin endorsed the Laibach manifesto
without qualification. To the world at large, Prussia's docility
seemed more unconditional than was actually the case, for the
public knew nothing of Bernstorffs prudent reserve, while Privy
Councillor Kamptz now came to the front as advocate of the
new Viennese doctrine of international law. In A Disquisition
on International Law, whose fanatical tone could not fail to incense
the liberals, he maintained in set terms that for the society of
states the right of intervention was no less necessary and bene-
ficial than was police activity necessary and beneficial within the
confines of the individual state. As soon as a state considered its
safety threatened by the constitution of a neighbouring land, the
right of the former to intervene followed as a matter of course,
and none but " factionaries," none but those whose revolutionary
propaganda endangered order in all states alike, would venture
to deny this incontestable right. In support of this crude doctrine,
Kamptz went so far as to appeal to the repeated interventions
on the part of France and of Sweden in the ancient imperial Ger-
man constitution. Thus it seemed that the eastern powers had
been entirely won over to the views of the Hofburg. Metternich's
triumph was complete. He stood at the summit of his fame, and
his grateful emperor, before leaving Laibach, bestowed upon him
the dignity of a court and state chancellorship, in recompense for
the pains he had taken during the past two years to secure " the
victory of right over the passionate intrigues of the disturbers of
the peace."

The representatives of the western powers had not subscribed
the Laibach manifesto, but they did not venture to oppose it
openly. Lord Stewart was not permitted to do more than express
his disapprobation in confidential conversations, for in the eastern
question his brother desired to go loyally hand in hand with
the court of Vienna ; and the Paris cabinet contented itself with
censuring de Caraman for his failure to prevent the publication of
the circular. The new court chancellor took a malicious delight

525

History of Germany

in the embarrassment of the constitutional great powers, opining
that this humiliation would prove extremely salutary, since they
had diverged so widely from the common cause.1 The minor
German courts responded to the Laibach circular in the style they
had been accustomed to use after Napoleon's victories. King
Max Joseph beamed with joy when at Tegernsee, in the presence
of the Prussian envoy, he broke the seals of the precious docu-
ment ; the North German princely courts vied with the senates
of the free towns in manifestations of humble gratitude ; the
sovereigns of the two Lippe realms wrote personally to Bernstorff
to express their admiration. Even the king of Wurtemberg, who
after the battles of Rieti and Novara had scarcely been able to
conceal his annoyance, now thought it advisable to express his
thanks through the mouth of Wintzingerode.2 Finally, the
Bundestag provided for the general satisfaction of official Germany
an expression which could have been conceived nowhere else than
in the eloquent Austrian federal presidential chancellery. The
presidential envoy proposed " that the assembly should convey
to their imperial majesties the homage of its most reverential
gratitude for this communication, accompanied by the most
respectful assurance that the members of the assembly are most
unanimously agreed in profoundly venerating in its contents the
most magnificent monument which these sublimest of sovereigns
could possibly erect, to testify their love of justice and order, and
for the enduring consolation of all legally disposed persons." The
proposal was passed " most unanimously," without discussion.

Yet the future of this league of the eastern powers, which
ruled Europe so despotically, was even now seriously threatened.
When the czar was leaving Laibach he observed to General Kruse-
mark, " I should prefer never to have anything to do with
Turkish affairs," adding, however, regretfully, " How will this be
possible, since the Porte is adopting such severe measures ? " He
had good reason for what he said, for during this friendly leave-
taking he had received new and disastrous tidings from the east.
At the Easter festival, the aged patriarch of Constantinople had
been murdered by the Mohammedan mob, and his body hanged
to the church door ; subsequently it had been dragged through
the streets by the Jews and cast into the sea ; at the same time
several other archbishops of the Orthodox church had been

1 Krusemark's Report. June 2, 1821.

* Zastrow's Report, May 30 ; Kiister's Reports, April 10 and May 22 ; Himly's
Report, May 31, 1821 ; etc.

526

Troppau and Laibach

massacred, and twenty members of the Greek community had been
executed by the sultan's orders. Such was the Forte's answer
to the giaour revolt. Warlike old Islam uprose once more
in the unbroken barbarism of its religious frenzy. In Galata,
indeed, the Roman Catholics sang a Te Deum because the prince
of the schismatic church had fallen, in the like spirit as that in
which from the walls of the same town the Genoese had looked on
with laughter at the conquest of Constantinople. But the western
world in general felt the misdeed as a shame inflicted upon the
whole of Christendom. How was it possible for the Russian court,
which since the peace of Kutchuk-Kainarji had assumed the
protectorship of the eastern church, to look on passively at this
abomination ? The patriarch's corpse was carried by the waves
to a Russian ship, and was then solemnly laid to rest in Odessa.
The devout Russians regarded this miracle as a sign from God,
and gave a hospitable reception to all the Greek fugitives who
sought asylum on Russian soil. Nor did the army leave the czar
in doubt about its sentiments. When the rebels along the river
Pruth, close to the frontier, ventured a skirmish against the Turks,
the Russian troops upon the other bank could hardly be held in
check, and greeted their co-religionists with thundering hurrahs.
Immediately after the bloody days of Easter, the Russian envoy
in Constantinople endeavoured to move the representatives of the
great powers to a joint protest. His proposal was frustrated by
Lord Strangford's opposition, and there ensued an extremely
acrimonious negotiation between the Porte and St. Petersburg.
The danger of war became more and more imminent ; how long
would it still be possible for Alexander's legitimist sentiment to
control the deadly hatred of the Russian people for the infidel
" Bussurman " ? All the more vigorously therefore did Metter-
nich exhibit his good feeling towards Austria's faithful allies.
The uprising in Roumania was suppressed by the Turks ; and when
Ypsilanti took refuge in Hungary, Emperor Francis had him
conveyed to the fortress of Munkacz, where he languished in
confinement for years.

The world must learn to dread the happy land of Austria
as the great penitentiary for all the demagogues of Europe.
Hatred, however, was stronger than dread. Willingly or unwill-
ingly, the courts had complied with the orders of the eastern
powers ; but in the domain of public opinion radical anger waxed
hot now that the champion of Christian legitimacy was favouring
with such obstinacy the sworn enemy of Christendom. In Italy

527

History of Germany

tin hopes of the liberals had been lamentably deceived ; but at
the sight of the fierce heroism displayed by the Hellenes, these
hopes were joyfully revived. French radicalism now first acquired
a definite organisation, young Dugied having returned from Naples
to reconstitute the secret societies of his native land after the
model of the Italian carbonari. The indefatigable Lafayette
became honorary president of the chief lodge of the French car-
bonari, and in the chamber, amid loud applause, the old man
brought up the heavy artillery of revolutionary phraseology —
Pillnitz, Coblenz, and the partition of Poland — against the Laibach
congress. The newspaper readers of Germany joined cordially
in the applause, and their admiration was quite undisturbed when
Gentz, with the scorn of the superior person, demonstrated that
this hero of two hemispheres was at bottom nothing more than a
mediocrity inflated with vanity.

It was extraordinary to see how the quiet land of Germany
was once again, and of a sudden, profoundly and enduringly stirred
by the contemplation of the Hellenic struggles. Nearly all the
tendencies of German life were united in the enthusiasm of the
philhellenes : the liberals' impulse towards freedom ; the crusading
spirit of the Christo-Teutons ; and the romanticists' pleasure in
the remote and the marvellous. In the forefront stood Metternich's
ancient enemies, the professors and their youthful disciples, in
whose minds the heroic battles of Marathon and Salamis were
still treasured as events of yesterday. The aged Voss, who had
displayed no more than a lukewarm enthusiasm on behalf of the
German struggle for freedom, raised his voice in a clamour of
delight. The translator of Homer would not remain in the
background now that the time had come for paying the debts of
gratitude of the new age to the beautiful home of European
civilisation ; and in elegant Greek distiches Thiersch extolled his
friend ^oVo-tor as the protagonist of muse-born freedom. Jacobs and
Huf eland joined in the chorus ; and the Swiss writer Orelli trans-
lated Koraes' Political Addresses to the Greeks. In the church of
St. Thomas in Leipzig, Tzschirner delivered a philhellenic sermon ;
his colleague Krug, a man with the pen of a ready writer, issued
the first appeal to the formation of aid societies ; and soon, in many
a German town, collecting boxes adorned with the white cross of
the Hellenes were being carried from door to door. The idea of
making monetary sacrifices for domestic party purposes was still
remote from the thoughts of this bookish land, but people willingly
taxed themselves to support the half mythical struggles of a foreign

528

Troppau and Laibach

nation, the children emptied their money-boxes, and Riickert
sang,

Spirits all who thanks have given

Greeks of old for wisdom's word,
By your side would fain have striven,

Pray for victory for your sword.

In educated circles, an interest in the warrior tribes of the
south-east had been awakened years before by Byron's glowing
descriptions and by the beautiful folk-songs of modern Greece,
and this interest had been kept alive by the numerous Greek
students at the German universities. Now it seemed that reality
was surpassing the boldest dreams, for the newspapers were con-
tinually giving accounts of the daring voyages made by the swift-
sailing " Dolphin " of Hydra, and of the successful mountain fights of
Odysseus and his dauntless klephts. Upon the sea and in the hills
the Greeks remained victorious, and if defeated in open fight they
died gloriously on their shields, while sentence had been passed
upon the Turks since after a horrible massacre they had trans-
formed the blooming isle of Chios into a desert. A number of
German warriors hastened to the flag of the Hellenes, unfortu-
nately a very mixed company. Besides the Napoleonic mercenary
General Normann of Wiirtemberg, the man who at Kitzen had
mowed down the Liitzow volunteers, there came great hearted
enthusiasts like Franz Lieber, who, outwearied by the attentions
of the demagogue hunters, now sought the ideal of freedom in the
east, and with him came other youthful enthusiasts whose only
aim was to steel their energies for the coming struggle on behalf
of German freedom. In the polite world, Crown Prince Louis of
Bavaria and the king of Wiirtemberg were the recognised leaders
of the philhellenes. Louis regarded the Greek cause almost as
if it had been his own, financed it with princely munificence, and
constrained his muse to a number of philhellenist effusions :

Thou, of nobler manhood the true cradle,
Highly gifted Hellas, conquer, conquer !

Alike by liberal and by aesthetic enthusiasm, this prince was
drawn to the Greek camp. But men of ultra-conservative inclina-
tions, like the convert Beckedorff of Berlin, refused to follow the
Hofburg in the campaign of the crescent against the cross. Even
the gentle Tiedge, the devout and contemplative poet of peaceful

529

History of Germany

electoral Saxon life, sang the fight of the Greeks against bar-
barism. Marwitz, with customary outspokenness, stormed
against the godless Oesterreichische Beobachter which could not
grasp that in this war against a homeless horde it was the Greeks
who represented the forces of conservatism ; nor was it long before
whispers were current that the collecting boxes for the Greeks had
been enriched by notable contributions from King Frederick
William and King Max Joseph — for the two well-meaning princes
felt with an unexpressed shame that for centuries past the quarrel
among Christian nations had involved a grievous sin against the
rayah peoples. Niebuhr, too, who judged the Latin revolutions
so harshly, devoted to the cause of the Greeks all the enthusiasm
of his great heart, hoping that he would live to see the day when to
the last clod of European earth would be restored the freedom of
western civilisation.

Notwithstanding all the fantastic credulity, and despite all
the learned crotchetiness, which contributed to philhellenist
enthusiasm, this enthusiasm was not solely the outcome of nebulous
sentimentalism, but had also a core of sound political instinct.
The Germans perceived obscurely that this uprising of the east
would ultimately lead to the mitigation of the intolerable pressure
which burdened the European continent, and far from being pro-
Russian, they hoped that the liberation of the eastern Christians
would impose an obstacle in the way of Russia's secret plans of
conquest. Hence the philhellenist topical poetry which now began
to flourish luxuriantly, while producing a number of sterile blooms,
put forth also a few ripe fruits, among the latter being the ardent
odes of Waiblinger, the Swabian, and above all the fiery Greek
songs of Wilhelm Miiller of Dessau. The last-named, an amiable
young poet, had already attained success with deeply-felt love-
songs, and with fresh chants celebrating the joys of wine and of
wandering. Now, towards the close of his brief and fortunate
artistic career, he once again gave vent in vigorous and melodious
tones to the fine youthful ardour of the Germans' War of Liberation,
in which he had himself fought as a volunteer, inspired with that
magnanimous faith and fervour which in attaining freedom for
the fatherland hoped also to secure freedom for all the nations of
the earth. Here German feeling masqueraded in foreign dress.
Miiller's Song of the little Hydriot sounded like an echo of Arndt's
The Oath of Robert, the German Boy. More plainly than in the
newspapers could the hatred of the liberal world for Viennese state-
craft find expression in such poems as these. " E'en the Turkish

530

Troppau and Laibach

Sultan's cushion, Europe counts among the thrones ! " angrily
exclaimed the poet ; while as a rejoinder to the Oesterreichische
Bcobachter [" Observer "] came, " All the peoples' daily doings,
lifelong from the dust observe " ; and for the yeasty impulse to
action that animated the younger generation he found expression
which re-echoed unmistakably at a later date in Becker's Rhine
Song, and in Die Wackt am Rhein,

Whoe'er for freedom fights and falls, his fame shall never pale,
So long as, of free airs compact, blows free the joyous gale,
So long as rustle free the leaves in every woodland green,
So long as free in every stream the flowing water's seen,
So long as free the eagle's wings still pulse athwart the skies,
So long as freedom's glorious breath from spirits free doth rise.

Notwithstanding the contributory religious enthusiasm, the
force of philhellenism remained essentially a force of opposition,
and for this reason was more conspicuously manifested among the
liberal South Germans than in the more tranquil north. In Switzer-
land, too, it was the liberal cantons which were most zealous in the
great cause. Frei reminded the Protestants of Appenzell that their
free fathers had once held a day of supplication, praying God to
protect the cause of Frederick and his Prussians ; how then, he
asked, could the sons look on coldly at the new struggle for freedom
in the east ? Eynard, the great banker of Geneva, came to the
help of the Greeks with aburidant financial resources, assisting at
the same time in the spread of philhellenist clubs throughout
France. In the west, the movement assumed a distinctively liberal
character, although a certain number of ultras also espoused the
Greek cause, and Bonald, who since de Maistre's death had been the
most notable among the clericalist writers, went so far as to declare
in the Journal des Debats that the holiest legitimism was that
of reason and truth. Casimir Delavigne, who in Les Messenievnes
had just been lamenting the misfortunes of France, now described
in a new Messenian ode how freedom, scared away from cowardly
Parthenope, had removed to Hellas, to perish there on the battle-
field :

La Liberte fuyait en detournant les yeux,

Quand Parthenope la rappelle.
La deesse'un moment s'arrete au haut des cieux ;
" Tu ma's trahi ; adieu, dit-elle,

531

History of Germany

Je pars. — Quoi ! pour toujours ? — On m'attend. — Dans quel lieu ?

— En Grece. — On y suivra tes traces fugitives.

— J'aurai des defenseurs. — La, comme sur mes rives,
On peut c£der au nombre. — Oui, mais on meurt ; adieu ! "

More optimistic, bolder, more challenging, was the muse of
England's two revolutionary poets. Thomas Moore, apostrophising
the torch of liberty, wrote :

From Greece thy earliest splendour came,
To Greece thy ray returns again.

Byron joyfully acclaimed the stings of the Spanish fly and the
Attic bee. Lord Erskine, Trelawny, and many other whigs of
note, laboured by word and deed for the Greek cause, and the
adventurous seaman Cochrane, the predatory mercenary of the
revolution, who was still fighting in America against the Spaniards,
was already drafting plans for a Hellenic naval campaign.

Although Moore's hope that the league of princes would
be countered by a league of peoples was not fulfilled, never-
theless there did arise a widely ramified party movement, suffi-
ciently powerful to dominate the great majority of European
newspapers, and to expose to universal detestation the name of
the Holy Alliance, which was held responsible for the misdeeds of
the eastern powers. A new work by Gorres, Europe and the
Revolution, at once the most confused and the most revolutionary
of his books, faithfully reflected the obscure excitement of the
time. It opened with the gloomy warning that the Sibyl of Cumse
had already before the eyes of the hesitating rulers committed
eight of her nine books to the flames ; soon would she return with
the last of her treasures, peace ! From this the writer went on to
repeated prophecies of an approaching horror, of a terrible colli-
sion between the old order of the east and the new and free order
of western Europe. The only impression ultimately left in the
minds of the readers, after perusing a wealth of apocalyptic
images, was that the old continent was rotten to the core, and
that in Germany, above all, " everything was hopelessly distorted
and insane."

The collapse of the Italian revolution had indeed alarmed the
liberal world, and yet had served merely to increase discontent.
The longer the valiant resistance of the little Greek nation per-
sisted, the more confident became the hope that the policy of the
Viennese court was, in the east, about to experience its first severe
reverse.

532

CHAPTER IV.
ISSUE OF THE PRUSSIAN CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLE.

§ I. NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE ROMAN SEE. CLERICALIST

MOVEMENTS.

IN Berlin the new constituent committee, under the presidency
of the crown prince, was preparing to pass sentence upon
Hardenberg's communes' laws. Meanwhile the chancellor was
unconcernedly peregrinating the towns of Italy, as if the collapse
of his work for the constitution had been a matter of no
moment. In Venice he had a distressing rencounter with his old
colleague Count Haugwitz, who had now become a confirmed
drunkard ; and here with youthful curiosity he visited the
churches and art treasures, noting also with clear insight the
political conditions of the country, the decline of Venetian com-
merce, and the irreconcilable hatred of the Italians for the Austrian
authorities. When he reached Rome, in March, 1821, he found
there an unusual concourse of foreign visitors. In addition to
the crown prince of Bavaria, the regular habitue of the Roman
museums, Prince Augustus of Prussia, Baron von Stein, and a
number of distinguished Englishmen, regardless of the Neapolitan
troubles, were visiting the city on the Tiber. The chancellor
preferred the cheerful society of the German painters, delighting
cordially in the blossoming of German art when Veit and Schadow
showed him the new frescoes in the Casa Bartoldi. The distrac-
tions of travel engaged all his energies, and he could spare time
only for one serious political task, the conclusion of the negotia-
tions with the holy see.1

Just as all the marked contrasts of German life were especially
conspicuous amid the wide relationships of Prussia, so also the
maintenance of religious peace was nowhere exposed to greater

1 Hardenberg's Diary, February and March, 1821.

533

History of Germany

difficulties than in the Prussian state, which, notwithstanding
its old-established tolerance, nevertheless reposed upon a rigidly
Protestant history, and which now exercised sway over a popula-
tion composed to the extent of two-fifths of Catholics. Well-
nigh half of these Catholic subjects were Poles, and were therefore
by their very nationality estranged from the ruling house, while
the majority of the German Catholics under Prussian rule dwelt
in those crozier lands of the west which had of old constituted the
nucleus of Roman power upon German soil, adjacent to the
paradise of priests, the erstwhile Spanish Netherlands. Two of
the three spiritual electorates of the Holy Empire, Cologne and
Treves, were now almost entirely incorporated in Prussia, which
possessed likewise portions of Mainz, as well as Paderborn and
Miinster, the two northern strongholds of clericalist sentiment.
Not even Old Bavarian Catholicism was so hostile towards the
modern state, since in Bavaria the church had for centuries been
accustomed to the strictly exercised ecclesiastical supremacy
of a popular and orthodox ruling house. In the spiritual prince-
doms, territorial suzerainty had always been regarded as a mere
appurtenance of the episcopal office, and here it seemed altogether
incomprehensible that the state, the servant, could ever rule over
its mistress, the church. Even the revolution had merely shaken,
without destroying, these profoundly inracinated ecclesiastico-
political views of the Rhenish people. The strict ecclesiastical
supremacy of Bonapartism was endured, because no one dared to
challenge the dominion of the sabre, and because NarJoleon was
the mighty protector of the Roman church. But as soon as the
authorities of the Protestant king of Prussia began their peaceful
rule, they encountered everywhere the mistrust of the Catholic
population. It was precisely here in the north-west, in the terri-
tories of Cleves and Mark, where the creeds were intermingled,
that the young Hohenzollern monarchy had two hundred years
before first made trial of its tolerant ecclesiastical policy ; now
this monarchy was faced with the far more difficult task of habitu-
ating also the nuclear lands of Catholic unity of belief and of
theocratic outlook to the common law of a state in which
parity of belief prevailed. All the enemies of Germany believed
that the undertaking was foredoomed to failure, and they con-
fidently hoped that the Greek gift of these western provinces
would lead to Prussia's destruction.

In such a situation, the Prussian crown must endeavour to
avoid all needless disputes with the pope, and the government

534

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

had no illusions, understanding clearly that a formal recognition
of its ecclesiastical supremacy could never be expected from the
curia. Under Frederick the Great, the Roman see had tacitly
endured the supreme episcopal authority of the territorial
sovereign, which Rome had passionately contested in Austria
down to the days of Joseph II., doing this because she knew full
well that the strong crown of Prussia granted a freedom to the
Catholics under its sway such as was permitted by no other Pro-
testant prince of those days. But since then the world had been
transformed. The equal rights of the creeds were recognised
throughout Germany, and the federal act specified in plain terms
that no difference in the enjoyment of political rights must be
based upon differences between the various Christian sects.
Secularisation had destroyed the wealth of the German church,
but had also immeasurably increased the power of the pope in
relation to the propertyless clergy. The curia was at length in a
position to give open expression to that which it had never ceased
to think, namely, that it aimed, not at equal rights for the creeds,
but at the supremacy of the only church in which salvation could
be found. Even to the Imperator, Cardinal Consalvi ventured
to say bluntly that the church would never recognise the principle
of religious liberty; and since the re-establishment of the Jesuit
order, the profound contrast in respect of principle which
separated the Roman theocracy from the modern state had been
clearly displayed. In this no change could be made either by the
kindliness of heart of the pope (who was characterised by a child-
like piety), or by the diplomatic moderation of his prudent
cardinal secretary of state, or by the genuine respect which both
felt for the king of Prussia.

Since Wilhelm Humboldt's tenure of the embassy in Rome,
diplomatic intercourse between the curia and the court of Berlin
had been conducted on the most friendly terms. The two courts
regarded one another as comrades in misfortune, for it was on
them that Napoleon's heavy hand had fallen with especial
weight ; nor did Pope Pius forget how zealously at the congress
of Vienna Hardenberg had intervened on behalf of the re-
establishment of the Pontifical State. Nevertheless King Frederick
William took a thoroughly sober view of the relationship between
his throne and the Roman see, and when Niebuhr left for Rome
in the year 1816 the king assured him that it was useless to expect
the pope to yield upon a point of principle. But on his own side
he was unwilling to renounce the territorial principles of the

535

History of Germany

Prussian civil code which his tutor Suarez had impressed upon his
mind in early youth. The civil code recognised neither pope nor
Roman Catholic Church, but only the " religious associations "
existing in Prussia, to which the state allotted rights at its
own discretion. The king held firmly to this monarchical
supremacy, but he interpreted it in a different sense from his great
uncle. He considered it his duty as a Christian monarch, not
simply to practise toleration towards the creeds, but also to
exercise a direct influence upon religious life in general. In making
appointments to vacant territorial episcopates, the great king
had always by preference chosen such prelates as seemed devoid
of danger to the state, without making much inquiry regarding
the purity of their life or their faith. Frederick William wished
for pious princes of the church, who would revive Christian
sentiment. He proposed to equip his new territorial bishops with
royal munificence, to enable them to fulfil with adequacy the
duties of Christian charity ; and during the congress of Aix-la-
Chapelle he offered the see of Cologne to the venerable Sailer,
without success unfortunately, for the aged prelate would not
leave his Bavarian home.

Like the king, his advisers also began to feel that in the
transformed time the old Frederician ecclesiastical policy required
some modification. Schuckmann, indeed, and Raumer, would not
yield a jot of the rigid principles of the civil code, and regarded the
Roman church with unconcealed mistrust. Even Count Solms-
Laubach took a somewhat similar view, for, as lord-lieutenant
in Rhineland, he had frequently had to cross swords with the
vicariate general of Aix-la-Chapelle. The pious Nicolovius, on
the other hand, still retained in faithful memory the serene image
of that devout and spiritual Catholicism which he had long before
learned to love in the godly circle of Princess Galitzin, almost
forgetting the while the love of political power and dominion
characteristic of the Roman church, so that imperceptibly his
views became approximated to the religious and political principles
of his colleague, Privy Councillor Schmedding who, though a
reasonable and sober-minded man of affairs and almost a
rationalist, nevertheless had not completely shaken off the
clericalist leanings of his native Miinsterland, and who was willing
to go a long way to meet the claims of the Roman curia. Schmed-
ding's opinion had all the more weight because he was the only
Catholic and the greatest authority on canon law in the ministry
of public worship and education. Almost all the other advisers

536

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

of the crown lacked intimate knowledge of the Roman church, a
defect which has remained characteristic of the Prussian officialdom
down to the present day. They applied their serious Protestant
ideas to the Catholic world, regarding the ultramontanes, who
were essentially a political party, as spiritually akin to the party
of Protestant orthodoxy, and had no idea how to deal with these
Catholic clerics, who from school days onwards had been indoc-
trinated with the Roman arts of " silere, dissimulare, scire, et
tolerare posse " — for the quiet strength of conscious power has
ever fine perceptions, and knows how to make ruthless use of any
instability on the part of the secular authorities. Thus were
renewed within the Prussian government the same struggles which
a generation before had agitated the literary world when in the
Berliner Monatsschrift Nicolai and Biester had attacked the Jesuits
and the obscurantists while F. H. Jacobi had in rejoinder defended
the rights of the devout. Truth and error were strangely inter-
mingled on both sides, and Altenstein's tact made him feel that,
in this controversy, the minister of public worship and education
must avoid unconditional adhesion to either side.

Niebuhr, envoy in Rome, held another view of ecclesiastical
policy, and one peculiar to himself. Prussia was the first Protes-
tant court to be represented in the Vatican by a permanent
embassy. This embassy had hitherto served merely for the
discharge of insignificant current affairs, and acquired political
importance now only, when the institution of the new territorial
bishoprics was imminent. In the appointment of Niebuhr,
Hardenberg was guided by the consideration that only a Protes-
tant and a man of the world, invulnerable to the spiritual weapons
of the curia, could conduct the negotiations to a satisfactory issue :
but the new envoy must not be a man of high office, lest it should
occur to the pope in his turn to send a nuncio to Berlin, which
the king would never^have agreed to. This was why Niebuhr
was chosen ; the man of great learning could replace what was
lacking in rank by the|power of his name and personality. The
choice proved a happy one. Niebuhr quickly acquired great
prestige in Rome, gaining the confidence of Consalvi, secretary
of state, of Cardinal Capaccini, the distinguished mathematician,
and of other princes of the church. Pope Pius, who in earlier
years had been a professor of Greek, distinguished Niebuhr with
marks of honour above all the other diplomatists, feeling quite
in his element when, after the chatter of the salon, he could listen
to the brilliant and yet innocent and good-natured conversation

537 2N

History of Germany

of the Prussian envoy ; it was ever a delight to him to give the
historian support in his investigations, or to send him fruit and
flowers, or from time to time a costly gem. Consequently in
the year 1819 Niebuhr could venture to introduce a regular Protes-
tant religious service in the embassy. More than a century earlier,
the chaplain of the Prussian grenadiers had for the first time
preached the free gospel upon the soil of the Pontifical State ; now
Sunday after Sunday, a Protestant congregation assembled in
the old theatre of Marcellus, and their pastor, first Schmieder and
subsequently Rothe, need not fear comparison with the leading
preachers of Rome.

Niebuhr had grown up in the purely Protestant atmosphere
of the German north, and was permeated by the democratic ideas
of the secular priesthood. But his profound religious sensibilities
also endowed him with an amiable understanding of those energies
of living Christianity which Catholicism had preserved even in
its secularisation. He had remained on terms of intimate friend-
ship with the brothers Stolberg, much as he had disapproved of
their conversion ; and he venerated the Roman church as a
conservative force, a declared enemy of the revolution, a power
which could help to control the undisciplined new generation.
His judgment of Wessenberg's dreams of a national church was
severe but apt. He knew that the pope, if only from mistrust
of the episcopalists' arrieres pensees, was now less inclined than
ever to permit any extension of episcopal authority ; he knew
the imperturbable obedience of the Rhenish Westphalian Catholics,
and that nothing would ever induce them to take the side of a
schismatic bishop ; while his intimate knowledge of ecclesiastical
history led him to regard the easy-going expectation that the
German episcopate would be tolerant and peacefully minded, as
dubious, to say the least of it. Indeed, the blackest act of modern
Catholicism, the expulsion of the Huguenots, had not been the
work of the pope, but of the very Gallican national church whose
liberalism Wessenberg's liberal adherents were accustomed to
extol. Niebuhr was fond of repeating the saying of his predecessor
Humboldt, that negotiations with the curia either prove readily
successful or else utterly fruitless ; and he advised against the
hopeless attempt to shake a papal non possumus either by reasons
or by threats.

Notwithstanding this perspicacity, he was, like most of his
contemporaries, deceived regarding the vitality and the ultimate
aims of the re-established papacy. When he contemplated this

538

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

venerable and gentle high priest, when he considered the modest
measure of intellectual powers displayed by the Vatican — the
questionable learning of Cardinal Mai (the great philological
luminary of the church) , and the indubitable innocence in matters
of knowledge characteristic of the other monsignori — it seemed
to him that he had before his eyes a declining power, one which
would still move harmlessly along for a time until its final
extinction, and he was far from imagining that this weak papacy
would ever be arrogant enough to maintain an episcopal
preferment unwelcome to the king. Even in the very days
when the " papa nero," the general of the Jesuits, had returned
to the side of the " papa bianco," Niebuhr could write : " Rust
has eaten away the spiritual weapons of Rome, and the hand
which once wielded them is palsied with age." At times, indeed,
he was disquieted by the first stirrings of the newly awakened
" archpriestly, positively Jesuitical Catholicism." Nevertheless he
considered it would be possible to secure a favourable concordat,
if only the state would prove accommodating in matters of form,
and would encounter the curia without mistrust ; in that case it
would even be possible to come to terms about mixed marriages.

Since the views in governmental circles were still so diver-
gent, the chancellor considered it inadvisable to attempt any
hasty understanding with the Roman see. Moreover, the labours
of the years of transition and the institution of the new ministry
of public worship and education delayed the opening of negotia-
tions. Niebuhr was extremely uneasy during this long time of
waiting, and the bishops of Paderborn and Corvey were much
aggrieved by the interminable uncertainty. But the hesitation
was advantageous to the crown, for time was gained in which
to become adapted to the new situation, and in which to learn
the sentiments of the holy see from the experience of the other
states which were negotiating in Rome. In actual fact, this
experience proved extremely instructive. Bavaria arranged the
unhappy concordat whose carrying into effect remained a subject
of dispute for years to come ; shortly afterwards, Naples also
made a convention with Rome, by which the rights of the state
authority were limited even more narrowly than before ; while
the new French concordat arranged by Count Blacas aroused
such fierce anger in the Chambers that the crown did not venture
to enforce it. Still plainer was the significance of a memorial
which Cardinal Consalvi sent to the Hanoverian envoy under date
September 2, 1817. In this document all right of supervision

539

History of Germany

over the church was bluntly denied to the state as " a purely
political institution." The prince's sole duty was to protect
the church with his serviceable arm ; this was his duty whether
he was Protestant or Catholic, for the strayed sheep also belonged
to the holy father's flock. When the state provided an income
for the church, the former was merely restoring the latter's own
property. Consequently the bishops, whose appointment was
of the Holy Ghost, required no approval on the part of the state
authority. The clergy must not be subjected to any secular
jurisdictions, and their education must be left exclusively in the
hands of the church. The memorial contained nothing beyond
the familiar and immutable claims of Roman world-dominion ;
the only remarkable thing about the matter was that the gentle
pope should flaunt these intimate secrets in the face of the king
of England-Hanover, who only three years before had made the
holy father a present of the restored Pontifical State.

It was impossible that a self-respecting state should ever
come to a complete understanding with a power that cherished
such principles. In May, 1818, therefore, Altenstein advised that
the king should avoid any formal exposition of his suzerain rights,
and should merely treat with the curia regarding a reform which
by ecclesiastical law could not be carried through without the
pope's consent, namely, the delimitation and equipment of the
new territorial bishoprics. Nearly two years elapsed before this
reasonable view secured full acceptance. It was not until May,
1820, that the envoy in Rome was instructed to inform the curia
under what conditions the king would approve the issue of an
episcopal areas bull ; and, now that he had a definite aim to work
for, Niebuhr conducted the negotiations firmly and warily, in
the grand style. The crown avoided all demands conflicting with
the principles of the curia, and voluntarily offered to endow the
bishoprics so liberally that the pope, astonished and delighted,
gladly entered upon the more narrowly conceived negotiation,
although he had at first desired to effect a comprehensive con-
cordat. He subsequently declared that in this king he had
encountered, not a Protestant prince, but an heir of Theodosius
the Great. In the discussion of details, Niebuhr proceeded with
meticulous conscientiousness (so that Consalvi complained that the
Prussian made him "sweat too much"), but with undissimulated
good feeling, and quite without hidden motives. The friendly
understanding was never disturbed for a moment. In order to
safeguard the liberty of the Protestants, the envoy insisted that

540

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

only the Catholic parishes and churches, with their congregations,
were to be assigned to the new dioceses, and not the entire state-
domain as the curia had desired.

Nine bishoprics, considerably greater than those in Bavaria,
were to exist henceforward. In the east, there were to be the
united archbishoprics of Posen and Gnesen, the suffragan
bishopric of Kulm, and the bishoprics of Breslau and Ermeland
directly subordinated to the pope. In the west, the Napoleonic
bishopric of Aix-la-Chapelle and the small bishopric of Corvey
were abolished, being replaced by the archiepiscopal see of
Cologne ; and there were three suffragan bishoprics, Treves,
Miinster, and Paderborn. Timid spirits dreaded lest on the
Rhine the masses should regard the new archbishop as the
successor of the old electors, as the true territorial suzerain. But
the king had more confidence ; and where else than in Cologne
cathedral could be the see of the leading Prussian prelate ? All
these bishoprics, with one exception, were within the Prussian
boundary. The diocese of the prince bishop of Breslau extended
into Austrian Silesia, while County Glatz and certain other portions
of Silesia remained in the dioceses of the Bohemian and Moravian
bishops. Consequently the Silesian clergy were exposed to two
foreign influences, proceeding from Rome and from Austria, and
Lord Lieutenant Merckel urgently advised that the unfortunate
exception should be abolished ; but the crown paid no heed to
his warning, for the court of Vienna, after its custom, desired to
maintain the existing order, while the bishopric of Breslau still
possessed much landed property in Austria, whereas in Prussia,
since the secularisation of 1811, it had been almost devoid of
resources.

In the east, the episcopal preferments were effected, strictly
in accordance with ancient tradition, by a pseudo-election, in
which the influence of the crown was decisive. The Breslau
chapter and the four cathedral chapters of the west nominally
enjoyed the right of free choice, but they were to be instructed
by a papal brief that they must elect some one acceptable to the
king, and to make absolutely certain of this acceptability before
proceeding to the election. Thus happily was avoided the
dangerous scrutin de liste, which can so readily be misused
for the evasion of state supervision. The crown was empowered
to exclude unconditionally every candidate of whom it
disapproved ; it was even possible to declare to the electors
in any given case that one person only would be regarded by the

54»

History of Germany

crown as a persona grata. Never before had the curia formally
conceded such effective rights to a Protestant prince ; the conces-
sion was made on this occasion because the king restored to the
church as much of her old wealth as it was still possible to restore
after the secularisation of recent years. The prescription of the
principal resolution of the Diet of Deputation which assigned
the churches the unrestricted enjoyment of the incomes from
their lands and their educational endowments, could no longer
be literally fulfilled without infringing newly established rights ;
the king therefore promised a supplementary payment from
the state which, down to the beginning of the forties, gradually
increased to attain the figure of 712,000 thalers, whereas the
more frugal Evangelical church had to be content with 240,000
thalers for its far more numerous congregations. The two arch-
bishops and the prince bishop each received 12,000 thalers per
annum, in addition to the free use of their palaces. How strik-
ingly this contrasted with the parsimony of Napoleon. For the
bishoprics of Aix-la-Chapelle and Treves, France had allotted
barely 53,000 francs ; now, for the new dioceses of Cologne and
Treves, comprising almost the same area, Prussia was disbursing
six times as much, nearly 92,000 thalers, a sum which before long
was notably exceeded.

About all these matters Niebuhr had already come to terms
with Consalvi. His attitude had been exemplary, far more
cautious than might have been anticipated from his confidential
utterances concerning the curia, and the touchy man might well
feel affronted when Hardenberg suddenly turned up in Rome
in order to close the barn doors behind the harvest which had
already been safely carted. A single conference between the
chancellor and the cardinal settled the whole matter.1 On
March 25, 1821, the agreement was signed. Hardenberg, availing
himself of the right which accrues to the leading statesman alike
in the officialdom and in parliament, unconcernedly claimed all
the thanks and all the honour for himself. In the bull De salute
animarum (July i6th), the pope specified the new delimitation of
the Prussian dioceses, once again declaring how gratefully he
recognised the goodwill of the king, who had met his own wishes
so marvellously (mirifice). The episcopal areas bull was promul-
gated by the king in virtue of his suzerain rights, without
prejudice to these or to the Evangelical church. Next the brief
which had been agreed upon concerning episcopal elections

1 Hardenberg's Diary, March 23, 1821.
•542

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

was issued, and was communicated by the government to the
chapters as a binding prescription. But the Staatszeitung declared
officially that the conclusion of a concordat, an understanding
regarding the relationship of the supreme spiritual authorities
to the secular authorities, had been intentionally avoided : " The
king could not subordinate to foreign recognition the plenitude of
his supremacy, that supremacy to which were attached dear duties
towards his people imposed on him by God ; he could not permit
the free use of this power to be restricted by limiting conven-
tions." Thus the crown retained a firm grasp of all the competence
of ecclesiastical supremacy which was allotted to it by the Prussian
civil code and by Napoleon's organic articles. The state authori-
ties alone mediated in official intercourse between the Roman see
and the bishops ; they exercised censorship over ecclesiastical
writings, supervised all educational institutions and the examina-
tion of candidates. No clerical order could exist without their
permission, and in the western provinces, apart from scattered
Catholic institutions for the care of the sick and for the education
of young women, there existed no more than a few quite unim-
portant monasteries. In the streets of Rhenish towns a monk
was so unprecedented a phenomenon that on one occasion a guard
at Bonn enquired of the postmaster in alarm whether it was per-
missible for him to admit to the royal diligence a Franciscan who
had bought a ticket. The Prussian government was furnished
to excess with the rights of ecclesiastical supremacy. Yet the
government felt insecure, for, with vision circumscribed by the
Protestant horizon of the north-east, it was impossible for it to
understand what momentous transformations were gradually
being initiated in the sentiments of the Catholic world.

The literature of our classical age had exercised no more
than a superficial influence upon German Catholicism, but had
none the less fertilised it with certain Protestant ideas, and by
the new ideal of humaneness had everywhere mitigated the
acerbity of religious sentiments. The romanticist school was the
first to reawaken in this slumbering world the impulse to creative
activity, and, as the outcome of that awakening, a crowd of
talented Catholics came to join the ranks of our poets and
thinkers. Romanticism here exercised a consolidating influence,
by communicating to Catholic Germany the acquirements of an
essentially Protestant thought-process ; but it also unfortunately
exercised a disintegrating influence, for all religion is positive ;

543

History of Germany

consequently, together with the mighty upheaval in the energy of
the religious sentiment which followed Schleiermacher's first
appearance and the profoundly moving experiences of the War
of Liberation, there reawakened also in unanticipated strength
the consciousness of religious contrasts. In German life, ever full
of contradictions, there have invariably existed strange ramifica-
tions upon the main tree-stem of ideas. How often before had
fundamentally diverse intellectual forces sprung from the same
branch, or grown together for a brief period, subsequently to
diverge widely. So now there sprouted from the vigorous twig of
romanticism, simultaneously with secular and free historico-
philological research, a very different shoot, a strictly Catholic
science, intolerant, contentious, dogmatic through and through,
a view of the world-order which in the necessary course of its
growth ultimately discarded the romanticist ideal for the Roman,
and came into the most irreconcilable conflict with the entirety
of modern German culture. Once more, as of old in the days
of the counter-reformation, the Roman church knew how to
attack Protestantism with its own weapons, with the weapons
which had first been whetted for the church by Friedrich Schlegel
and the other converts belonging to the circle of romanticist poets.

At the universities of Tubingen and Freiburg, Protestant
princes liberally supplied Catholic theology with financial resources
and materials for instruction. Under the protection of an
academic freedom which had been almost unknown to the Catholic
universities of the eighteenth century, there now developed a
respectable learned activity. Breaking completely with the Latin
culture of the earlier Jesuitism, it docilely adopted the language
of the new literature, that Lutheran German which had in former
days been strictly banned. It utilised for its own purposes the
entire armamentarium of Protestant criticism (in so far as
criticism was possible in the realm of the authoritative church),
and no long time elapsed before, in scientific alertness, German
Catholicism excelled all other branches of the Catholic church.
It owed this advantage in great part to its continuous contact
with the Protestant world, for in Austria, where such contact was
lacking, there was little trace of scientific life. In the early
twenties a number of talented young theologians began to rise
to prominence : Hirscher, Drey, Staudenmaier, and later Mohler
and the younger Windischmann, a circle of divines who soon
became known as the Tubingen school.

Not one of these professors was at all fanatical, and Hirscher

544

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

was even of a gentle and peace-loving nature. But the attitude
of all of them towards Protestantism was utterly different from
that of those easy-going, tolerant, worldly-wise clerics of the good
old days, who had affixed over the portal of the Catholic church
at Graudenz the inscription : " We all believe in one God, and
love unites us all." These theologians of the new school regarded
themselves as champions of the only saving faith against the
errors of heresy, and (though most of them still recoiled from
the Society of Jesus) a school which rejected on principle any
concession to Evangelical Christianity, must ultimately and of
necessity, in view of the forcible logicality of the Roman church,
lead inexorably to Romish papistry. Looking back from the
vantage-ground of to-day, we discern with absolute certitude
what at that time it was impossible to foresee, that the
Jesuitic Catholicism of the present time is directly derived from
those well-meaning and moderate Swabian theologians. The
most brilliant of them all, Johann Adam Mohler, a profoundly
religious and noble-minded man, who had sought refuge in the
world of ideals to escape serious spiritual struggles, displayed
himself an active opponent of Protestantism in his first great work,
The Unity of the Church. With the help of those artificial
historical constructions which he had borrowed from the Protes-
tant philosophers, he attempted to prove that tradition is a power
for freedom, that Holy Writ itself was first created out of tradi-
tion, and that the primacy of the pope existed already in the
germ in the very beginnings of Christianity. His conclusion
was that the invisible church of the Protestants set death in the
place of life, that Protestant principles were " opposed to all
communal life, and necessarily therefore to all Christianity."
So powerful already was the religious impulse of the time, that
even the rationalistic theological school of the Hermesians, which
had long been suspect to the zealots, could not entirely escape
this tendency. When Hermes, with the aid of the formulas of
Kantian philosophy, endeavoured to establish Catholic dogma upon
a rationalist foundation, he continued to stand firmly upon the
groundwork of the Roman church, and nothing was further from his
mind than with the aid of the great heretic of Konigsberg to build
a bridge to Protestantism. His pupil Gratz of Bonn, who had
gone so far as to adopt some of Lessing's hypotheses regarding
biblical criticism, nevertheless founded a newspaper, Der Apologet
des Katholicismus, for the confounding of all heresy.

In the field of science the Roman church could never

545

History of Germany

be dangerous to German Protestantism, for Rome could not
possibly endure unprejudiced investigation. All the more
vigorously therefore did she practise her old art of dominion in
busy social and political activities. There were already many
signs whereby it was possible to recognise the subterranean work
of the re-established Jesuit order, and the future promised this
order yet richer successes, for the Collegium Germanicum had
been reopened, and the German pupils of the Jesuits, the " gamberi
cotti," were seen in their long red coats, as before the days of
Ganganelli, marching decorously three by three through the streets
of the eternal city. Isolated Jesuits had ere this been admitted
to Austria under the harmless name of Redemptorists. Emperor
Francis, who had exercised his ecclesiastical supremacy with the
harshness of a suspicious nature, acting almost as rigidly as his
uncle Joseph II, had recently, since his Roman journey, showed
himself somewhat more indulgent towards clericalist aims, for
when he was in Rome the pope had handed him a memorial filled
with moving lamentations concerning the neglected condition
of the Austrian church.

The more gentle and placable among the German clergy
hardly noticed as yet what this reawakening of the fighting
forces of the counter-reformation signified for religious peace
in our country, with its parity of creeds. It is true that Salat,
in Landshut, and a few other Bavarian priests raised warning
voices against the Jesuits ; but their polemic writings received
little attention, for these in respect of form and content continued
to display the spirit of the Illuminati of the old days, and this
spirit was now outworn. Even Sailer, who had so often been
calumniated by the clericalists, and whose appointment to the
episcopal see of Augsburg the pope had just refused to confirm,
regarded the reinstatement of the Society of Jesus as a mere act
of atonement for past injustice ; while many other priests whose
sentiments were far from being ultramontane still felt profoundly
shaken by the horrors of the revolution, and hailed the Jesuits
as allies in the struggle against unbelief. It was a sign of the
times that the good Lorenz Westenrieder, the diligent and
laborious student of Bavarian history, who in youth had at times
incurred the displeasure of his spiritual superiors by the expres-
sion of free-thinking principles, should now come forward in his
Historical Calendar as a panegyrist of Jesuitism. Nothing but
a great national institution, he declared, can prevail against the
national disease of revolution ; consequently imperishable renown

546

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

would attach to the holy father because by the re-establishment
of the Jesuit order he had found the safest means " of helping
the cause of religion and morality, of safeguarding our princes, and
of tranquillising our peoples."

The new means of power which the revolutionary legislation
offered were mastered by the clericalist party with admirable
skill. Associations and newspapers, both of which had hundreds
of times been declared accursed by the curia, soon became
terrible weapons in the hands of the ultramontane propagandists.
In the devout thirteenth century, Rome had founded the mendi-
cant orders for the enslavement of the masses to herself, now,
in the secularised century of the revolutions, arose the new great-
ness of the ultramontane press, fulfilling the duties of religious
demagogism with like zeal and with similar success. The first
impulse proceeded from France. There came into existence in
Paris, under the direct or indirect leadership of the Jesuits, three
great clericalist societies which in the popular mouth were known
by the general name of " les congregations." The press of the
ultras received its instructions from these circles, and the royalist
clericalists were now joined by a purely religious publicist, the
Breton, Lamennais, a man who went his own way in politics, but
whose demands in matters of religion almost outbade those of
the congregations. A brilliant orator, inspired by the ardent
Catholic fanaticism of his Celtic home, in his Essai sur I'indiffer-
ance en matiere de religion he bluntly demanded the subordina-
tion of princes to the pope on the ground that in the infallible
church alone was revealed the divine reason as contrasted with
the madness of the individual reason, and that obedience to the
secular authority was not due unless this authority was subject
to divine law. Here and there were also to be found isolated
liberal ultramontanes, for the Roman church makes it a matter
of principle to have no principles in secular political questions,
and the chivalrous young Count Montalembert had already selected
as his life motto " Dieu et Liberte."

In Germany, Mainz was the home of the clericalist press.
Here, from 1820 onwards, two young divines, Weis and Rass
(later bishop of Strasburg), published Der Katholik, a well- written
periodical, which with increasing frankness conducted a cam-
paign against the sovereign state and against Protestantism.
An entire school of militant theologians won their spurs in these
dissensions, and young Johannes Geissel excelled all the rest.
Gorres also co-operated, and so did Christian Brentano, brother

547

History of Germany

of the poet, a man of pious disposition, but in whom the flushes
of heat characteristic of the Brentano blood did not fail to find
expression. Gorres was now advocating the view that the state
subsists in the church, the former being an instrument of the
latter's loftier aims ; he had by now become so completely
subject to religious intolerance that after his fantastical manner
he contrasted the heliocentric system of Catholicism with the
geocentric system of Protestantism, distinguished by its kin-
ship to the earth spirit. From the earth spirit to Satan was
but a step.

Vis-a-vis the state, the party employed two new battle cries,
toleration and ecclesiastical freedom. Both these ideas had first
secured the possibility of realisation upon the soil of Protestantism ;
now they were misused by the opponents of Protestantism to
attack the sovereignty of the secular state, the most characteristic
work of the Reformation. It was in this sense that Christian
Brentano wrote concerning the Bavarian negotiations for the
concordat, and in this sense too that J. F. J. Somrner of Arnsberg,
writing as " Westphalus Eremita," composed his book The Church
of these Days. The Westphalian conservative, a zealous adherent
of the feudalist party, wished to see the Germans recognised as
" citizens of two worlds," and in all innocence he denied that
ultramontanes were still to be found in Germany ; the only papists
of to-day, said he, were the advocates of that absolute state
authority which in " the century of the police " had inflicted such
deadly wounds upon the freedom of the church.

There soon appeared a notable professor to round off in a
well-ordered system the new doctrine of Romish religious free-
dom. In Bonn, a select and strictly clericalist circle surrounded
the talented physician and natural philosopher C. J. H.
Windischmann. It was here that C. E. Jarke, the young lawyer
of Danzig, received never-to-be-forgotten impressions, which
were decisive for the course of his life, and led him to Rome. In
the year 1822, Windischmann's son-in-law, Ferdinand Walter,
published a convenient Textbook of Ecclesiastical Law, which in
point of lucid and concise presentation excelled most compen-
diums of that day, and, running through thirteen editions,
exercised enormous influence upon the ecclesiastico-political views
of Catholic Germany. An able disciple of Niebuhr and the
historical jurists, Walter had displayed in the War of Liberation
his ardent enthusiasm for the German fatherland, just as, much
later, amid the storms of the year 1848, he proved himself a loyal

548

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

and valiant Prussian monarchist. He made a point of expressing
benevolent and tolerant sentiments towards all creeds. Never-
theless the cautious propositions of his Ecclesiastical Law, despite
their modern tone, gave unmistakable expression to a purely
mediaeval view of the nature of the state. He assumed the state
to be " permeated by the church," and, quite in the sense of
Gregory VII and Innocent III, he spoke of the advocatia ecclesia,
the protectorship exercised by the state over the church, as
" rather a duty than a right," the inevitable inference from which
was that the secular arm must serve the spiritual. In all polite-
ness, he gave a repulsive caricature of the constitution of the
Protestant church. The slack complaisancy of the Protestants
had long ago resulted in the general acceptance into the language,
in a restricted sense, of the offensive expression " Catholic church,"
which had at one time been strictly forbidden by the imperial
law ; on the other hand, the Romanists would not allow that
the name of Evangelical church was valid. Each section of
Walter's Ecclesiastical Law furnished detailed accounts of " the
system of the Catholic church," followed by a brief description
of the " views of the Protestants," as if these latter had been
merely the subjective opinions of a small conventicle. Since he
would not admit that Evangelical Christianity recognises no priestly
order, and that for this reason its visible church, placed amid
the flux of time, can neither promise nor withhold salvation, he
was led to the extraordinary contention that the Protestant was
bound to the church by nothing more than an agreement, a conten-
tion wherein an allusion to Rousseau's revolutionary Contrat social
was manifestly to be read between the lines. The alert professor
had but recently attained to his strict Catholic views, and still
remained so receptive to the new currents of religious life that
many years passed before he ventured to draw the ultimate con-
clusions from his ecclesiastico-political system, and the successive
editions of his book serve like a barometer to show the gradual
increase of the clericalist atmospheric pressure. In the first edition
he had conceded the placet to the state, but subsequently almost
every exercise of ecclesiastical supremacy on the part of the state
seemed to him an excess of power tantamount to a persecution
of the church, and justifying disobedience on the part of the
faithful.

This new Romanism, whose existence was barely perceptible
to those at a distance, was still in its first inception ; it controlled
but few periodicals, and in the South German Landtags had no

549

History of Germany

more than isolated adherents, who rarely ventured to show their
colours. Many of the older priests had grown up in the school
of rationalism, or were inclined towards Wessenberg's ideas of a
national church. In the Breslauer Diozesanblatt, which during
the years 1803 to 1819 served the Silesian clergy as their platform,
expression was frequently given to reforming sentiments, and in
especial the introduction of the German tongue into the religious
service was openly advocated, while the young canon, Count
Sedlnitzki, could unconcernedly circulate the German Bible
among his flock. But after the death of the gentle prince bishop
von Hohenlohe-Waldenburg (1817) the ecclesiastical regime of
Silesia became animated by a very different spirit, the Diozesan-
blatt succumbed, and here as everywhere strictly dogmatic views
began to gain the upper hand among the clergy.

Small as it was numerically, the clericalist -party was already
on the up grade, and in talent, activity, and self-confidence, its
members excelled the remaining representatives of the old and
milder tendency, while in the whole outlook of this romanticist
age they found an extremely grateful soil. What a fulcrum was
afforded by dread of revolution. How easy was it to obscure the
fact that the revolution of the sixteenth century had not been
merely a destructive force, but in addition, and even more, a force
of conservation, that Martin Luther had saved for the modern
world the primitive spirit of Christianity. How alluring was the
doctrine that upon the rock of Peter alone, the most firmly
established of all authorities, would the waves of revolution break
in vain. The romanticist world looked back with essential con-
tempt upon " these days of darkness which illusion regarded as
days of light," as Louis of Bavaria expressed it. Initiates
rejoiced in the saying of Novalis that the enlightenment had
loved the light on account of the latter's mathematical obedience
and boldness, and with the enthusiastic poet they extolled the pious
Middle Ages which preferred infinite faith to finite knowledge.
In actual fact, infinite faith retained its power even in this century
of proud culture, and the very highest circles of society had by
no means outgrown a vulgar belief in the miraculous. In Fran-
conia, Prince Alexander Hohenlohe practised cure by prayer
upon an ever wider circle of patients ; he had restored sight to
blinded court ladies and power of movement to paralysed prin-
cesses ; even the crown prince of Bavaria believed for a time that
the holy man had cured his deafness (although this subsequently
proved to be an error), and wrote portentously to a friend, " from

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

numerous points of view we live in great times." l Many pious
spirits, looking back with longing to the primitive unity of Chris-
tianity, devoutly repeated A. W. Schlegel's celebrated lines :

Europe was one in the great days of old.
For one belief to fight all men were bold,
And to one love the hearts of all were open.

They looked hopefully towards the papacy as the bulwark of
universal Christendom, failing to mark in their intoxication that
the church of the counter-reformation had long ago expelled
those energies of evangelical freedom which the mediaeval church
had still possessed.

In the world of historical science, the harsh and biased
Protestant view of the papacy which had prevailed during the
eighteenth century had first been shaken by J. von Miiller's
Travels of the Popes. This booklet now began to exert its full
influence. Walter, Hurter, Bohmer, and many others of the
younger generation, owed to it the essentials of their ecclesiastico-
political doctrines. The author, a historian sensitive to all the
currents of his day, wrote the book to counteract the ambition of
Joseph II, and to give vigorous utterance to the sole political
idea to which he remained faithful throughout the protean trans-
formations of his career — the idea of the balance of power, the
condemnation of all attempts at world-dominion. He regarded
the triumph of Gregory VII as a victory of the spirit over the
force of arms ! When the aged pope, a fugitive and an invalid,
had given his soul for all the nations of the west, declaring to
the kings, thus far shall your rule extend, " henceforward there
existed a sanctuary against the wrath of potentates, the altar, and
there existed also a sanctuary against the misuse of spiritual
prestige, the throne, while the public weal was safeguarded by
the balance between the two powers."

In his well-grounded zeal against the rigours of the Josephan
state-authority, the talented professor quite overlooked the
consideration that a power desiring to prescribe to all the kings
of the earth the limits of their authority would itself be forced to
strive for world-dominion, and that the attempt to secure such
dominion had actually been made by the triple-crowned priests
of the Middle Ages. Miiller had worked a miracle, justifying the
most absolute authority known to history by an appeal to the
idea of liberty, and the growing ultramontane party did not

1 Zastrow's Report, July 17, 1821.
551

History of Germany

hesitate to utilise for its own purposes the bold paradox of the
Protestant thinker. Walter did not venture more than a sugges-
tion that European policy, which had for so long been ruled by
force and cunning, might possibly in days to come (peacefully,
of course, and from within outwards) pass once again beneath
the mild and arbitral sway of the vicegerent of Christ. For the
present, the satisfaction of Miiller's demand would suffce. There
should exist a balance of power between the state and the church,
with complete freedom for both authorities ; and since upon
this generation, embittered by foolish police interference, the
great name of freedom exercised an irresistible influence, the
clericalist notion of ecclesiastico-political dualism gradually
acquired a few isolated adherents even in the liberal camp. For
German historical research in general, Miiller paved the way to a
juster appreciation of the mediaeval church. No strictly clericalist
historian of note had as yet appeared, but in the repose of his
Swiss parsonage F. E. Hurter, a protestant, but a fanatic for the
priesthood, was already brooding over the design to erect a
magnificent monument to the most imperious of all the popes,
Innocent HI.

In further and remarkable illustration of the way in which
the idea of freedom was to subserve the aims of the clericalists,
patriotic sentiment led a considerable number of youthful
enthusiasts into the camp of the Roman world-power, that power
which in all ages had been the natural foe of every strong national
state, and which was now especially hostile to German unity. With
the self-complacency of the enlightenment, the eighteenth century
had passed sentence upon the journeys to Rome made by our old
emperors, and had recognised in the Reformation a struggle (but
half successful, it is true) for light and truth. The souls of our
romanticist youths expanded at the thought of the Othos and
the Hohenstaufens ; and when they contrasted the fantastically
decked images of ancient imperial glories with the miseries of the
Thirty Years' War, the danger was imminent that they might
come to regard Luther's actions as the causes of this decay. It
was under the inspiration of similar patriotic ideals that, at the
time of the peace of Augsburg, Julius Pflugk had penned his fiery
Addresses to the Germans and had lamented the schism in the church
as the beginning of our national misfortunes. It was undeniable
that the Reformation had favoured the growth of long pre-existent
germs of corruption ; that it had accentuated old-established
political dissensions by superadding the bitterness of religious

552

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

intolerance ; how easy was it to succumb to the temptation to
ascribe this disaster, not to the imperial house which, with the aid
of Latin Europe, had arrested the German evangelical movement
in a state of half-completion, but to the reformer himself, to the
man who had hoped to liberate the entire fatherland from the
Roman dominion. The ancient veneration for the pious archducal
house (a sentiment still active, especially in the imperial towns),
and the traditional enmity towards the Prussian state, the dis-
turber of the peace in the empire, collaborated. Thus there
gradually came into existence an utterly distorted view of our
national history which subsequently bore fruit in the sentimental
policy of the Pan-Germans, and in the end never failed to redound
to the advantage of the clericalists alone. The amiable and high-
minded young Frankforter, Johann Friedrich Bohmer, a man
of striking scientific attainments but devoid of political acumen,
now succumbed wholly to the spell of this historical dreamland,
although never able to make up his mind to sever his connection
formally with the Evangelical church : he extolled the victory
of the popes over the Hohenstaufens, condemned the Reformation
because it had divided Germany, and admired the un-German
policy of the last Hapsburg emperors.

To reinforce all these influences there came the unresting
journalistic activity of the great group of converts in Vienna, and
the unappeasable anger of the Catholic imperial nobles, who could
not pardon the spoliation of 1803. There were operative in
addition, the proselytism that was going on in high society, and
the ambiguous attitude of the Austrian government, which
suspiciously imposed restraints upon its own clergy while secretly
supporting ultramontane intrigues in Germany — at a time, too,
when Protestantism, though immeasurably superior to the old
church in point of scientific energy, was torn by faction, was
suffering from the aridity of its forms of worship, was in a
state of incomplete administrative development, and was
consequently incapable of expansion. The result was that from
numerous small runnels and brooks were coalescing the waters
destined ultimately to swell the great ultramontane flood.

In the western provinces of Prussia the increasing acerbity
of religious sentiment was already being manifested by a con-
siderable amount of friction. The tercentenary festival of the
Reformation and the personal co-operation of the king in the
matter aroused much ill-feeling on the Rhine ; the newspapers

553 20

1 listory of Germany

of the French congregation were eagerly read ; and from the
neighbouring Netherlands exciting news was continually arriving
about the struggles of the Belgian clergy with the house of Orange.
Since the days of the " Gueux," the devout people of Aix had
continued to cherish intense hatred for the Protestants ; even
the children of the officials had to suffer in the schools. Since
many of the young Protestant officers and officials found favour
in the eyes of the charming women of the Rhine, there were formed
in several towns societies of old maids and young who swore never
to wed a Protestant. The clergy were forbidden by their superiors
to join the Bible societies, and in many cases the priests imposed
illegal obstacles in the way of the celebration of mixed marriages,
so that the king found it necessary to declare, in a peremptory
cabinet order dated April 6, 1819, that he would " promptly rid
himself of such unworthy divines." Lord Lieutenant Solms-
Laubach, assuredly a sturdy Josephan, suspicious of every indica-
tion of ecclesiastical independence, was continually at war with
Fonk, vicar general at Aix-la-Chapelle, who did his utmost to
hinder the working of the new educational system, and took it
greatly amiss when efficient pastors accepted office as school
teachers.1

After these preliminary skirmishes, in the year 1820, before
the understanding with the Roman see had been completed, the
clericalists ventured the first open resistance of the laws of the
Prussian state. Among the privileged canonical families of the
Miinsterland nobility, the three brothers Droste-Vischering were
conspicuous for their religious zealotry ; they received, as had
at an earlier date the " awakened " circle of Princess Galitzin,
the honorary title of " familia sacra." At the Napoleonic
national council of 1810, the eldest, Casper Max, had demanded
the liberation of the imprisoned pope, and his bold intervention
had compelled the Imperator to dissolve the assembly. Under the
well-meaning Prussian regime, he remained at the outset prudently
in the background.

Of coarser metal was the second brother, Clemens August, a
monkish fanatic, devoid of wit, learning, and knowledge of men,
educated on antediluvian lines, and utterly ignorant of the modern
world, with no idea beyond that of his church, never weary of
well-doing, of fasting and discipline, of all the duties of Roman
sanctimoniousness. No one could see this worthy, priestly figure
with the beautiful, innocently pious blue eyes and the expression

1 Solms-Laubach's Report, August iS, 1819.

554

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

of stubborn defiance on his lips, without thinking that this man
was well fitted to serve a fanatical party as its battering-ram.
As with all persons of limited intelligence, he was an embodiment
of the profound saying that man believes himself to be impelled
by holy zeal when he is really being. driven forward by earthly
anger. He loathed this bourgeois land of Prussia with its parity
of beliefs, detesting the country with all the venom of the clerical
junker; he hated the philosophers, and since he had neither
competence nor inclination to read their works, he damned them
all with priestly arrogance as rationalists and enemies of the church.
Less fearless than his brother, timidly giving way before Napoleon's
despotic orders, he, lawful vicar general of the bishopric of Miinster,
had, under orders from Paris, handed over the administration
of his office to his deadly enemy, the philosophically enlightened
Count Spiegel. This was the sole cowardly action of his life,
and he had repentantly cancelled it when censured by the pope.
After the entry of the Prussians, he immediately resumed his post,
and endeavoured by enhanced quarrelsomeness to atone for his
previous weakness.

The vicar general was in eternal conflict with Professor
Hermes, who during the foreign dominion had been appointed
to the Miinster academy upon the recommendation of Niemeyer,
Protestant chancellor of Halle, and if for this reason alone was in
Droste's eyes little better than a heathen. The presumption
of this small but active minority had already risen to such a pitch
that the new bishop of Augsburg actually took it upon himself
to condemn " the pseudo-mystic Christianity " of the venerable
Sailer in one of his pastoral letters. Droste ordered his priests
to refuse to celebrate any mixed marriage unless a pledge were
given that all the children should be brought up as Catholics ; and
when taken to task by Lord Lieutenant Vincke, be bluntly
declared that he was not bound by territorial laws. When the
Reformation festival drew near, he published a booklet, barbarous
alike in form and content, upon the Religious Liberty of Catholics,
whose culminating proposition was : " Religious liberty is the
liberty to perform all those actions which are demanded to promote
the subjection of the reason and the will to the doctrine of the
Catholic church." He angrily rejected any conditional recog-
nition of the church on the part of the state ; and of all the German
states he considered one only blameless, this of course being Austria,
which alone had taken no part in the spoliation of the church
effected in the year 1803.

555

History of Germany

The negotiations concerning mixed marriages were still uncom-
pleted when the cantankerous man found a new opportunity of
at once gratifying his personal spite and manifesting to the
Protestant suzerain the power of the church. In the year 1820,
Hermes, well supplied with letters of introduction from Spiegel,
removed to Bonn ; many of his admirers in Minister wished to
follow their beloved teacher to the Rhine.1 This misleading of
Westphalian youth must be prevented, and at the same time a
deadly blow must be delivered against the new Rhenish university,
for Droste's detestation of the German universities was as cordial
as that of any monsignore of the Vatican, since he could never
forget what his church had had to suffer at the hands of the
greatest of all German professors. How eagerly had the clerical
party laboured to secure the establishment of the Rhenish
university in Cologne under the immediate supervision of the
archbishop, and anger at the miscarriage of this plan had flamed
higher since in Bonn academic freedom had made such vigorous
progress. Hitherto at the seminary in Cologne the Rhenish
theologians had received a miserable education, which in Solms-
Laubach's view consisted merely of a training for the ritual of
divine service and " of a certain amount of gloomy monkish dog-
matism." Altenstein now proposed to establish a theological
foundation in Bonn, and to entrust to the university the entire
scientific education of the young clerics ; their training here was
to be supplemented by a brief practical course in the seminary
at Cologne. In the theological faculty, however, Hermes and
his sympathiser Gratz were in command. Never would Droste
hand over the future pastors of pious Miinsterland to such
teachers ; never would he permit the young Catholics to hold
converse with heretic students. He therefore had an ordinance
posted in the academy forbidding all theological students of the
bishopric, under pain of refusal of ordination, to study outside
Miinster without express permission from the vicar general.
When a student asked for permission to go to Bonn, Droste
immediately refused, without giving any reason.

This was a declaration of war against the Rhenish university
and was at the same time a presumptuous onslaught upon the
rights of the state-authority, for the academy belonged to the
state, and Vincke, the curator, was the only person entitled to
issue orders to it. The last doubt regarding Droste's views
necessarily disappeared when some weeks later (March 3rd) von

1 Spiegel to Solms-Laubach, March 29, 1820.

556

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

Graben, suffragan bishop in the adjoining town of Osnabruck,
likewise instructed his divinity students that for the time being
they were to pursue their studies in Miinster alone, until their
ecclesiastical superiors were better informed regarding the spirit
of the other universities. l What was to become of the theological
faculty of Bonn if it was to be placed under ban in this way by
the bishops ? The faculty recognised the danger at once, and
adjured the state authorities to take vigorous action for its
defence, saying, " We have to do with an opponent who desires to
slay with one stroke." These Hermesian theologians openly
declared that hitherto "hierarchical despotism" had "invariably
been broken by the firmness of governments," and reminded the
Prussian state of the glorious example of the republic of Venice.8

The exhortation was hardly needed, for meanwhile Vincke
had already declared Droste's ordinance null, and had had it
removed from the notice board. Even Altenstein approved the
resolute intervention of the curator, although, being a man of
peace, he was almost as anxious to avoid any dispute with the
spiritual authorities as was his adviser, the semi-clericalist
Schmedding ; and he asked the vicar general what justification
the latter had for a step which manifestly contravened the pre-
scriptions of the Prussian civil code.3 Thereupon, on March 2Oth,
came an answer which cannot fail to surprise us even from such
an author. Droste told Altenstein to his face that he, Droste,
owed the minister no account of his doings, that neither the civil
code nor subordination to a Protestant suzerain could abrogate
the ecclesiastical law which was universally valid in Germany.
He had no confidence in educational institutions whose divinity
professors were appointed by Protestant authorities, " a practice
which I should hardly have regarded as possible even where the
Catholic church was merely tolerated." He continued as follows :
" It assuredly cannot be your excellency's intention to protect
an alleged liberty of the students by an infringement of the
liberties of the Catholic church, which rest upon divine authority,
are recognised by his majesty the king, and are guaranteed by

1 Droste to the divinity student v. d. Meulen, February 23, Ordinance of the
suffragan bishop von Graben, Osnabruck, March 3, 1820. These and the other
documents to which reference is made in the following notes were examined by
me in the archives of the board of governors at Bonn university, by permission
of Privy Councillor Beseler.

8 Petition of the theological faculty of Bonn to Altenstein, February 26 ; to
the curator von Rehfues, February 25 ; Dean Gratz to Rehfues, March 16, 1820.

s Altenstein to Vincke, March I ; to Droste, March i, 1820.

557

History of Germany

him (in so far as human authority can guarantee an authority
of higher origin)." He then appealed to article 63 of the principal
resolution of the Diet of Deputation, which had merely promised
that hitherto existing religious practices should be protected
against abolition and molestation, and presumptuously declared
that the obligation of military service imposed upon priests and
school teachers, and also the so-called placet, conflicted with
this article. He then gave vent in his abominable German to
certain generally worded objurgations, which were obviously aimed
at the minister in person, against " those baptised heathens who
are in truth infidels." Such were the thanks of the clericalists for
the royal foundation of Bonn university.

After this display of a fanaticism which denied the state
any rigfht to exercise supremacy over the church, Altenstein fore-
saw that Droste would avail himself of all the terrors of the
spiritual arm in order to keep the Westphalian students in
Munster. It was necessary to take vigorous action, unless the
state-authority were to allow itself to be contemptuously defied.
On April loth, therefore, by agreement with the chancellor, the
minister had the theological faculty in Miinster suspended until
further notice, and Vincke carried out the severe sentence with
a heavy heart. How earnestly had the loyal Westphalian
endeavoured to awaken new life in the decayed foundation of
Baron Fiirstenberg. He had just arranged with Altenstein for
an increase in the teaching faculty, and now the defiance of this
blind zealot was to rob his beloved province for years to come
of its academy, for the philosophical faculty could not thrive
without its theological sister.1 Everything was settled at one
blow. Droste did not venture to await the threatened personal
reprimand, but resigned his post, and continued for years to lead
the life of a meditative penitent amid a small circle of priests and
nuns. The suffragan bishop of Osnabriick had before this, as
soon as he recognised that the Prussian authorities were in earnest,
granted his divinity students permission to go to Bonn.2

The clericalist onslaught had been completely repulsed, and
on this occasion public opinion, otherwise so fond of complaining
about Prussian tyranny, was unanimously upon the side of the
state-authority. In Nassau, a Hermesian had Droste's communi-
cation printed in order to warn the governments against the

1 Altenstein to Vincke, April 10 ; Vincke to the theological faculty of Miinster,
April 1 8, 1820.

2 Ordinance of Suffragan Bishop von Graben, April 6, 1820.

558

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

intrigues of their spiritual opponents. The affair did, indeed,
throw an alarmingly clear light upon the ultimate aims of the
ultramontane party. It was known in Berlin how lively was
the secret intercourse between the Westphalian clergy and the
nuncio in Munich, and the government learned with considerable
annoyance that Prussia's true friend Metternich had, in the
Oesterreichische Beobachter, published a benevolent comment upon
the impudent answer of the vicar general of Miinster. l The
understanding with the Roman see left the state in full possession
of its ecclesiastico-political rights, and as the pope had publicly
expressed his gratitude to the king, the clericalists kept quiet for
a time. But religious peace was by no means secured. Everything
depended upon the carrying out of the agreement, and both
parties awaited with tense interest the nomination of the new
bishops.

At the same time in which Prussia came to an understanding
with the Roman see, Bavaria also brought to a conclusion the
dispute about her concordat, not by a direct route, but in such
a way that the state-authority remained paramount. The con-
tradiction between the strictly canonical concordat and the spirit
of the new constitutional laws guaranteeing parity of beliefs,
was indisputable. The Roman see had been outflanked. The
nuncio, Serra-Cassano, endeavoured to interpret the contradic-
tion in the sense of the Vatican, and secretly initiated a clericalist
movement against the constitution. On the other hand, the
adherents of the old order of illuminates were extremely active,
overwhelming the papacy with ill-natured gibes in Monastic Letters
and other lampoons. But Zentner, Lerchenfeld, and Ignaz Rud-
hart, all the men of talent in the high officialdom, were determined
to atone for past failures by invincible firmness, and their cause
was won from the first, for the concordat, which upon the curia's
own wish had been published as a national law, was for this reason
unquestionably subordinated to the prescriptions of the consti-
tution. When Cardinal Consalvi demanded on March 8, 1820,
that in case of dispute the concordat must take precedence of
constitutional laws, Rechberg answered confidentially that it
was quite impossible to issue such a declaration, which would
arouse the fury of the parties hostile to the church, and would
perhaps imperil the existence of the ministry. Subsequently
the cardinal gave ground step by step, and on September 15, 1821,

1 Zastrow's Report, December 31, 1820 ; Krasemark's Report, April 24, 1820-

559

History of Germany

after prolonged negotiations, the king signed with the curia the
Tegernsee declaration, whose terms had been agreed upon word by
word between the respective parties. In this document the king
approved the institution of the new bishoprics, appending the
twofold assurance : first, that the constitutional oath, in accord-
ance with the prescriptions of the constitution itself, related solely
to civic order, and did not pledge subjects to anything which could
conflict with the laws of God or of the Catholic church ; secondly,
that the concordat was a national law, and must in all cases be
observed by the authorities.

With great ceremony the nuncio could now make public in
the Frauenkirche of Munich the episcopal areas bull, Dei ac Domini,
which had been in abeyance since it had been signed on April i,
1818. His assumption was that a great victory had been gained,
and the foreign diplomats were impressed by the confidence with
which he spoke henceforward.1 In reality, however, the curia
had been defeated by the skill of Zentner and his friends, for it had
expressly admitted that the constitution did not conflict with
the utterances of the church, and it had once more recognised
the concordat as a national law. It is true that the Tegernsee
declaration was not perfectly unambiguous. Here, as in all agree-
ments between modern states and the Roman see, was to be again
manifest the truth of the Jesuit saying : there is always a snake
in the grass. Nevertheless the Bavarian state could look forward
with equanimity to a dispute with the papacy, for it had two great
advantages over Prussia : a Catholic king, for whom the curia
and the Catholic populace would make every allowance ; and an
officialdom whose members had grown up in a Catholic atmos-
phere, and who knew how to hold their own with the clergy. In
Bavaria, the crown nominated all the bishops, confirmed the
appointment of all parish priests, and exercised its ecclesiastical
supremacy with so much strictness, that even an ordinance about
fasts or a brief about ecclesiastical vestments could not appear
without the royal placet, and no priest could impose public
penances. After a humiliation suffered through its own fault,
the state-authority had vigorously reassembled its forces, and
thenceforward during an entire decade peace between state and
church remained almost unbroken.

Less fortunate was the course of the negotiations conducted
by the states of the upper Rhine. Since March, 1818, the Frank-
fort conferences had been sitting under Wangenheim's presidency,

1 Zastrow's Report, December 21, 1821.
560

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

and the liberal press, which the president always kept well posted,
anticipated, as the outcome of these deliberations of pure Ger-
many, a magna charta of German religious freedom, the estab-
lishment of the " purified canon law." But the outlook of the
Vatican towards the states of the south-west was by no means
benevolent, for in these regions the Catholic church had good
reason to complain of bureaucratic oppression. In the districts
of Hesse-Darmstadt which had formerly belonged to Electoral
Mainz, the Protestant grand duke had arrogated to himself the
right of nominating parish priests, a right which had hitherto
belonged to the archbishop, as if this nomination were part of
the suzerain prerogative of the state. In Nassau, since 1817,
undenominational elementary schools had been instituted, so
that henceforward there was but one official religious seminary
for all faiths, the children being first taught in common " the
general principles of religion," and then receiving separate
religious instruction in accordance with their respective creeds ; to
complete their enlightenment, they were subsequently, just as in
renascent Spain, given instruction also in constitutional doctrine —
concerning Nassau alone, for what concern had the Nassauers with
Germany ? The outcome of this bureaucratic popular enlighten-
ment was not bad on the whole, for the little country contained
such a medley of different creeds ; but it was impossible to expect
that the Roman see could approve of the general school-religion
of Nassau. Still less agreeable to the curia was the personnel of
the conference.

Wurtemberg was represented by Wangenheim, an avowed
admirer " of the admirable Josephan canon law," and by
Jaumann, councillor to the vicariate general, a learned divine,
whose hobby was archaeology, and who, like the president, was
a declared Josephan. Koch, plenipotentiary of Nassau, one
of the founders of the "enlightened" undenominational elementary
schools, had relinquished orders, and during the course of the
conference had his marriage celebrated by a Protestant pastor,
so that he was recalled on account of the scandal that was raised.
Of the Badenese representatives, one, Burg, had formerly accom-
panied Wessenberg to Rome ; the other, von Ittner, a man who
had done good service at Freiburg university, also owed his
appointment to the recommendation of the co-bishop of Constance,
and was in ill repute at Rome as friend and collaborator of the
rationalistic zealot Zschokke. Canon von Wreden, the Darmstadt
plenipotentiary, had with vigorous pen attacked the claims of

561

History of Germany

the papacy at the time of the episcopal assembly at Ems. Besides
Wangenheim, Ries of Electoral Hesse was the only Protestant
at the conference.

It will readily be understood that in Consalvi's eyes the
Frankfort conference was merely a congress of the Wessenberg
party, and this latter seemed at the moment to the pope more
open to suspicion than Protestantism itself. But Wangenheim
regarded the assembled strength of his pure Germany with
imperturbable confidence, and it seemed to him unthinkable
that the Vatican could ever be so bold as to resist the united will
of five German sovereigns ; he even thought it would be possible
to wrest from the curia the right of episcopal nomination, for
during the days of the Confederation of the Rhine the pope, in
a moment of urgent need, had been on the point of conceding
this right of nomination to the Protestant king of Wiirtemberg,
despite the fact that the concession would have been utterly
opposed to the old established principles of Vatican policy. Upon
Wangenheim 's suggestion, the conference drew up a declaration
stating the rights which were claimed for the state authority, the
placet, the nomination of bishops, and a number of other far-
reaching demands for the ecclesiastical supremacy of the state ;
and a joint embassy was sent to Rome, not to negotiate about
these claims with the holy see, but simply to secure an opinion
upon them. It was innocently hoped that the pope would not
offer any opposition ; but if he should venture to do so, the allied
states were resolved to establish the new dioceses with the
aid of their still existing bishops. Yet the establishment of new
bishoprics was one of the ancient and undisputed privileges of the
papal primacy, and one which no prelate could ever infringe. The
liberal newspapers of the south-west were celebrating in advance
the triumph of the enlightened states over the Roman see ; and
Koch, one of the leaders of the conference, wrote in sanguine mood
that an ecclesiastical organisation was at length about to come
into existence, "harmonising with the state constitution and with
the wishes and exigencies of the time, which seems to be advancing
out of the twilight of dawn into the clear light of day " ; there
could, of course, be no question of any abatement of the modest
claims put forward for the state-authority. l

The embassy arrived at Rome in March, 1819. It consisted
of Councillor von Schmitz-Grollenburg, at one time a canon, who
had afterwards entered the Wiirtemberg state-service and had

1 Koch to Berstett, February 15, 1819.
562

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

shown himself to be a strict Josephan ; and of Baron von Turck-
heim, father of the Badenese conservative parliamentary orator.
At the first audience, Turckheim, the Protestant, knelt to the
pope, whilst Schmitz, the Catholic, resolute to maintain his
king's sovereignty, stood erect. As Niebuhr had prophesied to
the envoys,, even the meek Pius VII felt affronted when these
five petty courts opened negotiations by presenting an ultimatum.
His secretary of state asked whether they mistook the pope
for the Grand Turk, and openly declared that it was not
the Protestant rulers but their Catholic advisers who were
inspired with hostile sentiments. On August loth, Consalvi
responded in a lengthy exposition which again showed conclu-
sively that the modern state which desires to come to an under-
standing with the curia regarding the extent of its suzerain rights,
either effects nothing at all, or else is forced to abrogate its
sovereignty. The memorial expressed in somewhat milder terms
the same principles of unrestricted ecclesiastical supremacy
which Consalvi had previously maintained vis-a-vis the Hano-
verian court. Notwithstanding this blunt refusal, the envoys
remained for a time in Rome engaged in fruitless negotiations.
The pope left them one way out, declaring himself willing to fix
on his own account the diocesan limits of the new Upper Rhenish
province of the church.

With these tidings the crestfallen envoys returned home, and
the five courts were soon forced to recognise that, for the time
being, at any rate, they must renounce the pompously proclaimed
plan of securing a religious magna charta, and that, like Prussia,
they must perforce be contented with coming to terms about an
episcopal areas' bull. The Frankfort conference reassembled in
March, 1820, and deliberated for nine months concerning the
organisation of the Upper Rhenish ecclesiastical province. There
was no dispute as to the boundaries of the new bishoprics, for
each of the five sovereign princes was resolved to allow himself
the pleasure of having a territorial bishop of his own, although
the elector of Hesse had no more than about 100,000 Catholic
subjects, and neither in Darmstadt nor in Nassau did the Catholic
population amount to more than 150,000. But which of the
five territorial bishops was to enjoy the dignity of being metro-
politan ? The pope earnestly desired the re-establishment of the
archbishopric of Mainz, which for centuries in popular estimation
had been the most illustrious among the Rhenish bishoprics. But
the reverence for the historic past which Prussia had displayed in

563

History of Germany

reconstituting the archiepiscopal see of Cologne, was unknown
to the bureaucracy of the Rhenish Confederate states. Since the
diocese of Mainz had dwindled to become a trifling Darmstadt
territorial bishopric, Wiirtemberg was by no means inclined to
allow its royal territorial bishop to be subordinated to the modest
metropolitan of a mere grand duchy. Nassau, too, offered
vigorous opposition, and in the end the grand duke of Hesse, who
had at first been eager to secure this advance in rank for his
territorial bishop, let the idea drop. There can be no doubt that
the Hessian court became dominated by the fear that a new
archbishop of Mainz might very readily fall into temptation, as
successor of the imperial chancellor in Germania, the most
distinguished prince of the Holy Empire, and might thus become
a danger to the prestige of the territorial sovereign. The magic
of the glorious and ancient name of Electoral Mainz was still
powerful, and a few years earlier the grand duke had vainly
endeavoured to secure for himself from the German great powers
the title of Elector of Mainz.1

In short, the idea was abandoned. Since the other
sovereign princes did not wish to concede any privilege to the
kingly crown of Wiirtemberg, it was ultimately decided to find
a way out by adopting the convenient measure of population,
and, as Baden was pre-eminent in this respect, to adorn the
Badenese territorial bishopric with the archiepiscopal title. The
Badenese ministers were delighted ; but now a fresh difficulty
arose.2 In Constance, Wessenberg was acting-bishop by elec-
tion, and with the support of the government had fulfilled this
office for years, against the will of the pope. If the archi-
episcopal dignity were conferred upon this bishopric, new and
vexatious discords with the Roman see might be anticipated,
and the court of Carlsruhe had no further inclination for such
embarrassing negotiations. The new grand duke Louis, when
some years before he had been leading a free bachelor life at Salem
on the lake of Constance, had taken offence at the candid exhorta-
tions of the rigidly moral prelate of Constance, and he regarded
Wessenberg with suspicion as a dangerous liberal.

The altered mood of the Badenese cabinet was sufficiently
shown by the fact that Blittersdorff, the federal envoy, now

1 Note of the grand-ducal Hessian envoy, Baron von Senden, to Hardenberg,
May 27, 1816.

2 Blittersdorff's Reports, September 25, 1820; January 20 and 30, November
21, 1821.

564

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

appeared at the Frankfort conferences. He was by no means
an unconditional opponent of Wessenberg ; but was ultra-
conservative, and desired to remain at peace with the curia, cost
what it might. He first raised the question whether the vicar
general of Constance might not be induced to resign of his own
free will, or whether it might not even be possible to abolish the
bishopric ; then the contested Constance election would be
spontaneously annulled, and the apple of discord could be
removed. l In this way another venerable historical bond would
have been severed, and this ancient foundation, at one time the
greatest in the Holy Empire would have been annihilated. But
in this land of Baden, where everything was new, the idea of a
modern bishopric could arouse little hostility. The proposal, if
carried into effect, would overcome a temporary embarrassment,
and the more conveniently situated Freiburg, with its splendid
minster, offered a worthy home for the archiepiscopal see. The
five courts therefore united upon the plan of an archdiocese of
Freiburg, with four suffragan bishoprics in Rottenburg, Mainz,
Fulda, and Limburg, and transmitted these proposals to the
curia Meanwhile in Rome the common cause was represented
by the Wurtemberg envoy Kolle, one of those literary dilettantes
who thrive in the busy idleness of the diplomatic life of petty
states, known to all as a collector and as an inexhaustible anec-
dotist. He was in the habit of sending political articles to the
Allgemeine Zeitung, writing well, and even wittily at times, with
an air of omniscience, but never conveying a new idea.

He was ill-placed in Rome, for he was a freemason and a
Josephan. Consalvi would have very little to do with him ; and
while the five courts were still awaiting the pope's reply they
were taken by surprise by the receipt of the episcopal areas' bull.
This bull, Provida sollersque, dated August 16, 1821, specified the
subdivision of the Upper Rhenish ecclesiastical province essen-
tially in concordance with the proposals of the governments, but
it also contained a dangerous prescription which Niebuhr had
sedulously evaded in his negotiations. Not merely the Catholic
subjects, but also the entire state domains of the five sovereigns,
were subjected by the pope to the spiritual authority of the new
bishops. Thus there were founded in Germany, with its parity
of beliefs, five new titular bishoprics with all the extra-
ordinary powers which were assigned to the missionary clergy
for the readier conversion of heretics. The bull said not a word

1 Blittersdorff's Report, December 28, 1820.
565

History of Germany

about the relationship of the church to the state, and the five
courts had to engage for years in laborious negotiations to secure,
to some extent, their rights of supremacy over the church.

Hanover, which as early as 1816, first among all the Pro-
testant crowns, had begun to negotiate for a concordat, had also
to learn that the only way to attain the goal was that which
had been opened by Niebuhr. Consalvi held with inalterable
firmness to the claims of his church to dominion, demanding for
the bishops jurisdiction " juxta vigentem ecclesiae disciplinam ' ;
that is to say, the Protestant king of Hanover was to recognise
that the bishops were legally empowered to safeguard the unity
of the church, even where heretics were concerned. In 1821,
negotiations were broken off ; the plenipotentiary Ompteda and
his successor Reden had shown all too plainly how little the
Protestant north was acquainted with the sentiments of the
Roman see. It was not until the Hanoverian government made
up its mind to follow the example of Prussia, that on March 26,
1824, the episcopal areas' bull Impensa Romanorum was issued
decreeing the establishment of the two small bishprics of Osna-
briick and Hildesheim. Yet here also the curia was at its old
tricks, for it was not the Catholic population of Hanover but the
entire kingdom which was assigned to the new bishoprics as
" terra catholica."

§2. THE PRUSSIAN PROVINCIAL DIETS.

Delighted by his successes in Rome, and refreshed by the
manifold impressions of the journey, Hardenberg returned to
Potsdam on April 24, 1824. When he passed through Baireuth
on the way home, the loyal Franconians, who had not forgotten
the good Prussian times, paid him the honour of a torchlight
serenade, and at Gefell, on the Prussian frontier, a triumphal arch
had been erected for his passage. His appearance was more
serene and confident than it had been for years. Yet he was
soon to realise the unfortunate consequences of this ill-advised
journey. His opponents had made the most of his absence ;
the situation was completely changed, and the affair of the
constitution was already at the beginning of the end. The
feudalist opposition had worked without intermission. In Feb-
ruary, the territorial deputies of Lower Lusatia had demanded
the immediate summoning of the provincial diets ; and when the

566

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

chancellor returned, Bodelschwingh-Plettenberg and the gentry
of Mark bluntly assured him that, " owing to the procrastination
of attention to public affairs in County Mark, our fatherland,"
they had resolved to summon their abolished Landtag. Both
petitions were, indeed, rejected in strong terms.1 At court,
however, increasing approval was expressed for the views of
Marwitz, and it was declared an insane idea to think of giving a
Reichstag to so composite a state. Another Brandenburg land-
lord, von Rochow-Rekahn, in a memorial to the crown prince,
triumphantly announced that the reanimation of the old pro-
vincial diets had in the two greatest German states at length
secured a victory " over the introduction of the fallacious and
revolutionary constitutional system." Since, incredible to relate,
" there still exist certain law-abiding and well-disposed persons
who fail to recognise that the latter system is the work of illusion
and of lies," the king would do well to summon in every province
representatives of the qualified estates, selecting none but indubit-
able opponents of the new destructive theories, in order to discuss
with them the re-establishment of the old Landtags. 2 A literary
champion of feudal particularism had meanwhile put in an
appearance, in the person of J. F. J. Sommer, who as " West-
phalus Eremita " had recently defended the independence of
the Roman church. In his book Of the German Constitution in
Germanic Prussia he declared it to be beyond question that the
Electoral Cologne duchy of Westphalia still existed, and he
expressed the hope that the crown would soon recognise that
the brethren of ducal Westphalia and of Mark respectively, despite
all their mutual affection, could not possibly work together in the
same circle assembly.

Whilst his opponents were thus displaying more and more
confidence, Hardenberg, immediately after his return, was once
more exposed to the worst suspicions through the precipitation
of indiscreet friends. His wonder-working physician Koreff had
sent to Benjamin Constant, the celebrated publicist of the French
doctrinaires, Benzenberg's unlucky writing, bearing an inscrip-
tion " de la part de 1'auteur," assuming that the recipient would
know who the author was, seeing that Benzenberg's name had
in the German newspapers been repeatedly mentioned in this

1 Cabinet Order to Schuckmann, February 16 ; Petition of Baron Bodel-
schwingh-Plettenberg and his associates, to the chancellor, April 21, 1821.

4 Von Rochow-Rekahn, A Country Nobleman's View, a View based upon
Experience of Provincial Diet Constitutions, February, 1821.

567

History of Germany

connection. But Constant, who was well acquainted with the
handwriting of the inscription, inferred that Koreff was himself
the author, and was agreeably surprised to learn that the ideas of
his constitutional system, the only true ones, had thus secured
recognition from the confidant of the Prussian chancellor. He
had a French translation of the pamphlet prepared, provided it
with complacent annotations, wrote a preface describing it as an
official publication, and named Koreff as the author. In March,
1821, this remarkable composition made its appearance under
the resounding title, Du triomphe inevitable et prochain des
principes constitutionnels en Prusse. Benzenberg's rash proposi-
tions were here reproduced in French, exaggerated to the point
of irrecognisability. Hardenberg was exalted as standard-
bearer of parliamentarism, of the ideas of the Revolution ;
William of Wiirtemberg, the enemy of the eastern powers, was
warmly praised. Attention was proudly drawn to the fact that
Prussia was now giving in its adhesion to the supreme principle
of constitutional liberty : " It is not for the king to act, but it
is his part to choose the men who are to act." In conclusion
came the jubilant assurance, " The Great Revolution is completed,
and to-day discouragement would no longer be mere weakness,
but folly. The civilised world will in future endure none but
free peoples and none but constitutional monarchs."

It was a crazy misunderstanding, and it would have been
impossible for the French doctrinaire to furnish more conclusive
evidence of how little he knew about the Prussian state and how
little warrant he had for tendering it advice. But in Laibach
the two emperors were gravely incensed. Metternich imme-
diately wrote to Berlin demanding the exemplary punishment
"of so notable an outrage," while in the 0 ester reichische Beo-
bachter Gentz thundered against " the deceitful artifices, the
scurvy politico-literary rascality of the revolutionary faction."
What did it help that the chancellor immediately had a protest
published in the French newspapers ? It would have been
useless to prosecute Constant, for it soon became plain that he
had acted in good faith, although with undue levity.1 He was
therefore left unmolested, and the cackle of malicious tongues
did not cease. Since among the general public nothing was

1 Metternich to Zichy, April 25 ; Krusemark to Bernstorff, April 27 ; Berns-
torfi to Hardenberg, May 4 ; Hardenberg to Koreff, May 6 ; Koreff's Reply,
May 10 ; Scholl to Benzenberg, May 6, to Hardenberg, May 8 ; Benzenberg's
Reply. May 7, 1821.

568

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

known about Hardenberg's plan for a representation of estates,
for decades after this incident the fable was repeated alike by
friends and by foes that the chancellor had designed the intro-
duction of a charte after the French model, and had secretly
collaborated in the writings of Benzenberg and Constant.

These pin-pricks were, however, of trifling importance in
comparison with the powerful stroke which the crown prince
and Wittgenstein had meanwhile directed against the founda-
tions of Hardenberg's design for a constitution. The committee
appointed to examine the proposals for the communes' ordinance
had reported on March iQth. As might have been anticipated,
it proposed the rejection of the whole scheme, and added the
suggestion that the king would be well-advised to renounce for
the present the idea of promulgating a general constitution for
the state, and to content himself with summoning a new com-
mittee which should discuss a law for provincial diets in conjunc-
tion with residents from the provinces. Stein's towns' ordinance
should be maintained, and should be introduced with certain
amendments into the new territorial areas ; but the circles' ordi-
nance and the communes' ordinance should be specially designed
for each province, mainly in accordance with suggestions to be
furnished by the provincial diets. This signified an indefinite
postponement of the plan for a general state constitution, perhaps
its complete abandonment, while the estates were to co-operate
in the reform of the communes' system, a method which could
be successful only if their egotism were sternly repressed. The
opponents of the constitution had said their final word ; war
had been declared against the chancellor. This was the docu-
ment which greeted the chancellor upon his return, with the addi-
tional mortification that the king now for the first time notified
him of the existence and the labours of the committee which had
been summoned behind Hardenberg's back.1

The chancellor immediately accepted the challenge. In the
rural repose of Neu-Hardenberg, he drew up a long report, which
was sent to the king on May 24th. Herein he reiterated the
leading ideas of his Troppau memorial, and uttered the urgent
warning that no time could be more favourable than the present
" for bestowing a constitution by a free act of will." In Italy,
the revolution had been overthrown, but in other lands the
ferment was still at work, and although to all appearance Prussia
was as yet free from the infection, it was nevertheless extremely

1 Committee's Report, March 19 ; Cabinet Order to Hardenberg, May 3 1821.

569 2 P

History of Germany

desirable to anticipate the evil by the voluntary granting of
reasonable reforms. He declared with the utmost definiteness
that the ordinance of May 22, 1815, " must be maintained as a
publicly expressed royal pledge " ; necessary sequels of this
pledge were the promulgation of the promised constitutional
charter and the summoning of the national representative assembly.
" In one way alone would the aim which found expression in the
committee's report be secured. That report declared that
people's minds must be set at rest, the good being afforded satis-
faction and the demands of the bad being refused. This could
be done in no other way than by a charter which gave expression
to the royal grace in its entirety ; it could not be done by leaving
an important part of the constitution in uncertainty." He went
on to give a reminder that it might be necessary to increase the
national debt, and that this increase could no longer be effected
without the assent of the estates of the realm, and he drew com-
mendatory attention to the manner in which Bavarian credit had
been raised after the promulgation of the constitution. In all
other respects he showed a yielding disposition. He recognised
the defects in the communes' laws, and went so far as to propose
the formation of a new constituent committee which, under the
presidency of the crown prince, should definitely draft the com-
munes' laws, and should then, with the co-operation of notables
from the old territories, conclude the provincial and national
constitutions. " This committee should replace the one which
has hitherto sat under my own presidency. I will gladly sacrifice
my own committee, for my only concern is that everything
should be done, no matter by whom, which is for the highest weal
of the state." »

Thus resolutely did the old statesman hold to his design.
But unfortunately his memorial lacked the one thing that might
have given it adequate force, namely, -a definite declaration that
he would stand or fall with his work for the constitution. By
proposing the appointment of a constituent committee of which
he was not himself to be president he renounced the incontestable
rights of his position as chancellor. This was to put the game
in his opponents' hands. The committee did not hesitate to take
advantage of his weakness. It reasserted its own opinion, and
determined to leave the issue to the crown ; should the king
decide against the chancellor, the latter 's only choice would lie
between giving way and resigning. The serious character of this

1 Hardenberg's Report to the king, May 2, 1821 (completed May 24).

570

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

critical moment was keenly felt. In three holograph proposals,
Wittgenstein, Ancillon, and Schuckmann summarised for the
monarch the points in dispute. According to Wittgenstein, the
contrast was to be found in this, that the committee proposed
merely the opportune re-establishment of the older constitution
in the various provinces, whereas the chancellor's design was
to introduce in addition a new national constitution, and conse-
quently " to found a constitutional monarchy." l

A summary of the points in dispute, drawn up in the spirit
of these proposals, was now elaborated for the king, and simul-
taneously (May 28th) a report was sent which unequivocally
declared : "A constitutional charter would always be judged by
the example of those of Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, and Baden. It
would never give satisfaction, for it could not possibly be adequate
to the demands of the malcontents. Such a constitutional charter
would make it seem as if the Prussian state were to be reconsti-
tuted in accordance with changed fundamental principles." The
committee prophesied that in Prussia, as in all other states, the
constitution would immediately lead to the liveliest disputes
regarding the interpretation of the rights that would have been
granted. Then came the bold proposition : " If a constitutional
charter is to be granted, the only alternative is, either to hold
firmly to the purely monarchical principle and to rest content with
deliberative provincial diets, or else to supplement the monarchical
principle effectively by the democratic principle. To the latter
course the chancellor is just as little inclined as are we, nor can
any loyal and reasonable official or subject propose anything of
the kind. Hence there is no need of a constitutional charter."
How much easier would it be, continued the committee, for the
forms and rights of a general Landtag (should such a body subse-
quently prove desirable) to be established at some future date,
after the provincial diets had come into existence !

The report was from Schuckmann's pen. It bore throughout
the stamp of partisan exaggeration, and even contained odious,
though carefully veiled, insinuations against the chancellor, who
had never really demanded anything more than provincial diets
and a national assembly.2 The crown prince, however, signed
the report without hesitation, and the vigorous sallies against
" paper constitutional charters " were agreeable to his romanticist

1 Wittgenstein, Principal Points in which the Proposals of the Committee
and those of the Chancellor diverge, see Appendix XIV.

2 Report of the Committee, May 28, 1821.

571

History of Germany

views of the state. Moreover, the committee's proposals were
most adroitly calculated to suit the king's mood. In his present
temper, profoundly disturbed by the revolutions in southern
Europe, mistrustful of the South German parliamentarians, and
yet too conscientious to revoke his promise in set terms, the king
must necessarily regard it as almost a deliverance to be advised to
fulfil a part of his pledges without delay and yet to postpone for
the time being the dangerous venture of establishing a national
assembly. Finally, the two parties, those who favoured the
modern unity of the state and those who advocated feudalist
particularism, now appeared before the throne with open visors.
The king's decision was in harmony with the crown prince's wishes.
He approved the committee's proposals, and commanded a
further deliberation which was to be exclusively concerned with
the organisation of the provincial diets. By a cabinet order,
dated June n, 1821, the chancellor was informed : " The further
question, that of summoning a general national assembly, is left
to time, to experience, to the subsequent development of affairs,
and to my own paternal care.1 Thus was the plan for a Prussian
national constitution fulfilled seven years after the pledge to
introduce a constitution had been given, and even then the fulfil-
ment was but provisional.

The die was cast, the feudalists had triumphed. Harden-
berg alone refused to regard the decision as irrevocable. Once
more (July 4th ) he made a counter proposal to the king, and
not until months afterwards did he receive the casual answer
that his memorial had been handed to the new constituent
committee for consideration. Meanwhile he consoled himself
with the frivolous hope of overpowering the opposition by
maintaining silence, and he even remained upon the old
friendly footing with Wittgenstein, the most dangerous of his
enemies.2 The arts of diplomatic procrastination which had
in former days been so useful to him against Napoleon, were
now to assist him against his domestic opponents as well.
The summoning of the national assembly was merely postponed,
not definitely abandoned, and the day would perhaps come
on which the creation of this body would be possible. No
one who knew the king could fail to foresee that this day
would be a distant one, and that it certainly would not arrive

1 Cabinet Order to Hardenberg, June n, 1821.

- Cabinet Order to Hardenberg, November 5 ; Hardenberg's Diary, July 20,
1821.

572

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

within the lifetime of the chancellor. Who could know this
better than General Witzleben, an unconditional supporter of
Hardenberg's scheme, and for this very reason excluded hence-
forward from the constitutional deliberations ? In a journey
through the western provinces which he made in the king's
train during this summer, he did indeed note with satisfaction that
his royal master's depression was beginning to pass away. The
reception on the Rhine was everywhere most cordial ; the loyal
Old Prussians in Crefeld and the Lower Rhenish regions over-
flowed with patriotic enthusiasm, and even the rigidly Catholic
Miinsterlanders, who had so recently had experience of the
state's strong hand in the matter of parity of creeds, were
at least outwardly respectful. Nor was Frederick William
by any means inclined to assent to all the claims of the
feudalists. When Bodelschwingh and the Markers voiced
another request for the temporary re-establishment of their old
Landtag, Frederick William met them with a friendly but
definite refusal.1 Nevertheless the adjutant-general did not
fail to observe the suspicion with which his royal friend now
regarded everything which seemed to smack of liberalism. Even
the old anxieties about the Landwehr, which the king had
renounced two years earlier, were now revived, and after
a distressing conversation Witzleben wrote mournfully: ' What
a triumph it would be for our foreign enemies, what a triumph
it would be for Austria, were we to abandon our Landwehr
system ! " In Ems, Stein paid his respects to the king, and
Witzleben's very soul was invigorated when the great man's
burning words manifested how completely he agreed with the
general upon all questions of state. But Witzleben did not
consider it advisable that the baron should enter upon a political
conversation with Frederick William, saying, " The king is now
wholly possessed by a single idea ; no mere talk can effect
any change in his mind, unfortunately facts alone can and will
do this ! " * Stein therefore contented himself with a ceremonial
visit, which was repaid by a royal gift for the Monumenta
Germanic

Meanwhile it became ever clearer that upon that momentous
June nth what had occurred had not been a triumph of

1 Petition of Bodelschwingh-Plettenberg and the deputies of County Alark,
July 4 ; the king's Reply, July 13, 1821.

8 Witzleben's Diary, June and July, 1821.

573

History of Germany

absolutism over liberal ideas but a triumph of particularism
over the unity of the state. The doctrines of the good old times
of 1805, romantically decked out in accordance with the senti-
ments of the crown prince, reascended from the tomb. The
Prussian unified state, which had been welded together through
unexampled struggles, was again regarded as a federative state,
as a composite realm made up of numerous separate states.
Kamptz, in especial, defended this theory, which was based
upon the edifying example of the Austrian crown-lands, with
characteristic obstinacy, and continued as much as a quarter
of a century later to advocate it in his legal treatises. Mar-
witz recommended a radical reform of the administration,
designed to break the power of the migratory bureaucrats and
of the financial oligarchs (these most dangerous of demagogues),
and to destroy for ever the new demagogic contrivance of the
national assembly. At the head of affairs there was to be
a council of state, composed of the administrative chiefs and
of local notabilities ; subordinate to this there were to be pro-
vincial ministers with provincial diets ; finally Landrats, with
powers restricted by the circle estates, and appointed by these
for a term of from three to six years. Such were the elements
of this feudalist administrative organisation, which would have
been tantamount to breaking up the unified German north once
again into a chaos of feudalist petty states.

How could the doughty Schmalz fail to join in this raging
chorus of reaction ? In 1822, under the initials E. F. d. V.
(ein Freund der Verfassung, that is, a friend of the constitu-
tion), he published A View of the Representative Constitution
of the Prussian Monarchy. Taking as premise the chance
circumstance that the Prussian state derived its name from that
of a single territorial area, he drew the strange inference that
the Silesian or the Marker could not be spoken of as a Prussian
in any proper sense of the term (i.e. ethnographically), whereas
the Gascon was rightly named a Frenchman, and the Yorkshire-
man an Englishman ; consequently, according to constitutional
law, Prussia was not a unified state like England or France,
but a composite state resembling the North American union.
The whole sounded like an extremely bad joke, nevertheless
Schmalz's hard head seemed able to take it all seriously, and
could perhaps lead him to believe, if he pushed his idea to its
logical conclusion, that the king was king in East Prussia
alone, being in Magdeburg no more than duke, and in Mors

574

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

count merely, so that it was his duty to provide each of these
states with a separate Landtag.

With this " deplorable " doctrine, as Witzleben named it,
the feudalists once more put in question all that the Hohen-
zollerns had constructed during two arduous centuries,
maintaining the while that they were defending the throne
against the revolution. Strangely enough, a party formed
among the high officials whose views were in fact utterly
opposed to these, played unsuspectingly into the hands of the
feudalists. The new administrative organisation, notwithstand-
ing its efficient services, had not as yet acquired an irresistible
prestige. Everyone complained of polyarchy ; the inexperienced
populace could not understand that the state, which now
did so much more than of yore for the common weal, needed
for this purpose a greater number of servants. On the Rhine,
all believed, though on extremely dubious grounds, that
the administration of the Napoleonic prefects had been twice
or thrice as cheap. The king, for his part, urgently demanded
economy in the civil administration, in order that the deficit
might at length be done away with. The provincial authorities,
on the other hand, and above all the lord-lieutenants found
it difficult to put up with the enormous powers of the new
specialist ministers, who now had the last word in all disputed
questions of public law ; it was only in exceptionally difficult
cases that the council of state afforded any redress. The
official system still lacked a well-ordered judicial administration
with independent tribunals, but in regard to questions of
administrative law, neither theory nor practice had yet arrived
at clarity, and so long as the seat of the evil had not been
recognised, all discontent was directed against the specialist
ministers and the excess of centralisation.

In order to give some relief to the endless grievances
in the summer of 1821 Hardenberg appointed a committee
to discuss the simplification of the administration. Altenstein
was president, and the members, in addition to certain officials
of the ministries, were four lord-lieutenants from the provinces
Vincke, Hippel, Baumann, and Delius. In this committee
on November i3th, Vincke brought forward the proposal
that the monarchy should be subdivided into four great
provincial ministries, and that four only of the specialist
ministers should continue to hold office. Specialist ministers
he continued, were suitable for petty states alone, or for

575

History of Germany

realms in which the revolution had levelled all things and
where the arbitrary will of the prefects held sway. Thus
it came to pass that this man of the common law, the
sworn enemy of the manorial police and of patrimonial
jurisdiction, was by his hatred of the depravity of French
centralisation led half way to meet the designs of feudalist
particularism. Nor did he stand alone, for Klewitz, Schon,
and several other excellent officials of unquestionably liberal
sentiments shared his views. But Hippel rejoined that the
new organisation had not been modelled upon the revolution,
but had been the issue of the necessity to compact the pro-
vinces " into one people, one realm." It was under the
provincial ministers that the state had experienced its great
humiliation, whereas to the specialist ministers it owed an epoch
of valuable reforms. Was this vigorously upward-striving
Prussia to take example by the loose mosaic of the crown-lands
of Austria, which still stood on the verge of bankruptcy ?

At Vincke's request, Humboldt now composed the cele-
brated letter of November 2gth, which later made its way into
the press, and was again and again employed in the fight
against the provincial diets. Alike in respect of form and of
content, this was the ripest of his memorials. He proved
conclusively that it was precisely on account of the great
diversity of the provinces that these required a firmly centra-
lised administration, and he showed that the minister of the
interior, whose office Vincke proposed to abolish, was among
all the ministers the natural representative of the unity of the
state. Passing to the constitutional question, he demonstrated
the utter absurdity of the idea, which had not been realised
anywhere or at any time, of disintegrating a unified state by
provincial diets, declaring that this was a plan which must
either expose the state-authority to incessant encroachments
on the part of the estates, or else reduce the estates to a
nonentity. He prophesied that sooner or later a national
assembly would arise out of the provincial diets, and considered
that for this reason it was desirable to establish in advance
the foundations of the national constitution. The ultimate
question that had to be decided was, " Is the state once again
to become a union of several states, or is it to remain a single
state ? " Thus Humboldt defended Hardenberg's ideas more
successfully than the chancellor had himself been able to defend
them. How disastrous it was that these two men, who in

576

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

essential matters were so entirely at one, should have been
estranged by an insuperable antipathy. General Witzleben,
who at first had been upon Vincke's side, showed himself on
this occasion also amenable to reason. He was convinced
by the arguments of Humboldt and Hippel, and through his
instrumentality the king was won over. The feudalists revived
their plan on several occasions. As late as the spring of 1823,
Marwitz commended his programme to the crown prince ; and
von Meyern, the Badenese charge d'affaires, a man of no
account, whose reports were a mere echo of the views of the
reactionary party, declared after Hardenberg's death, " provincial
ministers are universally desired." l The king, however, was
firmly resolved to maintain the unity of the administration.

Dispassionate examination showed that the complaints
were greatly exaggerated, and that very few of the existing
officials could be dispensed with, unless it were proposed to
exchange the well-tried collegial system for a despotic prefec-
toral administration. The tedious negotiations resulted ulti-
mately in the abolition of only three governments (Cleves,
Reichenbach, and Berlin) and two lord-lieutenants. The death
of Count Solms-Laubach in the year 1822 gave an opportunity
for combining the grand duchy of Lower Rhine with Julich-
Cleves-Berg, and of appointing Ingersleben lord-lieutenant of
this new province, Rhenish Prussia. Meanwhile, with passionate
zeal, Schon was working for the union of East and West Prussia.
His sphere of activity in Danzig did not satisfy his ambition.
He felt himself the natural chief of the entire territory of Old
Prussia, and, like all genuine East Prussians, he regarded the
Vistula region as a mere fragment of the celebrated Ordensland,
a fragment which should now be restored to its old home.
Frederick the Great had once placed both these areas under
Dornhardt's administration, and during the Napoleonic days
Auerswald had likewise simultaneously governed both provinces.2
Konigsberg was the centre of the intellectual life of both regions,
almost as much as was Breslau for Silesia, while Danzig
remained a mere commercial town ; moreover, it seemed advis-
able to provide a considerable counterpoise to the Polish element
of West Prussia. Doubtless the distances were enormous,
and, even with the swift-footed Lithuanian horses, travelling

1 Meyern's Report, April 10, 1823.

2 Memorial concerning the Union of East and West Prussia, February II.
1822 (unsigned, probably by Schon).

577

History of Germany

was extremely laborious owing to the condition of the roads.
But Schon knew how to overcome all counter-considerations,
the general desire for simplification in the administration came
to his aid, and in 1824 he was appointed lord-lieutenant of
the province of Prussia. In this way two new provinces were
constituted, one of these being almost as large and the other
quite as populous as the whole of Bavaria on the right bank
of the Rhine. In Rhineland, the union stood the test of time.
In the province of Prussia, on the other hand, sharp oppositions
soon became manifest ; the West Prussians found that their
interests suffered at the hands of the East Prussian majority,
and the new order remained unchallenged only so long as
Schon's strict and careful regime continued.

The attack upon the unity of the administration had failed,
but all the more certainly did the feudalist party hope to
prevent the unity of the constitution. On October 3Oth a new
committee (the fifth and last) was summoned to discuss the
formation of the provincial diets. The king, taking the easy-
going and pliable chancellor at his word, excluded him entirely
from the deliberations. The crown prince was appointed presi-
dent, and the other members of the new committee were those
who had combined to form the fourth committee, which had
just carried out, in opposition to Hardenberg, the rejection of
the communes' ordinance. The only new members were Voss-
Buch, lord-lieutenants Vincke and Schonberg, and Privy Coun-
cillor Duncker as secretary. This was almost equivalent to a
formal dismissal of the chancellor. The sittings of the
committee began on December 4th, and the body successively
summoned a small number of notables from each of the various
territorial areas. First (January, 1822) came the Branden-
burgers, next the notables from Pomerania, then those from East
Prussia, West Prussia, Lower Lusatia, and Saxony. In May
were heard the views of the Silesians and of the Upper
Lusatians, in October those of the Westphalians, still later
those of the Rhinelanders, and finally (in March, 1823) those
of the Poseners. All were strictly pledged to silence, and as
the censorship, in addition, kept a sharp watch on the news-
papers, the secret was so well preserved, that it was not until
the year 1847 that something was learned about the proceedings
of the Silesian notables, through the writings of Ropell and
Wuttke.

The selection of the notables who were to give advice was

57*

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

enough to show how much ground the feudalists had gained
in the four years that had elapsed since the perambulation of
the provinces. At that time, men of all classes had been
interrogated. It is true that even now the committee did not
go so far as to assemble none but deputies of the old Landtags,
as the estates of Ruppin had once demanded. But how
inequitably, how utterly in conflict with all the traditions of
this just crown, was a preference shown for the nobility !
About one hundred notables were summoned from different
parts of the monarchy : from Silesia came fifteen of the landed
gentry, six burghers, and not a single peasant ; from the
Marks, six noblemen, four burghers, no peasants ; from
Westphalia, seven noblemen, nine burghers, and one peasant
landowner ; and so on. It is readily comprehensible that
Lord-lieutenant Schonberg should have expressed a doubt
" whether the notables had really given expression to all the
desires of the provinces " The feudalist party was represented
by some of its most active leaders. From the nobility of the
Mark came Rochow-Rekahn and Quast, two highly respected
men, both so ultra-conservative that Marwitz thought them
suitable for the post of provincial minister in Brandenburg ;
from Westphalia came the tried champions, Merveldt, Hovel,
and Romberg ; from Silesia, von Liittwitz who had recently
taken up his pen on behalf of the nobles, but also from this
province Count Dyhrn, the liberal, and von Gruttschreiber, a
restive individual who had on more than one occasion assembled
popular representatives in Silesia upon his own initiative. No
summons was sent to old Marwitz, this omission being doubtless
due to a dread of the iron man's uncontrollable candour. A
similar anxiety, and the mistrust of the great reformer which
Voss and Wittgenstein continued to harbour, were probably
responsible for the fact that Baron von Stein was asked merely
for a written opinion.

Negotiations with the various groups of notables seldom
lasted more than a week, and they were just as futile as they
were brief. In accordance with the king's command, their
opinions were to be asked solely regarding the composition of
the provincial diets, and not regarding the competence of these
bodies ; for however much veneration might be felt for the
separate rights of the provinces, it was obviously impossible
to come to terms about a constitutional 'design with ten separate
assemblies. Consequently the committee formed its conclusions

579

History of Germany

concerning all the important elements of the constitution unin-
fluenced by the opinions of its local advisers. The notables,
feeling how little change could be effected in matters already
decided, assumed an extremely modest attitude, and their views
exercised an influence in trifling and subsidiary questions alone.
Even the Rhinelanders did not venture more than to put in
a tentative demand on behalf of a restricted publicity for the
Landtags, and their design to intercede on behalf of their
fellow-countryman Gorres was soon abandoned. Unfortunately
these experiences did not lead anyone to draw the obvious
inference that the provincial diets would necessarily exhibit
a similar sterility.

Within the committee, however, the old party struggle
flamed up anew. The feudalist view of the crown prince and
his faithful adherent Ancillon now secured powerful support
in the person of Voss-Buch. An estimable and well-meaning
man and a dutiful Old Prussian official, the leader of
the Brandenburg gentry, like his friend the ex-minister von
Angern in the province of Magdeburg, had for years past
remained in a morose humour on his estates, grumbling about
the new agrarian laws and about the unruly times which had
revolutionised the traditional class divisions. In his view,
the fools of doctrinaires had pushed the state to the very edge
of the abyss, and he regarded it as absolutely indispensable
to impose limitations upon innovation, industrial freedom, and
the relief of the burdens on the peasantry. Always clear-
sighted, definite, and upright, always ready to give a serious
hearing to the opinions of others, he was nevertheless utterly
incapable of emerging from his own narrow circle of ideas,
and he measured all political affairs by comparing them with
the well-established rights of the estates of Mark, saying, " In
accordance with the German constitution, no one who has
mediate authority can act as representative." In the king's presence
he invariably wore knee breeches and silk stockings, while to
a lord-lieutenant of bourgeois origin he would concede no other
courtesy title than " Ew. Wohlgeboren " — to the boundless
indignation of Varnhagen and other enlightened Berlinese. As
early as Napoleonic days he had quarrelled with Hardenberg
so hopelessly that to summon him seemed like a blow in the
chancellor's face, and the step was loudly acclaimed by all the
latter's opponents, not excepting Stein. The honesty and
industry of the strict old feudalist had attracted the king's

580

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

attention. In the summer of 1822, Frederick William visited
him at Buch, and thenceforward his influence was firmly estab-
lished. With his help the feudalists hoped to realise their
Christo-Germanic ideals. When Kiister, in his official zeal,
sent in even at this juncture a precis of the South German
constitutions for the use of the committee, Ancillon rejoined
condescendingly that it was not to be expected that Prussia
could derive much profit from the study of laws elaborated in
accordance with foreign examples.1 The views of Wittgenstein,
Schuckmann, and Albrecht were somewhat more up-to-date,
being bureaucratic rather than feudalist. The opinions of the
liberal officialdom were represented only by Vincke and by
Schonberg, lord-lieutenant of Merseburg, who both exhibited
persistent courage and relentless candour. On the whole the
course of the proceedings was dull and sleepy. Everything had
become slack during these six years of procrastination. There
had long ceased to exist that firm conviction of the inner
necessity for establishing a constitution which Humboldt had
always regarded as the first prerequisite of success. Labours
were now continued solely in order to fulfil the pledge that
had been given.2

At the very outset of the discussions, it became plain how
untenable was the design of creating provincial diets without
any clear idea of when and how the national assembly was
to come into existence. The question arose : "Is the patch-
work now being produced to be regarded as a fulfilment of
the former promise ; is the new law to allude in its preamble
to the ordinance of May 22nd?" Ancillon and his friends
considered this course open to objection, taking exception to
the words " representation of the people " which, they said,
were so often misinterpreted ; whereas in Prussia the proposi-
tion was to represent only the "genuine people," namely, the
landowners. Schonberg wrote in reply to this, with an obvious
reference to Haller : " Anything in the world can be misin-
terpreted. Let the philosophers speculate as they please about
the principles upon which states ought to be founded, let them
discover and let them restore ; Prussia's king and her illustrious
house do not need to look to such theories for their salvation.

1 Ancillon to Kiister, April 6, 1822.

3 Opinions of Schonberg, April 21 and May 21 ; Vincke, April 24 ; Ancillon,
April 29 ; Schuckmann and Voss, May 10 ; Wittgenstein, May 18 ; Albrecht,
May 1 8, 1822.

58l

History of Germany

This salvation is firmly established upon the loyalty, the
obedience, and the love of his majesty's subjects. I do not
consider the term ' representation of the people ' open to objec-
tion. ' The king and his people ' is a beautiful expression, whose
significance has been most gloriously displayed in a period of
great happenings. A representation of estates remains always a
representation of the people. Were it otherwise, all subjects
who are not fortunate enough to possess landed property would
in a sense be outside the law, and this is an inadmissible
assumption." Voss bluntly rejoined : " His majesty, since the
first issue of this ordinance upon which legislation is now to
be based (an ordinance wherein, as I understand it, I can
find no trace of a promise), has not given any further
indication of his desire that it should be carried into effect ; I
indeed incline rather to infer the contrary."

Thus was first employed the disastrous phrase which soon
became the war-cry of the reactionary party, and which was
to be visited by grievous punishment a quarter of a century
later. As absolute monarch the king was unquestionably
justified in issuing a new ordinance by which the ordinance of
May 22nd should be formally abrogated ; but until he had
done this he was bound by his pledge. Moreover, the ordinance
certainly contained a solemn promise, as is plainly shown by
the wording, and also by the definite assurance of Hardenberg,
who had himself drafted it in accordance with the king's desires.
What a confusion of all conceptions of right must ensue if
these plain facts were now to be obscured, and if the prepos-
terous opinion were to be maintained that the crown was free
to disregard the ordinance of May 22nd without annulling it !
Was it not desirable, however, that the earlier promise
should be repeated, and that a formal pledge should once more
be given, securing for the provincial diets the right of election f
to the future national assembly ? Vincke strongly advocated
this course. Even Ancillon supported him here, for thus the
only true principle of indirect election would be recognised in
advance, and " the belief in the subsequent establishment of
a general national assembly would be reanimated. We must
not forget," he continued, " that the institution of a national
assembly was definitely promised by his majesty, that the best
men in the country desire such an assembly, that we have
now to lay the foundations with an eye to this future develop-
ment, and that in view of the high efficiency which we are

582

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

allotting to the provincial diets it is all the more inevitable
that the general national assembly should in course of time
come into existence, for such an assembly is the only thing
that can provide a legal means of securing a compromise
between the often conflicting provincial opinions." Voss, on
the other hand, roundly declared that it was not for them
" to anticipate the legislative will" ; Wittgenstein and Albrecht
agreed with him. Ultimately (May 2ist) unanimity was
secured in a weak compromise. The new law was to refer
neither to the ordinance of May 22nd nor to the right of
election to the national assembly, but in place of this was to
adopt the utterance made in the decisive cabinet order of June
ii, 1821, in which it was stated that the time and manner
of instituting the national assembly was " reserved for our
paternal care."

What a blunder ! The law did not command, it did not
even promise, but merely in non-committal terms held out the
prospect that perhaps at some future date a national assembly
might come into existence ! The vague and ambiguous phrase-
ology faithfully reflected the dissensions that prevailed
among the legislators. Voss and Wittgenstein did not desire
that there should be a national assembly at all, whilst
the crown prince, Ancillon, and the two lord-lieutenants, still
desired its institution. Through the mind of the prince there
floated the idea that in its representative life the monarchy
was to pass through the same slow course of development on
the road to unity which the administration had already
traversed. Yet again and again he was afflicted with the
doubt whether it was possible to control the course of history
in this manner. In October, long after the committee had
finished its labours, he demanded Stein's opinion regarding
the provincial diets, at the same time asking the baron in a
beautiful and cordial letter whether he thought the national
assembly should be instituted simultaneously with the provincial
diet or immediately after these, or whether its establishment
should be deferred until further experience had been gained.
The letter arrived at an unfortunate moment. Stein was
irritable and out of humour; he had already committed himself
too deeply to the feudalist movement, the innermost nature of
which conflicted with the idea of a national assembly. It is
true that he exhorted the prince to have confidence in his
excellent, loyal, thoughtful people ; but instead of impressing

583

History of Germany

upon the mind of the hesitating man the need for the speedy
summoning of a national assembly, he gave (in a manner quite
alien to his character) an evasive answer, saying merely that
the provincial diets would certainly furnish useful experience
of which note might be taken with a view to the national
assembly. There can be no doubt that this unhappy expression
from such a mouth as Stein's exercised a profound influence
upon the prince's judgment. Among all the statesmen of the
day, Humboldt alone clearly recognised the random obscurity
of the whole undertaking. He remained firmly convinced that
it was wrong to begin fashioning the parts without having
conceived a definite plan for the whole ; and how wrong-headed
it seemed to him to set to work upon the structure in the
middle instead of first laying the foundations in the circles
and the communes !

A question of form now came up for consideration, one
which rendered the profound opposition between the parties
crudely conspicuous. Were the general principles regarding the
establishment of the provincial diets to be promulgated in a
single law for the entire monarchy, and the details regarding
the number of votes, etc., to be prescribed in special laws
for each individual province ? Or was each province to receive
its special constitutional charter ? Manifestly the nature of
things and the ancient Prussian tradition alike favoured the
first-mentioned form, which was also vigorously advocated by
the two lord-lieutenants. It was settled that all the provinces
were to receive constitutions essentially similar in character, and
that brief special laws would suffice to prescribe for trifling
deviations from the rule. But the adherents of the historical
doctrine rejected everything which even remotely resembled a
Prussian constitution. " Such a general law," contended
Ancillon, " being a complete innovation, would be like one of
the fashionable extemporised paper constitutions ; each province
should receive its own complete cJiartc, an honour and an
advantage which would certainly delight every one of them."
Schuckmann wrote yet more definitely : "A general law would
be regarded as the constitutional charter announced in the
ordinance of May 22nd, and would from this point of view be
exposed to the fiercest criticism." In the end, a compromise
was again effected, mainly in accordance with the doctrines
of historical particularism. A general law of a few lines which
no one could regard as a constitutional charter announced the

584

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

institution of the provincial diets. This was followed by eight
comprehensive provincial constitutions which, except for trifling
deviations, repeated identical clauses eight separate times ; and
these " chartes," to use Ancillon's word, were also unfortunately
inscribed upon paper !

Were these in reality the historical Landtags which were
thus re-established ? As long as the only aim was to hinder
the carrying out of the chancellor's designs, it was easy to
become enthusiastic for the inviolable rights of the traditional
feudal corporations. But as soon as Hardenberg's opponents
had to put their hands to the work of creation, the needs of
the modern state exercised an irresistible pressure even upon
these historical doctrinaires. The history of the new century
demanded its rights from the older generation. All the institu-
tions of the state were closely dependent upon the new sub-
division of the provinces, and this was true, above all, of the fiscal
system. The share of Altmark in the graduated income-tax
had already been included in the general tax-total of the
province of Saxony. If now, in accordance with the " historical
principle," the Altmark estates were to be withdrawn from the
Saxon provincial diet in order to be incorporated in that of
Brandenburg, how was the Brandenburg provincial diet to
arrange for the assessment of the Altmark taxes ? The ordi-
nance of April 30, 1815, had already declared that questions
concerning the provincial diets were among the affairs apper-
taining to the new provinces, and had subjected these matters
to the supervision of the lord-lieutenants. There was nothing
arbitrary about this, for the new provinces had better title
than the old territories to the name of historical corporations,
since the former were based upon a living community of tribal
origin and of custom, of memories and of intercourse. It was
indispensable that the representative bodies should coincide
with the eight new provinces, unless a gulf were to open
between the constitution and the administration. Under the
eyes of all was the alarming example of Hanover, where adminis-
trative and representative provinces were intermingled in hope-
less confusion.

It was in this sense that Vincke and Schonberg spoke ;
and even Schuckmann, being an experienced administrator,
took their side. Ancillon, on the other hand, thought it
desirable that the modern administration should reconstitute
its provinces on the lines of the old feudal subdivisions. For-

585 2Q

History of Germany

tunately the futility of this doctrinaire view received immediate
and obvious demonstration when the narrower particularist
patriots once more besieged the throne with petitions and
grievances. The notables from Silesia demanded that the
Schwiebus circle should be restored to their province. Of the
Westphalian notables, two, Merveldt and Hovel, advocated
the re-establishment of the old territories. The Lebus circle,
the home of old Marwitz, which had been incorporated with
Neumark, petitioned for reunion with Electoral Mark. The
Schievelbein circle, far away in Further Pomerania, which had
once belonged to Neumark, demanded a return to its ancient
fatherland. The estates of the adjoining Dramburg circle, whose
situation was precisely similar to that of Schievelbein, assured
the crown prince that they desired to remain with Pomerania.
Loudest of all were the complaints of the loyal Altmarkers,
who wrote to the king as follows : " The separation of Alt-
mark, the oldest constituent of the illustrious Prussian monarchy,
from the other Marks, was effected simultaneously with the
forcible detachment from the monarchy itself, and for this reason
we beg that the memory of what then happened may be
expunged." But the notables of Electoral Mark did not want
Altmark back again, and the notables of the province of
Saxony were unwilling to lose it.1

The manifest impossibility of giving simultaneous satis-
faction to these conflicting particularist desires, and the
overmastering need for orderly administration, ultimately com-
pelled the committee to assimilate the local representative
bodies in essentials to the boundaries of the newly formed
provinces. The original tribal land of the monarchy was alone
to be reinstated in its ancient historical glories : Altmark and
the Pomeranian portions of Neumark re-entered the union of
the Brandenburg provincial estates ; with them, indeed, came
also Jiiterbog and Lower Lusatia, which had never belonged
to the Marks. Thus, in the end, the venerators of the historical
principle did not effect a restoration of the ancient diets, but
created eight completely new representative corporations. To
compensate particularism, the committee wished to give the
traditional territories the right of the itio in paries (i.e., voting

1 Petition of the Lebus circle estates to the king, January 23 ; of the
Schievelbein circle to the crown prince, November 15 ; of the Dramburg circle
estates to the crown prince, December 12 ; of the Altmark estates to the king,
January 6. 1822.

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

pay ordre and not par tele) ; every provincial diet was to
exercise the right as soon as any portion of the territory
felt itself threatened in one of its special interests. Upon
Schonberg's proposal, this dangerous privilege was reduced
to a simple right to state grievances that might be felt by the
threatened territorial section. On the other hand, the
" communal constitutions " of the individual territories were
to persist without change for the present. Yet it was only
in Electoral Mark, Altmark, Neumark, the two Pomeranias, and
the two Lusatias, that the old Landtags were reanimated as
communal Landtags. In all the other provinces, the vestiges
of feudal particularist life vanished before the new provincial
diets, without leaving a trace ; everywhere the dead buried
their dead. The man of County Mark joined willingly with
the Paderborner in political activities, the Magdeburger gladly
united with the Thuringian. Anyone who clear-sightedly noted
how quickly the contrasts between the various territories within
the respective provinces became effaced, was forced to recognise
that this people was competent to receive the full blessings of
the unified state.

The simple renovation of the old class-divisions was just
as impossible as the re-establishment of the historical territories.
The provincial diets, said the law, were instituted " in the spirit
of the older German constitutions " ; they were " the legally
established organ of the different orders of our loyal subjects."
Frequently in later days did King Frederick William IV impress
upon them that they were " German estates in the traditional
sense of the term ; that is to say, above all, and in essentials,
guardians of their own rights, of the rights of the estates ;
and they must not interpret their vocation as being that of
representatives of the people." The law laid stress upon the
fact that every elected person actually belonged to his own
estate and to his own electoral area ; and even gave the
estates the disastrous right of the itio in partes. None the
less, the provincial diets were nothing other than a one-sidedly
constructed modern representation of interests. Since the
ancient feudal corporations had everywhere been annihilated,
it was impossible to bind elected persons to the mandates of
their " estate " ; the delegates voted according to personal con-
viction, just like popular representatives. The restricted mem-
bership of the Landtags also prevented the institution of curiae
of estates, as demanded by Stein ; each provincial Landtag

History of Germany

deliberated in a single assembly, and arrived at valid decisions
by the vote of a simple or of a two-thirds majority. Besides,
in most of the provinces, to the despair of the antiquarian
idealists, even the memory of the old caste-distinctions had
completely disappeared. Who could now dream of once again
making the clergy the first estate, although the clergy had alone
ruled in the Landtags of the Rhenish lands of the crosier ?
Since, on the other hand, the rural system of self-government
had not yet been carried into effect, and since for this reason
the foundation for a reasonable gradational electoral system was
still lacking, the committee was inevitably brought back to the
three estates of Hardenberg's proposal — to a division of classes
which was in the nature of things unavoidable, but was certainly
not based upon historical tradition.

Stein and his Westphalian friends, amid passionate outbursts
against the " destructive " inclinations of the officialdom,
demanded that the nobility should constitute the first estate ;
the rule should be that four generations of ancestry, in conjunc-
tion with territorial possessions, were requisite to secure admis-
sion to the nobles' corporation. The majority of the Silesian
notables desired that none but lords of the manor of noble
birth should be admitted to the first estate ; bourgeois lords
of the manor should receive rights as members of this estate
solely in virtue of a special grant by the king, so that " unde-
serving children of fortune " could be excluded from the first
estate. Speaking generally, among the notables the arrogance
characteristic of the nobles of that day manifested itself far more
strongly than among the members of the committee. The
enormous transformations which had taken place in the property
relationships of the rural districts made it impossible for the
committee to accede to such desires, and it was decided that
all " lords of the manor " without distinction of birth should
be accepted as members of the first estate. The concept
" manor " was, indeed, quite unknown upon the Rhine, and
in the east it was so vague that the Saxon notables vainly
endeavoured to throw light upon it in twenty-one different
definitions. A way out of the difficulty was found by the use
of registers, which in the western provinces were to include
also the names of " other great landowners." The result was
that the first estate was a representation of large-scale landed
proprietorship. But in accordance with the committee's
proposal the crown reserved the right of giving special voting

588

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

power to the noble owners of great entailed estates. In addi-
tion, in four of the provinces, there was to be a special supreme
estate for the mediatised and the members of the chapters.

The axiom that the right of admission to an estate is based
upon landed property, had been established since the time
of Hardenberg's first proposal ; it was now interpreted so
strictly that even the church, whose historical claim was indis-
putable, received no representation. The ownership of landed
property was actually demanded from town residents before they
could be eligible, and Stein raged with just anger against the
exclusion of the most highly cultured energies of the urban
population. Thus the preferences of historical romanticism for
the nobility, and the class consciousness of the notables of
noble birth, were at one in securing a distribution of voting
power which was extremely unjust to the reasonable claims of
the towns and the peasantry. The committee made it a rule
that the great landowners should dispose of half, the towns
one-third, and the peasantry one-sixth of the votes ; only in
the western provinces and in East Prussia was the lowest
estate to receive more adequate representation. Of the 584
votes in the eight Landtags, 278 belonged to the mediatised
and to the lords of the manor, 182 to the towns, and 124 to
the peasantry. The modest voting power of the towns approxi-
mately corresponded to the relationships of population, for in
the year 1820 the total population of the towns of the
monarchy first reached the figure of three millions, whereas
the inhabitants of the rural districts numbered eight and a
quarter millions. But the urban voting power was far from
corresponding with the influence which the culture of the towns,
and the capitalised energies these had diffused over the rural
districts, represented in the new society, and it was plainly
apparent that under the circumstances of modern social inter-
course the distinction between town and country had lost its
significance as a point of constitutional law. Yet more disad-
vantageous was the position of the peasantry, for it was still
regarded as a perilous venture to give the new estate any
representation at all, and yet this estate, thus kept in the
background, bore in the east a much larger burden of taxation
than did the lords of the manor.

No serious objection was raised by any of the notables.
It is true that the Silesian lords of the manor grumbled a
little, saying that the sacrifices demanded of the nobility seemed

589

History of Germany

to them somewhat excessive ; but only one burgomaster was
found, also from Silesia, to suggest that the lower estates should
be assigned greater voting power ; while the peasantry were
not represented among the notables at all. But Schonberg
expressly demanded that each estate should have one-third of
the votes. During the recess he reiterated this view in a letter
to the crown prince,1 and was not appeased until after it had
been represented to him that the estate of peasants, especially
in the Marks, was still in process of development, that the
interests of that estate were for the most part coincident with
those of the nobility, and that in case of need the peasant
estate could avail itself of the right of the itio in paries.
Moreover, the voting power of the peasantry was to be increased
in the future " as time and circumstances might direct." But
the time and the circumstances never appeared. Law-givers
had accustomed the nobles to base their influence, not upon
the arduous duties of self-government, but upon the convenient
employment of the voting power of their estate, and how could
it be expected that the dominant estate of the provincial
Landtags should voluntarily renounce the power of the majority
vote ?

The political error of the temporary abandonment of the
national constitution was most gravely avenged in the delibera-
tions concerning the competence of the provincial diets. With
the praiseworthy enthusiasm of youth, the crown prince hoped
that a rich and multiform life would flourish within his
" historical estates." Nor were Voss, Ancillon, Vincke, and
Schonberg by any means willing to condemn the estates to
impotence. It was not by the failure of goodwill, but through
the inexorable consequences of the lack of a fundamental idea,
that the committee was forced to impose narrow and yet ill-
defined limits upon the power of the diets. Had the crown
definitely determined that a national assembly should be
established as soon as the provincial diets were in working
order, the latter bodies would have had to be exclusively
restricted to provincial affairs, and there need then have been
no hesitation in assigning them extremely efficient rights within
that domain, their natural sphere of activity. But now, when
this decisive question hung in the balance, even the self-evident
seemed dubious. The ordinance of May 22nd and the national
debt edict prescribed definite rights for the national assembly,

1 Schonberg to the crown prince. August 5, 1822.
590

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

but none at all for the provincial diets. With excellent inten-
tions, Schonberg now proposed that the rights assigned to the
national assembly should for the nonce be exercised by the
provincial diets, and for so long a time as no national assembly
had come into existence. This did not of course apply to all
the promised rights, for it would have been preposterous to
demand the assent of eight provincial diets to the issue of
national loans. It was only suggested that each provincial
Landtag should have the right of discussing all those laws
" which aim at alterations in rights of person or of property
and in taxation, in so far as they affect the province." On
this occasion Ancillon was more far-sighted, and uttered the
warning : " By assigning such powers to the provincial diets
we shall produce the impression that we are impoverishing and
disinheriting the future national estates in advance, and it will be
inferred that the latter body is never going to be established."
Despite this objection, the committee accepted the proposal,
innocently considering that the modest deliberative competence
could do little harm. Thus it was that the provincial diets
were granted an extremely dangerous right, which did not increase
their powers and yet arrested legislative activity. As Savigny
complained in the year 1846, the eightfold deliberation with
representative bodies which regarded every general law solely
from the outlook of provincial interests was, in fact, " an end-
less screw."

It often happens that, while the right hand plays the
spendthrift, the left hand is a niggard. Stein demanded that
the estates should have the right of decisive co-operation in
all provincial taxation and legislation. The good baron
remained of his old opinion that in quiet times deliberative
estates would do nothing at all and that in troublous times
they would scarcely resist the temptations of sedition. At
first the committee accepted the proposal.1 Subsequently a
justified doubt made itself felt. So long as the counterpoise
of a national assembly was lacking, powerful provincial diets
threatened the national unity ; it was impossible to leave it
to them to decide whethej: they would bear a burden themselves
or shuffle it off upon the state. In the end, therefore, even
in provincial affairs they received merely the power of delibera-
tion. The simple right of sending petitions and statements
of grievances to the throne in matters concerning the province

1 Vincke, Memorial of January 7, 1823.
591

History of Germany

would necessarily lead to barren disputes about competence so
long as no general diet existed. For in this closely-knit unified
state almost every trouble affecting a single province had an
influence which radiated beyond the provincial boundaries.
Taking it all in all, the provincial diets, although they were
declared to exist in virtue of ancient historical tradition,
acquired a competence little greater than that possessed by the
Napoleonic general councils, those masterpieces of levelling bureau-
cracy. The provincial diets, just like the general councils,
could do no more than give unauthoritative advice to the state
officials. But political corporations which have no genuine
responsibility for their actions, either become unmanageable,
or else lapse into slumber.

On the other hand, the provincial diets were assigned a
restricted but fruitful sphere of local self-government, and one
susceptible of expansion if a certain energy were displayed.
" Communal affairs " of the provinces, the relief of destitution,
highways, lunatic asylums and other institutions for the common
weal, were handed over to their care, their actions in these
matters being subject to royal approval. Far more momentous
was the pledge that the reform of the circles' and communes'
organisation should be effected solely with the co-operation of
the estates, separately in each province. This was the triumph
of feudal particularism. The advocates of the historical doctrine
extolled it as a special advantage of the Prussian constitutional
plan that it counted upon " organic development," that
it allotted to the estates themselves the cultivation of their
own institutions, in exhilarating contrast with the narrow-
minded bureaucratic spirit of the South German constitutions.
Hardenberg's and Friese's attempt to establish a uniform order
throughout the communes' system of the monarchy had proved
so complete a failure that the converse design was now adopted
by the committee almost without opposition. Yet this question
touched the foundations of the entire national life. By handing
over the affairs of the circles and communes to eight representa-
tive bodies, the crown renounced an inalienable right of the
state-authority, allowing the egoism of the estates to prevail
in a domain which could not be equitably ordered except by
a power competent to exercise energetic control over the
interests of class. A circles' ordinance which would do reason-
able justice to the interests of the towns and of the peasantry
could never be expected to issue from the deliberations of such

592

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

diets as were now being constituted. Finally, the abolition
of manorial police powers, the first prerequisite to any serious
reform of the rural communes' system, was henceforward
impossible.

In those days it seemed self-evident that the right of
representation in the diet should be restricted to adherents
of the Christian faith, and very few of the notables (one only
among those from Silesia) took a different view. Ancillon
actually cherished the hope that the Jews, being excluded froro
the right to representation, would in future be less inclined
than of yore to practise extortion upon Christian land owners.
All were agreed as to the payment of the members of the diets,
for in this matter the egoism of the possessing classes coincided
with old bureaucratic custom, and with the articles of faith
of vulgar liberalism. Publicity of procedure, which is not
indeed unconditionally necessary for provincial diets, seemed
alarming and dangerous even to a Niebuhr and a Gneisenau.
From the first, the committee regarded it as impossible, and
the notables did not press the point.

When the labours of the committee were finished, Haller
publicly bestowed his blessing upon them, announcing (happily
in error) that the old delimitations of the possessions gradually
acquired by the house of Brandenburg had now been
re-established. " This ordering of affairs," he wrote with much
gratification, " is essentially anti-revolutionary and restorative,
a return to a natural state of things." But Niebuhr's friend
de Serre regretfully declared that it was strange that the
youngest of the great monarchies should voluntarily re-establish
its provincial diets when these has ceased to exist in almost
every other great state. It was, in fact, in crass contradiction
with all the traditions of Prussia that this country, which could
hope to maintain itself in no other way than by the vigorous
consolidation of its powers, should now, for the sake of a
romanticist doctrine, call centrifugal forces into life. Neverthe-
less the hopes of the feudalists soon proved fallacious ; and no
less unwarranted was the malicious joy of those federalist imbe-
ciles who were already looking forward to the day when the
artificial structure of the Prussian state was to fall a prey
to the primitive forces of disintegration. What was the essential
outcome of this long struggle ? The attempt to introduce in the
constitutional sphere the unification which in the administrative

593

History of Germany

sphere had by now been completed, had failed. The old
relationships of the eighteenth century were temporarily re-
established in modern forms. In the provinces there were
representative bodies lacking power and life, subordinated to a
state-authority in which were concentrated all the upward-
striving energies of the life of the community. Consequently
the national unity was not a whit diminished, and all that
could be said was that for the moment it had not been possible
to increase it. In this state-structure, held together by the
firm bonds of a modern administration, it was impossible that
a medley of semi-independent crown-lands such as existed
in belauded Austria, could come into being. The powerless
provincial Landtags could effect very little, but they were also
incompetent to hinder the process of practical German unity.
So robust was the health of this state that it was able to
throw off the fever of particularism. Administrative activities
and compulsory military service, free intercourse and universal
education, united the inhabitants of the monarchy in a loyal
community, and were competent in quiet activities to destroy
all those forces of resistance which were still opposed to the
unity of the German state. When at length, after the lapse
of a quarter of a century, the provincial diets coalesced to form
the United Landtag, there assembled round the throne, not the
representatives of eight distinct provinces, but the citizens of
a single state, the sons of a single people. The ancient terri-
torial animosities had ceased to exist.

During these negotiations, the nation remained silent and
indifferent. The cause of the feudalists alone continued from
time to time to find a defender in the press. Among the
friends of the constitution, discouragement universally prevailed.
Even Gneisenau had abandoned the hopes of earlier days so
completely that he now definitely advised against the
summoning of a national assembly. It is true that in the
salons of the capital there continued to crawl and whisper
a malignant opposition, which, with all the arrogance of
Berlinese omniscience, abused every step taken by the king,
even his most carefully thought out resolves, not excepting
the tariff war against Coethen. Among the masses, too, much
tacit dissatisfaction prevailed : the times were too difficult,
taxation was high, and wages were lamentably small. Since the
indemnities secured at the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle had not

594

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

gone very far, many poor people had been disappointed in
their hopes of recompense for their losses through the war,
and among such persons the most preposterous lies found credence.
It was generally related that the civil list was being met out
of the French money — a fable that continues to find occasional
currency even to-day. Nevertheless the old loyalty of the
Prussians remained inviolable. An attempt at revolt initiated
by von Hedemann, a West Prussian head-ranger, in the summer
of 1821, was so obviously the work of a man of weak intelli-
gence, that even at court the alarm did not long endure.

In November, 1822, the twenty-fifth anniversary of
Frederick William's accession was celebrated almost everywhere
with gratitude and joy. It is true that in Berlin the festival
passed without much elaborate display, for the king was absent
in Italy, delighted to have escaped the tributes of respect at
home. Not a word was heard about the constitution. Only
Friedrich von Raumer, the historian, ventured in an academic
oration to declare before the crown prince that the long-standing
pledge had not yet been redeemed, and that provincial diets
without a national assembly resembled a body without a soul.
Thenceforward academic ceremonials in the capital began to
acquire political significance, the professorial chair occasionally
assuming the position which properly belonged to the parlia-
mentary rostrum. Demands to which no one dared to give
expression in the press were here frankly uttered, but always
with moderation and dignity, for the Berlin university never
sank into the abysses of party passion. The king accepted
the ceremonial oration in a friendly spirit, but the supreme
committee of censors, to which Raumer himself belonged, refused
its imprimatur, and the speech was not printed till a year
later, in Leipzig.

Meanwhile the vital energy and the prestige of the aging
chancellor were rapidly declining. With the shipwreck of
his constitutional plan, his political role had terminated. Even
yet he would not abandon hope, and despite all that had
happened he met his foes with confident serenity. But he had
excluded himself from the constituent deliberations. What
little work he still did in his weakness related to administrative
reform. If he could but carry this to a successful issue, he
would withdraw from public life, so he told Witzleben, and
would subsequently deal only with business expressly entrusted
to him by the king. In every stirring career, a moment comes

595

History of Germany

when the consequences of all mistakes seem of a sudden to be
simultaneously discharged upon the head of him who has made
them. It was such a time that Hardenberg had now to endure
when he stood on the edge of the grave. His penance was
severe, almost excessive, for the personal weaknesses of states-
men are not unpardonable unless they injure the state, and
Hardenberg's political conduct had never been determined by
his vulgar entourage. The unsavoury activities in his house-
hold ultimately became a public scandal, when the adven-
turers and second-rate writers who surrounded him took to
evil courses. Dorow who had unearthed valuable antiquities
on the Rhine, and who had wished with these treasures to
secure a niche for himself in Bonn, was for excellent reasons
ill received by the professors, and on this occasion even the
pliable Altenstein ventured to resist the orders of Hardenberg,
who espoused the cause of his protege with paternal tenderness.
The chancellor had to keep the peace between his somnambulist
favourite Friederike von Kimsky and her despicable husband.
Even Koreff, the thaumaturge, had made himself a nuisance,
for, to Altenstein's despair, he besieged the ministry of public
worship and education with crude proposals for the reform
of the universities, and was at length unseated after an odious
dispute with " fat Scholl." It was astounding how, amid all
this scum, Hardenberg ever remained a man of distinction,
childlike in his goodness and trustfulness, but a ready prey to
every rogue with whom he came in contact. Moreover, his
need for money continually increased. Whilst the committee
for the simplification of the administration was conscientiously
considering the possibility of dispensing with every petty official,
while everything was emphasising the need for economy and
the king had personally handed over 250,000 thalers from the
civil list to cover the deficit for 1822, l Hardenberg was the
only man in this thrifty state who squandered the public funds.
Having unrestricted powers, he drew money just as he pleased.
The king contemplated this extravagance with growing dis-
pleasure, and ultimately, hoping to put an end to it, he offered
the chancellor a very large sum as a fixed annual salary. But
Hardenberg's debts were already so large that he was forced
to reject the proposal.

Thus Frederick William' became continually more estranged
from his chancellor. After the appearance of Benjamin

1 Hardenberg's Diary, July 7, 1821.
596

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

Constant's writing, he even suspected Hardenberg's honesty, for
Constant had married a niece of the chancellor, and how could
anyone believe at court that the uncle had really known nothing
of the nephew's book ? On the other hand, the king's confi-
dence in old Voss steadily increased, for Voss was a man of
strict morality, meticulously conscientious ; and in September,
1822, the king declared his intention to summon Voss to the
ministry as vice-president. Hardenberg accepted even this
humiliation, remaining in office, and allowing the irreconcilable
opponent of his constitutional plans to be appointed as his
proxy. The victory of the feudalist reaction was complete.
Gentz wrote triumphantly that all intrigues on behalf of a
national assembly had at length been frustrated. He regarded
the king of Prussia as the saviour of Germany and of Europe,
and declared : " The only thing lacking to this state is that
it should be Catholic, and next to Austria it is the most
powerful prop of the world." Immediately after this, the king
departed for the congress of Verona, leaving the conduct of affairs
in the hands of the crown prince, whose presence in Berlin
was in any case indispensable as long as the constituent com-
mittee remained sitting. The chancellor saw that the opposition
was becoming insuperable. What could he do against Voss and
the crown prince ? His power was broken, he relinquished the
struggle, abandoned the field to his enemies, and followed the
king to Verona — to the joy of Wittgenstein, who secretly dreaded
lest the crown prince and the chancellor might even now come
to an understanding.

It was now that Hardenberg received the first information
regarding the labours of the constituent committee. On
September i6th, the king sent him the committee's completed
proposals, the general law and the Brandenburg law, and asked
his opinion. In the press of his departure the chancellor
was unable to complete his reply in person, and he commis-
sioned the faithful Friese to elaborate the opinion. In a
memorial dated November 2nd, Friese once more assembled
the leading ideas of Hardenberg's original design for a consti-
tution.1 He most definitely advised the rejection of the
committee's scheme, and the elaboration of a new plan which,
proceeding from below upwards, from the communes to the

1 Cabinet Order to Hardenberg, September 16 ; Friese, Memorial concerning
the Provincial Diets in general and the Brandenburg Diet in particular, November 2,
1822.

597

History of Germany

national assembly, should embrace the totality of the
representative institutions. The principal objects of this work
must be to reduce the excessive power of the nobility and
to mitigate class contrasts. There should, therefore, be allotted to
each estate an honest third of influence ; hence, in the towns,
all burghers should be represented, and not merely the
urban landowners. In especial, the communes' ordinance
and the circles' ordinance should be established by royal
command, not by the provincial diets, for, proceeded the
memorial, " we are building, not for the past, but for the
future. The success or failure of the Prussian state is insepar-
ably associated with the principles upon which the representative
constitution is to be based, and upon the manner in which
that constitution is constructed."

Thus did the reformer of 1810 manifest once again how
wide was the gulf which now, as throughout his life, separated
his views of the state from those of the feudalists. The
memorial was his political testament. Hardenberg's death took
place before it had reached the king. The weary old man barely
put in an appearance at the congress of Verona ; moreover
the brief and disjointed entries in the closing pages of his
diary suffice to show that his intellectual powers were gradually
leaving him. The unworthy woman who had already
brought so much sorrow upon his grey hairs was still with
him, for Friederike the sleep-walker followed him south. Who
can read without a shock the last words of his diary :
" November gth, arrivee des Kimsky ! " ? In this company
he left Verona to visit the Riviera. When the carriages reached
the Genoa lighthouse, by that curve in the shore where the
view suddenly opens upon the wide semicircle of the harbour,
with the town rising proudly behind it, the old man's gentle
and kindly nature led him to give fresh expression in moving
terms to his youthful delight in all that was beautiful. It was
long before he could tear himself away from the splendid view,
declaring that in all his long life he had never seen a finer.
A few hours later he lay upon a sick bed, and, after a brief
illness, passed away on November 26th.

He died too late for his reputation. Detested by the
reactionaries, an object of suspicion to the conservatives, he
had lost the respect even of the liberals through the pusil-
lanimity of his closing years — for the liberals knew nothing of
the earnestness of his labours for the constitution. Hardly

598

Issue of the Prussian Constitutional Struggle

anyone felt how tragical it was that the current of a great
life should thus spend itself in the sand. The king gave public
expression to his regret at the death of the administrator whose
memory would never perish ; and in the Oesterreichische
Beobachter Gentz dutifully plucked the strings of the official
harp. In reality, Frederick William had long before broken
with the man who had once stood so near to his heart. He
received the news of Hardenberg's death with such indifference
that those around him could scarcely recognise the kindly-
natured prince, and Wittgenstein said to young Count Redern,
" This may teach you what kings think of ordinary mortals."1
The affectionate Stagemann alone could not forget what his
Brennians (for thus did he speak of the Prussians) owed to
this dead man, and he sang :

But thou art not silent, trumpet of Clio.
And thou, rich fabric of the Brennians' future,
At which this master-weaver was ever at work,
Art laid in purple folds across his quiet tomb.

In very truth, though one or two great monarchs may
have done so, never before had any subject introduced so
many new threads as had Hardenberg into the web of destiny
of this state. Was it credible that he had been no more
than twelve years at the head of the administration ? What
an abundant activity had been compressed into the brief period
of his chancellorship : first the overthrow of the feudal social
order ; then victory and resurgence ; then the reacquirement
of half of the state domain ; then the reconstruction of the
administration and the liberation of the Prussian market ; and
finally the tax laws, and that national debt edict out of which
in days to come the Prussian national assembly was to issue.
Though all these successes were not the sole work of Harden-
berg, they would not have been possible without him. We of
a later generation recognise the limits of his endowments when
we compare him with the first chancellor of the German empire ;
and we measure the value of his fruitful creative activities,
whose influence still continues, when we compare him with
his Austrian rival who, momentarily more favoured by fortune,
was in the end to witness the collapse and total disappearance
of his life work. The idealism of our people makes them

1 Oral Communication from Count Redern.

599

History of Germany

exacting in their judgments of men of action. The Germans
wish to love those to whom they owe respect ; in the profound
solitude of his closing years King Frederick had experience of
this. But they wish also to respect those to whom they owe
love, and since the soft-natured and light-living youth with the
grey hair commands so little respect, the love of the Germans,
when they think of the wars of liberation, goes out always
to the heroes of the will, to Stein and Scharnhorst, to Blucher
and Gneisenau, whereas Hardenberg's peculiar greatness has
remained thoroughly comprehensible only to a small circle
of political thinkers. The national conscience feels that
the destiny of states is determined, not by talent, but by
character.

600

APPENDIXES

TO

VOL. III.

V.— THE BURSCHENSCHAFT AND THE
UNCONDITIONALS.

(APPENDIX TO P. 51, VOL. in.)

IT will readily be understood that great difficulties exist in
the ' way of a description of the activities of the Uncondi-
tional, for it is far from easy to gain a true picture from
investigations concerning essentially false utterances, and con-
ducted in a partisan spirit. To me, however, it seems a duty
imposed upon the conscientious historian to avoid sparing political
assassination. No one who understands the nature of fanaticism
should allow his judgment to be swayed by contemplating
the excellent qualities that distinguished many of the young
enthusiasts. In all other respects the fanatic may be as
innocent as a child, but on behalf of the one idea which
dominates his mind like an obsession, he will indifferently
trample all moral commands under foot. Such a man was
Sand, honourable, harmless, well-disposed towards his friends,
but towards the minions of tyranny a conscienceless liar and
assassin. Such a man too was Carl Follen, but incomparably
more gifted and therefore far more dangerous.

Baumgarten errs in supposing that my judgment of the
Unconditionals was formed solely from the accounts furnished
by Leo and Munch. It may be said in passing that Leo's
picture of his youthful days is far from being so prejudiced as
Baumgarten contends, for it is the most lively and brilliant
description o( Jena student life which our literature possesses ;
but it is necessary to use the book cautiously, for the
hot-blooded man's judgment of the youthful ideals with which
he had so completely broken, though cynically upright, is not

601 2 R

History of Germany

always free from bias. At least as instructive as this work
and the other relevant and more recent writings of Menzel,
Henke, Simon, Cloter, and others, was the older literature,
long ago consigned to oblivion, and with which Baumgarten
would seem to have no intimate acquaintance : for instance,
Jarke's work on Sand, a perspicacious and solid criminological
study, which received well- justified praise even from R. von
Mohl, one of Jarke's political opponents ; Hohnhorst's report
of A Sand's trial ; and, above all, the writings of the Uncon-
ditionals themselves, and in especial The Great Song by Carl
Follen.

In the text I have given some fragments of this song.
I here append additional extracts and leave the reader
to form his own judgment :

Brothers, not thus shall it happen !
Let each now seize his weapon,

Ward off these harms !
Freedom, thy tree rots away !
Each man must now beg his way
Till death hunger's pangs allay

People, to arms !

Brothers in silk attire,
Brothers who work for hire,

Go hand in hand 1
Summoned by German need,
Follow all God's good rede :
Death be th' oppressor's meed ;

Rescue the land !

Then alone shall come good
When ye, for blood and good,

Stake goods and blood.
Cleavers and scythes not few,
Turning to purpose new,
Despots' heads off shall hew !

Fierce be your mood !

And then again :

Arise, Arise, God make you free,

Cast off the chains of slavery,

To Freedom's promised land make way.

Through the Red Sea your course now lies,

The sea which, fed by your children's blood,

Shall overwhelm King Pharaoh's brood,

Of crown and army making prize.

And so on, for the length of an entire broadside.

602

Appendixes

If this does not mean preaching murder and revolt, then
the German language has lost all signification. Moreover,
these verses were not from the pen of a foolish windbag. They
were written by one who, according to the unanimous testimony
of friends and enemies, attained to an early maturity, was
coldly reasonable, a man who weighed every word. It is
undeniable that the first germs of that devastating radicalism
which a generation later raged across our land are here
unfortunately displayed already in the Burschenschaft, not in
the respectable entirety of that body, but in a small sect of
extremists among its adherents. Now the chief of these
extremists was Carl Follen. Apart from much other evidence,
this is proved by Sand's behaviour under examination. When
it was necessary to protect Carl Follen, Sand was ready for
any lie, and even to make a false accusation against his bosom-
friend Asmis. A work by K. von L. Adolf Lutzow's Volunteers
(Berlin, 1884), is directed against an essay by A. Koberstein
upon Lutzow's Wild and Daring Hunt which was published in
the Preussische Jahrbucher, and K. von L. referred several
times to my history as the principal source of Koberstein's
views. I consider it needless to enter into a polemic of this
character, for Koberstein's essay is dated " Dresden, March,
1881," while the volume of my history which deals with these
incidents was not published until November, 1882. The sole
noteworthy facts which the writer adduces against me refer to
the colours of the Liitzowers' uniform, and these serve merely
to confirm what I had said. The writer admits that the
Liitzowers wore black accoutrements with red facings and gilt
buttons. These colours, black with red-and-gold ornamentation,
are those in which " the black volunteers " are figured in all
pictures of the year 1813. Since, of the three founders of
the Burschenschaft, two were old Liitzowers, I continue to
regard it as extremely probable that the tradition which
derives the colours of the Burschenschaft from the colours
of the Liitzowers' uniform is correct. When writing of the
matter in the history I had no better foundation for this belief.
Recently, however, in the Korner museum at Dresden, I came
across a memoir by the old Liitzower Anton Probsthan of
Mecklenburg (ob. 1882) wherein he relates that his relative
Fraulein Nitschke of Jena presented the Burschenschaft with
a flag at the time of its foundation, and for this purpose chose
the black-red-and-gold colours of the defunct society Vandalia.

603

History of Germany

I have not hitherto been able to demonstrate the accuracy of
this account ; but it seems to me improbable that the
Burschenschaft, which came into existence in conflict with the
Landsmannschafts, should have adopted the colours of a
Landsmannschaft, unless, perchance, the Vandals wore the same
colours as the Liitzowers.

A few additional rectifications and amplifications. Von
Buri, the young lawyer of Giessen, so his family declares, did
not belong to the extreme section of the Burschenschaft.
Among his papers was found the plan for a national constitution
drawn up by the Blacks (History of the Secret Societies, II,
p. 81). His poem, Scharnhorst's Prayer (subsequently renamed
Kosciuszko's Prayer), was in its original version blamelessly
patriotic, and did not acquire its revolutionary characteristics
until after its elaboration by the brothers Follen. The family
of H. K. Hofmann likewise considers that it has definite ground
for the opinion that he was never in intimate relationships
with Carl Follen. In later years both Buri and Hofmann were
reasonable patriots of moderate views.

The farce Our Traffic, which in the year 1819 aroused so
much anger among the Jews, bore on its title-page as author's
name K. B. Sessa. All the world endeavoured to discover
who could be hidden behind this pseudonym. Goethe, even,
was suggested ; and it was widely asserted that the house of
Rothschild had offered a reward for the discovery of the
malefactor. As the outcome of well accredited communications
from the author's family, I am now able to give his name.
Our Traffic was written by Superintendent Carl Andreas
Maertens of Halberstadt.

VL— HISTORY OF THE BURSCHENSCHAFT.

(APPENDIX TO PP. 187 ET SEQ. VOL. in.)

FROM the documents of the grand-ducal archives in Weimar,
to which I was able to refer in preparing the fourth edition
of the second volume [German], I append here certain details
relating to the history of the year 1819.

After Stourdza's memorial, and after the congress of
Aix-la-Chapelle, the courts had been greatly concerned about
the universities. Consequently Grand Duke Charles Augustus,

604

Appendixes

for the protection of his beloved university of Jena, and lest
worse should befall, availed himself of an idea mooted in the
Bundestag by Hanover, and on March n, 1819 (that is to
say, before Kotzebue's assassination), had a proposal made by
von Hendrich, his federal envoy, that the Federation should
institute regulations for university discipline, but that this
should not involve any restriction of the ancient academic
freedoms of Germany. In the following May he sent Privy
Councillor Conta to Frankfort expressly to further this proposal.
After Sand's crime, he had a despatch written by Count Edling,
minister of state, in which it was declared : " All the incidents
which during recent years have aroused suspicion abroad
regarding the spirit prevailing among the Jena students, have
been the work of foreigners." Sand's action was, he said, an
additional proof. (Edling to Hendrich, March 28, 1819.) In
conformity with this view, the grand duke and Duke Augustus
of Gotha issued on March 30th a rescript to the university,
declaring that during the years 1816 and 1817 the university
youth had not disappointed the confident expectations of the
Nutritors (princely patrons). Since then, however, " to our
grave displeasure, the spirit of the students has occasionally
exhibited a destructive tendency. This mood," continued the
rescript, " threatens to extend more widely day by day. Much
of the poison is introduced into Jena from foreign universities
and schools " ; till further notice, therefore, foreign students
could not be admitted to study at Jena without the special
sanction of the government of the country from which they
came.

" Since difficulties appear to arise in connection with the
investigation which has now to be undertaken under the
guidance of the senatus academicus," the grand duke appointed
on March 29th a special committee to try to discover Sand's
possible confederates. It consisted of von Konneritz, the
chamberlain, and Emminghaus, the governmental assessor.
But these officials conducted their investigation as cultured
individuals well acquainted with academic customs, working
conscientiously and benevolently, and also very affably, after
the easy-going Thuringian manner. It was obvious that the
government desired to do all it could to spare the young
braggarts, and it is very probable that many of them were
got out of the way in good time by an oificial hint. From
the first the enquiry was marred by the disintegration of the

605

History of Germany

German legal systems, for a committee had been appointed
simultaneously in Mannheim to examine the assassin and his
possible accomplices. The two committees acted in complete
independence, their only communication being by means of
a formal exchange of letters, and the Weimar committee
complained on May I2th that while it was sending minutes
of its own proceedings to Mannheim, the Badenese minutes
were not being despatched in return.

Suspicion first fell upon Sand's most intimate friend, the
divinity student Gottlieb Asmis from Mecklenburg. On March
27th, immediately the terrible news reached Jena, Asmis had
left for Wunsiedel to inform Sand's unhappy parents of what
had happened, and for the moment the authorities contented
themselves with a domiciliary search, which led to no result.
So lenient was the procedure, that not until April 7th, several
days after his return, did Asmis appear before the committee.
He innocently declared that the proceedings against him had
been "a great shock" to him, and that this was why he
put in an appearance so late. The committee described him
very accurately as "a good-natured, insignificant, extremely
stupid, but true-hearted man, devotedly attached to the
assassin, and capable of numerous follies under the influence
of his political enthusiasms." During the enquiry he was locked
up for a time. At the subsequent hearing it was established
beyond dispute that the young man had been completely
without prior knowledge of his friend's design ; had he known
of it, he would certainly have frustrated it ; " murder is
murder," he said frankly.

Very different was the character of the proceedings against
Dr. Carl Follen (or Follenius as he then styled himself). Follen,
with the confidence of a skilled advocate, took a firm and
defiant attitude. In ticklish questions he invariably exhibited
an astounding weakness of memory, which seemed almost
miraculous in the strong-willed and coldly calculating man.
This petty Robespierre was endowed with great terroristic
powers, and he played with the committee as a cat plays with
a mouse. In his friends' letters he was often spoken of as
" a predominant man," as one who was able to crush others
morally. On one occasion, they begged him to dissuade a
hotheaded young comrade from indiscreet political utterances,
for Follen alone was capable of exercising the necessary
influence. Since, in his first examination (April 2nd), Follen

€06

Appendixes

was unable to remember anything accurately, a domiciliary
search was immediately instituted. He looked on quietly while
the secretary to the university and a registrar went through
his papers. Suddenly he took a paper out of the pile, a letter
dated the previous February, addressed to him from Eisenach,
and put it in his pocket, declaring, what was afterwards shown
to be untrue, that this letter belonged to his brother. He
then hurried from the room, and did not return for several
minutes. The alarmed officials immediately haled him before
the committee. Here he promised to ask his brother for
permission to make the letter public, went away, and, returning
after a long interval, reported that his brother refused to
hand over the document. Now the committee sagaciously
inferred that the letter must already have been destroyed,
and that the best thing to do would be to seek out the
reputed sender in Eisenach. Pollen was left at liberty, and
made use of his time to parley with Asmis. Certain persons
in the street saw Follen standing at the window of von
Wintzingerode's room, which was close to the lock-up, talking
from this window to Asmis ; another student was standing
beside Follen, and most of the witnesses believed that this
was Wintzingerode himself. Not even the committee could
now avoid suspecting that on this occasion some collusion had
been going on. Follen, however, maintained that all he had said
to the prisoner was a friendly word of greeting, and when
he was thereupon asked to give the name of the student who
had been the only auditor of the dialogue, he was once more
affected by his distressing weakness of memory (Minutes of
May 3rd). He was absolutely unable to recall who the young
man had been, although the conversation had taken place but
a few days before. Next day, May 4th, he was re-examined
by the secretary of the university ; once again he could
remember nothing, but he promised to let the committee know
by the end of the week if anything had recurred to his mind
in the interval. On May 7th, he duly wrote to the committee,
regretting that he could give no further information : "At
the time the affair seemed to me of no importance, and in
matters which I regard as trifling my memory is so weak."
The brilliant idea of asking Wintzingerode does not seem to
have occurred to the committee ; at any rate, the minutes say
nothing of the matter.

In view of this excess of good-nature, the fundamental

607

History of Germany

mendacity of the Unconditionals had free play. Various
indications, and a certain amount of direct evidence, showed with
considerable probability that Follen, although his own circum-
stances were far from easy, had given the murderer money
for his last journey, and had .also received from Sand for
safe keeping a packet of papers, some of which were subsequently
published in the newspapers. Very remarkable was the fact
that Sand, whose usual practice it was to inscribe all his petty
debts with extreme accuracy in a special account book, had
made no entry of this last and greatest item. Follen, thanks
once more to his weak memory, could give no precise
information about the matter. When examined at Mannheim,
Sand declared that he had received the money from Asmis,
and that it was to Asmis to whom he had given the packet.
This was too much for poor Asmis. Greatly excited, his eyes
streaming with tears, he declared again and again, " I cannot
admit this, not even for the sake of Sand." The young man's
distress was manifestly undissimulated, and the committee at
length arrived at the opinion, which less easy-going persons
would doubtless have formed sooner, that the initiates were
telling all these lies with the sole purpose of saving their chief
Follen at all hazards. On May 28th, therefore, the Jena
committee wrote to that of Mannheim : " Is it not possible
that Sand may desire to avert suspicion from other persons
who in his view are able and circumspect, likely to be of
value and significance to Germany in important concerns, and
that he may prefer to throw the onus upon some ordinary
and insignificant man of whom he anticipates nothing great in
the future ? " Or perhaps Sand had hoped that Asmis would
voluntarily take the blame upon himself (by no means impossible
among such enthusiasts), whereas Asmis had not taken kindly
to the idea.

Since Follen's obdurate lying and unprecedented weakness
of memory had in the end aroused suspicion, he was at length
arrested on May nth, and sent to Weimar, where the committee
was now sitting. In a second domiciliary search a long and
extravagant letter from Sand's mother to Follen was discovered.
The unhappy and infatuated woman compared " our pure,
great martyr " to Martin Luther, writing, " in many respects,
too, he has unquestionably, allowing for certain differences,
exercised an influence similar to that of the great reformer."
She would like to have the grave in Mannheim decorated with

608

Appendixes

flowers " until one day, perhaps, Germany will gratefully erect
a memorial " [which, as everyone knows, has now been done].
To Follen she says, " May God bless you for using your
strength to save his life." These words referred to the foolish
plan which was often discussed in the circle of the
Unconditionals of rescuing the murderer by force. At the
hearing of May nth the old game was renewed ; Pollen's
memory remained incurably weak. When Konneritz at length
told him that it did not look at all well for him to continue
to declare that he could remember nothing of the affair, Follen
answered impudently that this was to him a completely new
principle in criminal law, and protested against the entire
investigation. The proceedings as a whole afford decisive proof
of the advantages attaching to public and oral hearing. Before
a modern court of law a man of Pollen's reputation and culture
would not long have ventured to play such a part. The very
next day, May I2th, Follen sent the committee a written
demand for his immediate liberation, on the ground that he
did not wish to miss his lectures, explaining with casuistic
adroitness that the worst he could be accused of was a failure
to read the signs, and that this was not a punishable offence.
As an outcome of this letter he was on the same day once
more confronted with Asmis, but his memory again left him
in the lurch. He was then set at liberty. At the subsequent
hearings (May 23rd, and June 8th and loth) the same farce
was re-enacted, Follen continually deposing that he had no
precise recollection of what had happened. When Sand at
length retracted some of his lies, Follen opined that Sand must
have been out of his mind, and offered to swear that he
had never received the packet from Sand — an oath which,
in accordance with the principles of the Unconditionals, it
would cost him very little to make. Regarding the
Unconditionals he said innocently, as if to make a mock of
the committee : " An Unconditional is a man who strives
unconditionally for cultivation, and who acts unconditionally
in accordance with his conviction."

The philosopher Fries was also examined, on April 3rd
and subsequent days. He declared that he knew absolutely
nothing about the revolutionary party in the Burschenschaft,
and refused to believe that an inner league had existed. It
was however remarkable to observe how strongly even this
professor was befooled by the subjectivist morality which had

609

History of Germany

led the students' intelligence astray. He expressed his opinion
quite frankly that Sand had been convinced by a number of
his fellow-students of their willingness to devote their lives
at any moment to the cause which they, like Sand himself,
recognised as good and salutary. This confusion of ideas was
general, and few took so sober a view as did old Frommann,
who on March 28th wrote to his son, a member of the
Burschenschaft : "I come, now, to our youthful Solons and
Aristarchuses ! Look at them in the seventh heaven under
the influence of a series of fallacies and inconsequences ; note
how their minds have been misled by a number of half-
understood and misunderstood propositions ; contemplate the
manner in which they pass facile judgments about all the affairs
of life and of the state. I am profoundly concerned, I am
grieved to the soul, for it is not by this route that we shall
make our way to better times." Kieser, a medical man friendly
to gymnastics, had nothing relevant to depose, and was already
voicing that ingenious theory which has since then become a
fad of the doctors, opining that Sand was mentally disordered,
perhaps even the subject of hereditary taint. (Kieser to the
senatus academicus, April 4th.) The examination of young
Heinrich Leo (April 3rd) proved equally fruitless. The
committee of the Burschenschaft was also examined, on the
command of Charles Augustus, but since the Burschenschaft
as such had nothing to do with the Unconditionals, and since
many of the members of the former body knew nothing about
the existence of the secret society, on April 28th the committee
reported as follows to the grand duke : " We are now able
to declare with absolute certainty that the Burschenschaft
association and its principles did not exercise the remotest
influence in causing Sand's actions; that the Burschenschaft
continues to exist in its pristine purity ; and indeed that
this organisation, during recent months in which its membership
has considerably increased, has perhaps assumed a more equable
character, one more suitable to academic youth and to the
relationship in which the students stand to the state."
Indubitably these well-meaning words were not in complete
accord with the personal opinion of the good prince, who but
five weeks earlier had publicly declared that the spirit of the
students had very recently turned here and there in disastrous
directions. In the end, the only thing certainly proved against
Dr. Pollen was that he had furnished the assassin with money

610

Appendixes

for the journey, and this offered no ground for legal action.
For additional characterisation of the German legal procedure
of that day it may be mentioned that Privy Councillor Conta,
who had gone from Frankfurt to visit the Mannheim committee,
brought back thence the Weimar documents in his own
carriage because such papers could not be safely entrusted to
the Thurn and Taxis postal service. (Conta's Report to the
grand duke, May 4, 1819.) It is not part of the historian's
duties to assume the role of public prosecutor, but after the
study of the Weimar minutes I feel it necessary to maintain
down to the very last word what I have written in the text
regarding Pollen's character and political activities.

Numerous letters and anecdotes show that long before his
crime Sand had indulged in vague dreams of a hero's death.
In additional confirmation, I reproduce here the leaf of an
album, of which the original has been shown to me by a
friendly reader :

" Our life is a hero's course ; speedy victory ; early death !
Nothing else matters, if only we are real heroes. If only we
strive, in continuous upward soaring and prayer, towards our
heavenly father, and in dauntless enthusiasm live for his will.
We never fail to conquer when we are personally efficient and
alert. Premature death does not interrupt our victorious career,
if only we die as heroes. Let our device be : With lowly
spirit to maintain a pious belief in God, to love actively what
we have to do here on earth, to love actively our nation and our
fatherland. We must live in freedom, or go freely to join
our happy forefathers. Amen ! "

" If you gain a firm footing in Voigtland, give a thought
to your neighbour in the Fichtelgebirge engaged in the same
struggle, and join in German friendship for the good of the
fatherland with your devoted

"CARL LUDWIG SAND,

" Jena, " the student from Wunsiedel

"June 21, 1818."

The innocent patriotic hopes with which the students were
animated at the time of the Wartburg festival find faithful
expression in an Instruction which Franz Hegewisch of Kiel
gave, on the way to the Wartburg, to Justus Olshausen, a
student from Kiel who subsequently became a distinguished

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History of Germany

orientalist and who was for many years referendary for the
Prussian universities. At this time, Hegewisch was thirty-four
years of age, a skilful and discerning physician. His principles
recall the well-known Confession of Faith of the philosopher
Fries, but are far more judicious and thoughtful, and are
characterised by profounder political insight. None the less
they demonstrate how nebulous and inflated were the dreams
amid which the age still moved.

PROPOSAL

for certain resolutions for formulation and adoption at
the Wartburg on October i8th.

JUSTICE ON EARTH !

Against their most dangerous and most hateful of enemies,
the Germans have fought with vigour, with good fortune, and
with a happy issue. But what were we fighting for ? We
were fighting for better times. The day of justice must come.
The blood of the German youth must not have been shed
in vain ; it was poured out cheerfully and willingly, so that
right should be securely established against might, not from
without merely, but also from within. We long for justice
and order ; we desire that good laws shall prevail.

Germany is fertile in the production of heroically-minded
young men, who with glad hearts marched to participate in
the struggle against the enemy of the Germans, the enemy of
all virtue and truth. But never could the victory have been
won unless these youths, filled with ardour for the fray, had
been disciplined, and unless their united forces had been
brought to bear in an orderly manner, at the right hour and at
the right place.

Germany is full of well-intentioned and well-instructed
youths whose hearts are burdened with longing for the good
of the whole, whose impatience to work for good ends grows from
day to day. But if the pure will and the vigorous energy are
not to remain sterile and powerless, these forces must not be
content to strive towards the indefinite and the general, but
must be regulated and directed towards definite goals. In the
future we must and will establish legal ways along which the
desires of uninstructed men of goodwill may become known

612

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to rulers, may secure publicity. This will happen in the future.
But since, in the greater part of Germany, such legally
established ways are still lacking, since, in the greater part of
Germany, the thirteenth article of the federal act has not yet
been carried into effect, desirable changes can be brought about
in no other way than by the free conjuncture of sentiments and
forces at certain points of transition from the old to the new
time, and the necessary can come to pass solely along an
unaccustomed route, by the free determinations of the assembled
German youth at the freely chosen consecrated meeting place.
Our desires and our longings should be expressed in definite
propositions, to which those of goodwill who are absent from
our gathering may by degrees make their adhesion. This
imperfect attempt, which, in the compiler's view contains
nothing that conflicts with the good spirit of the German federal
act, is to be made generally known as a preliminary essay,
in order that, by the deliberation and collaboration of many,
on the ensuing October i8th there may come into existence a
complete confession of faith of those who protest against tyrants.

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF OCTOBER l8XH.

Opportunities are fugitive, life is full of difficulty ;
enthusiasm is transient ; consequently it is desirable that good
resolutions should be adopted in good time, and should be made
generally known as common decisions.

We young men, assembled at the Wartburg from numerous
regions of Germany (here append the principal rivers and
mountains, but give no political designations), after thorough
discussion, have arrived at unanimous convictions, and have
come to the following conclusions.

(i) Germany is, and shall remain, ONE. We cannot accept
the belief that Germany is composed of thirty-eight islands.
We Germans are brothers ; we desire to be friends. If Germans
fight against Germans on the battlefield, brothers slay brothers.
Whoever leads German warriors against German warriors is
guilty of fratricide.

We mutually pledge one another never to oppose one
another with arms in the field; we promise never to fight
against our German brothers ; and we solemnly declare that,
everywhere and to the utmost of our power, we will diffuse

613

History of Germany

and reinforce the teaching that it is accursed fratricide for
German warriors to combat German warriors.

(2) We do not forget those who have fallen in the struggle
for German freedom. We are convinced that should the day
ever come on which in Germany gratitude should no longer
be felt towards those through whose instrumentality God
rescued us from the yoke of the foreign tyrant, then the
Germans would once again be ripe to become slaves of the
foreigner. It is the duty of every honourable and pious
German man, of every honourable and pious German prince,
to celebrate the eighteenth day of October.

(3) The doctrine that Germany is split up into North
Germany and South Germany, is false and erroneous ; it is
the doctrine of a malicious enemy. We mutually pledge one
another to fight against this doctrine, and to do all in our
power to fight against it and to suppress it, and therewith
to fight against and to suppress all similar false ideas which
may contribute to an artificial disintegration of Germany.

(4) We young men who are members of the holy
uncircumscribed and circumscribed Germanic Federation which
the august princes and the free towns of Germany have
combined to form, hereby declare our conviction of the truth
of the following proposition and of the following corollary :
If any portion of German land, west or east, south or north,
be attacked, then Germany is attacked, and the war must
be a war of all Germans. We recognise that if the Oder and
the Rhine are not safe, there can be no safety for the Elbe
and the Danube.

(5) So far as opportunity is afforded us, we shall all, each
one in his own circle, contribute to secure that the Landwehr
and the Landsturm shall be held in honour, that they shall
have an ever more lively sense of duty, and that they shall
be efficiently trained to arms.

(6) As far as in us lies, we shall honour the kings and
princes and sovereign lords of the monarchical states, as those
to whom honour is due, as those who desire and cannot but
desire what is best for their land, as those from whom no
injustice can issue. We declare our belief that if, despite this,
injustice should be done in the name of the prince, the blame
therefor attaches to the supreme officials, who must be placed
under duress and punished in accordance with the measure of
the wrong done.

614

Appendixes

(7) We render homage to the just and noble grand duke
of Weimar. May the praise of all those young men who have
not yet mislearned to love the good and the beautiful, and
to hate the hateful, serve to him as preliminary indications of
the praise which posterity, freed from all dread of the existing
enemies of the good, will bestow upon him. Inspired by a
profound knowledge and esteem for the German people, without
constraint, without reluctance, without ignoble reserves and
timidities, he, before all others, has redeemed the pledge given
in Vienna, in days of danger, by the German princes, and
has introduced an improved constitution into his own land, a
constitution which contains so much that is exemplary for all
German lands. We, contemporaries, shall daily echo the saying :
" God bless Blucher and Weimar ! "

(8) Even though, in almost all other German lands,
hesitation is still displayed regarding the carrying out of the
sacred promise given by the thirteenth article of the federal
act, it is impossible for us to feel any doubt of the solemnly
pledged word of the princes and rulers. We trust, and for this
very reason we exhort. Not the princes, but their ministers
must be blamed for the disasters of this interminable
procrastination. Any minister who advises his prince to break
oath and pledge, quickly or slowly, is a traitor. It is the
right and the duty of the people to beg the prince to dismiss
every minister thus guilty of high treason.

(9) We will obey the law that has been sanctioned and
put in force by the head of the state after it has been
examined and discussed by the elected representatives of the
people ; in the provisional state of affairs in which legislation
is enforced without the collaboration of the representatives of
the people, we will abstain from all punishable disobedience.

(10) We declare ourselves unable and unwilling to associate
with the word " sovereignty," which derives from the
Confederation of the Rhine, the concept of despotism. We
declare further that we know no other desirable equality than
equality before the law, such as has long existed in England,
and such as finds definite expression for France in the con-
stitutional charte of Louis XVIII.

(n) We express our conviction of the truth of that principle
established in the early days of Germany that TAXES ARE
NOT BURDENS BUT GIFTS ; and we are equally convinced of the
truth that popular approval of the taxes can be accorded solely

615

History of Germany

by ELECTED representatives of the people, and for one year
only. We declare our conviction of the accuracy of the
following [deduction : What each individual possesses is his
own exclusive property ; protection of the right of individual
property is the principal purpose for which the state exists ;
that purpose is annulled if the supreme ruler of the state is
entitled to impose taxes arbitrarily ; consequently, the supreme
head of the state cannot rightfully, as an arbitrary exercise
of power, demand from any citizen any part of that citizen's
property. How can a man call that his own of which another
may demand a part, when, as often as, and as much as, he
will?

(12) We recognise that the owners of great estates are
entitled to a quite peculiar vote and influence in the discussion
of the affairs of the country, this special vote and influence
being provided, either in accordance with the example of the
Weimar constitution, or else in a special senate, wherein,
however, there should not be deputies of all the great land-
lords.

(13) We loudly voice our detestation of the bonds of
hereditary servitude which are still maintained upon German
soil under the appearance of law. We are convinced that
no blessings can ever come to this country so long as such
a stigma continues to exist.

(14) We recognise that justice is not restricted, nor can
be restricted in another German book ; but we recognise also
that justice is not restricted in an older book which came
into existence among a people the majority of whose members,
even in the best times, were slaves, and all of whom were
slaves in later days. We hold the opinion that the safest
means of favouring German law might be a prohibition to cite
Roman law in our courts. We declare that we regard as
important and most desirable reforms the institution of trial
by jury, the establishment of publicity in legal procedure, and
the abolition of the privileged jurisdictions (with the exception
of that of certain senators).

(15) We promise to revere the spiritual estate, and to do
all in our power to secure that this estate shall reacquire
the respect which is its due. We desire to honour the working
citizens. We desire to avoid, by excessive esteem, giving
nourishment to the pride of leisured learning when dissociated
from energetic activity. We hold that the present day has

616

Appendixes

greater need of the study of morals and politics than of the
study of metaphysics.

(16) We admit ourselves unable to understand why it
is that in many parts of Germany the taxes are still just
as high as were the taxes paid to foreign conquerors in the
days of our bondage.

(17) We pledge ourselves that should any of us at any
future date enter official service, not one of us will accept
any kind of office which subserves the purposes of a secret
police, nor any post in the gendarmerie, nor any post in an
extraordinary and illegal judicial committee, nor any office
connected with the censorship of printed books ; nor will
any one of us ever lend his hand to the breaking of the seals
of a stranger's letter (the case of war excepted).

(18) We pledge ourselves that should we ever occupy official
positions, we will do all in our power to introduce freer
communal administration, to establish a better police system
without a gendarmerie, and to bring about the establishment
in Germany of a universally valid coinage, a universal system of
weights and measures, better roads, and a better postal system.

(19) We declare that we will none of us make use of the
titles " edelgeboren," " hochedelgeboren," and " wohlgeboren " ;
we further declare that we will never apply the names
" mamselle " and " madame " to any woman of unblemished
reputation.

(20) We recognise that the Germans are justified in paying
back other nations in their own coin, and that in international
relationships the leading principle is measure for measure — in
war, in diplomatic relationships, and in commerce.

(21) For this very reason, we recognise and declare it
incompatible with justice that an external foreign authority
should decide a nation's form of government.

(22) We recognise that as an electoral realm Germany has
been unfortunate, and that to make her a hereditary realm
obviates grave dangers. But since the crown is the property
of a family, it, like all property, is sacred. The possession of
the crown gives the highest of all rights, because it imposes
the highest of all duties. Rights and duties must ever keep
step. Where a right is maintained without a corresponding
duty, we have privilege, that is to say, injustice. Wherever
there are privileged persons, there also are other persons whose
rights are restricted. The prince has a right to the crown

617 2 S

History of Germany

because upon him is imposed the duty of taking care that
no citizen is restricted in his rights by any other. If all
citizens have it as their duty to bear arms for the fatherland,
and if all fulfil this duty, they all likewise acquire the right
which is associated with the fulfilment of this duty.

(23) We wish to favour a peaceful mode of life, and to
ensure that disputes shall be settled as far as possible by
arbitration. We recognise that serious disputes about trifling
causes, and trifling disputes about serious ills, are alike inglorious.
We give assurance that we will never belong to any kind of
secret society, and that we will never tolerate the institution
of a secret society at a higher educational institution.

(24) We regard it as one of the principal duties of every
German man and youth, as a duty which is now more pressing
than ever before, to say the truth and to say it out loud,
because and so long as the promised regular ways by which
the princes might learn the truth about the condition of the
people are still closed, and because we will have nothing to
do with secret societies.

(25) We commend to the wisdom of the governments the
consideration of the question whether the greatest difficulties
and dangers might not be diminished if nobility were once
again restricted to the eldest in each generation. One
nobleman should beget one nobleman. We adjure the princes
not to surround themselves solely with counsellors dominated
by the spirit of caste, who, because they are so dominated,
are unwilling* and unable to report the truth regarding the
reasonable wishes and demands of the people.

(26) We declare our conviction that many of the horrors
of the French Revolution were the fault of the Jacobins, but
that many other of these faults, perhaps as many, were the
fault of those who did their utmost to prevent the political
changes and reforms demanded by the time. We further
declare our opinion and conviction that a very large part of
the injustice and evil in the world arises from the long-suffering
and the slothful weakness of those who endure injustice without
making use of the lawful means which are available for their
protection.

(27) Should the Germans be called upon to make common
cause against the enemy, a common sign would certainly be
desirable. What colours could be more suitable than those
which Blucher bears, the colours of earnestness and purity ?

<5i8

Appendixes

VII.— METTERNICH AND THE PRUSSIAN CONSTITUTION.
{APPENDIX TO PP. 146 AND 207, VOL. in.)

IN his account of the Teplitz meeting, H. Baumgarten, amid
a flood of invective which I do not attempt to answer, plays
his highest trumps. Yet precisely here he is so utterly wrong
that I have asked myself in amazement how a man of learning
who is in other respects so circumspect could possibly have been
so blindly precipitate — and certainly he has been precipitate
enough with his criticism.

In chapters VIII and IX of Book Two of this History
[the second and the third chapters in vol. Ill of the English
edition] I have shown how the constitutional principles of
the court of Vienna had, after the year 1818, been concentrated
in the formula : " No popular representation, but representa-
tion of estates." It was held that the representative system
adopted in Bavaria and Baden had sprung from the idea
of the sovereignty of the people, and this system was abused by
Metternich, now as " democratic," now as " revolutionary,"
and now again as " demagogic." The only representative
institutions compatible with the monarchical order were Old
German diets, which, whenever possible, should be provincial
diets merely. This was the sense in which Metternich had
expressed himself at the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle when he
urged the king of Prussia to introduce provincial diets with
a central committee. From that time onwards, the memorials
and letters of the Viennese statesmen continually return, through
all variations, to the same idea, that there must be no
democratic popular representation, but only diets of estates.
Such were the sentiments of the Austrian Courts when, on
July 29, 1819, Metternich met King Frederick William at
Teplitz.

No information regarding this conversation is available
beyond two reports sent by Metternich to Emperor Francis
under dates of July 30th and August ist respectively. Now
it is hardly possible to conceive a more painful duty for the
historian than the task of ascertaining what really happened
at a tete-a-tete interview of which the only available account
is that given by Metternich. Since the publication of
Metternich's Posthumous Papers, all candid historians are united

619

History of Germany

in the opinion that Metternich and Napoleon I were the two
greatest liars (or nearly so) of the nineteenth century. For
this reason (the remark may be permitted in passing) the
celebrated private conversation between these two men in the
Marcolini palace is likely to remain for all time a favourite
theme for insoluble historical controversies. In his letters,
Metternich could never avoid the complaisant depiction of his
own greatness and of the paltriness of all other mortals ;
moreover, he always regarded the Prussians through the smoked
glasses of the year 1804. Even in Teplitz, he remained
true to this bad custom. In the report of July 3Oth, writing
of the Prussian chancellor, he gave utterance to the
demonstrably malicious exaggeration : " For the rest, he is
near to childhood, not in intelligence but emotionally speaking."
The weaknesses of Hardenberg's old age are known to all,
but this old man " near to childhood," in Berlin a few days
after the Teplitz conversations, was bold enough to draft a
great and liberally conceived design for a constitution ; some
months later, with incisive energy and sustained cunning,
the same man unseated his opponent Humboldt, and then,
after severe struggles, secured the acceptance by the council
of state of the national debt law and the tax law which are
numbered among the sturdiest legislative performances of the
age. A statesman who effects all this may have many faults,
but he is not near to childhood.

It is consequently certain that, in his account of what
happened at Teplitz, Metternich calumniated the Prussian
chancellor, and I venture to assume that he was no more
conscientious where the king was concerned, the king to whom
he never did full justice. His report of July 3oth is unmis-
takably decorated with theatrical embellishments, every word
being designed to display in the proper light the preponderant
greatness of the writer. If King Frederick William had on
July 29th in reality used the precise words which Metternich
assigns to him, he would have been a miserable weakling, and
Frederick William was this just as little as Hardenberg was
near to childhood. I have therefore subjected Metternich's
two reports to a minute comparison in the hope of ascertaining
what really happened, starting from the well-tried principle
that the testimony of a suspect witness is worthy of belief
only when its truth is confirmed, or at least rendered probable,
by other evidence. But Baumgarten is naive enough to believe

620

Appendixes

every word of Prince Metternich's ; and, since he could not
withhold from the public for an hour longer his benevolent
criticism of my book, he could not even spare the time
for a thorough perusal of these sources of information. In
his friendly haste he read no more than Metternich's first report
of July 3Oth (Posthumous Papers, III, p. 258), and failed to
notice that immediately afterwards (III, p. 261) came a second
report of August ist which in certain respects supplements
and elucidates the former. Hence it is not surprising that the
eager critic completely misunderstood the sense of the conversa-
tion of July 29th.

In the report of July 30th, Metternich relates that he said
to the king : " Should your majesty have resolved not to introduce
any popular representation into your state of a kind which is
least of all adapted thereto, the possibility of help is still open."
If we assume this utterance to be faithfully reported, we have
to ask what Metternich really meant by it. A fuller exposition
of the meaning of his words had been given prior to this,
in the course " of a long conversation " which remains unknown
to us. But in essentials the answer to the question is to be
found in the constitutional doctrine then prevailing at the court
of Vienna, a doctrine to which allusion has already been made.
Fortunately, however, Metternich himself gives a definite answer
in his second report, that of August ist. He here tells us
(III, p. 265) that in Teplitz he had handed the king a
memorial " giving a clear description of the true difference
between constitutions based upon estates and a so-called
representative system." This must be true, since Metternich
enclosed for his emperor a copy of the memorial. He goes
on to say that he had taken this course because he knew
how greatly the king had valued his " far more superficial "
memorial of Aix-la-Chapelle. From this it follows incontro-
vertibly that the Teplitz memorial must have developed
approximately the same principles as that of Aix, but in a
clearer, more definite, and more expressive manner. The editor
of the Posthumous Papers justly points out in a note, that
the Teplitz memorial " is not available, but must have been
tolerably analogous to No. 305 " — that is to say, to the Aix
memorial. It is sufficiently obvious that in personal con-
versation with the king Metternich would not have given advice
which directly conflicted with what he was simultaneously
recommending in his memorial. It follows, therefore, that

621

History of Germany

Metternich did not say to the king, " Sire, do not carry out
the promise of May, 1815," but that he warned Frederick
William (just as previously in Aix, but more urgently) against
such systems of popular representation as those of Bavaria and
of Baden, for these latter were democratic, revolutionary,
demagogic, and so on ; while he adjured the king, just as he
had done in Aix, to introduce diets of estates instead of a
system of popular representation. Consequently my action was
perfectly correct, and in accordance with all the rules of
historical criticism, when I summed up the gist of the conversa-
tion by saying that Metternich had begged the king " not to
grant any popular representation in the modern democratic
sense, of the term, and to content himself with estates." If
Baumgarten will seriously examine Metternich's second report,
the one he has overlooked, he will see for himself how carelessly
and superficially he set about his work of criticism. It is true
that he will not admit that he is wrong, for that is a thing
which the genuine and impartial member of the professorial
guild is never known to do.

To unprejudiced persons all this is as clear as daylight.
I append, however, a second and equally striking proof. The
immediate consequence of the conversation of July 29th was
the convention of August ist, which expressly declared that
Prussia would not introduce any system of general popular
representation, but would have representation of estates in the
provinces, and from the diets thus formed would select a central
committee of territorial representatives. Here is a third proof.
Thirteen days after the Teplitz conversation, Hardenberg laid
before the king his plan for a constitution which, by the
monarch's orders, was thereupon handed over to the constituent
committee. This plan likewise was founded upon the principle
that there was to be no popular representation resembling that
of Bavaria or Baden, but a constitution based upon class
divisions.

These Teplitz negotiations, too, cannot be dismissed by
Baumgarten without giving vent to another reproach of my
partiality towards the king, because I have regarded the
chancellor as mainly responsible for the scandal of the Teplitz
convention. I consider my judgment in the matter perfectly
sound. The shame of this convention, a shame which no
Prussian can ever forget, does not lie in its content, for both
powers were from the first agreed upon the necessity for the

622

Appendixes

Carlsbad exceptional laws, while article 7, which deals with
the Prussian constitution, does not, strictly interpreted, say
anything new. What is odious in the convention is its form —
that Prussia, without any quid pro quo on the part of Austria,
should give a one-sided pledge to Austria about Prussian affairs.
Hardenberg, as an old and experienced diplomat, should not
have made himself responsible for this unprecedented defect
of form. If the convention had contained an article somewhat
as follows, " Austria is determined to make no change in the
existing constitutions of the provincial estates in her German
crown-lands (and Metternich could hardly have refused to insert
such an article), form, at least, would have been preserved,
and the Prussian state would have avoided the disastrous
appearance of subordinating itself to the Austrian court.
Hardenberg's failure to secure this is his grave and personal
historical responsibility — personal to him because, single-
handed, he concluded the convention with Metternich, the king
not being present.

I do not overlook the monarch's serious contributory
responsibility. It is undeniable that in the Teplitz conversation
Frederick William played an extremely unfortunate part, for
we must admit this, even if we reject, as dubious or impossible,
all the stage effects of Metternich's account. This July 2gth
must be numbered among the most deplorable days of Frederick
William's life. I gave an unreserved opinion on this matter
when I said, " just as submissively as in those days the
weakly Joachim II, so now did a Hohenzollern stand before
the Austrian ruler." A loyal Prussian said to me, apropos
of this passage : " The comparison with Joachim II is the
bitterest thing that could possibly be said about a ninteenth
century king of Prussia."

But there is one thing which I neither can nor will do
(and it is here that I find myself in irreconcilable opposition
to my critic), I cannot follow the bad example of Gervinus
and Baumgarten in placing King Frederick William and his
chancellor upon the same footing as a Metternich. History
has already delivered its verdict. Metternich's works have
perished. Austrian dominion in Germany and Italy has
vanished without leaving a trace; and even the internal life
of the new Austria has entered paths that have nothing in
common with the statecraft of that uninspired diplomatist.
Frederick William's policy, on the other hand, displays a Janus'

623

History of Germany

head. It erred on many occasions, in Teplitz, in Carlsbad,
and often enough thereafter ; but this same policy created
the army law, the customs law, the new administrative
organisation, and the new fiscal legislation — almost all the
fundamentals of the modern German empire. Its works endure :
we continue to build; but we still retain and utilise the
foundations laid two generations ago. To say this, is to say
everything.

To throw a strong light upon this contrast between the
German policy of Austria and the German policy of Prussia,
seems to me, not merely my duty as an unprejudiced historian,
but further, my political duty towards the nation. Once more
to-day do the ancient German deadly sins of quarrelsomeness,
envy, and fault-finding, exhibit a luxuriant and gigantic
growth. In my view, we shall not attain to a freer and
humaner culture, nor rejoice in a more vigorous national pride,
until we can grasp that a sympathetic understanding and
explanation of the national past will ultimately prove more
fruitful than carping, nagging, and railing. If my book
should do something to disperse the hypochondriacal historical
fantasies of the liberalising school of Gervinus, if it should
help the Germans to take a more grateful and therefore a more
truly liberal view of their glorious history, I shall not have
laboured in vain.

Recently (1883) P. Bailleu has published in the Historische
Zeitschrijt a memorial by Metternich which does actually
recommend the summoning of provincial diets and of a central
representation proceeding from these. The document bears
at the head, as I have been able to verify by personal
inspection, the following note in Bernstorff's handwriting :
" Composed by Councillor Gentz, in accordance with the
instructions of Prince Metternich, Troppau, 1820." Bailleu is
led by internal evidence to believe that this " Memoire " is
the Teplitz memorial, although possibly Bernstorff may have seen
it for the first time in Troppau. Adolf Stern (Researches in
German History, pp. 26 and 321) has endeavoured to prove
that Metternich first sent this document to the king from
Troppau on December 24, 1820, through the instrumentality
of Wittgenstein. The materials at my disposal do not permit
me to pass an opinion upon the merits of this dispute. But
it is perfectly clear that the Teplitz memorial, if this document

624

Appendixes

has been lost, must have been couched in the same spirit as
that of Troppau For the latter makes express reference to
the Aix Memoire, and closely follows the latter in its lines.
If between these two memorials, that of Aix and that of
Teplitz, there had existed a third memorial of divergent or
even opposite sense, some record of the fact would necessarily
exist, for all these works were directed to the same address,
that of the king of Prussia.

For the rest, these doubts are irrelevant. Everyone agrees
that Metternich did not desire the establishment of a Prussian
institution, not even in the modest form of a United Landtag,
the only question is whether he was really so foolish as to
show his cards prematurely. This question must be answered
in the negative. It is certain that in Troppau Metternich
did not yet venture to advise against a central representation,
although by this time the king was dissatisfied with the abortive
communes' ordinance and was no longer in sympathy with the
constitutional plans. In Teplitz, therefore, where the omens
were far less favourable, it is impossible that the Austrian can
have spoken more boldly than in Troppau. There is no
difficulty at all about matters of fact. The whole dispute has
originated solely because upon Metternich's words " not to
grant any popular representation," Baumgarten has arbitrarily
imposed a significance which they might possibly bear in the
year 1882, but not in the year 1819, and still less when used
by Metternich.

Somewhat more light is thrown upon these secret
proceedings by the disjointed remarks about Metternich's share
in the work for the Prussian constitution which are to be found
in Hardenberg's diary. These run as follows :

" Troppau, November 15, 1820. Talked with Metternich
about the affair of our constitution. He also will tell the
king that we cannot stay where we are. Something must be
done. It would be better to say outright, ' I will not grant
a constitution at all,' than to maintain this uncertainty.

" November 2Oth. Metternich has written to the king about
the constitution, and has sent him the Memoire which M.
gave me in Aix in 1818. Wittgenstein brought it to me saying
that the king did not wish to discuss the matter until we
returned to Berlin.

" Vienna, December 3ist. Metternich gave me a memorandum,
dealing with the representative constitution, which, should I

625

History of Germany

approve, he is willing to communicate to the king either
personally or in writing. I am in agreement as to principles."

The extracts show that for all these years Metternich had
been working behind Hardenberg's back. In November, 1820,
the Prussian chancellor was still unaware that Metternich's
Aix memorial had been expressly written for the king, and had
been put in the latter 's hands more than two years before. On
December 31, 1820, he did not yet know that Metternich's
Troppau memorial had been despatched to Frederick William a
week earlier. It therefore remains possible that this dishonest
game was still being played, and that the memorandum to
which Hardenberg alludes on December 3ist, was the original
Teplitz memorial which had long been known to the king. If
Metternich sent the Aix Memoire to Frederick William on
two separate occasions, he may well have done the same thing
with his Teplitz memorial.

Fortunately I am now able to put an end to all these
inferences and suppositions by a simple statement of fact.
In August, 1884, the missing documents of King Frederick
William Ill's privy council were handed over to the state
archives. Among these documents are the reports upon the
plans for a constitution which Hardenberg submitted to the
king in the summer of 1819. Their main content is appended.

On May 2nd, Hardenberg handed the king the first draft
of his plan for a constitution. In essentials this is identical
with the draft which on October I2th was laid before the
constituent committee, differing only in being far more concise,
and in respect of a few trifling details. On June 3oth, he
begged once more for a speedy decision. Thereupon the king
(Cabinet Order of July 3rd, 1819) commanded that the fiscal
system and the national debt affair should be dealt with in
accordance with Hardenberg's proposals, " but meanwhile the
labours upon this representative constitution, which ought to
have been undertaken long before, must be brought to a
conclusion." With this end in view, a small constituent
committee was to be formed.

On August 1 6th, the chancellor reports as follows :
" When in Teplitz, I had an opportunity of discussing this
important matter with Prince Metternich. He shares my
conviction that simultaneously with the strict and consistent
enforcement of the measures against demagogic intrigues, it is
on the other hand extremely desirable that well-considered

626

Appendixes

progress should as soon as possible be effected in the matter
of the constitution." Metternich, he said, had thereupon begged
for an account of Hardenberg's plan for a constitution, for
" the Austrian court desired to follow Prussia's example, so
that the constitutions of the two leading states of Germany
might resemble one another as closely as possible." Complying
with this desire, the chancellor had given the prince the
document entitled Ideas concerning a Representative Constitution
in Prussia, of which a copy was appended to the present
report. " These ideas," continues the report, " received Prince
Metternich's fullest approval." The appended document
contains nothing beyond Hardenberg's Ideas for a Representative
Constitution in Prussia (See Appendix X), but more concisely
expressed. The following is the passage in which reference is
made to a general Landtag.

" The provincial assemblies will elect the deputies to the

GENERAL DIET,

each class in the provincial diet choosing its deputies from
among its own members. Except in the case of its first
meeting, the general diet must always meet precedently to the
provincial diets. The general diet has no adminstrative powers,
and concerns itself with general affairs, those which relate to
the monarchy as a whole. The number of deputies to the
general diet must be as restricted as possible, and it remains
to be considered whether this diet should consist of a single
assembly or should meet as two chambers ; in the latter case,
the number of members would perhaps be excessive, and the
course of business might be rendered more difficult."

A reference to page 645 will show that the above sentences
are almost identical with those in the plan for a constitution
which was subsequently laid before the committee.

This settles the matter. In Teplitz, Metternich had
expressed his definite approval of Hardenberg's constitutional
plan and of the proposed Prussian general diet ; it follows,
that when he talked with the king he cannot have warned
the latter against a constitution based upon estates, but only
against a representative system after the neo-French model.
Consequently my account of the Teplitz conversation is perfectly
correct. The Teplitz conversations exercised no direct influence
whatever upon the course of the Prussian constitutional
deliberations, and from May, 1819, down to his final defeat

627

History of Germany

in the summer of 1821, Hardenberg held immutably to the
same constitutional design. Even this final defeat was not
effected through Metternich's instrumentality, but was the
outcome of the party struggles in Prussia and was due in
especial to the miscarriage of the communes' ordinance

VIII.— THE TEPLITZ CONVENTION.
(APPENDIX TO P. 207, VOL. HI.)

As stated in the text, certain sentences of the Teplitz
convention are verbally reproduced in the Agreement for the
principal Topics of these Negotiations which Prince Metternich
submitted to the first of the Carlsbad conferences (printed by
Welcker-Kliiber, Wichtige Urkunden fur den Rechtszustand der
deufschen Nation, pp. 185 et seq.). I here give the complete
text, pointing out in footnotes the deviations from the Carlsbad
convention.

AGREEMENT CONCERNING THE PRINCIPLES BY WHICH THE COURTS
OF AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA HAVE DETERMINED TO BE GUIDED
IN THE INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF THE GERMANIC FEDERATION.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES.

(i) The Germanic Federation exists as a political body whose
leading characteristics are clearly expressed in articles I and 2
of the federal act.

It exists as a genuinely European institution, and as one
important to the maintenance of equilibrium and of general repose,
and it enjoys the general guarantee which, in virtue of the Vienna
congress act, secures the existence of every European state.1

(2) Austria and Prussia are independent European powers,
and by their German lands are simultaneously states of the
Germanic Federation. In virtue of the first quality, and in
especial as principal participators in the work of the Vienna
congress and in all the political negotiations of recent years, they
are called upon to supervise the political existence of the Ger-
manic Federation and to adhere to the same. In virtue of the
second quality, it is their duty to direct particular attention to

1 Verbally identical with No. i of the Carlsbad convention.
628

Appendixes

the appropriate development and to the firm establishment of
internal federal affairs.1

(3) In so far as the Germanic Federation exists and must
exist as a European political institution, in its interior no
principles must find application which would be incompatible
with its existence [or even which would stand in open contradic-
tion therewith].2

(4) The Germanic Federation is represented as a whole by
the federal assembly.

The federal assembly is, consequently, in relation to the
Federation and to its inner essence, and with especial regard to
articles i and 2 of the federal act, the supreme political authority
in Germany. Its legal decisions must be inviolably executed and
maintained as laws of the Federation.3

SPECIAL APPLICATION OF THESE PRINCIPLES.

(5) Experience has shown that, owing to an unhappy lack of
confidence on the part of some of the German governments, and
owing also to numerous subsidiary views counteracting the designs
of the Federation, the federal bond has lacked the firmness which
a Federation, as such, ought to possess. This unfortunate state
of affairs can be remedied in no other way than by a close union
of the courts, and the courts of Austria and Prussia are resolved
[to utilise the moment in which the systematic activities of a
revolutionary party threaten, not merely to effect the dissolution
of the Federation, but to destroy the very existence of all the
German governments, to bring about this closer union].4

(6) The presence of the ministers of the leading German
courts must be taken advantage of in favour of a closer agreement.
Should the attempt lead to happy preliminary results, the attempt
must be made to perfect this understanding through a meeting of
the German cabinets at the earliest possible date [particularly with
a view to a majority of the votes, and especially in relation to
cases where such a majority is not decisive, to secure as restricted

1 Wanting in the Carlsbad convention.

2 This appears as No. 2 of the Carlsbad convention, with the exception oi
the bracketed clause.

3 Except for trifling changes in style this constitutes No. 3 of the Carlsbad
convention.

4 The clause as a whole is wanting in the Carlsbad convention, but the bracketed
portion, somewhat altered, constitutes No. 4 of that agreement.

629

History of Germany

a decision as possible — also to secure an arrangement for vigorous
executive measures].1

(7).a The most urgent matters, those about which agreement
must first of all be secured, are the following :

A. Emendation of Ideas in respect of Article 13 of the Federal

Act.

Prussia is resolved not to apply this article in its literal sense
to her own domains until her internal financial affairs shall
have been fully regulated ; that is to say, she is determined that
for the representation of the nation she will not introduce any
general system of popular representation incompatible with the
geographical and internal configuration of her realm, but that
she will give her provinces representative constitutions (land-
stdndische Verfassungen), and will out of these construct a central
committee of territorial representatives.

As to the measures which ought to be taken to induce the
German states which under the name of estates (Stdnden) have
already introduced systems of popular representation to return
to a state of affairs better adapted to the circumstances of the
Federation — this is a matter about which, before all, it will be
well to await the proposals of the governments concerned. These
proposals should then be weighed by the two courts, and not
adopted until after due consideration of the many-sidedness of
the problems involved.

B. General Arrangements concerning Article 18 of the Federal

Act.

The two courts agree in their views regarding the principles
of the subjoined project,3 and they will support the same in order
to secure its general adoption by their allies and its application
in the form of a federal law.

This law, passed by the federal assembly, must if possible
be put into effect before the beginning of this year's recess.

In order to secure the necessary measures for effecting their
purpose (which is to restrict to the utmost the daily misleading
of the people) the German governments must pledge one another

1 This constitutes No. 5 of the Carlsbad convention, with the exception of the
bracketed portion.

* All that follows is lacking in the Carlsbad convention.

» This refers to the "fundamental lines" of a decision concerning the press,
submitted in Carlsbad (Welcker, op. cit., p. 193).

630

Appendixes

mutually that none of the newspaper editors who have to-day
become notorious shall be given access to new editorships ; and
they must pledge themselves in general to reduce the excessive
number of newspapers.

C. Measures concerning Universities, Gymnasia, and Schools.

In order to pay due regard to what is best for the sciences
and for the moral education of youth, it is desirable that a
committee should be formed composed of tried men belonging
to those states which have universities, and that this committee
should elaborate a well-thought-out proposal concerning the
dispositions by which the above-specified purposes may best be
secured. These dispositions should deal with matters of discipline,
not only in respect of the students, but also, and in especial,
in respect of the teachers.

As an indispensable measure, the two courts will impress
upon their federal allies the absolute necessity that professors
whose sentiments are notoriously bad and who are involved in
the intrigues of the latter-day disorders among the students shall
be immediately deprived of their chairs, and that no person who
is thus discharged from any German university shall receive an
appointment at a university in any other German state. But
the evil must also be attacked at the root, and therefore this
measure must be applied to the schools as well.

Paying due regard to the prejudices which inspire many of
the German governments against a closer and most wholesome
union between the two leading German courts, these latter
mutually pledge one another to keep the present agreement
permanently secret, and to restrict their activities to the
endeavour, not merely to make the principles herein expounded
the guide of their own conduct, but further to use their united
energies in order to secure the widest possible application of these
principles, in unison with their German federal allies.

With these ends in view, and in order to use their utmost
energies to secure them, the undersigned have drawn up the
present convention with their own hands.

C. F. VON HARDENBERG.

F. VON METTERNICH.

Teplitz,

August i, 1819.

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History of Germany

IX.— BAVARIA AND THE CARLSBAD DECREES.
(APPENDIX TO P. 245, VOL. in.)

Under the title The Bavarian Constitution and the Carlsbad
Decrees, Baron Max von Lerchenfeld has published a work which
I should merely welcome as a valuable contribution to recent
German history were it not that a preliminary chapter on
Treitschke's History of Germany demands a rejoinder

In the course of my studies concerning the first years after
the peace of 1815, I have been led to form conclusions that differ
somewhat widely from those generally current. It is not true that
during this period Prussia was solely a force of inertia, or that
the political advance of the German nation was exclusively
restricted to the constitutional middle-sized states. It was during
these very years of ill-fame that the Prussian crown was laying
the firm foundations of the military and economic unity of our
fatherland, whilst on the other hand the constitutional states must
share the blame for the Carlsbad decrees and the other momentous
errors of the two German great powers. This judgment pressed
itself on me unsought, and to my great surprise, for twenty years
ago, before I was intimately acquainted with the facts, I had in
essentials shared the general opinion. But political legends are
apt to die hard, and in giving expression to my new view I was
naturally prepared to encounter lively opposition. But what I
had not anticipated was that certain North German liberals,
incensed by the destruction of deep-rooted party fables, would
endeavour to stimulate against my book the local patriotic senti-
ments of the South Germans. Since the duty of historical
veracity compelled me to demonstrate that the much-calumniated
Prussian policy was better than its reputation, and that a
considerable proportion of the praise lavished upon the consti-
tutional courts by liberal historians was undeserved, I was
accused of being inspired with personal hostility towards the
South and Central Germans to whom I belong by birth and
upbringing.

To my concern, von Lerchenfeld has not proved completely
inaccessible to such suggestions. His language, it is true, as was
to be expected from the man, is measured and dignified, and the
quiet tone he employs convinces me once again, to my gratification,
that my South German fellow-countrymen have given my
book a far more friendly reception than that which it secured

632

Appendixes

from their unsolicited North German advocates. But had he
regarded the History quite without prejudice, contemplating it
with his healthy Bavarian eyes and not through the smoked
glasses of the North German professors of the Allgemeine Zeitung,
he would neither have read into it thoughts which it does not
contain, nor yet have contested judgments which coincide perfectly
with his own. He charges me with injustice towards Bavaria's
Rhenish Confederate policy, and commends to me the example of
Hardenberg, who was equitable enough to recognise that Prussia's
weakness was largely responsible for Bavaria's alliance with
France. Those who have not read my book will be led to infer
that my opinion directly conflcits with Hardenberg 's view. But
what is the truth of this matter? I cannot refrain from printing
the two passages in parallel columns, since this may furnish some
amusement for those who, in these crotchety times, have retained
a certain sense of humour.

Hardenberg (quoted by Ler- Treitschke (History, Vol. II, p.

chenfeld, p. 6) : 637) :

"It is true that Bavaria " It was not out of any

owed her salvation to Prussia, affection for France that in

and in especial that the elector former days he [Montgelas] had

was indebted to the king for broken the old alliance with

personal friendship, and for pro- Prussia, but because he recog-

tection and a refuge in time of nised that the Bavarian desire

trouble ; but the elector may for aggrandisement could at the

well be excused for failing moment expect no help from

to make common cause with Prussian weakness whilst it

Prussia, seeing that the latter might expect everything from

was so weak, and could offer the vigour of Bonapartism."
so little help."

It seems to me that these two utterances are almost verbally
identical, and in view of the good feeling with which the liberal
press regards me I am almost in dread lest some staunch reviewer
may take it into his head to accuse me of plagiarising from
Hardenberg. But I may venture to ask an honest critic like
von Lerchenfeld whether it is in jest or in earnest that he waves
my own judgment threateningly before me, as if I had disputed it.

The other reproaches which he makes in his introductory
chapter against my History of Germany fare no better upon close
examination. Despite their courteous form, they all amount to

633 2 T

History of Germany

this : " Treitschke is pro-Prussian, and is therefore unfair to all
who are not Prussians." When von Lerchenfeld complains that I
censure everyone who during the period of which my work treats
had not already recognised Prussia's German vocation, I can
only rejoin that in my second volume there is not to be found a
word of the kind, for the simple reason that at that time Prussia
neither had nor could have any idea of dominating Germany.
The only thing which might then perhaps have been secured
for the consolidation of our political unity was a passable
organisation of the federal military system. Again and again
Prussia devoted her energies to this national aim, but every
attempt was frustrated by the resistance of Bavaria and of most
of the other states of the Federation. If such particularism
seems to me an unexhilarating quality, surely a good patriot
like von Lerchenfeld can have no objection to offer. Similarly,
when I describe the struggle of the petty states against the
Prussian enclave system, it is far from my mind to censure these
minor states because they resisted " the German vocation " of
Prussia, or because they failed to understand the designs of
German customs policy, regarding which the vision of the court
of Berlin itself was as yet far from clear. I aim rather at pointing
out that these lesser states, blinded by mistrust and by their
over-valuation of the importance of an untenable sovereignty,
failed to recognise their own obvious advantage, rejecting the
offer of a customs community which since then the experience
of half a century has shown to be just and fruitful. What fault
can be found with this demonstration ? We Germans still lack
a common national judgment concerning the decisive happenings
of our recent history. It is by no means easy to come to an
agreement about these matters, and I fear that such an agreement
will not be furthered if critics consider themselves justified in
denying the good faith of every historian whose views may
deviate a little to the right or to the left of their own. What would
Lerchenfeld say if I were to pay him back in his own coin, and
were to incite my readers against him by the observation which
lies very ready to hand, saying : " Herr von Lerchenfeld is the
grandson of the man who was Bavarian minister of finance in
1819, and he therefore makes it his business to defend to the
utmost the Munich policy of those days ? "

Nothing is further from my mind than the use of such
tactics. I have no doubt whatever that in writing his book
von Lerchenfeld's sole aim was to establish historical facts,

634

Appendixes

and I am exceedingly grateful to him that through the communi-
cation of extracts from his grandfather's papers he has at length
opened for us a Bavarian source of great value, for the archives
of most of the middle-sized states will doubtless remain inaccessible
for a considerable time to come. As will readily be understood,
I find in these papers much which serves to amplify my own
account ; but I have vainly sought for the refutation which the
accumulated censure of the introduction had reasonably induced
me to anticipate. After a minute study of Lerchenfeld's work,
I can discover in all that I have said nothing of importance to
retract beyond a casual reference of no essential significance. An
erroneous item of information in an ambassadorial report misled
me into assuming that Crown Prince Louis (whose irreproachable
loyalty to the constitution I have, for the rest, recognised in
several passages) was absent in Italy in the autumn of 1819. This
statement was false. The letters printed by von Lerchenfeld
show, not only that the crown prince was in Bavaria, but also
that he zealously opposed the Carlsbad decrees. It is with great
satisfaction that in the third edition of my second volume I have
been able to make use of these letters, which redound to the
honour of the prince. With this solitary exception, all my
expressions of opinion and all my records of fact can be main-
tained unaltered.

Let us consider the opinions first. When I declare that during
this epoch Bavaria's state-constructive energy was " weak," in
support of this judgment, wishing to avoid bitterness, I need refer
to one fact alone, to the condition in which the Palatinate on the
left bank of the Rhine was found when the Prussians entered it
in the year 1849, after a generation of Old Bavarian dominion.
If I speak of the restless desire for aggrandisement which animated
the Munich court, it is because I am unfortunately not in a
position to annihilate the fact that Bavaria alone, by her designs
upon the Badenese Palatinate, continued until well on into the
thirties to disturb the peace of the Germanic Federation, at a time
when all the other federal states had long settled down in quiet
acceptance of the existing territorial delimitations ; and out-
side Bavaria all German authorities on constitutional law are
unanimous in regarding the so-called Sponheim hereditary claims
as untenable. A Bavarian should be the last to dispute that
Montgelas did not feel at home in Bavaria. In his letters we can
find no trace of affection for his native land. He speaks of his
fellow-countrymen with a harshness which must be offensive even

635

History of Germany

to non-Bavarians ; and it is upon his lack of Bavarian patriotism
that, in part at least, his historical importance depends. Had he
not been so profoundly estranged from the Old Bavarian people,
he would scarcely have ventured to undertake the radical trans-
formation which was nevertheless essential. Finally, when I say
that at this time Munich and Carlsruhe were the most immoral
of all the German courts, I do no more than allude to a universally
known fact, which is recognised even by Gervinus, the patron and
well-wisher of the middle-sized states. Von Lerchenfeld asks if
I suggest that this immorality originated in the homely court
of Max Joseph. Certainly not ; but it originated in the incredible
frivolity of his predecessor Charles Theodore. The doings of such
a court have a long-enduring influence. As every Palatiner knows,
Charles Theodore corrupted the morals of the Mannheim high
nobility for a generation to come, and in Munich the good-
natured Max Joseph with his ever open hands could do just as
little as the children of this world, Montgelas, Ritter Lang, and
company, to effect an instant removal of the lees of the old
ferment. Prussia had a similar experience. The frivolous tone
which had permeated Berlin society under Frederick William II
became even worse during the first years of his successor's reign,
although Queen Louise led an exemplary domestic life. The
air was first cleared by the storm of 1806. Since Munich was
spared such strokes of destiny, it is natural that there the after
effects of the older court life should be more persistent.

Next for the facts. Regarding the fall of Montgelas and
regarding the concordat, von Lerchenfeld says in other words
almost precisely what I have said myself ; and he has but one
objection to offer to my account of the origin of the constitution,
expressing a doubt as to the trustworthiness of one of Blittersdorff's
reports which expressly declares that the court of Munich
submitted its proposed constitutional laws to St. Petersburg. I
am unable to share this doubt. Whatever view we may take of
Blittersdorff's character, he was a diplomatist of exceptional
ability ; his despatches are among the best known to me in the
period to which he belongs, and his report of August 17, 1818,
is detailed and extremely precise. It is true that, as a Badenese
official, he was an opponent of the Bavarian government, but
his testimony can be challenged in those cases only where he
desired to cast suspicion upon the court of Munich. Here he had
no wish to do anything of the kind. On the contrary, he found
the conduct of the Bavarian government quite comprehensible,

636

Appendixes

and for his own part had a strong desire that the court of
Carlsruhe should secure the approval of the liberal-minded czar
by the speedy tender of a constitutional plan. There can be no
question of physical impossibility, for the discussion of the
Bavarian constitutional laws occupied several months ; and still
less, unfortunately, can there be any question of moral impossi-
bility. Bavaria and Baden were then competing for the favour
of Russia with a subserviency which seems barely credible to us,
the children of a happier day. Since in December, 1815, King Max
Joseph expressed his thanks to Czar Alexander for preserving
Alsace to France, I can see no reason why, two years later, the
king should not have sought the czar's advice upon the consti-
tutional negotiations.

Von Lerchenfeld admits that in the spring of 1819 King Max
Joseph was for a time occupied with thoughts of a coup d'etat,
and that his appeal for help to Vienna and Berlin was a con-
tributary cause of the Carlsbad decrees. This fact has received
additional confirmation from the publication of a letter from
Zentner, the Bavarian plenipotentiary, who on December 28,
1819, wrote from the Vienna conferences : " For the rest, it is
an open secret that the Carlsbad decrees were mainly instigated
from our side" (Lerchenfeld, p. 132). It seems to me by no
means unnatural that the king should for a moment think of
rescinding a fundamental law which appeared to be turning out
ill. The seamy side of the affair was that at the very time when
letters were being exchanged about the coup d'etat, the crown
continued to allow itself to be extolled in its official newspapers
on account of its loyalty to the constitution. This is a point which
von Lerchenfeld passes over in silence.

When the Carlsbad assembly had, with the assent of
Rechberg, the Bavarian plenipotentiary, come to an agreement
about the exceptional laws, and when the Bundestag, once more
with the unconditional approval of the Bavarian envoy, had
passed these laws, it was the duty of Bavaria, in accordance with
the federal law, to promulgate these, and opposition at this late
stage offered little prospect of success. There were two parties
in the ministry. On one side was Count Rechberg ; on the other
was Baron von Lerchenfeld, minister of finance, who had taken
no part in the Carlsbad intrigues. The king was rather on the
side of the minister for foreign affairs than upon that of the liberal
minister of finance. On October I5th, the ministry discussed
the publication of the Carlsbad decrees. Von Lerchenfeld regards

637

History of Germany

the upshot of this deliberation as a defeat of Rechberg ; to me
it seems a compromise, and I hold fast to this view. For von
Lerchenfeld completely ignores that the discussion about the
publication was preceded by another and extremely lively debate.
Under date October aoth, General Zastrow, who had received
confidential information from Rechberg, reported as follows :
" The instructions which were sent to Minister Rechberg in
Carlsbad, and which I myself have had the opportunity of perusing
at Prince Wrede's, contained express commands that he was to
agree to nothing which could infringe the constitution or the
sovereignty of Bavaria. Disregarding this, the minister, firmly
convinced that the decrees agreed upon in Carlsbad were for the
general good of all the German states, felt that he was not bound
by these instructions, and believed that his well-meaning reasons
for departing from them would find acceptance upon his return.
Instead of this being the case, he found that there was a strong
animus against him, and in especial the ministers Baron von
Lerchenfeld and Count Reigersberg reproached him for his
pliability as tantamount to a crime. In the last ministerial
conference they desired to prove to him that this was so by
documentary evidence. But Prince Wrede intervened, and
declared to the ministers that it was the express desire of the king
that the}' should discuss what was to happen in the future, without
reopening questions about what had happened in the past.
Thereupon tempers became cooler, and some sort of reconciliation
with Count Rechberg was effected." I believe this account to be
thoroughly trustworthy. The letters published by Lerchenfeld
prove that his grandfather, the minister, rightly regarded
Rechberg's conduct in Carlsbad as a breach of duty. But however
unsatisafctory Rechberg's political conduct may appear, there
can be no doubt as to his personal honour. All the confidential
communications which he was accustomed with great candour
to make to the Prussian envoy were, so far as I have been
able to examine them in the light of other evidence, perfectly
truthful.

Thus the direct attack upon Rechberg had failed. Now
began the negotiation about the Carlsbad decrees themselves.
Minister Lerchenfeld and his friends maintained, and again rightly,
that the new federal laws (with the exception of the law con-
cerning the universities) one and all conflicted with the Bavarian
constitution. But the ministry nevertheless determined to publish
the Carlsbad decrees, omitting the federal executive ordinance, and

638

Appendixes

adding the customary proviso " with due respect to sovereignty
and in accordance with the constitution," etc. Assuredly this
was a compromise. Each party had carried out a portion of its
aims. Rechberg succeeded in avoiding being called to account
for exceeding his instructions, and in securing that the most
important parts of the Carlsbad decrees were published. On
the other hand, the constitutional party effected the before-
mentioned omission and the addition of the proviso, and they also
secured that in Bavaria the censorship should apply to political
newspapers alone.

What was the significance of the omission of the federal
executive ordinance ? It was remarkable as a symptom of the
ill-humour that prevailed in the Bavarian ministerial council,
and conflicted with the pledges given in Carlsbad and Frankfort,
but it was devoid of practical value. For the federal executive
ordinance was not a law to be enforced by the Bavarian govern-
ment ; it served merely to provide the Bundestag with a weapon
which it might possibly have wielded against Bavaria or against
some other state of the Federation, but which, as is well known,
it never did employ during this period ; it had the force of law as
soon as the Bundestag had published it, and had full legal validity
though one of the states of the Federation omitted to promulgate
the law. For this reason, even the Prussian government, which
complained so loudly about the Bavarian constitutional proviso,
did not waste words over the omission of the federal executive
ordinance. The proviso might indeed have had grave
significance if the desperate resolve had been taken to carry it out
in all earnestness. But such a resolve was manifestly impossible
after Bavaria had twice assented to the Carlsbad decrees.
Although the existence of the new central committee of inquiry
unquestionably conflicted with the prescriptions of the Bavarian
constitution, the Munich government immediately despatched
its plenipotentiary to Mainz ; and Hermann, who acted in this
capacity, was, as everyone knows, the real leader in the persecution
of the German demagogues. In like manner, the restriction of
the censorship to political newspapers can be regarded as an
honourable proof of Bavarian loyalty to the constitution, but the
restriction was also devoid of practical value. As Zentner subse-
quently declared in his Memorial Concerning the Renewal of the
Carlsbad Decrees (May 28, 1824) : "All other writings and all the
booksellers are subjected to strict supervision by the police
authorities, which have in fact secured the powers of a censorship.

639

History of Germany

It is therefore usual in Bavaria for writings which contain
dangerous doctrines or principles to be seized without delay and
to be withdrawn from circulation. Whenever a hint is received
from abroad or from other states in the Federation concerning
suspicious writings, the most careful search is immediately
instituted and the diffusion of any such writing is prevented.
The end aimed at by the provisional press law is by this measure
attained just as well as and often better than by a censorshop."
It would be difficult to give more naive expression to the fact
that Bavaria wished to observe no more than the letter of its
constitution, and to disregard the spirit.

There is another case in which von Lerchenfeld's account
differs from mine. He relates that the constitutional party in
the ministry secured the despatch of Zentner and not Rechberg
to the Vienna ministerial conferences. On the other hand,
Zastrow reports (once more in accordance with information from
Rechberg) : " Count Rechberg refuses to go to Vienna, for it
would touch his honour to take a different line there from that
which he took in Carlsbad. Moreover, he thinks he can be of
greater use here, for he will then be in a position to exercise a
personal influence upon the king, and to give the plenipotentiary
in Vienna the requisite guidance ; whereas if he himself went to
Vienna he would have to accept guidance from Munich, and would
leave the field open for the influence of persons with democratic
inclinations." In my account of the matter I followed this
report, for the other source of information was not then available.
Now that I can compare the two relations, it seems to me that
both of them are true, that they supplement one another, and do
not conflict. When two hostile parties are compacted in a single
cabinet it sometimes happens that they unite in a common
decision wherein each party is gaining its own ends. Such was
the case here. The constitutional party did not wish to allow
Count Rechberg to go to Vienna, lest he should once more exceed
his instructions ; Rechberg, for his part, hoped by remaining in
Munich to be able to pursue his own ends more effectively. The
result justified Rechberg 's anticipations. The German great
powers were quite agreeable to the sending of Zentner, and the
conduct of this prudent statesman in Vienna actually accorded
with the wishes of both parties. On the one hand, he defended
the Bavarian constitution against the attacks which in Vienna
were directed against it, no longer by Metternich and Bernstorff,
but by Marschall and Berstett, the ministers of the constitutional

640

Appendixes

states of Nassau and Baden respectively. On the other hand,
he was henceforward on good terms with Metternich, while with
Bernstorff he entered into a confidential relationship which was
of the utmost value for Germany's future, since our customs unity
was eventually the outcome of this understanding between Prussia
and Bavaria. He took a middle course which, at this juncture,
was for Bavaria the only sound policy. Precisely the same
situation recurred in connection with the Vienna ministerial
conferences of the year 1823. Then also Rechberg wished that
Zentner should go to Vienna, so that his own influence in
Munich might not be weakened (Zastrow's Report, December
31, 1822).

The drama of intrigue had, however, an important last act
to which von Lerchenfeld makes no more than a casual reference.
The two great powers complained about the Bavarian constitu-
tional proviso, and from their point of view they had good reason
to do so, for it was certainly discordant with the federal law that
the Munich court, after co-operating in drawing up the decrees
and twice approving them, should subsequently attach to them
an ambiguous clause. In a strongly-worded ministerial despatch
to Zastrow, Bernstorff demanded whether " this first deviation
from the federal decrees " was to signify a severance of Bavaria
from the Federation. When Zastrow read the despatch to Count
Rechberg, the Bavarian minister begged him to send in a formal
note upon the subject. The Prussian envoy complied with this
wish upon November 8th (Zastrow's Report gives the date as
November I7th), and on November I3th Rechberg sent an
exceedingly diffident reply. He expressed his thanks for the
new proof of Prussian friendship, and gave an assurance that
Bavaria had conscientiously observed the federal decrees. In
proof of this assertion he enumerated all the measures which had
already been introduced for the enforcement of the Carlsbad
decrees, alluding to the new ordinances about the censorship,
the universities, etc., which certainly corroborated his statement.
He went on to declare that his court regarded the Federation as
of the utmost value, saying, " His majesty has never entertained
a thought of separating himself from this Federation, or of taking
up a position outside it." The form in which the decrees had
been published " aimed merely at quieting the minds of the king's
subjects, who might for a moment have feared lest the contem-
plated decrees, or rather the presidential address in which these
decrees were moved, might prove injurious to certain Bavarian

641

History of Germany

laws to which they had long been accustomed, or to the Bavarian
constitution which, though so recently introduced, had also become
dear to them." Since von Lerchenfeld does not allude to this
remarkable despatch, it is possible that Rechberg once more acted
without previous knowledge on the part of the ministerial council,
but he would hardly have written as he did without the king's
approval. However this may be, the note was an official
declaration on the part of the Bavarian government, and was
accepted as such in Berlin. The Prussian government declared
itself satisfied, since Rechberg 's despatches stated unambiguously
that Bavaria remained loyal to the Carlsbad decrees, and that
the constitutional proviso had not been issued with any bad
intentions. It was the natural sequel of this policy that five years
later the court of Munich should cordially approve the renewal
of the Carlsbad decrees.

To sum up. By its plans for a coup d'etat and by its appeal
for help to the great powers, the Bavarian court had contributed
to the summoning of the Carlsbad conferences ; at Carlsbad,
through the instrumentality of its plenipotentiary, Bavaria had
accepted the decrees there drawn up, and had subsequently
approved them in due form by a vote at the Bundestag ; then
the decrees were published with two trifling alterations and with
the addition of a proviso regarding sovereignty and the constitu-
tion ; subsequently Bavaria had herself taken the edge off this
obscure proviso by a conciliatory declaration to the great powers ;
and finally, when the decrees were renewed, the proviso was
completely dropped. Such are the facts. I leave the verdict
to my readers.

I may, however, ask my Bavarian critic to remember that
the historian does not create his materials, but discovers them.
It was not a pleasure to me to wash the dirty linen of the Bun-
destag, and to describe the Carlsbad negotiations, in which all
the German courts, all without exception, played such deplorable
parts. But if I am to show how our fatherland rose once again
in its ancient splendour, I must first of all give an unsparing
and unbiased demonstration of the swamp into which it had sunk.
In my third book [English edition, vol. IV, chapter VIII] I have
recounted how Prussia and Bavaria renewed their old alliance,
so fruitful for good, thus securing economic unity for the father-
land. It is possible that von Lerchenfeld will now be willing to
admit that he has read into my words a meaning which was far
from my thoughts.

642

Appendixes

X.— HARDENBERG'S PLAN FOR A CONSTITUTION.

IDEAS FOR A REPRESENTATIVE CONSTITUTION IN PRUSSIA.

(APPENDIX TO p. 255, VOL. HI.)

The royal edict of May 22, 1815, is the instruction from which
we proceed.

We have nothing but free proprietorship.

The best basis for the constitution is a good municipal and
communal ordinance. Consequently this is the most immediate
need.

In accordance with this ordinance every commune manages
its own affairs.

Under the guidance of some one in authority every rural parish
elects a deputy. Qualifications for the suffrage : membership
of one of the Christian confessions ; ownership of land ; full age ;
unblemished reputation.

The parish deputies assemble in some prearranged place in
the circle, and, under the supervision of the Landrat, they elect
to the circle diet a small number of deputies (number to be
decided later).

Each small town in the circle proceeds like a rural parish.

Every owner of a manor in the circle, whether or not of noble
birth, or every owner of a landed property of a certain size
whether it has or has not hitherto been a manor, is a circle estate,
i.e. competent elector, and may put in an appearance in the circle
town to take part in the election of deputies to the circle diet.
These deputies must also be drawn from the ranks of the land-
owners. Every mediatised noble is entitled to sit in the circle
diet, either in person or by proxy.

THE CIRCLE DIET,

therefore, consists, under the presidency of the Landrat, of :

1. the mediatised resident in the circle ;

2. the deputies of the circle landowners ;

3. the deputies of the small towns in the circle ;

4. the deputies of the rural parishes in the circle.

The circle diets have to deal with all the local affairs of the circle
in accordance with the instructions (subject to revision) issued
to the Landrats and to the other officials of the circle.

643

History of Germany

At the circle diets there shall be elected, chosen from the
classes 2, 3, and 4, specified above, a prescribed number (as small
as possible) of deputies to the provincial assembly or

THE PROVINCIAL DIET.

This body therefore consists, under the presidency of the
chief (chef) of the province, of

1. the mediatised nobles of the province ;

2. the archbishops and bishops of the province, if any ;

3. whether the universities should have the right of sitting
in the diets must be a matter for his majesty's further
consideration. Simply as educational institutions they
possess this right as little as do the gymnasia and the
schools ; and yet in so far as they are landowners they
would appear to have such a right ;

4. the great towns which themselves constitute circles ;

5. the deputies of the landowners ;

6. the deputies of the small towns ;

7. the deputies of the rural parishes.

The number of deputies under heads 5, 6, and 7 must be
carefully prescribed in accordance with the number of mediatised
nobles, prelates, universities, and great towns in the province.

The affairs with which the provincial diets have to deal are
all those which especially concern the respective provinces, as, for
example : provincial finances ; the assessment of taxation ; the
administration of various institutions, such as poor houses,
hospitals, lunatic asylums, and reformatories ; roads (main roads
excepted) ; and the like.

It is not necessary that arrangements should be identical in
all the provinces, for they must vary in accordance with local
needs.

Laws and institutions which concern the monarchy as a whole
do not come within the competence of the provincial diet, and
can be discussed only in the general representative assembly. But
it may happen that the general assembly will ask the opinion of a
provincial diet, or that a provincial diet may, unsolicited, bring
its views to the notice of the general assembly.

Whether the provinces are to be arranged in accordance
with the old-established divisions, or in accordance with the sub-
division into lord-lieutenancies, must be a matter for further
consideration. At first, at any rate, in view of matters concerning
the debts of the provinces, the former plan seems desirable.

644

Appendixes

The provincial assemblies will elect the deputies to

THE GENERAL DIET,

each class in the provincial diet choosing its deputies from among
its own members. Except in the case of its first meeting, when
it has to be appointed by election from the provincial diets, the
general diet must always meet precedently to the provincial diets.

The general diet has no administrative powers, and concerns
itself with general affairs, those which relate to the monarchy as
a whole.

The number of deputies to the general diet must be as
restricted as possible, and it remains to be considered whether
this diet should consist of a single assembly or should be sub-
divided into two chambers ; in the latter case, the number of
members would perhaps be excessive, and the course of business
might be rendered more difficult. If it should be decided to have
two chambers, the composition of the first chamber will have to
be determined.

Alike in the circle diets, the provincial diets, and the general
diet, the deputies will act in accordance with their personal
convictions, and must not be bound by mandates and instructions
from their electors.

The circle diets and provincial diets must meet at least once
a year. The frequency of meeting of the general diet remains
for further consideration ; the same applies to the duration of
membership ; to the question whether retiring members will be
eligible for re-election ; the same, finally, as to how votes are to
be taken and decisions secured.

All subjects, without distinction of class or occupation, in so
far as they belong to the categories above described, are eligible
for election.

Is the initiative for new laws to be reserved for the king, or
is it also to be in the power of the general diet to make legislative
proposals ?

Every individual is competent to make suggestions for
legislation, to the king or to the state authorities, and these
suggestions may be either printed or written ; subordinate
authorities may make proposals through the instrumentality
of their presidents.

The ministers will elaborate the laws, receiving instructions
for this purpose from the king, or acting on their own initiative.
If his majesty thinks fit he will send the proposal to the council

645

History of Germany

of state for its opinion, and when the final draft is ready it will
be laid before the diet by the appropriate minister, and the
reasons underlying the legislative proposal will be expounded by
this minister, who will, however, have no voice in the subsequent
deliberations.

If the diet approves the proposal, either as submitted or with
amendments, it is returned to the king. It only becomes a law
when it has received the royal sanction. The king can entirely
veto it at any time, or suggest alterations for further consideration.

What is to be done should the diet reject a legislative proposal,
remains for consideration.

The circle diets and the provincial diets have administrative
powers in respect of local affairs ; the general diet has no
administrative powers, and cannot in any way interfere in the
administration. This remains exclusively reserved to the govern-
ment ; but, annually, summary reports of administrative work
shall be submitted to the general representative assembly by
the ministers, especially as regards the finances.

In accordance with the edict of May 22, 1815, the
competence of the diet will extend mainly to legislation, and in
especial to those laws which concern the personal rights of subjects
and their property, new taxes, etc. Foreign affairs, police ordi-
nances, and military concerns, are beyond the competence of the
diet, in so far as these matters do not involve personal duties or
property.

Equality of all citizens before the law ; equality of the
Christian confessions, tolerance and freedom for all religious
practices ; equal duties towards the king and the state ; the
right of everyone to claim a fair legal trial, and to have his
case heard and to be brought to trial within a definite time ;
independence of the courts, such as has long existed in the
Prussian monarchy, in respect of their legal decisions ; the com-
petence of everyone to present his petitions and to state his
grievances to the throne in seemly language — all these things are
to be adopted as parts of the constitution.

Points requiring further consideration are : the responsibility
of ministers and state officials, freedom of the press and its abuses,
public education, publicity of legal proceedings and of the
proceedings of the various representative assemblies.

All necessary steps must be taken to ensure that the
monarchical principle shall be firmly established, that true
freedom and security of person and property shall harmonise with

646

Appendixes

that principle, and that in this way freedom and security may
best and most enduringly persist in conjunction with order and
energy. Thus the principle will be maintained :
Salus publica suprema lex esto !

XL— HARDENBERG CONCERNING THE MINISTERIAL
CRISIS OF THE YEAR 1819.

(APPENDIX TO P. 273, VOL. in.)

As is well known, for the years 1805-13 Hardenberg's diaries
constitute a valuable source of historical information, first utilised
by Duncker, and subsequently by Ranke, Oncken, Hassel, and
others. At a later date they became continually more fragmentary,
although even then from time to time they afford the expert
materials for important inferences. Occasionally the chancellor
allowed months to pass without writing a word, or he would write
up his record after some time had elapsed (for example in the year
1815 Ligny is entered on June 16, and Belle Alliance on June 18).
The diary has hardly anything to say about the change of ministry
in 1819. On the other hand, among Hardenberg's posthumous
papers there was found a separate leaf bearing memoranda
observations manifestly written about Christmas, 1819, observa-
tions which clearly show that the chancellor had the ministerial
crisis in mind. I append the essential contents.

Party formed in ministry, since the issue of cabinet order of
January n of this year counteracting Zeitgeist, censuring
gymnastic art and methods of education.

Boyen and Beyne. Subsequently by Humboldt's interven-
tions, regardless of my friendly warnings.

This party holds firmly together, especially in the matter of
the enquiry, and in that of the Carlsbad decrees.

Humboldt's proposal for a report. BernstorfFs opinion :
ditto Boyen's and Beyme's. Protocol ad Regem without con-
clusum and report. Bernstorff is not heard again.

The plan strikes deep roots. The party desires to overthrow
present administration, and to seat itself in its place, presumably
utilising for this purpose financial embarrassments and tax laws.

Ancillon's opinion upon the Carlsbad affair.

Very serious. It is high time. The alternatives. The

647

History of Germany

officials, many of the officers, the educational institutions, infected.
Lord Lieutenant Merckel and Schon. Corruption of youth

No compromise possible. Eylert's opinion.

Criticism has become known, exercises demoralising influence.
It is enough to look at any of the pamphlets of the revolutionary
party. It is common talk.

In the greatest danger I stood alone with the royal confidence.
Only because I was alone could I do anything. Now once more.

The war minister is gone. This is much, but is after all of
no avail if Beyme and Humboldt both remain. B. and H. must
receive their conge.

Plans for finances and taxation.

Reform of school system (the individualities). Merckel to
be dismissed.

Pirch to receive the military educational institutions.

Lower Rhine — Biilow.

Saxony — Schonberg.

Silesia — Ingersleben.

XIL— TREITSCHKE'S PREFACE TO THE THIRD VOLUME
OF THE GERMAN EDITION.

[In the English edition, the matter corresponding to this volume
begins with the chapter entitled " The Vienna Conferences " and
ends with the close of the chapter (in Vol. IV of the English
edition) entitled " Prussia and the Eastern Question."]

In the preparation of this volume I have had an unceasing
struggle with the overwhelming mass of manuscript materials.
In addition to the inexhaustible treasures of the privy state-
archives in Berlin, I have found of especial value the memorials
and reports of Baron von Blittersdorff, Badenese federal envoy,
at first a champion of the policy of the middle-sized states, and
subsequently a zealous partisan of the court of Vienna. These
papers provide a most desirable supplement to those left by
Metternich and Gentz. I have thus been able to console myself
for the notorious impossibility of consulting the Austrian archives
for the period after 1815, and for the fact that I am not one of
those fortunate persons in whose favour Vienna is willing to make
an exception. As regards the German policy of the minor states,
however, I have secured many new lights from the Carlsruhe

648

Appendixes

documents, from the correspondence of Marschall and Roentgen,
the Nassau statesmen, and from certain passages in the memorial
of Minister du Thil which I have been permitted to examine in
the Darmstadt archives. In most cases, therefore, I have been
able to represent the political plans of the three great parties in
the Germanic Federation in the very words of their respective
originators.

In addition, from all parts of the fatherland, from persons
known to me and from persons previously unknown, I have
received manifold items of intelligence, and I can do no more than
express the cordial hope that in respect of the subsequent volumes
of my history my readers will honour me with a confidence by
which I have been profoundly touched. Even the relatives of
men whom I have felt it my duty to censure, even the nephews
of Carl Follen, have put me under an obligation by communicating
valuable information. My richest prize was afforded by the
papers of Minister von Motz, entrusted to me for examination by
his nephew, Lieutenant-Colonel von Motz of Weimar (since
deceased) . Thus only was I enabled to draw a true picture of the
high-minded statesman who did what was best for the cause of
German unity during the years following the death of Hardenberg.

An authentic description of the recent past (which hardly
anyone knows and which all fancy they know) must be a spiritless
affair if it fails to arouse the anger of political opponents. Sciolists
have ever found the naked truth hard to endure.

For this volume also, and especially for its earlier portions,
I have to pray the reader's indulgence. From the tumult of
German politics, often petty and insipid, there emerge again
and again notable men, great questions, and fruitful ideas, whose
effects we can still trace to-day. Over the polychrome medley,
presides the determinism of a sublime reason.

Still more plainly than its predecessors does the present
volume show that the political history of the Germanic Federation
can be contemplated solely from the Prussian outlook, for he
only who stands on solid ground can judge the flux of things.
For the power of Prussia in our new empire, the way was prepared
long beforehand by honest and quiet work. For this reason that
power will endure.

HEINRICH VON TREITSCHKE.
Berlin, December 5, 1885.

649 2 u

History of Germany

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
The changes in this new edition are few and unimportant.

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.

The preparation for this new edition was in essentials
completed by Heinrich von Treitschke. He had pointed out
the misprints, and had also indicated the general lines of the few
emendations in matters of fact which seemed to him requisite.
The revision has been undertaken with a cautious hand. Where
in certain places Treitschke had proposed to make additions to
the text, it has, of course, been necessary to leave things as they
were, since he had not formulated the wording ; one or two
essential rectifications have been made, as far as possible, in
Treitschke's own words. For the rest, the volume is throughout
the familiar and unaltered text of earlier editions.

XIII.— THE COMMUNES' ORDINANCE OF THE YEAR 1820.
(APPENDIX TO P. 426, VOL. in.)

The draft proposals of the communes', towns', and circles'
ordinance of August 7, 1820, had long been missing. Vainly
had King Frederick William IV instituted a search in various
offices. By a fortunate chance I discovered them a few years
ago among the papers of the late minister von Schuckmann.

In the general discussions, the chief question considered is
whether a communes' ordinance for the entire monarchy was
possible. The committee did not fail to recognise the great,
diversity that obtained in communal relationships. In the west,
there were amalgamated communes, with absolutely free property
and equal rights for persons and things. In the east, there were
isolated communes and privileged landlords. In the non-German
provinces, tenant farming chiefly prevailed, and there was hardly
a trace of communal institutions. There also had to be considered

650

Appendixes

the differences in respect of culture between Berlin and the small
towns of Jewish Poland. Yet unity seemed essential, for the
commune was the microcosm of the state and the foundation of
its constitution.

Regarding the rural communes, the following admission was
made : " The manorial relationship makes a complete communal
organisation impossible." The goal at which it was necessary
to aim was, however (after a settlement should have been effected),
to facilitate the complete union of the landowners with the rural
communes, " for we can well believe that when this shall have been
done, patrimonial jurisdiction and police powers will thereafter
seem valueless to the landowners. Indeed, both are likely to be
regarded as a useless incumbrance when they can no longer be
utilised to secure for the landowners a speedier and more relentless
satisfaction of those claims which under existing relationships
they make upon those bound to the soil."

In the discussion of the circle organisation, after detailed
examination the committee came to the conclusion that there
was no important difference in this respect between the eastern
and the western provinces, for the settlement was already in
progress.

In order to assuage popular anxiety, it was suggested that
the following paragraph should be inserted into the introductory
law : " Whether the circle deputies should have any special
relationship to the future estates of our realm, and if so what
this relationship should be, is a matter we reserve for more precise
determination in the charter concerning the constitution."

XIV.— NOTE TO THE HISTORY OF THE PRUSSIAN
CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLE.

(APPENDIX TO p. 571, VOL. HI.)

The following draft from the pen of Prince Wittgenstein,
compiled in May, 1821, immediately before the decision of the
constitutional struggle, gives in outline a true picture of the views
of Hardenberg's opponents.

651

History of Germany

PRINCIPAL POINTS IN WHICH THE PROPOSALS OF THE COMMITTEE
AND THOSE OF THE CHANCELLOR DIVERGE.

Proposals of the Committee.

1. Restricted to the institu-
tion of provincial diets, and do
not extend to a constitution in
the narrower and ordinary sense
of the term.

2. Still less, therefore, does
the committee propose that
there should be a written charter.

3. Restricted to provincial
diets, and do not yet touch upon
the matter of a national assem-
bly.

4. According to the com-
mittee's proposals, the committee
that is to sit in conjunction
with the notables of the
provinces is to deliberate solely
concerning the composition of
the provincial diets, and is not
to consider the extent of the
rights of these bodies, this
being a matter reserved for his
majesty's decision.

5. The result of the com-
mittee's proposals will be the
appropriate re-establishment of
the representation of estates
in the various provinces, the
re-establishment, that is to say,
of the older and earlier consti-
tutions.

Proposals of the Chancellor.

1. A constitution — "the
voluntary granting of reason-
able reforms " — is proposed as
a royal act of grace, and also :

2. A constitutional charter,
a charter dealing with the entire
constitution, giving expression
to the royal gift as a whole.

3. The introduction of a
general national assembly at
the present time, its introduc-
tion to be specified in the pro-
posed charter.

4. The committee, in con-
junction with the notables, is to
discuss other affairs in addition
to those mentioned opposite.

5. It will be evident that the
outcome of the chancellor's pro-
posals would be, not merely the
re-establishment of the older and
earlier constitutions affording
representation of estates, but
further, the simultaneous intro-
duction of a national constitu-
tion, that is to say, of a new
constitution, and consequently
the foundation of a constitutional
monarchy.

652

Ind

ex

ABEL, 477

Aegidi, 232, 307, 310, 333

& Kempis, 170

Albrecht, 77, 131, 226, 314, 384, 504,
510, 581, 583

Alemannia, 56, 238, 366

Alexander I, Czar of Russia, 63, 74,
77* 78, 79, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88,
105, 112, 113, 118, 124, 125, 126,
127, 128, 135, 162, 177, 185, 248,
251, 252, 452, 461, 470, 480, 482,
486, 487, 488, 489, 493, 496, 497,
508, 523, 524, 527, 637

Alexander II, Czar of Russia, 84

Alexandra Feodorowna, wife of Nicholas
I, Czar of Russia, 84

Alexius Frederick Christian, Duke of
Anhalt-Bernburg, 82

Allgemeine Anzciger, 279

Allgetneine Staatsverfassungsarehiv, 32

Allgemeine Zeilung, 153, 565, 633

Altenstein, 15, 16, 17, 61, 62, 63, 88,
129, 137, 138, 139, 242, 266, 290,
408, 409, 410, 537, 540, 556, 557,
558, 575- 596

Amelia, Margravine of Baden, 161

Amelia, Princess of Saxony, 509

Ancillon, 88, 93, 96, 97, 113, 114, 115,
140, 189, 227, 241, 242, 246, 255,
260, 267, 268, 273, 303, 305, 306,
309, 319, 328, 332, 333, 361, 371,
377. 379, 405, 406, 408, 409, 410,
411, 413, 432, 443, 445, 455, 473,
479, 481, 492, 494, 504. 5°5, 508,
5°9, 512, 513, 524, 571, 580, 581,
582, 5<S4- 585, 590, 591, 593, 647

Angern, 580

Angculeme, 113

Anhalt-Bernburg (see Alexius Frede-
rick Christian)

Anhalt-Coethen, Duke of and Duchess
of (see Ferdinand, Julia)

Anhalt-Dessau, Dukes of (see Leopold
I, Leopold Frederick Francis)

Anna Amelia, Dowager Duchess of
Saxe- Weimar, 27

Anstett, 156, 251, 501

Antony Ulrich, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen,
21

Arckenholtzische Minerva, 3*

Archiv, 166

Arens, 374, 375, 377

Aretin, 190, 366, 369

Arminius. 54

Arndt, 40, 41, 43, 44, 51, 68, 75, 101 ,

139, 197. 198, 199, 53<>
Arnim, 82
Arnoldi, 279, 280
Artois, 79, 469
Ascher, 46, 47, 48, 57
Asmis, 603, 606, 607, 608, 609
Auerswald, 577
Auf der Mauer, 517
Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitttng, 98
Augustus, Duke of Saxe-Gotha and

Altenburg, 23, 186, 605
Augustus, Prince of Prussia, 405, 533
Austria, Emperor of (see Francis)
Aventiure, 18

B.

BADEN, Grand Duke of (see Charles

Frederick, Charles Louis Frederick,

Louis William Augustus)
Baden, Margravine of (see Amelia)
Bahnmaier, 180
Bailleu, 207, 503, 624
Barsch, 65, 425
Baumann, 575
Baumgarten, 601, 602, 619, 620, 622

623. 625
Baur, 370

Bavaria, Crown Prince of (see Louis)
Bavaria, King of (see Maximilian

Joseph)
Bavarian, Palatinate, Elector of (see

Charles Theodore)
Beauharnais, Eugene, 80, 477
Beauharnais, Hortense, 80, 477
Beaumarchais, 470
Beckedorff, 529
Becker, 12, 531
Behr, 147, 150, 308
Belgians, King of the (see Leopold,

Prince of Saxe-Coburg)
Bentinck, 122, 123
Benzenberg, 35, 57, 198, 279, 436, 437,

438, 5°2, 5<>7. 568, 569
Beranger, 80, 476
Beresford, 464
Berg, 315
Bergasse, 470, 471, 518

653

tnd

ex

Berliner Monatsschrift, 537
Bernard, Puke of Weimar, 20
Bernard Eric Freund, Duke of Saxc-

Meiningen, 25, 74
Berkheim, 103, 126, 166, 248, 283
Bernburg (see Anhalt-Bernburg)
Bernstorff, 94, 95, 96, 97, 105, 106, in,
113, 114, 115, 120, 122, 123, 124,
129, 130, 138, 140, 141, 152, 167,
182, 207, 210, 214, 215, 217, 218,

219, 22O, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225,

226, 228, 229, 230, 233, 240, 245,

246, 26l, 263, 264, 266, 267, 268,

271, 276, 289, 294, 296, 298, 302,

303, 304, 305. 306, 309, 310, 311,

3M. 315. 3»6, 318, 319, 320, 321,
322, 323, 325, 328, 329, 332. 333.
334. 339. 340. 34L 342. 343. 344.
348, 349, 350, 351, 353. 355. 377.
473. 479. 481, 4«5. 486, 487, 490,
491, 492, 495. 496, 498, 5«3. 505.
507, 508, 509, 510, 511, 512, 513,
516, 522, 523, 525, 526, 568, 624.
640, 641, 647

Bernuth, 418

Berry, 321, 469, 479

Berstett, 103, 124, 125. 156, 157, 162,
163, 166, 181, 213, 244, 253. 284,
285, 304, 305, 309, 310, 311, 316,
322, 323, 331, 335, 340, 343, 344,
355. 356, 358, 359. 360, 369, 376,
392, 562, 640

Beseler, 557

Beyme, 138, 139, 265, 266, 268, 273,
275. 505, 647, 648

Biester, 537

Bignon, 354

Binzer, 44, 238

Blacas, 508, 539

Blittersdorff, 156, 162, 163, 166, 177,
180, 186, 187, 247, 248, 251, 309,
3^0. 355. 500. 564, 565, 636, 648

Blucher, 43, 55, 290, 600, 615

Blum, 281

Bodelschwingh-Plcttenberg, 258, 393,

567. 573

Bohmer, 351, 553
Bolivar, 460
Bolley, 202
Bombelles, 337, 338
Bonald, 531

Bonaparte (see Napoleon)
Boniface, Saint (see St. Boniface)
Borne, 49, 178, 368
Borstell, 86
Bottinger, 98
Boyen, 97, in, 138, 265, 266, 268, 269,

270, 271, 272, 405, 505, 647
Bran, 32
Brandenburg, Elector of (see Frederick

William, Joachim I, Joachim II,

George William)
Bray, 247

Brcntano, 547, 548
Breslauer Diozesenblatt, 550
Bretschneider, 25
Brinken, 297

Brockhaus, 325, 326, 436, 437
Brockhausen, 406
Brougham, 473, 475
Brunswick, Duke of (see Ferdinand)
Brutus, 176
Bubna, 515
Buchanan, 478, 479
Buchholz, 393
Buhl, 424
Bunsen, 442, 484

Buol, 35, 166, 180, 187, 188, 190, 193,
218, 229, 230, 231, 232, 305, 312,

3M

Biilow, 138, 139. 381, 395, 397, 400,

406, 504, 648
Bulow-Commerow, 438
Buonaparte, Letizia, 477
Buonaparte (see Napoleon)
Burg, 46, 561
Buri, 71, 604
Biisch, 279
Byron, 457, 473, 474, 477, 478, 517.

529. 531

C.

CAGLIOSTRO, 471

Calderon, 325

Campo-Chiaro, 491

Canicoff, 500

Canning, 107

Capaccini, 537

Capodistrias, 87, 105, 106, 108, 118,

125, 126, 157, 162, 185, 250, 251,

252. 253, 302, 328, 486, 488. 489,

491, 5o8. 521, 523
Caraman, 488, 496, 499, 525
Carignano, Prince of (see Charles Albert)
Caroline Amelia Elizabeth of Brunswick,

(wife of .George IV, England), 473,

474. 475
Carove', 58, 59
Cassano (see Serra Cassano)
Castlereagh. 88, 105, 107, 114, 115,

122, 125, 252, 473, 473, 476, 480,

486, 488, 490, 499, 500, 506, 507,

5M. 5i8

Catharina II, Empress of Russia, 520
Catharine, Grand Duchess of Russia,

wife of William of Wurtemberg,

365
Catti, King of (see William I, Elector

of Hesse-Cassel)
Cayla, 470
Cense-ur, 237
Charlemagne, 104
Charles, Duke of Mecklenburg, 93, 269,

382, 406
Charles Albert, Prince of Carignano,

514. 5*5. 5i6

654

Index

Charles Augustus, Grand Duke of Saxe-
Weimar, 21, 22, 26, 31, 37, 60, 62,
67, 186, 187, 188, 189. 192, 219, 227,
240, 295, 328, 331, 335, 604, 610

Charles Egon, Prince of Fiirstenberg, 157

Charles Felix, King of Sardinia, 514,
515, 5i6

Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of
Baden, 120, 124, 155, 156

Charles Louis Frederick, Grand Duke
of Baden, 155

Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavarian
Palatinate, 636

Charles I, King of England, 473

Charles III, King of Spain, 459

Charles V, Emperor, 227

Charles XIV John, King of Sweden, 116

Charlotte, Grand Duchess (see Alexandra
Feodorowna)

Charlotte, Princess (daughter of Prince
Regent of England), 121, 474, 475

Chateaubriand, 469, 470

Chelius, 177

Christian, Prince of Denmark, 484

Cimitille, 485

Clancarty, in

Clausewitz, 96, 497

Clement XII, Pope, 463

Cloots, 91

Cloter, 602

Coburg (see Saxe-Coburg, Saxe-Coburg
and Gotha)

Cochrane, 532

Cockburn, 507

Coethen, Duchess of (see Julia)

Coethen (see Anhalt-Coethen

Collin, Heinrich von, 98

Collin, Matthaus von, 98

Colin, 17

Consalvi, 183, 465, 535, 537, 539, 540,
542. 559, 562, 563, 565, 566

Constant, 198, 567, 568, 569, 597

Constantine, Grand Duke, 85

Conta, 187, 295, 605, 6n

Corbiere, 472

Cotta, 98

Crelle, 270

Cruickshank, 185, 192, 241

Cumberland, Duke of (see Ernest Augus-
tus)

Czartoryski, 85

D.

DABELOW, 66
D'Aglie, 468

Dahlmann, 33, 235, 236, 432
Dalberg, 49, 50, 367
Dambach, 182, 195, 196
Daniels, 255, 258, 418
Davidsohn-Lange, 45
Decazes, 118, 468, 470
Delavigne, 517, 531
Delbriick, 443

De Lisle, Rouget, 63

Delius, 575

Denmark, King of (see Frederick VI)

Denmark, Prince of (see Christian)

Der Apologet des Katholicismus, 545

Der Katholik, 547

De Serre (see Serre)

Dessauer (see Leopold I, Prince of

Anhalt-Dessau)
Deutsche Burschenzeitung, 62
Deutsche Turnzeitung, 172
Diderot, 462
Dieterici, 384, 410
Dohna, 396, 422, 435
Donhoff, 422
Doring, 23
Dornhardt, 577
Dorow, 198, 596
Dorring (see Wit von Dorring)
Drey, 544

Droste-Vischering, Caspar Max, 554
Droste-Vischering Clemens August,

554, 555, 556, 557, 558
Dugied, 528
Duncker, 578, 647
Du Thil (see Thil)
Duttlinger, 158
Dyhrn, 579

E.

ECKERT, 196

Edinburgh Review, 34

Edling, 30, 62, 63, 1 86, 295, 605

Edward I, King of England, 366

E. F. d. V., 574

Eichhorn, 140, 189, 195, 210, 255, 258,

260, 287, 289, 291, 292, 293, 295,

297. SSL 356, 418
Eickemeyer, 372
Eigenbrodt, 374, 375
Eiselen, 16
Elsasser Patriot, 313
Emilius, Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt,

375, 376, 377, 378
Emminghaus, 605
Engestrom, 268
England, King of (see Edward I, Henry

VIII, Charles I, James II, Georg»

IV)

Ense (see Varnhagen)
Erichson, 366
Ernest I, the Pious, Duke of Saxe-

Gotha and Altenburg, 22
Ernest III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and

Gotha, 335
Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland

(later King of Hanover), 448
Ernest Augustus, Duke of Saxe-Weimar,

2O, 22

Erskine, 531
Etienne, 237

Eugene Francis, called Prince of Savoy
[Prince Eugene], 521

655

Index

Eylert, 182. 268. 648
Eynard, 531

F.

FABER, 65
Fahnenberg, 501
Falck, 235
Ferdinand, Duke of Coethen, 299, 336,

337. 34<>. 34». 342. 347. 348. 349.

350. 35i. 352

Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, 24
Ferdinand I, King of the Two Sicilies,

465. 484, 485. 491, 492. 494, 495,

496, 508, 509. 510, 516
Ferdinand VII, King of Spain, 81, 115,

451. 459. 461. 479
Ferronays, 488

Fichte, 4, 13, 33, 39, 41, 42. 44. 47
Fischer, 156, 167
Follen, Adolf, 43, 69, 70, 199
Follen, Carl, 69, 70, 71, 73, 75, 76, 170,

171, 172, 173, 174, 601, 602, 603,

604, 606, 607, 608, 609, 610, 6n,

649

Follen, Paul, 69, 172, 174, 175
Fonk, 554
France, King of (see Louis XIV, Louis

XVIII)
Francis, Crown Prince of the Two

Sicilies, 484

Francis, Duke of Modena, 510, 515, 516
Francis, Emperor of Austria, 35, 77, 87,

100, 104, 117, 118, 121, 132, 183,

185, 188, 192, 204, 206, 208, 221,

223, 224, 225, 227, 228, 239, 245,

250. 253. 305. 322. 329, 330, 337,

339. 342. 370. 464. 468, 478, 485,

488, 489. 496, 497, 517, 524, 527,

546, 619

Frankenberg, 23, 26
Frederick I, King of Wiirtemberg, 200,

20 1
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 29, 43,

96, 138, 182, 208, 290, 300, 395.

406, 426, 442, 444, 445, 446, 464,

53.5. 577. 600

Frederick the Great (see Frederic II)
Frederick III the Wise, Elector of

Saxony, 18, 19
Frederick IV, Duke of Saxe-Gotha

and Altenburg, 25, 26
Frederick VI, King of Denmark, 322
Frederick William I, King of Prussia,

447

Frederick William II, King of Prussia,
636

Frederick William III, King of Prussia,
26, 61, 63, 77, 85, 96, 104, in, 115,
116, 120, 121, 125, 130, 131, 151,
'52, 153, 154, 160, 178, 179, 182,
207, 228, 236, 242, 243, 254, 259,
272, 274, 279. 299, 3*8, 35'. 354.
384. 391. 399, 438, 439, 44'. 479.

487. 493. 5°2. 5<>4. 505. 506, 509,
514. 516, 524, 530, 535. 536, 573,
58l. 595, 596, 599, 619, 620, 622,
623, 626

Frederick William IV, King of Prussia,
587. 650

Frederick William, Crown Prince of
Prussia (later Frederick William
IV), 90, 92, 168, 216, 401, 406,

409. 41°, 44». 444- 445. 446- 447,
448, 449, 450. 451, 453. 454, 502,

504. 5<>9. 57L 574. 578. 590, 595.
597

Frederick William, Elector of Branden-
burg, 96, 441, 442

Frei, 531

Friedheim, 350, 354

Friedlander, 45

Fries, 41, 42, 46, 47, 50, 54, 57, 58, 59,
62, 64, 68, 73, 74, 75, 188, 609, 612,

Friese, 396, 397, 398, 416, 418, 426. 428,
433. 592, 597

Frimont, 512

Fritsch, 30, 219, 308, 315, 321, 331, 335,

340

Frommann, 59, 610
Fiirstenberg, Baron, 558
Fiirstenberg, Prince of (see Charles

Egon)

G.

GAGERN, 52, 67, 192, 236, 372, 373, 377

Galitzin, 85, 536, 554

Ganganelli, 546

Gartner, 224

Geissel, 547

Gentz, 46, 49, 61, 87, ,97, 98, 99, 100,
loi, 105, 109, 119, 127, 128, 129,
133, 151, 179, 188, 190, 191, 193.

194, 206, 209, 212, 215, 2l6, 2l8,
219, 220, 221, 222, 226, 227, 228,

237. 253, 259, 323, 370, 453, 475,
490, 515. 5i8, 521, 523, 528, 568,
597- 599, 624, 648

George IV, King of England, 473, 480

George, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, 25

George Erichson, 366

George William, Elector of Branden-
burg, 441

George William, Prince of Schaumburg-
Lippe, 200

Gerlach, 447, 448

Gersdorff, 30

Gervinus, 42, 497, 623, 624, 636

Gneisenau, 7, 71, 81, 96. 265, 275, 290,
399, 448, 458. 594, 600

Goethe, 23, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 34, 37,
44- 46, 53- 57. 64, 68, 98, 604

Goltz, 88, 102, 187, 190, 192, 193, 199,

2l8, 221, 229, 231, 232. 233, 235,

284, 305, 313, 314. 318, 328, 330,

340, 343. 376. 5"

656

Index

Gorres, 90, 91, 92, 93, 177. 178, 242, 243,
249, 274, 280, 282, 288, 439, 454,

532. 547. 548, 580
Gortz, 29

Gotha (see Saxe-Gotha and Altenburg)
Gotha-Altenburg (see Saxe-Gotha and

Altenburg)
Gourgaud, 79
Graben, 557, 558
Grano, 182, 195, 196, 198, 238
Granvelle, 227
Gratz, 545, 556, 557
Gravell, 259, 437

Great Elector (see Frederick William)
Gregoire, 253

Gregory VII, Pope, 549, 551
Grey, 506

Groben, 265, 439, 442, 447
Grohmann, 176
Grolman, 36, 270, 271, 371, 373, 374,

375. 376, 377- 378

Gros, 20 1

Gruner, 68, 198

Griinne, 231

Guizot, 471

Giinther, Count of Schwarzburg, anti-
emperor, 26

Giinther Frederick Charles, Prince of
Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, 296,
297, 299

Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden,
228

Gruttschreiber, 579

H.

HACK, 308, 315, 331

Hacke, 299

Hacker, 153

Hagemeister, 140, 241

Ham bund (Poet's League), 39

Hake, 272

Haller, 57, 215, 448, 450, 451, 452, 464,
4/8, 581. 593

Hamlet, 450

Handel, 230, 377

Hanel, 130

Hanlein, 120, 121, 474, 486

Hannibal, 460

Hardenberg, 15, 16, 17, 41, 47, 49,
61, 62, 77, 78, 81, 82, 83, 88, 89, 90,
91. 92, 93. 94. 95. 97. i°2, 103, 104,

1O5, IO6, 119, 120, 122, 124, 129,

130, 131, 133, 136, 138. 139, 140,
141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 167, 182,

194, 197, 198, 201, 2O7, 208, 209,

2IO, 213, 214, 215, 217, 2l8, 219,

220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226,

228, 241, 242, 243, 247, 252, 254,

255, 256, 257, 258, 260, 26l, 262,

263, 267, 268, 270, 271, 273, 274,

275. 276, 277, 279, 294, 302, 303,

304. 3M. 3i6, 318, 320, 328, 333,
353. 376. 38i, 382, 383, 384. 385.
386. 388, 389, 391, 392, 393. 396.
398, 399, 401, 402, 404, 405. 406.
407, 408, 409, 410, 413, 416, 417,
418, 425, 426, 428, 433, 435, 437,
438, 439. 44°. 44L 448, 453. 455.
479, 481, 490, 492, 495, 496, 498,
499, 500, 502, 503, 504, 505, 506,
510, 511. 513, 533, 535, 537, 542,
564, 566, 567, 568, 569, 570, 572.
573. 575, 576, 577. 578, 580, 585,
589, 592, 596, 597, 598, 599, 620,
622, 623, 625, 626, 627, 628, 631,
633, 643, 647! 649, 651

Hardenberg (Hanoverian) 206, 311

Harnier, 190

Harnisch, 16

Hartmann, 249, 360, 365

Hassel, 647

Hatzfeldt, 314, 350

Haugwitz, 167, 533

Hebel, 157

Hedemann, 595

Hegel, 41

Hegewisch, 6itf 612

Heine, 441

Hendrich, 186, 187, 605

Hengstenberg, 52

Henke, 602

Hennenhofer, 156

Henry VIII, King of England, 473

Heinrich von Plauen, 26

Herder, 26, 44

Hermann I, the Mild, Landgrave of
Thuringia, 18, 22

Hermes, 545, 555, 556

Hess, 47, 368

Hesse (see Hesse-CasseJ, Hesse-Darm-
stadt)

Hesse-Cassel, Elector of (see William I)

Hesse-Darmstadt, Grand Duke of (see
Louis I)

Hesse- Darmstadt, Prince of (see Emilius)

Hetairia, 520, 521, 522

Himly, 526

Hippel, 140, 575, 576, 577

Hippolytus a Lapide, 367

Hirscher, 544

Historische Zeitschrift, 207, 624

Hofmann, 343, 374, 604

Hoffman, C., 68, 296, 297, 298

Hoffmann, E. E. (Darmstadt), 372

Hoffmann, J. G., 381, 387, 401, 402, 403,
404, 405, 407, 412, 413, 416, 432

Hohenlohe, 550

Hohenlohe-Waldenburg, 550

Hohnhorst, 174, 602

Holland, 506

Holy Roman Empire, Emperor of (see
Maximilian I, Charles V, Joseph II)

Honor atus IV, Prince of Monaco, 117

657

Index

Hermann, 238, 246. 366. 369, 639

Horn, 50

Hornthal, 147, 150, 246

Hovel. 89, 90, 579, 586

Hudson Lowe (see Lowe)

Hufeland, 528

Hiigel, 249

Humboldt, Wilhelm, 23, 30, 95, 140,
141, 142, 143, 144, 145. 197. 24°.
254, 255, 258, 260, 261, 262, 263,
264, 265, 266, 267, 273, 274, 275,
290, 3<>3. 317. 347. 38i, 382, 383,
400, 405, 408, 432, 453, 505, 535,
538, 576, 577, 58i, 584. 620, 647,
648

Humphrey, 97

Hurtcr, 551, 552

I.

IBELL, 174, 175, 178, 180

Immermann, 52, 61

Imperator (see Napoleon)

Independent, 237

Ingersleben, 577, 648

Innocent III., Pope, 549, 552

Isis, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 42, 56, 59, 62,

64, 135, 180, 186
Ittner, 561

J-

ACOBI, 537
acobs, 528
acobson, 44

Jahn, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, II, 12, 13, 14,
15, 16, 17, 41, 51, 53, 56, 139, 194-
195, 196, 198, 199
Jahrbiicher der Gesetzgebung, 196
James II, King of England, 495
Jarke, 52, 548, 602
Jaumann, 561
Jaup, 374

Jerome, King of Westphalia, 307, 385
Joachim I, Elector of Brandenburg,

448, 449
Joachim II, Elector of Brandenburg,

227, 623

John VI, King of Portugal, 115, 116
John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony, 21
John Frederick II, Duke of Saxony, 19,

192

ordan, 100, 338, 351
oseph II, Emperor, 130, 535, 546, 551
oseph Napoleon, 459
ouffroy, 518
ulia, Duchess of Coethen, 336

K.

Karaptz, 37, 57, 60, 66, 139, 182, 194,
196, 197, 198, 223, 224, 242, 525,

574

Kaisenberg, 238
Kant, 44

Kapp, 242

Keller, 55, 240

Kempis, 170

Kessler, 369

Kiclcr Blotter. 33, 235

Kieser, 55, 50, 188, 610

Kimsky, 596, 598

King of the Catti (see William I,
Elector of Hesse-Cassel)

Kircheisen, 138, 139, 223, 268, 275, 290

Klausewitz, 271

Klewitz, 88. 89, 138, 261, 285, 296, 351,
381, 383, 388. 408, 417, 576

Klickermann, 352

Klopstock, 39, 458

Kliiber, 47, 314

Knesebeck, 382, 406

Koberstein, 603

Koch, 561, 562

Kohler, 140, 241, 419, 431, 432

Kolle, 565

Konneritz, 605, 609

Koraes, 520, 528

Koreff, 47, 93, 130, 241, 567, 568. 596

Korner, 63

Koselowski, 251

Kotzebue, 47, 57, 64, 65, 66, 74, 128,
168, 170, 171, 172, 175, 177. 178,
180, 181, 186, 187, 188, 254, 605

Krafft, 343

Kraus, 401

Krudener, 85

Krug, 128, 387, 528

Krusemark, 61, 79, 82, 83, 117, n8, 119,
126, 152, 181, 182, 183, 186, 188,
189, 190, 191, 201, 237, 240, 246,
248, 251, 252, 253, 254, 319, 322,

330, 450, 470, 478, 481, 483, 486.
487. 513, 5M. 5i6, 517. 524, 526,
559, 568

Kiilne, 412

Kupfer, 330

Kiister, 166, 235, 248, 307, 311, 317, 330,

331, 359, 361, 3^9, 382, 486, 507.
526, 581

LADENBERG, 388, 399
Lafayette, 70, 108, 528
Laharpe, 185
Lamennais, 547
Lang (see Ritter Lang)
Langenau, 102, 228, 320
Las Cases, 79
Lassalle, 281
Le Coq, 196

Lebzeltern, 248, 251, 481, 489
Leo, 14, 52, 58, 73, 174, 175, 601, 610
Leopold I. Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, 348
Leopold Frederick Francis, Duke of
Anhalt-Dessau, 352

658

Index

Leopold, Prince of Saxe-Coburg (later
Leopold I, King of the Belgians),

121. 475
Lepel, 190
Lerchenfeld (Bavarian Minister of

Finance), 149, 244, 247, 328, 371,

559, 637, 638
Lerchenfeld, Max von (grandson of

above), 632, 633, 634. 635, 636,

637, 638, 640, 641, 642
Lessing, 44, 47, 545
Lestocq, 26, 296, 298
Liebenstein, 158, 160, 161, 165
Lieber, 14, 199, 529
Lindenau, 25

Lindner, 35, 65, 360, 369, 370
Lippe-Detmold, Princess of (see Pauline)
Lips, 48

Lisle, Rouget de, 63
List, 202, 203, 204, 279, 280, 281, 282,

283, 288, 294, 333, 338, 339, 343,

344. 362, 363, 364
Lilerarische Wochenblatt, 64, 65
Liverpool, 107
Loning, 174, 175
Lornsen, 73, 74
Lottum, 94, 106, in, 114, 115, 124,

138. 388
Lotzbeck, 160
Louis, Crown Prince of Bavaria, 126,

245. 321. 529. 533. 550, 635
Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse-Darm-
stadt, 73, 305, 371, 373, 374, 375,

376, 377

Louis XIV, King of France, 235
Louis XVIII, King of France, 78, 80,

82, 105, 108, 109, 252, 480, 495,

518, 615
Louis Philippe Joseph, Duke of Orleans

(Egalit6), 464
Louis William Augustus, Grand Duke of

Baden, 155, 156, 159, 166, 248, 564
Louise, Queen of Prussia, 636
Louvel, 469
Lowe, Hudson, 80, 118
Lowenhjelm, 251
Luden, 32, 33, 35, 37, 41, 47, 50, 65,

74, 170, 1 88
Ludwig, 69
Luther, 9, 25, 44, 54, 55, 56, 211, 458,

550, 552
Ltittwitz, 579 .
Liitzow, 3

M.

MAASSEN, 279, 285, 286, 287, 297, 416

Mack, 253, 254

Mackintosh, 506

Maertens, 604

Magister Ubique (see Bottinger)

Mai, 539

Maistre, 448, 452, 453, 531

Maitland, 408

Mallinckrodt, 140

Maltzahn, 130, 508

Mandelsloh, 307, 327, 328, 330, 331

Manteuffel, 167

Manuel, 108

Maria Pavlovna, 328

Mariana, 70

Marie Louise, 478

Marschall, 213, 229, 310, 311, 316, 322,

324. 33i. 335. 339, 34°. 344. 35°.

355. 358, 359, 360, 374, 376, 640,

649

Martens, 283
Martin, 32
Marwitz, 385, 388, 392, 426, 530, 567,

574. 577. 579. 586
Massenbach, 36, 37, 202
Massmann, 42, 56, 59, 63
Maucler, 201, 361, 363
Maurice, Elector of Saxony, 228
Mauve, 349
Maximilian Joseph, King of Bavaria

(Max Joseph), 125, 149, 151, 153,

154, 181, 184, 244, 247, 329, 3?o.

439, 477, 526, 530; 636, 637
Maximilian I, Emperor, 18
Mecklenburg, Duke of (see Charles)
Medici, Lorenzo de', 27
Medizinische Zeitschrift, 176
Meiningen, Duke of (see Antony Ulrich,

Bernard Eric Freund, George)
Mendelssohn, 44
Menz, 491, 492
Menzel, C. A., 16, 602
Menzel, W. 52
Merckel, 274, 541, 648
Merveldt, 579, 586
Metternich, 46, 49, 60, 63, 64, 67, 74,

77, 78, 82, 84, 86, 87, 88, 97, 100,

101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 107, 108,

114, 117, Il8, 122, 126, 129, 130,

131, 132, 133, 135, 179, 180, 181,
182, 183, 184, 185, 188, 190, 192,
!94. 199, 201, 206, 207, 208, 209,

210, 211, 213, 214, 215, 2l6, 217,

2l8, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 225.

226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 234, 237,

244, 247, 248, 250, 252, 253, 254,

256, 276, 284, 291, 301, 304, 305,

306, 309, 311. 312, 313, 314, 315,

316, 317, 320, 322, 325, 326, 327,

329, 330, 331, 332, 335. 336. 337.

338, 339, 342, 350, 353. 356, 357.

358, 359. 360, 377, 392, 394, 4*7,

445, 450, 464, 465, 473, 476, 479,

481, 482, 483, 485, 486, 487, 488,

489, 490, 491, 492, 493, 494. 496,

497. 498, 499, 501. 502, 503, 504,

508, 509, 510, 512, 513, 514, 515,

5i6, 519, 521, 522, 523, 524, 525,

527, 559, 568, 619, 620, 621, 622,

623, 624, 625, 626, 627, 628, 631,
640, 641, 648

659

Index

Meulen, 557

Meyern. 353. 577

Milit&r-Wochenblatt, 43 270,

Miller, 281

Milton, 478, 479, 520

Minerve, 119, 237

Minto. 252

Modena, Duke of (see Francis)

Mohl, 602

Mohler, 544, 545

Moltke, 360, 467

Monaco, Prince of (see Honoratus IV)

Moniteur, 237

Montalembert, 547

Montesquieu, 79, 323

Montgelas, 244, 635, 636

Montmorency, 79

Monumenta Germanic?, 235, 573

Moor, Robber, 66

Moore, 457, 531, 532

Mosle, 123

Most Christian King (see Louis XVIII)

Motz, 143, 297, 387, 649

Muffling, in, 112

Miihlenfels, 197, 198

Miiller, Adam, 99, 160, 179, 188, 215,

253. 324. 326, 327. 336. 338, 339,

348. 350. 35L 353
Miiller, J., 551
Miiller (Saxe-Weiraar charge d'affaires

in Berlin), 62
Miiller, Wilhelm, 530
Munch, 172, 175, 350, 6or
Miinchhausen, 183, 219, 307
Minister, 185, 206, 216, 252, 311
Murat, King of Naples, 465
Musset, 238

N.

NAGLER, 347
Naples (see Two Sicilies)
Naples, King of (see Murat)
Napoleon 1, 24, 29, 36, 38, 45, 80, 82,

117, 155, 230, 380, 395, 445, 459,

460, 462, 465, 477, 480, 534, 542.

572, 620
Napoleon II, Duke of Reichstadt and

King oi Rome, 478
Napoleon, Joseph, 459
Nasse, 176
Nebe, 58
Nebenius, 285, 286, 287, 288, 289, 297,

34<>. 369
Necker, 468
Nelson. 465

Nemesis, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 42, 65
Nesselrode, 86, 89, 90, 105, 124, 181,

185, 186, 188, 250, 253, 488, 508
Netherlands, King of (see William I,

William III)

Neue Monatsschrift fur Deuischfand, 393
Neue Rheinische Merkur, 32
Neue Stultgarter Zeilung, 154, 180
Ney, 477

Nicholas, Grand Duke (later Nicholas I,

Czar of Russia), 85
Nicolai, 537

Nicolovius, 140, 241, 536
Niebuhr, 57, 67, 183, 195, 198, 199,

397. 4»7. 432, 44'. 443- 444. 44».

453. 484. 486, 496, 512, 530. 535.

537. 538, 539. 540. 542. 548. 5&3.

565. 566, 593
Niemayer, 555
Nitschke, 603

Norddeutsche Allgcmeinc Zeitung, 86
Normann, 529
Novalis, 445, 550

O.

ODYSSEUS, 529

Oesterreichischc Bcobachler, The, 61,

97. loi, 104, 119, 483. 515, 521,

523. 53«. 53L 559. 568, 599
Oken, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 55, 59, 62,

1 86, 188, 239

Old Bursche (see Charles Augustus)
Old Dessauer (see Leopold I, Prince of

Anhalt- Dessau)
Oldenburg, Duke of (see Peter Frederick

Louis)

Olshausen, 611
O'Meara, 79
Ompteda, 566
Oncken, 647
Oppositionsblatt, 32, 35, 47, 65, 150,

259, 5°o

Orange, Prince of (see William)
Orelli. 528
Organ des deulschett Handels- und

Gewerbstandes, 282
Orleans, Duke of (see Louis Philippe

Joseph)
Otterstedt, 230, 308, 356, 373, 375, 376,

377

P.

PAGBNSTECHER, 422
Pahlen, 251
Pallavicino, 468
Palm, 36
Pasquier, 514
Passow, 1 6
Patriot, 32

Pauline, Princess of Lippe-Detmold, 200
Paulus, 47, 166, 202
Pellico, 468
Pepe, 467, 485, 512
Perthes, 23, 326

Peter Frederick Louis, Duke of Olden-
burg. 236
Pfister, 238
Pfizer, 288
Pfuel, 5

Pflugk, 227, 552

Philippe Egalite, Duke of Orleans, 464
Philomusic League, 520

660

Index

Philosophical Club, 75

Phull, 486

Pilat, 105, 194

Piquot, 331. 474

Pirch, 275, 648

Pius VII. Pope, 477, 496, 535, 537, 563

Plato, 99

Plauen (see Heinrich von)

Plessen, 213, 229, 232, 236, 311

Portugal, King of (see John VI)

Pozzo di Borgo, 78, 84, 105, no

Pradt, 119, 237

Preussische JahrbUcher, 196, 198, 603

Preussische Staatszeitung . 140, 196, 294,

295. 333. 34L 438, 543
Prince Eugene (see Eugene Francis)
Prince Regent (later George IV, King of

England q.v.), 206
Probsthan, 603
Prussia, Crown Prince (see Frederick

William)
Prussia, King of (see Frederick William I,

Frederick II, Frederick William II,

Frederick William III)
Prussia, Queen of (see Louise)

QUASI, 579
Quistorp, 60

R.

RADOWITZ, 292

Radziwill, 96

Raglowich, 371

Ramdohr, 495

Ranke, 13, 647

Rass, 547

Raumer, Carl Georg (mineralogist), 16

Raumer. Carl Georg (Prussian official),

241
Raumer, Friedrich (historian), 16, 430,

432, 536, 595
Rechberg, 124, 151, 152, 153, 154, 167.

213, 244, 245, 246, 247, 306, 307,

322, 3?i. 559, 637, 638, 639, 640,

641, 642
Reden, 566
Redern, 599
Rehberg, 458
Rehfues, 557

Reichstadt, Duke of (see Napoleon II)
Reigersberg, 244, 638
Reimer, 195, 196, 198
Reinhard, 321
Reizenstein, 156, 162
Reuter, 50
Rhediger, 146

Rheinischc Merkur, 36, 90, 243, 280, 282
Ricardo, 285
Richelieu, 78, 83, 84, 88, 105, 106, 109,

no, 112, 117, 118, 128, 322, 470,

472, 480, 487, 488

, 372, 461
Riemann, 50, 55
Ries, 562
Rigas, 520
Ritter Lang, 636
Robespierre, 69
Rochefoucauld, 470
Rochow-Rekahn, 567, 578
Roder, 447
Rodier, 471
Roentgen, 649
Romberg, 579

Rome, King of (see Napoleon II)
Ropell, 578
Rosenkrantz, 219
Rost, 23
Rothe, 538

Rother, 62, 381, 382, 383, 384, 386,
388, 389, 392, 394, 395, 398, 416.

425. 5"

Rothschild, 46, 320, 389, 397
Rotteck, 33, 147, 157, 160, 166, 323, 359
Rouget de Lisle, 63
Rousseau, 68, 163, 462, 549
Royer, 81
Ruckert, 529
Rudler, 422
Rudhart, 559
Rudolf, Archduke, 183
Ruffo, 509, 510
Ruge, 52, 64
Riihs, 46, 47

Russia, Czar of (see Alexander)
Russia, Empress of (see Catharine II)

S.

SAILER, 536, 546, 555

St. Boniface, 25

Saint-Marsan, 510, 513

Salat, 546

Sand, Carl, 43, 54, 71, 74, 76, 168, 169.

171, 172. 173, 174, 175, 176. 177,

178, 180, 181, 182. 196, 359, 479,

601, 602, 603, 605, 608, 609, 610,

611

Sand, Mrs., 173, 242, 608
San Gallo, 509, 510
Santa Rosa, 512
Sardinia, King of (see Victor Emanuel I,

Charles Felix)
Sartorius, 13, 69
Savigny, 447, 448, 591
Savoy, Prince of (see Eugene Francis)
Saxe-Coburg, Prince of (see Leopold)
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duke of (see

Ernest III)
Saxe-Gotha and Altenburg, Duke of (see

Augustus, Ernest I., Frederick IV)
Saxe-Meiningen, Duke of (see Antony

Ulrich, Bernard Eric Freund,

George)

6<5l

Index

Witzleben, 141, 254, 263, 271, 384, 398.
399, 493. 502, 506, 573, 575. 577,

595

Wollner, 241
Wolzogen, 102, in, 192, 228, 320. 443,

450

Wrede, 154, 245. 247, 329, 638
Wreclen, 561
Wurtemberg, King of (see William I,

Frederick)
Wiistemann, 23
Wuttke, 578
Wyss, 195, 196

Y.

YORK, 447. 513
Ypsilanti, 521, 523, 527

Z.

ZASTROW, 148, 149, 152, *53, *54. *55,
181. 186. 235, 245, 246. 247. 249,
311, 328, 332, 371, 477, 526. 551.
559. 560, 638, 640, 641

Zeitgenossen, 436, 437

Zeitschri/t fur deutsches Staatsrecht, 310

Zentner, 201, 247, 302, 306, 311, 314,
3»5. 3i6, 3i8, 319, 322, 325. 332,
337, 344. 356. 3?o. 37», 559, 560,
637, 639, 640, 641

Zerboni, 89

Zichy, 62, 63, 182, 568

Zieten, 78

Zoller, 246

Zschokke, 561

Zwingli, 517

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