THE DUKEDOM OF BRUNSWICK.
PEOPLE in this country, unless they happen to be students of European history, care very little about the sums- Bien to the Dukedom of Brunswick. The principality, with its 1,700 square miles of territory and 280,000 people, is too small for its destiny to affect international relations ; and in dynastic questions Englishmen have never displayed the slightest interest. They did not wish to retain Hanoveri ' which in game ways 'was a Valuable possession of their Kings ; they entirely acquiesced in the violent extrusion of the cadet branch of the English House from that little kingdom, and they scarcely know how strong the claim of the Duke of Cum- berland and, indeed, of the Duke of Cambridge to the tiny throne of Brunswick is by the regular German rules. They do not venerate the Guelphs at all, and think of their own Queen, if they ever discuss her pedigree, not as a descendant of Henry the Lion, but as the Sovereign who, though reigning solely by Parliamentary title and the affection of her subjects, still represents by blood all the families which since the Heptarchy have occupied the Throne of Britain. If the Hohenzollerns take Brunswick, as successors to all Hanoverian political rights ; or declare it a " Reichsland,"like Alsace-Lorraine, with an Imperial Viceroy ; or allow the Regency to call a new dynasty to the throne, the English people will receive the news with complete indiffer- ence, or rather, with indifference on every point but one They have a languid kind of interest in watching whether the Federal principle or the unifying principle is ultimately to win in Germany, and will think that the fate of Brunswick fore- shadows the ultimate destiny of all the Principalities. If the Hohenzollerns can, with the consent of Germany, set aside legitimacy in Brunswick for their own advantage—for the claim to inherit all Guelphic reversions is a little far-fetched, and would justify a claim to the throne of these islands, if it were only vacant—they proclaim themselves the heirs-general of Germany, and must in time become the solitary reigning House. That is not objectionable to foreign politicians, for Germany may as well be a unity as a Federation ; but it is not quite certain yet whether it is well for the internal life of Germany. Many Germans who heartily rejoice in the Empire do not think so, and many more look on with entirely im- partial minds, waiting for experience to inspire conviction. Politically, it is difficult to doubt that Germany would be the better for the disappearance of the lesser Princes. The Federal Council, which could not survive the Princes, over- shadows the representative body too much. The tentral Parliament is weakened not only by the limitation of its functions, which, though greater than those of the American Congress, do not cover the whole field of political action, but by the existence of so many other centres of life and careers for able men. The strongest Bavarian or Saxon still aspires to rule Bavaria or Saxony, rather than to devote his strength to a department of the German execu- tive ; and the most intelligent Saxons and Bavarians are as much interested in local politics as in those of their splendid empire. The drawback of the Federal system, its failure to evolve schools of statesmen to guide the central power, which has been marked both in America and Switzer- land, is apparent in Germany also, and might be removed by a more logically complete unity. The concentration of national life, with many drawbacks, tends in politics to improve the in- tellectual type, and to keep the central reservoir of capacity much more full. There is always the danger, too, under the Federal system, of separate civilisations growing in the different States ; and though this risk is slight in Germany, owing 'to the immense preponderance of a single State, it is still one to be carefully avoided. The social question is, however, a little more complex. It is very doubtful whether, in a State of greet size, the disappearance of local centres with a vigorous and intellectually separate life of their own is not a serious injury. In France, where the process has been completed, no place but Paris can be said to live at all, even Marseilles, with its splendid commercial vitality and specially Southern tempera- ment, scarcely claiming to be an intellectual centre ; and in England, where the change has not been so rapid, the tendency to intellectual centralisation is strong. London alone publishes all things, and condemns or accepts them. If that is an evil— and it can scarcely be doubted that it is, though we admit that an intenser vitality is apt to throb in the intellectual veins of an all-absorbing dominant capital—then the disappearance of the Princes, though politically beneficial, will produce considernble countervailing evils. They can, when so disposed, do more for culture than municipalities can. Their authority is wider, their initiative is better liked, their influence in removing obstacles is more direct. A German reigning Prince is even now, within his own territories, much more than a great noble. He does not govern his army, he has a most limited control over criminal law, and he cannot alter the " contribution " to te paid to the Empire ; but he has great influence On civil legis- -lation,,and taxation, and education; he is nearly absolute over local universities ; he is the fountain of local honour; and,above and beyond all, he has a supreme control over all patronage.
German Constitutionalism is very much the Constitutionalism of England before the accession of George IV., when if the King liked to make a man's fortune he could, and if he was known to recommend a candidate, the favoured person rose with unintelligible rapidity. Patronage means much more in Germany, where all men seek appointments, than it does in England, and its dispenser is observed with much more regard. Add to these facts that the people in each principality have been accustomed for centuries to feel loyalty to the Prince, and to consider his fortunes bound up with their own, and we shall perceive that the Sovereign even in Reuss and Waldeck can still do more, much more, to promote intellectual life than any noble, or any but the strongest municipality. Very often he has liked to do this, and has drawn round him a group of professors, authors, artists, or men of science, who have made his capital a place for the diffusion of light. Leipsic, Munich, Weimar, and Meiningen could hardly have been what they were, or in different degrees still are, without their Princes. On the other hand, the petty Courts were often centres of moral corruption, and of a servility which penetrated and paralysed even literature ; and the point for observers to consider now is which influence is likely in the changed condition of affairs to prevail. Will the limitations on the action and independ- ence of the petty Courts make them worse or better, centres of intellectual influence or centres of moral poison ? I priori it should make them better, for men usually like to accept any leadership conceded to them and a leadership in art education and the management of civil life is not an unenticing position. It is often, however, not enough to stimulate Princes, who shrink more than most men from work which may not succeed, are apt to feel weary when the great careers of politics and war are closed to them, and to fall back on pleasure, and especially the pleasure of a harem, as the only one which circumstances leave open. The English, with their vast experience in India of subordinated Princes, find that more than half turn volup- tuaries of the most selfish and even besotted kind ; that a section of the remainder become acrid and sometimes danger- ous critics and intriguers ; but that the remainder are among the most directly valuable men within the Empire. The late ruler of Jeypore, who was exactly in the Brunswicker's position, was unquestionably the most useful single person in the Empire Native or European ; while the late ruler of Baroda, who had the position of the King of Saxony, was as unquestion- ably the most injurious. Europeans are not Asiatics, and in Germany opinion, though not so powerful as in England, still begins to press heavily ; but even if we raise the proportion of the Princes who will work, and work wisely, the total amount of gain from their continuance as local leaders cannot be more than doubtful. It takes most vigorous leadership in culture to overbalance the mischief done by a man like the late ruler of Mecklenburg, who restored corporal punishment for dis- obedient labourers, or the present ruler of Hesse, who is treat- ing marriage as a nullity ; and we believe the general judgment must be that the remaining independence of German Princes is of no consequence to Europe, and of doubtful advantage to the peoples of Germany itself. They gain in retaining them nothing but a chance of retaining influences which from time to time are beneficial, and from time to time injurious or corrupting.
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