6 SEPTEMBER 1845, Page 1

Germany is an object of more than its usual interest,

from the visit which our young Queen has just paid to it, its wavering but continued mercantile hostility to us, and its own theological com- motion.

Our excellent Sovereign has seen some instructive things in the domains of the Coburg family, and some not so, or but negatively. The interminable procession of peasants at Gotha, for instance, with the cartfuls of discordant music, could teach nothing but the moral fact that customs may be irksome and ridicu- lous though ancient ; or the physiological fact, that when a gracious smile is obliged to be kept up too long, it so fatigues the zygomatics as to make the cheeks ache, and to induce a disposition to look peculiarly solemn and doleful. The plan of deer-hunting, as it is called, in a small enclosure, where, instead of pursuing the deer with the rifle, the quarry is driven up to the muzzle of the gun, could not have been very edifying; except, perhaps, by sup- plying to the perception the link between battues such as that at Stow and the common abbattoir or butcher's slaughter-house. The visit has not realized some of the expected diplomatic ad- vantages. Although Queen Victoria has shaken hands with King Frederick William, his Prussian Majesty has allowed the Southern States of the Zollverein to prevail in augmenting the duties on British goods. "How d'ye do?" cried Frederick : "glad to see you ; but can't give you my custom." Queen Vic- toria has not been successful as a commercial traveller. Indeed, some German curmudgeons sneer at the shopkeeping nation for letting its Sovereign go abroad in that capacity. As to the theological commotion, the Germans complain that some of us don't understand it—that we confound Ronge's Neo- Catholics with " the Friends of Light," who are no Catholics, but Freethinkers. We must confess that, if some tales are true, (for there is a doubt,) they seem still less to understand it themselves. The King of Prussia, it is said, has forbidden Ronge and other agitators to leave their parishes ; as if men's opinions could not go abroad without their bodies. It reminds one of the wise men of Gotham, who hedged in a cuckoo. Austria has shown more intelligence : in order to check the schism in Bohemia, the Catholic clergy, says the Swabian Mercury, have been enjoined "not to alienate the people by intolerance or scandalous con- duct, lest they should detach themselves from the reli - of their fathers " : and "the best effects have already produced, for the Catholic priests are acting with extreme pru- dence." That is a capital plan ; and if it had been struck out two or three centuries sooner, some regrets might have been saved to Mr. William George Ward and other Anglo-Catholics. However, one must not be surprised at seeing the world a few centuries be- hind the age, when we observe the astute Metternich going to school half a century after he attained his majority. After all, it is both interesting and agreeable to see despotic Austria jumping to these ulterior conclusions ; adopting the most mild and liberal methods of moderating opinions ; stealing a march on South- wark itself in "civil and religious liberty."