GERMANY. 185 



mentioned. So long as they exist the country can never acquire that 

 native union so essential to an independent state. There is a party in 

 Germany, that for some years has been gradually acquiring strength and 

 consistency, whose object is to strip all the foreign powers of their 

 German dominions, (even Austria and Prussia are by them considered 

 under this category), and mediatising all the states below the second 

 rate, to divide their territories among the pure German powers ; viz. 

 Bavaria, Wirtemberg, in the south, Saxony and Hanover in the north. 



According to this system of centralization, Germany would possess 

 four instead of thirty-eight sovereigns, and present an imposing front 

 that would command the respect of all Europe. 



This theory has been ably exposed in a work on the nationality of the 

 German people, and on the institutions that would harmonise with their 

 manners and characters ; but we confess that we consider the practical 

 illustration of it almost an impossibility. Divided as the country is into 

 petty districts, separated by jealousies and antique prejudices, and 

 governed by princes, the tools of Austria and Prussia, the mass of resist- 

 ance to be overcome is immense. The press, it is true, is everywhere 

 laying its grasp on the human mind, a wild and fierce crusade against 

 despotic authority has been stirred up by the events of the " three days," 

 even the political substratum of Germany has vibrated to the shock of 

 the mighty earthquake. But yet we must not suppose that a chastened 

 love of civil and political liberty is generally diffused among the mass of 

 the German people. A single glance at their past history will convince 

 us of this truth. The personal independence of the individual German, 

 strikes you as much as their collective indifference to political freedom. 

 Their genius has been turned into a different channel. And, indeed, 

 how should it be otherwise ? He seldom dies the subject of the prince 

 he was born. Distracted as has been his country, sacrificed as they have 

 been by thousands at the shrine of foreign ambition, their love of 

 country is rather a poetical inspiration, than a patriotic and political 

 feeling. Again, the Germans are essentially a military people. They 

 are fond of the shako and plume, and of the wild uncertainty of a mili- 

 tary life, that takes away all care for the morrow ; and we have seen 

 that, even in France, it has been the work of years to cultivate liberal 

 institutions on the soil of military glory. Still, the star of freedom has 

 risen upon her feudalized horison. There is, added to an intensity and 

 earnestness in the German character, an enthusiastic singleness of pur- 

 pose in the pursuit of an object, that is preparing in the distance of the 

 future the great work of regeneration. We love the country we love 

 the people, and their romantic and original literature. We acknowledge 

 their vast capabilities, and our loftiest aspirations are for their political 

 regeneration and happiness still we cannot close our eyes to the for- 

 midable mass of resistance to be overcome ere the country shall be cen- 

 tralized under one, or even four governments. That they are progress- 

 ing, though slowly, towards the " Rarum temporum felicitatem ubi 

 sentire quse velis et quae sentias dicere licet" of Tacitus, we freely allow ; 

 but what blood must be shed, and what years must elapse, ere this 

 glorious consummation becomes the portion of Germany ! 



