6 Europe, and the English Parliament. |[JuLY, 



Prussia presents the phcenomenon of the most military government, 

 with the most democratic population of the continent. The towns are 

 fuU of men, intelligent above their rank in life. Education has been 

 widely spread. Literature, though a tardy road to distinction, under a 

 government of epaulettes, is a favourite pursuit, and even the Prussian 

 army contains many individuals of considerable scholarship. Those men 

 cannot look upon the rapidly changing state of the continent, the in- 

 creased power of public opinion, the growing freedom of the tribunals, 

 the privileges of the press, without inquiring why Prussia is not to make 

 her advance like the rest. The promise of a constitution made at the 

 close of the late w^ir is loudly demanded to be realized, and until it is 

 realised, we must expect to hear the demand persevered in. 



We have at all times disclaimed, and with the utmost sincerity, all 

 regard for the pretensions of mere republicanism. We have uniformly 

 described the spirit of mere innovation, as one of the most fatal of all 

 public evils, as a monster insatiable of mischief, as fostering only the 

 fiercer passions of the furious, the ignorant, and the malignant, and 

 trampling down all the barriers and forms by which time and wisdom have 

 provided for the security of human peace, and the sustenance of human 

 virtue. But if we resist the explosion, which would involve the whole 

 ancient fabric of slates in one wild and fiery overthrow, are we therefore 

 to regret that incumbi'ances should be cleared away, that the spots where 

 corruption and pestilence bred should be purified, that light should be 

 suffered to penetrate into the dungeon ? To our conception, there is no 

 finer display in moral nature than this beneficent change, so gradual as 

 to produce no shock, and yet so complete as to leave nothing beyond the 

 limits of its illustration ; this general brightening of the moral land- 

 scape, not with that fierce and consuming burst of light which could only 

 dazzle and inflame, but with that serene and deliberate splendour which, 

 while it clears away the night, ap2)roaches in a magnificent regularity of 

 advance that turns its very mists and shades into colour and beauty, 



Austria has long exhibited the singular contrast of the most sluggish 

 government, with a cabinet keenly ahve to every movement of Europe. 

 At home, all heavy, formal, and clinging to obsolete things ; abroad, all 

 eager subtlety and angry suspicion. The genius of the throne is a monk 

 in Austria, a monarch in Hungary, a dragoon in Italy, and a Jesuit 

 every where. Metternich, whose influence began in the famous armis- 

 tice of 1813, that armistice, which broke doAvn the barrier between 

 Napoleon and the woi'ld in arms, is the soul of the cabinet; a man of 

 singular acuteness, energy, and knowledge of courts. In all the pro- 

 verbial uncertainty of favour under an arbitrary throne, he has retained 

 his position. He has undoubtedly justified his fortune by his ability. 

 No finesse of diplomacy has been too refined for his sagacity, no change 

 of affairs too unexpected for his vigilance. At a period when the whole 

 political world was charged with storm, he conducted Austria, shat- 

 tered as she was by the French war, through the danger unhurt, and 

 even raised her from decrepitude to exercise a most powerful influence 

 upon the state of the European world. Metternich is now the acknow- 

 ledged master of European politicians. He is the head of a school in 

 which the first statesmen of his day are not ashamed to rank themselves 

 as his pupils. His system is the acknowledged code of royal policy ; 

 his will is the first consulted in all the meditated changes of nations. He 

 has made Vienna the point to whicli all the envoys of the continent 

 flock for consultation. Without his confidence nothing is done ; with 



