GERMANY. (CONFEDERATION.) 



417 



dinary cases, particularly in the wars of the empire. 

 A Roman month, for the whole empire, consisted of 

 20,000 infantry and 4000 cavalry, which amounted to 

 the sum of 128,000 florins. The estates, however, 

 might grant troops or money at pleasure. The estates 

 had the right of distributing the taxes, or the right 

 of subcollecture. The judicial tribunals of the empire 

 were the imperial chamber (q. v.),and the Aulic 

 council (q. v.), with the provincial courts of the 

 empire and the Austragal courts. (See the account 

 of the Austragal courts, in the sequel of this article.) 

 In church matters, whether relating to Protestants or 

 Catholics, the imperial chamber and the Aulic coun- 

 cil were incompetent to decide. The Protestant 

 states acted, in ecclesiastical affairs, by consistories. 

 The Catholic states were subject to the ecclesiastical 

 jurisdiction, in the hands of the popes and the bishops, 

 and the rules of the canon law. By the peace of 

 Westphalia, the right of coining money and of work- 

 ing mines was given to all the states of the empire ; 

 and the liberty and security of commerce and navi- 

 gation in all the rivers and ports of the empire, were 

 confirmed to all the members of the empire. Maxi- 

 milian I. established the post-offices, and appointed a 

 postmaster-general of the empire. The office con- 

 tinued hereditary in one family till 1747. The im- 

 perial revenues were so inconsiderable, that the 

 emperors were obliged to resort to the revenues 

 of their hereditary dominions to support their dignity. 

 Imperial reservations were those prerogatives 

 which the emperors exercised throughout the 

 empire, independently of the states. In respect to 

 the emperor and to the empire, the lands of the 

 estates were in part fiefs, and in part allodial, and 

 were divided into ecclesiastical and secular. By the 

 sovereignly of the states, from the peace of Westpha- 

 lia, was understood their right of exercising sover- 

 eign powers within their own territories, so far as 

 they were not restrained by the laws of the empire, 

 or by treaties. All the electors, and some other 

 estates of the empire, had the jus, or privilegium 

 de non appellando, and others the privilegium electi- 

 onisfori. (See Privilege.) In ecclesiastical matters, 

 they had the right of reformation (jus reformandi), 

 and could introduce, and tolerate in their territories, 

 either of the three religious parties ; yet they could 

 not encroach upon the rights and possessions of any 

 religious party, which existed in their dominions in 

 the normal year of 1624, and were bound to allow 

 them the right of emigration for five years. The 

 Protestant rulers were, in their own territories, the 

 heads of the church, and the Catholic princes, of 

 their Protestant subjects; but the Catholics were 

 under the jurisdiction of their bishops. As conse- 

 quences of their sovereignty, the members of the 

 empire had, also, the right of making war and peace, 

 and of concluding alliances, which, however, was 

 limited by laws of the empire. Such were the fun- 

 damental features of a constitution, of which some- 

 thing may be said in favour, and much against it. 

 It gave the Germans neither unity nor energy, and 

 made one of the most extensive countries of Europe 

 one of the most impotent. But this very impotence, 

 in regard to foreign politics, and the absence of the 

 excitements of party, in regard to questions of inter- 

 nal administration, led to the ardent pursuit of 

 science. The reformation, too, could not have been 

 successfully carried through, except in a country in 

 which the interests of the princes were so divided. 

 In the introduction of the reformation, Germany sac- 

 rificed herself for mankind. No one will doubt this, 

 who considers the horrors of the thirty years' war. 

 (See Thirty Years 1 fVar.) The dissolution of the 

 German empire (6th August, 1806), made way for 

 the confederation of the Rhine (q. v.), which was sue- 

 in. 



ceeded by the Germanic confederation, (q. v.) S'<. 

 also Elector. 



Germanic Confederation. After the German em- 

 pire, which, during the 18th century, had been the 

 mere shadow of a political body, was dissolved, in 

 1806, the confederation of the Rhine (q. v.), reunited 

 many of the German states, under the protection of 

 Napoleon, who allowed the members full sovereignty 

 in the interior, and enlarged their territorial posses- 

 sion, at the expense of the interior German princes. 

 With the fall of Napoleon, the confederation of the 

 Rhine was dismembered, Bavaria, and the other 

 members successively, joining the allies against their 

 former protector, and was succeeded by the Ger- 

 manic confederation, formed June 8, 1815, according 

 to the words of the instrument, to secure the inde- 

 pendence and inviolability, and to preserve the inter- 

 nal peace, of the states. Germany thus presents 

 again the semblance of a political whole, which in 

 reality possesses no strength, even in time of peace, 

 as many instances show. It is only necessary to 

 mention the fruitless decrees of the Germanic diet, 

 respecting the arbitrary ordinances of the elector of 

 Hesse-Cassel against the holders of the old domains, 

 the excesses and follies of the duke of Brunswick, 

 and the want of any general system for promoting 

 the internal navigation of the country. In time of 

 war, its inefficiency must be still more apparent. 

 There is only one circumstance to console the heart 

 of a German, whose patriotism extends beyond the 

 narrow boundaries of the part of the country in which 

 he happens to be born that there are now only 

 thirty-eight members of the confederation, whilst 

 formerly there were several hundred. This shows 

 that some progress has been made towards the great 

 object, for which Germany, as well as Italy, has 

 sighed for centuries the unity and independence of 

 their respective countries ; each of which, to use the 

 language of the great Dante, has hitherto been di 

 dolore ostello (the dwelling of sorrow). But, at pre- 

 sent, the Germanic confederation can be considered 

 only as an imperfect union, directed chiefly by the 

 two most powerful members, Austria and Prussia, 

 which entered into it reluctantly, withholding several 

 of their provinces from the confederacy. It needs no 

 prophetic eye to foresee, that the time will come, 

 when Germany will sustain that struggle which Bri- 

 tain and France ended long ago ; will become united, 

 and rest from the bloody conflicts, in which, for cen- 

 turies, Germans have slain Germans, and which have 

 wasted their wealth, checked their industry, impeded 

 the development of public law, and extinguished in 

 their literature that manliness, which is so striking a 

 feature in that of a neighbouring nation, partly de- 

 scended from them conflicts most fully exhibited in 

 that heart-rending tragedy ; the thirty years' war. It 

 may be asserted, without paradox, that union is at 

 present more necessary for Germany than liberty ; at 

 least, give her the former, and the latter will soon 

 follow. Peace has been for a long time, and still is, 

 the policy of the European cabinets, that the commo- 

 tions of late years, caused by the indestructible spirit 

 of growing liberty, may subside into the (so called) 

 " legitimate " level. But, whenever the interests of 

 any of the continental powers shall change this peace 

 into a general war, there is little doubt that the Ger- 

 manic confederation will fall to pieces as ingloriously 

 as the German empire ; and every unprejudiced Ger- 

 man would wish that it might. The less powerful 

 members would unite with foreigners, to be able to 

 withstand the more powerful ones. 



The constitution of the confederation is as follows: 



Thirty-four monarchical states, of very unequal 



extent, and four free cities, enter into a confederation, 



as equal sovereigns. They are, 1. Austria ; 2. Prus- 



2 D 



