18

REVOLUTION IN BERLIN.

1848

now no alternative but to act with vigour, and a sanguinary struggle ensued, that was carried on throughout the night, illuminated by the pale lustre of a cloudless moon and by the flames of numerous houses, which were sacked and set on fire by the combatants. By nine in the morning the military had surrounded the insurgents, and held them quite under control, when, unexpectedly, the order was given to cease firing, thus giving to the populace the semblance at least of having gained a victory. In the conflict 216 of the people and sixteen of the soldiers had been killed.

Aghast at this pitiable calamity and the prospects which it opened, the King during the night dictated an Appeal to his beloved Berliners,' to remove their barricades, lay down their arms, and to send to him men speaking words which are seemly to your King,' engaging if this were done that the troops should at once be withdrawn from the streets. But the crisis was one where to be stern is at once the truest policy and the truest kindness. It would have been far better for his subjects if the King had done then what he had to do at a later date, and put down by military force the revolutionary party, whom his forbearance only encouraged in projects which for long afterwards kept the kingdom in confusion. And for himself-was it to be supposed that Germany would place its trust for the task of regeneration in a monarch who had not the nerve to quell a tumultuous mob within his own capital? As it was, his appeal was an admission that the revolution had triumphed, and, as a

• The "great misunderstanding" of the night of the 19th of March, 1848,' Bunsen writes, in 1849, after returning from a visit to the Court of Berlin, ' remains a secret. An aide-de-camp (whose name no one knows) brought an order in the King's name "that the troops should withdraw," instead of which the King had commanded, "that the troops should withdraw towards the Palace." This enigma nobody could or would solve to me; but General N— assured me that at twelve o'clock that night the King was resolved to retreat out of the town with the troops, and to invest it;-then began a state of wavering, until all was too late!'

1848

REVOLUTION IN BERLIN.

19

necessary consequence, more substantial guarantees were now indispensable to allay the popular frenzy.

Next day the Ministry was supplanted by men of known liberal opinions; an amnesty for political offences was then proclaimed, the doors of the State Prison were thrown open, and Mieroslawski, the most distinguished of the Polish prisoners, a man who was soon after to become conspicuous as a popular general in Poland, Italy and elsewhere, was drawn in triumph to the front of the Palace, where the King appeared upon the balcony in answer to the cheers of the assembled thousands. Meanwhile a royal ordinance had directed the formation of a Burgher Guard, to be armed forthwith at the expense of the city, and this, as might have been expected, was speedily followed by an order for the troops to quit Berlin. Still further to mark the deference which he could no longer refuse to the popular will, when the dead bodies of those who had fallen on the 19th were borne in long procession a few days afterwards before the windows of the Palace, the King not only appeared upon the balcony in obedience to the call of the crowd, but came down to them, and with uncovered head addressed them with so much effusive sentiment as to command their cheers.

In an address which he made upon the 20th of March to the students, who had been most active in the stormy proceedings of the last few days, Count Schwerin, one of the new Ministers, proclaimed it to be his master's intention to take the lead of Constitutional Germany. He will have liberty and a Constitution--he will originate and

6

'The King's brother, the Prince of Prussia, now Emperor of Germany, who was represented by the democratic leaders as entertaining reactionary opinions, had to leave the city, and his palace was only saved from the fury of the mob by having the words 'National Property' inscribed on it. Every species of calumny was propagated against him; and long after he had taken up his abode in London the report was current in Berlin that he was on his way back from Warsaw with a Russian army to put down the national movement.

20

KING OF PRUSSIA DECLARES

1848

form a German Parliament-and he will head the progress of the nation.' This was followed by the appearance of the King himself in the streets on horseback next day, with what the Democratic party used in those days to call 'the German colours,' viz. black, red, and yellow, round his arm. Speeches were made by him and proclamations issued full of the emotional eloquence which he had always at command; but in which, while professedly claiming nothing but German liberty and unity,' he was himself indicated as the future leader of the German people, the new King of the free regenerated German nation.'

This was a note of defiance, not merely to Austria, but to other Sovereigns, who must be reckoned with, before the Imperial Crown could rest upon the head of a Hohenzollern. The perplexed state of Austria had been avowed by the King, in his proclamation of the 18th, to be favourable to the execution of his projects for the unification of Germany. But though at the moment sorely troubled from within, the arm of Austria had not lost its power. And whatever weight these utterances of the Prussian Sovereign might have carried with them, had they been made betimes, and while he was master of his kingdom, German liberals were not likely to accept a leader whom they had proved by long experience to be a man of words rather than of deeds, and whose principles of government were most likely to carry him into a reactionary course, so soon as the temporary pressure and temporary excitement under which he now acted were at an end. No sooner did Baron Stockmar hear of the proceedings at Berlin, than he wrote (31st March):

Never has

'The poor King of Prussia has made a sad mess. he made a move or a concession but it was too late, nay, when it would have been better had he done nothing. Metternich and the Russian Emperor were the bane both of him and of Germany. Had he but listened to Prince Albert's letter of 1846,

1848

FOR UNIFICATION OF GERMANY.

21

how simple, how easy would it have been for him to have taken another course in the Cracow affair, and how safe, how glorious, how great would his position have been at this moment-master of a power sufficient to uphold all Germany! In Germany no one will hear of him now: "Rather the Emperor of Austria or the King of Bavaria." Thus it is we Germans confound the cause with the individual!'-(Denkwürdigkeiten, p. 487.)

CHAPTER XXIV.

SUCH as we have faintly sketched it was the scene of convulsion and confusion which, in the beginning of 1848, everywhere met the eye throughout the continent of Europe,

distress

of nations with perplexity,' and 'men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after the things which were coming on the earth.' The bonds of society seemed to be unloosed, and turbulence and disorder to have taken the place of law and the discipline of government. In the general chaos it was not easy to foresee what further convulsions might ensue before peace should be restored, and the angry passions and wild theories by which the social fabric was shaken to its centre should be succeeded by the reign of practical good sense and the self-imposed restraints of genuine liberty.

Amid the general storm England and Belgium stood forth as a beacon to the nations that it was not necessary to look to a republic for the highest measure of personal freedom and happiness, or of national strength. The Belgian republicans, who had formed a strong party in 1830, when King Leopold accepted the throne, had dwindled into insignificant proportions during the eighteen intervening years of his wise administration. An attempt at a revolutionary movement in Brussels, on the 28th of February, met with no encouragement from the people, and was put down at once. When about a month afterwards an expedition, concerted in Paris and armed from the public arsenals by M. Ledru Rollin, then Minister of the Interior there,