CHAP

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.'

The Federal Act was drawn up hastily, and left federation. much unfinished. 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 a 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. Congress must not be passed over in silence.

This

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.

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. No wonder that discontent was almost universal. But with the exception 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.

The points were as follows:

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.

СНАР.

I.

1819.

the privileges and rights of the Confederation itself, terrified the monarchical supporters in the Diet. But the Governments, and especially those of the Middle States,1 were unwilling to lose any little popularity they might possess amongst the people by entirely withdrawing the privilege of representative assemblies; they therefore preferred to take a middle course. The Diet renewed the declaration that these Assemblies were to be instituted, but this declaration does not appear to have had much effect.

The right of the Diet to order executions in recalcitrant States, and to step in between a ruler and his subjects, if there was danger of the public order being disturbed, was re-affirmed. Almost unlimited power was placed in the hands of the Diet in this respect. A central enquiry commission was established at Mainz to detect conspiracies and to punish offenders.

To watch over the Universities a Government delegate was appointed whose duty it was to supervise the conduct, mode of teaching, moral and political principles of the professors and students. This tyrannical act was probably justified in the eyes of the Government and their supporters by the Circular Note of Count Bernstorff, in which he terms the Universities 'poisonous wells.'

The powers of the censor were to be increased, and the press supervised in the severest manner.

1 The middle States were Saxony, Bavaria, Wurtemburg, Hanover and Baden, Electoral Hesse and Hesse Darmstadt.