INDEX. POETRY. Arabic Philosophy, The Influence of, in 869 131 An Evil Thursday, Austria, The Internal Condition of, B 174 Beaux Mondes, The, of Paris and London, Bengal, The Famine of, 1866, Bench and Bar, English, Sketches of Browning, Robert, First Paper, 314; Sec- ond Paper, 462 176 IV F Famine, The Bengal, of 1866, Female Education in Germany, Fiction, The Uses of, 32 Flavia, 101, 208, 857, 422 Flint Flakes of Devon and Cornwall, Attempt Parliament, The Privilege of, 308 486 364 759 Floral Belles, Poetry, Recent, No. 1, 40; No. 2, 217 133 Florence, Notes on, 83 Political Writings, The, of Richard Cobden, 649 80 France, The South of, in Winter, 159 Prussian Army, The, 107 Francis I. and Charles V., 22 French and English Armies, Frederick the Second of Rome, 521 From St. Paul's to Piccadilly, 717 G Reichenberg, The Battle of, 166 Ritter's, Carl, Comparative. Geography of 646 Germanic Empire, The New, 1 Gibbon's Memoirs, Goethe's Philosophy, 712 Guizot's Meditations, 214 Scottish Superstitions, 571 H Shakespeare in Domestic Life, 339 742 Sidney Smith, A Memory of, 378 Sinai, The Geology of, 332 Hogarth, William, 449 I Sketches of the English Bench and Bar, 288; 428 696 Smith, A Memory of James and Horace, 473 669 Society, The Conventional Laws of, 180, 291 Strauss, Renan, and "Ecce Homo," Submarine Telegraphy,. Suffrage, Female, 536 Superstitions, Scottish,. 154 730 Swinburne and his Apologist, 178 893; 554 Liebig, Baron, 253 M Talleyrand, Prince, Tears, Idle Tears, a Commentary, 640 193 722 Medusa, The Wreck of, 686 V Milton's Paradise Lost (Doré), 387 Moscow, Imperial Coronation at, 128 Von Moltke, General, Interview with, . 669 British Quarterly. JANUARY, 1867. THE NEW GERMANIC EMPIRE.* THE present age has been singularly prolific in political revolutions. It has been the lot of no other to witness the accretion of two minor States into extensive kingdoms, upon the downfall of an empire which for centuries had treated them as rebellious vassals. One of these States, which now speaks to Europe in the name of Germany, and which certainly bids fair to unite the whole of Germany under her sceptre, was unknown at the Reformation. The other, which now directs the destinies of Italy, was unknown as an Italian power previous to the Treaty of Utrecht. It is remarkable that these, the last comers into the group of principalities, of which they formed the least promising units, should have finally absorbed the greater portion of their neighbors, within the limits of our gen L'Armée Prussienne. Par MICHEL CHEVALIER. Paris: Dentu. 1856. War Map of the German States. London: Nelson & Sons. NEW SERIES-Vol. V., No. 1. Old Series Com. eration, and finally laid prostrate their imperial enemy, who had so often cudgelled them into subjection. There is a connection between these two States, an identity of principle and a uniformity of action, independent of the similarity of their destinies and of their recent alliance, which may throw some light on their marvellous success. If they now find themselves at the head of their respective races, the causes which have led their steps from the cradle of barren provinces to the summits of flourishing empires have not been divergent. The Counts of Savoy, like those of Hohenzollern, trace back their lineage to the tributaries of King Otho and Charlemagne. For a long period they maintained a precarious existence: Prussia as a fief of Poland, and Savoy as a satrap of the German Emperor, only too happy, under the shelter of such powerful patronage, to escape the fangs of annihilation. Both States, from their beginning, appear to have acted upon the principle of clutching land wherever they could get it, seizing little parcels of territory 1 here and there, and leaving it for time of the same imperial house. In the rest to consolidate the fragments thus acquired of the rôle there is a perfect identity of into one compact dominion. If the in- means, as well as of ends. Austria, with tervening proprietors could not be eject- all the obstinacy of the Hapsburgs, huged by conquest, they were cozened by ged to the last the old principles of an barter. Those whom neither the sword effete feudatory government. Her two nor money could subdue were caught in young rivals adopted every principle the meshes of Venus. The value of lives which modern reason and experience was calculated with the accuracy of a prove to be essential to political progress. modern insurance office, and by the mar- Prussia, by becoming the arbiter of the riage of a young scion with the heir ap- commercial, paved her way to become parent of the property, the reversionary the arbiter of the political destinies of interest of the coveted prize was secured. Germany. Sardinia, also by commercial By adroit tactics of this sort, as well as reforms, taught Italy to inaugurate the by military service, the Counts of Savoy reconstruction of her old constitutions. extended their sway from Maurienne to Both states, by an enlightened system of Susa and Montserrat, and from Montser- national education, by commercial codes rat to Turin. An intrenched position based upon strict reciprocity, by repreon the northern slopes of the Alps, led sentative institutions, and by the widest almost by a natural consequence to a religious freedom, appeared in startling position equally fortified with castles on advantage by the side of surrounding the south; and the command of the despotisms. The contrast was one of light mountain passes soon resulted in en- and darkness, of science and ignorance, croachment on the plain. By similar of integrity and corruption, of modern strategy the Counts of Hohenzollern, improvement and blind retrogression. from the swamps of Brandenburg, hard- The ill-governed were naturally taught ly bigger than an English county, dotted to look up to incorporation with the the western and northern parts of Ger- well-governed people as their only chance many with demesnes, which served of escape from political servitude. rather to map out the frontiers of their first opportunity for political stratagem prospective kingdom than as vital mem- which presented itself to Cavour disbers of the same corporate body. solved, as if by the stroke of enchantment, the effete governments of Italy, and led to the incorporation with his government of three fourths of the Peninsula. The first opportunity for political stratagem which presented itself to Bismarck has enabled him to repeat the same process in Germany. The Jülich and Cleves Duchies were leagues away from Brandenburg, as Brandenburg was from Stettin, and neither of these had any topographical connection with East Prussia. Yet at each European treaty both Prussia and Sardinia came in for some make-weight, which served to round off their dominions, till both were allowed, at the commencement of the eighteenth century Prussia by direct stipulation with the Emperor of Austria, and Sardinia by consent of the great powers-to assume the state and dignity of royal kingdoms. This was the great turning point in their respective destinies. The sword of Frederic, by adding Silesia to Brandenburg, and filling up the gap between East and Central Prussia with Posen, lifted Prussia from the humble condition of a feudatory into that of a rival of the House of Austria. The Congress of Vienna, by adding Genoa to the dominions of Piedmont, enabled her to pursue in Italy a line of her own, free from the tutelage The But though there are many remarkable points of similarity between the fortunes of Prussia and Italy, these are not unaccompanied with differences which may serve to explain the political situation. The princes of Sardinia have generally proved faithful to the code of honor. Their history is stained with fewer crimes than that of any other in the annals of Europe. They have been guilty of neither spoliation nor treachery. Indeed, in the wars of Europe, regardless of their political interests, they have generally sided with Austria, to whom their fealty was pledged against France. Prussia contrariwise has been guided in her alliances by no principle but that of selfish expediency, changing sides in every quarrel she has espoused with the same than rapacity, and certainly presents facility as if the belligerents were only Prussia in favorable contrast with Sarpartners in a dance. We do not know dinia and surrounding nations. She has that Sardinia, even in her early course, loaded her subjects with no debt worth ever annexed a town without the consent mentioning, but has carried out a rigid of the inhabitants. But Prussia has ruth- economy in every department of the lessly kidnapped the places she could not State. The kings and electors of Prusobtain by fair means, turning the same sia have been the most parsimonious deaf ear to the remonstrances of the an- princes who ever occupied a throne. nexed state as she did to the tall recruits They have reduced their household exwhom she used to kidnap for her army. penditure to the lowest possible limit, There is no principle of international law not simply to hoard up wealth for their upon which she has not trampled, no act successors, but to lighten the burdens of of robbery or perfidy which she has hesi- the state, and to provide the country with tated at perpetrating to accomplish her an efficient administrative system, and objects. She first suggested, and was with a strong arm of defence. The the most unscrupulous agent in carrying princes of Prussia have been known to out the partition of Poland. The very melt down their plate, to sleep on camp fief from which she derives her name was beds, to dress in frieze, to live on peasobtained by ejecting the knights, whose ants' fare, with a view to keep the navested interests she, as the chief of their tional expenditure within the limits of body, had undertaken by the most sol- the yearly receipts. The economy they emn obligations of guardianship to de- practiced themselves, they forced upon fend. Two of the most important limbs every officer in the public service. It is of the empire, Posen and Silesia, were amusing to hear Voltaire describe his seized by acts of buccaneering unsurpass- disappointment on his first interview with ed in the history of nations. While, as a Frederic, when he found that prince in a member of the third coalition, receiving bare room, with his bed in one corner, money from Great Britain to equip and and a naked table, lighted with a single dispatch ninety thousand troops to Aus- taper, in the other, when he expected, terlitz, she entered into a stipulation with Frenchman-like, to see him surrounded Napoleon, by which she was allowed to with gilt trappings and upholstery maganuex the British Hanoverian dominions nificence of every kind. His father sold as the price of her abstention from the his jewels, sent his spoons to the mint, conflict. When Napoleon entered on abolished the expense of court ceremonihis Russian campaign, Prussia bound als, and even forewent the use of peruke herself by solemn compact to guard his maker and of tailors, in order to establish rear on the banks of the Vistula, with a a breeding seminary for the army, which force of thirty thousand men. She ful- the son turned to such notable account. filled her engagement by turning against The frugal habits Prussia observed in her his outfrozen army the very bayonets he impoverished state she has not lost sight relied upon for its defence. Her last of in her prosperous years. Even yet raid against Schleswig-Holstein is of a the Finance Committee of Prussia expiece with her previous history. She hibits yearly the cleanest balance sheet took upon herself, as agent of the in Europe. The country, considering its Germanic Confederation, to claim these extent, is the lightest taxed and the Duchies as members of the Bund. Hav- cheapest to live in in the world. While ing, with the assistance of Austria, seized other nations have contracted large debts the spoil, she quietly appropriated it to in time of peace, she has made her yearly herself, kicked Austria out, and hurled resources provide for her yearly exithe Confederation into the dust. gencies in times of war. After the recent conflict, she quartered her troops for weeks upon her prostrate opponents, besides mulcting them in heavy expenses, by which, if she collects the proceeds, the late campaign, instead of imposing a loss, will confer an actual gain upon her This unconquerable craving for expansion and remarkable tenacity of grip, which have characterized the House of Hohenzollern from its earliest years, have been accompanied with a characteristic which might redeem worse faults |