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I.

the middle States especially, probably supported by CHAP. Russia, were strongly opposed to any curb on the power of the princes. These assemblies cannot be said ever to have exercised any influence.

1820.

system.

An attempt was made to improve the military Military system, but without much success. The Federal army, as is well known, existed chiefly on paper, and its organisation was so clumsy and defective that when called into action, it hampered rather than aided the execution of the designs for which it was summoned. Each State paid a sum into the Federal state in proportion to its population. There were two chests: a Federal war chest and a Federal prorata chest (Matrikular-Casse). From the latter the expenses of the army during peace time were paid. The army was to be divided into army corps, of which the Austrian army formed the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd corps, and that of Prussia the 4th, 5th, and 6th. Those States which were not large enough to form an army corps were to furnish contingents to some other corps; the number of men of which these contingents were to consist being calculated on the population.1 The commander-in-chief during war time was to be selected by the Diet, and he was to relinquish his command immediately on cessation of hostilities. The want of one sole head to the army was alone sufficient to render impossible the fulfilment of any scheme of organisation.

1 Some of these contingents were not very large. Lichtenstein furnished 55 men.

CHAP.

I.

1820.

The Final Act was no doubt a great step in advance of the Federal Act, but it can in no way be considered as a satisfactory Constitution for a great country like Germany, composed of so many diverse States. The postal arrangements, the railway systems, customs, taxes, and commerce, navigation of rivers, &c., &c., all those questions which touch men closely in the ordinary relations of life, were left unnoticed. This is doubtless owing to the fact, that it was almost impossible to reconcile the conflicting interests on all these points. The smaller States clung closely to their separate administration, however destructive this might be of free developCustoms ment. The Society of Merchants and Manufacturers which was formed in Frankfort in 1819, desired a General Customs Union for the whole of Germany. The Diet, however, did not accept the proposition, although Prussia was strongly in its favour. It was not till 1828 that Bavaria formed a Customs Union with Wurtemburg; and her example was quickly followed by Prussia, who concluded a Union with Hesse Darmstadt. These steps induced Hanover, Electoral Hesse, and Saxony to enter into a middle German Union. In the following year (1829), owing to the exertions of V. Cotter, the greatest bookseller in Germany, an amalgamation of the North and South German Unions was effected at Berlin.

union.

But a rapid glance must suffice for the interval between the Final Act of Vienna and the great re

volution of 1848.

The revolution of 1830 had but

little effect in Germany, and it would be beyond the scope of this work were I to detail all the events which occurred in Germany during these twentyeight years.

CHAP.

I.

1820-48.

of the Diet.

The discussions of the Diet were most dreary Inefficiency and unprofitable. It passed many resolutions stating the high and noble objects it had in view, but at the same time it rarely, if ever, came to any practical conclusion. An exception should be made with regard to the settlement of the navigation of several rivers; the most important of which was the Rhine. The Mainz Navigation Act of March 31, 1831, settled the complicated questions involved in the latter case. Occupied chiefly with the complaints and squabbles of the smaller States, either between themselves or between their Governments and the representative Assemblies, the Diet frittered away its time in such small matters. Austria and Prussia made it a tool wherewith, in the apparent interests of public order and morality, severe repressive laws might be passed. With such a central power, and loaded with the chains of the Carlsbad resolutions, it was impossible for Germany to become a free and prosperous country.

Brunswick.

The only case of open revolt which occurred in Revolt in 1830 was in Brunswick. The duke of this country, by his dissipated and extravagant life, as well as by his foolish and tyrannical government, had raised

C

T

CHAP.

I.

1820-48.

Further

severe reso

lutions of the Diet. 1832.

Sympathy with the

much enmity against his person. But the revolutionists who forced him to fly the country, and who burnt his palace down, were rather animated by personal dislike than by any political motives. His brother William took the reins of government, and was recognised by the Diet. In some of the other smaller States disturbances broke out; but they were quickly suppressed, and had no further results.

The Diet had been rather uneasy when the news of the neighbouring revolution arrived, but seeing that the danger was passing away, and that order had been re-established in France, it took steps to guard against liberal ideas making any further progress. By the resolutions of June 28, 1832, popular meetings and festivals were forbidden, the Carlsbad decrees were renewed, and a strict police supervision of foreigners was ordained. These measures called forth protests from many of the representative Assemblies, which, however, it is needless to say, remained unanswered. Indications were not, however, wanting of the dissatisfaction with the existing state of things, and an attempt was made in the spring of 1833 to dissolve the Diet by force; but the attack was easily repulsed by the troops, and the leaders of the riot arrested.

The Polish revolution had found many symPolish re- pathisers in Germany, and a great meeting had been held in Bavaria, at which many Polish and

volution.

I.

1820-48.

at Vienna.

French refugees assisted, when resolutions were CHAP. passed in favour of a German Republic. The relations between the revolutionary party in Poland and their friends in Germany were becoming so intimate, and the expression of their views so open, that the Emperor of Russia in the autumn of 1833 met the Emperor of Austria and the Crown Prince of Prussia at München-Grätz to discuss the condition of Germany and Poland. The sovereigns decided Conferences that a ministerial conference should be held at Vienna, and on January 13, 1834, Prince Metternich opened the first sitting. The resolutions then agreed upon were, that the head of each State should hold firmly to his sovereign rights, and that he should in no way make concession to the demands of his Assemblies; that the Diet should, in case of necessity, send troops to help the sovereign, and that a Federal Court of Appeal should be established for settling differences between the sovereign and his people. This latter resolution was never carried into effect. The Carlsbad decrees were again formally renewed. Russia, while she was apparently acting in harmony with the two great German Powers, secretly circulated through the Middle States a note in which she warned them against the pretensions of Imperial Austria and of Constitutional Prussia, and urged them to look upon her as their natural and only true friend. The camp which she formed at Kalisch two years later, and at which her troops,

Camp at

Kalisch.

c 2

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