52

STATE OF GERMANY.

1848

mand respect for a well-weighed and grave declaration in support of peace? "&c.

6 These words from Prussian Silesia Bunsen ought to take in one hand, and in the other the letter of the Prince in 1846 to the King of Prussia.' I cannot now recall the precise terms of that letter, but I think it contains a passage which speaks of the sense of justice as differently developed in different nations, and how probable it is that in the next great European crisis this difference will become prominent, and politically of moment, as Governments which make no account of these differences will no longer be allowed to enter upon alliances at will. If this be so, then is that letter also a prophetic voice, even although it has been lifted up in the wilderness.

11th March, 1848.'

In his Memorandum of September, 1847, the Prince had expressed a somewhat sanguine view that progress was being rapidly made by the minor Sovereigns in liberalising their local administrations. What had now occurred, however, showed how little this was the case. The people had risen, and either coerced or expelled their rulers; but, having never learned the value of that moderation which grows out of the habit of political freedom, they had either rushed into wild excesses, or sought to reconstitute themselves in accordance with extravagant theories, which could only result

No draft or copy of this letter, on which Stockmar on more than one occasion lays the greatest stress, has been found among the Prince's papers. It was not until 1847, the year after it was written, that the Prince began the system, which he continued till his death, when it was taken up and continued by the Queen, of preserving and classifying in separate volumes copies of all important State papers, all private correspondence, memoranda of important interviews with Ministers, and other documents relative to public affairs, foreign or domestic, so that Her Majesty and himself could at any time with the greatest ease refer to the essential details of any past transaction. These volumes the Prince indexed with his own hand, prefixing a précis of the contents to every volume.

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STATE OF GERMANY.

53

in failure and disaster. The Prince had also hoped to beget unity of national purpose and action by restoring vitality to the Diet. But the time for this had passed. With the whole country in convulsion, what hope could be entertained of such a reorganisation of the Diet, as could only have resulted from a calm spirit of mutual sacrifice and concession on the part of both rulers and people in the several States?

The double task which the Germans had set themselves was now to be grappled with by a people, rich in theoretical notions, but with no practical training in political life, and, above all, with no authoritative guide either in monarch or in statesman, to whom they could look with confidence in the toilsome and complicated struggle for individual liberty and national independence. What might have been expected ensued. Project followed upon project, debate upon debate; until, overborne on the one hand by demagogues, whose ends were best served by the continuance of confusion, or thwarted on the other by the jealousy or selfish prejudices of the rival powers, those who had entered on the work of regeneration. fullest of hope fell back from it in utter weariness of heart. Their last hope vanished, when after the majority had come round to the view, that the best chance of uniting the thirtytwo millions of Germans into one great nation lay in placing the Imperial Crown in the hands of the King of Prussia as the head of a consolidated State, His Majesty rejected the proffered crown, because it was offered to him by the nation, and not by the Princes, whom alone his principles permitted him to regard as the depositaries of power.

In Germany, the great body of the people, it was soon apparent, had no desire to abolish either monarchy or aristocracy; but they were bent on placing both under Constitutional restrictions. On the other hand, there was there, as elsewhere, a strong party whose aim was to establish a system of republics, and who were prepared to effect it by

54

THE VOR-PARLAMENT.

1848

the most desperate means. The Constitutional, or Old Liberal party in South-Western Germany, had at the outset obtained the upper hand, and they had introduced uniformity and moderation into the demands made by the people on the governments of the individual States. This done, they addressed themselves to the question of National Representation. On the 8th of March fifty-one chief men of the party, including the most distinguished members of the Opposition of the different Chambers of Prussia, Bavaria, Würtemberg, and other States, met at Heidelberg. Their resolutions were chiefly confined to abstract propositions of general policy; but one, which was voted to be of imperious necessity, was for the appointment of a Representative Assembly chosen by all the German States in proportion to their numbers, as much for the purpose of averting all danger, external or internal, as for developing the energy and prosperity of the country.' With a view to this they appointed seven of their number a committee to draw up the scheme of a general Parliament, and a Preliminary Assembly or Vor-Parlament was convoked for the 30th of March at Frankfort to receive their report.

This was the first step towards setting up in opposition to the old Federal Diet, which represented merely dynastic interests, a new popular central power in a parliamentary form.

On the day appointed, the Vor-Parlament met in the Paulus Kirche at Frankfort, and to them all eyes were for the time directed. Their first resolution was one which soon led to hostilities with Denmark, for it dealt with Schleswig, which for two centuries had formed part of the Danish dominions, as though it already formed part of the German Confederacy, and directed the Chamber there to send deputies to the approaching National Assembly. Their next, following

2 The Diet, who were in full sympathy with the Vor-Parlament in this matter, on the 4th of April directed the King of Prussia to take active

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THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.

55

the recommendation of the Committee of Seven, declared that the old Federal Diet should be superseded by a central authority, as the head of an Imperial Diet, to be composed of an Upper and Lower Chamber. A struggle was made by the leaders of the extreme party to carry a vote in favour of a great German republic; and afterwards, having failed in this, to have the sittings of the Vor-Parlament declared permanent. But they were overruled by large majorities, who were much influenced by the fact that the Diet had already conceded the demand for the meeting of a great National Assembly, which was to be convoked for an early date, in order to arrange the German Constitution between the governments and the people.' The Diet had also conciliated

3

measures in their name, to support the party in Schleswig who had thrown off their allegiance to Denmark and transferred it to the German Confederation. Neither Vor-Parlament nor Diet had the material forces at their disposal to bear down resistance to any of their views; and the recourse thus taken to Berlin showed very plainly that in settling the future Constitution of Germany nothing could be done without the concurrence of Prussia, as the greatest military power in Germany. Prussia answered promptly to the appeal. Its army were eager for action, and something had to be done to compensate them for the wound to their feelings inflicted by the conduct of the King after their efforts in his defence on the 19th of March. For him, too, a campaign in the Duchies, popular as it was through all Germany, was the best card he could play to restore the prestige which he had lost by his ill-advised concessions.

The Republican party, under the leadership of two mushroom notabilities, Hecker and Struve, immediately afterwards tried to rouse the Germans of the South and West in support of their views. Riots took place in Stuttgart, Bamberg, Cassel, and Mannheim. The chief strength of the party was in the Duchy of Baden, where the troops had become infected with republican ideas. But the troops of the other adjoining States stood firm. The republican freecorps, ill-disciplined and badly led, were soon defeated, and by the end of April order was restored. The miserable cowardly behaviour of the freecorps,' says Wolfgang Menzel, who were only good for making rows, for shouting, swilling, and pillaging, but who would not fight, made the Republic from the outset at once impossible and ridiculous.'-Geschichte der Letzten Vierzig Jahre (1816–56), ii. 214. After Hecker and Struve had been disposed of, a body of French Republicans. from 800 to 1,000 strong, crossed the Rhine, but were ignominiously routed by half a company of Würtembergers. Herwegh, their leader, escaped, hidden behind the leathern apron of a gig, driven by his wife.

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PLANS BY THE PRINCE

1848

the popular party by determining that the several States should be represented at their deliberations, each by a separate deputy. The further proceedings of the Vor-Parlament were confined to settling the rights and forms which were to regulate the elections for the coming Assembly, after which they broke up, leaving at Frankfort a permanent committee of fifty to act until the 18th of May, on which day the National Assembly was to meet.

The Prince, to whom the problem now to be solved was of the deepest interest, embodied his solution of it in a plan for the reconstruction of Germany, which he completed by the 28th of March, and despatched to the Courts of Austria, Prussia, Saxony, and Bavaria. It assumed that Austria was to form part of the Consolidated Empire, at the head of which there should be an Emperor, either elected for life or for a term of years, who should wield the control, leaving to the various States their own independent action, except in matters purely imperial. To Baron Stockmar he sent a copy, with the following letter:

'Dear Stockmar-To-day I send you a plan for the new Germany, as I picture it to myself. It is the duty of every German to contribute his quota, that something good may come out of the discussion. I do not like the Heidelberg project at all, neither do I like Mohl's. If you think well of mine, pray adopt it, and endeavour to find an opening for it. Something must be done, and that quickly, otherwise down will fall the fabric, whose foundations have already been seriously shaken.

The Prince's plan is said, by Baron Stockmar's biographer, to have been published, together with the remarks of the King of Prussia upon it, at Stuttgart in 1867, in a pamphlet entitled 'The German Question Explained' (Zum Verständniss der Deutschen Frage). We have not, however, succeeded in obtaining a copy of the pamphlet. But as the documents themselves are before us, we have stated all that is necessary in the text.