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and privileges of the several princely houses, of the members of the cathedral chapters, and of the German orders, and to the mutual intercourse between the inhabitants of the different States. The rights of the mediatized princes, and of the former nobles of the empire (Reichs-adel) were settled by Article 14 in a manner not quite satisfactory to them, but which placed them in a better position than they held in the time of the Rhine Confederation. The laws which should govern the commerce, the postal arrangements, the means of communication, the military system, &c. of the States were left to future deliberation, while the civil rights of Germans were almost uncared for.

CHAP.

I.

1815.

Perhaps the most important article of the Federal Article XI. Act is Article XI.; and as it was frequently appealed to in 1864 and in 1866, it may be as well to give its full text.

Every member of the Confederation promises to protect all Germany as well as each individual confederate State against every attack, and to guarantee mutually to each other all their possessions comprised in the Confederation. When war has once been declared by the Confederation, no member can enter on individual negotiations, or conclude a truce or peace individually. The members of the Confederation retain the right of forming any alliance, but bind themselves not to make any engagement directed against the safety of the Confederation, or any of its members. The members of

СНАР.

I.

1815.

Condition of the Con

the Confederation engage not to make war on each other on any pretext whatsoever, nor to settle their differences by force, but to lay them before the Diet. It then becomes the duty of the latter to attempt a reconciliation through a commission, and in case this attempt should fail and a judicial decision become necessary, to bring this about by a properly instituted Austrägal Tribunal, to whose sentence the contending parties are bound instantly to submit.'

federation. much unfinished.

The Federal Act was drawn up hastily, and left Prussia-more, indeed, than the other Governments-desired that a greater extension should have been given to it. Even at this early period she gave indications of that policy which, with the exception of a few rare intervals, she has since steadily pursued, by making an effort, slight, it is true, to form Germany into a Federative State (Bundes Staat) instead of a Confederation of States (Staatenbund). The time had not yet come for this; and the idea was chimerical and its execution impossible as long as she and Austria were members of one Confederation. The Confederation, as now constituted, consisted of loose, heterogeneous elements, with little life and less cohesion. But the circumstances under which it was established rendered this perhaps unavoidable. After the terrible events of the last twenty years, men's minds had not recovered their ordinary calmness and soundness of judgment. Something must be immediately instituted which should give the form of government and

I.

1815.

certain degree of unity, and round which Germans CHAP. could rally, although the true attributes of government were wanting. It was better to have an imperfect and incomplete Confederation for a time than to have none at all. The avowedly temporary nature of the constitution of the Confederation has induced me merely to glance at its principal features. In examining the Final Act of Vienna, which came into force five years later, we shall see that all that was worthy of being retained from the Federal Act was renewed in the former.

the Diet.

The Diet, which should have been opened on Meeting of September 1, 1815, did not meet till October 1, 1816. It was at first determined to publish the protocols of the meetings with certain exceptions; but the exceptions gradually became more numerous, and the publication was more strictly limited by the Decree of July 1, 1824. The Diet was en permanence; but during the annual vacation of two months commission of three members sat who disposed of the current business.

The three years following the opening of the Diet offer nothing of very great interest, with the exception of the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818), the importance of which was to some extent diminished by the Congress at Carlsbad of the next year. This Congress must not be passed over in silence.

Carlsbad.

The year 1819 opened gloomily in Germany. Congress of Considerable agitation and distress prevailed everywhere. Men hoped that after their trials and suffer

I.

1816-19.

No wonder that
But with the ex-

CHAP. ings in the war of liberation they would enter upon a freer political life. Great things had been expected from the Congress of Vienna. A united Germany, liberal institutions, representative assemblies, the attainment of those rights to which every free man had a claim habeas corpus, removal of religious disabilities, liberty of the press and of education, &c.— these had been the dreams of every German. Their disappointment was bitter when they found that Germany was united but in name, that the representative assemblies, though promised, came into existence but in a few instances, and then in a cramped and crippled condition; that the acquisition of civil rights was as far off as ever. discontent was almost universal. ception of one or two isolated acts of violence, of which the murder of Kotzebue may be cited as the one which created the most excitement in Europe, no outbreak took place. The Governments, however, were conscious of the deep-rooted and widespread dissatisfaction, and filled with fear of the revolutionary ghost, which, as Stein remarked to Gagern, Cowardice evokes and cunning makes use of.' The representatives of nine Confederate States met at Carlsbad in August 1819 to devise measures for repressing the unruly spirit which, though at present quiet, was at any moment ready to break forth.

The resolutions of this Congress, which were at once accepted by the Diet, were directed to four

I.

points; in these lay the chief danger, to guard CHAP. against which, some active measures must be at once taken.

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1. The uncertainty respecting the meaning and scope of Art. 131 of the Federal Act, and the misapprehension which arose therefrom.

2. The misconceptions concerning the authority of the Diet, and the insufficiency of the means by which this authority could be enforced.

3. The imperfections in the School and University system.

4. The misuse of the Press; and especially the mischief produced by newspapers, periodicals, and pamphlets.

The 13th Article had given rise to considerable misapprehensions and difficulties, which at one time threatened to become dangerous to the existence even of the Confederation. The desire to establish representative assemblies in the several confederate States, based upon the same system of election, proved almost impossible of realisation. The amalgamation of several of the smaller States into one electoral body presented great difficulties; as in some States assemblies had already been in existence, whilst in others they were almost entirely unknown. The door which these assemblies opened to democracy, the encroachments they would be able to make on

1 The Article which established representative assemblies in each State.

1816-19.

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