GERMANY.
• IT appears that the various Governments of Germany are sincerely
disposed to give every degree of legal force to the decree of the Diet. Already it has been proclaimed in Baden, Nassau, Saxony, Weimar, and Hesse. Of the sentiments of its authors, Austria and Prussia, there can be no doubt ; and notwithstanding the promised reforms in the constitution of Hanover, we believe there need be as little doubt of the sentimeuts of Hanover. The estates of Hesse were dissolved on the 26th, apparently for no reason but because of the spirit of independence they seemed disposed to manifest. The estates of Hanover, which had shown a proper jealousy of the decree, have equally been discharged from their labours. Throughout Europe, at the present moment, there is not in actual opeiation one solitary elective councibour own excepted ; and it will cease to exist in a few days. Then-
46 Liberty's light will be quenched to a spark, • And tyrant meet tyrant and cheat in the dark."
There have not been wanting petitions to many of the Govern- ments of Germany, but petitions are of small avail anywhere. The prayers of the people have seldom altered the high decrees of their masters unless when they came backed by a resolution like that of the old cavalier, to fight for relief as well as entreat for it. it is. however, by no means obvious that even the slave's right of petitioning for justice will long be left, or if left, be exercised by the German people. Everywhere, the decree to put down the press, is that which the various governments are most intent on giving exact fulfilment to. Without the press, the opinions of a district cannot be made known to its nearest neighbours. Where there is no communication, there can be no combination ; and without combination, petitioning is impracticable or useless. • The question is everywhere put, and nowhere satisfactorily an-
swered—what are the Germans to do? That England is deeply interested in the perpetuation and extension of their liberties, it requires no argument to prove; but men are not so generally agreed on the manner in which the sympathies of England can best be made available. At a meeting, on Monday, Mr. CAMP- BELL, the poet— " clarum et venerabile nomen —proposed to establish a newspaper ! The same proposition was submitted to the National Union on Wednesday. It is not easy to see how the suppression of the journals in Germany is to be remedied by the establishment of a German journal in England. The desire of freedom may, doubtless, be cherished and augmented in individuals by such an expedient; but, for the great purpose of a press, it is wholly useless. What the Germans desiderate, is not so much a knowledge of our sentiments, which they can receive through the ordinary channels, as of the sentiments of one another. A Ger- man newspaper, published in England, cannot make known to the men of Hanover the opinions of the men of Hesse. Even were it permitted to have free ciiculation in the Confederated States— which unquestionably it will not—it could at best furnish its readers with general arguments, of which they have already enow and to spare.
• The truth is, the Germans are over much given to speculate, and too little disposed to act in vindication of national rights. There is no country the zeal of whose writers has been more burn- ing in behalf of freedom ; and there is no country whose inhabitants have exhibited greater indifference to freedom at home, or a more ready disposition to join in its repression abroad. In nearly all the battles that, despotism has gained during the last hundred years, the Ge: mans have assisted the victors. We doubt if we can except even the general rising in 1813; we doubt if it was so much the tyranny as the economics of the Emperor that then roused the Germuns to resistance,—whether the folly of the Berlin decrees did not contribute as much to the hatred of the French as all their atrocities put together, — whether, while the muse of KiialvEa kindled at the prospect of German regeneration, the hearts of his solid countrymen aspired after higher matters than Cheap sugar and cheap coffee. . It seems impossible, if the desire of freedom had been as generally felt as in 1813 we were told it was, that the heroes of the North should have so tamely submitted to the viola- lion of all the promises made to them and to Europe by their
-trembling and ,treacherous rulers. • It must be admitted, in excuse for the Germans, that their pe- culiar position offers many and :serious obstacles to the vindication
of freedom. A host of petty states,'with no bond of 'union but a common language, can hardly be expected to make a combined stand against such powedal neighbouts as Prussia and Austria. And even supposing the governments 'of those states. to be as liberal andenlightened as they are the contrary, such is the spirit of domination in all governments, that it would be expecting too much of Inman. nature to suppose they would spare a weak neigh- lame which. stood. in their way, whatever might be the nierita.ef
his cause. While, therefore, Prussia and Austria remain unmoved by the general shaking of the times, we confess we see very little prospect of amelioration for the rest of Germany. The light of freedom mast shine into the dark places of these two states, before its influence can be beneficially felt in the smaller states of the Confederation.
If the King of England could by any means prevail on the King of Hanover to pass, in Hanover, as the King of England has done here, an act providing for the full and fair representation of the people, the example of free Hanover, which neither Prussia nor Austria dares attack, might effect much for German emanci- pation. In this way, and in this way alone, the sympathy of England could be made apparent ; for- it is in vain that we seek, by newspapers or by any other mode, to convince the German nation at large that we take an interest in their fate, while we re- fuse liberty to those Germans who are subjects of our own power.
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