NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Congress of Munchengratz was only preliminary to one of graver character, about to be held in Vienna. The precise time
when it will be opened is not ascertained ; but some of the
Ministers have already arrived, and others are on their way. Among the former, is the Envoy of the King of HOLLAND, Baron VERSTOLK VON SOELEN ; and it is remarkable that he had hardly made his appearance in Vienna, before the Belgian Minister took his departure. Moreover, the Belgian Minister at Berlin is also on his road home. Nothing has transpired respecting the immediate cause of these proceedings; but it may be inferred that they point to measures hostile to the only Revolutionary Government in Germany. The Austrian and Prussian Minis- ters still remain at Brussels: how much longer they will be per- mitted to stay there, depends upon the stock of patience under insult with which LEOPOLD and his Chambers are gifted. If it be, as we suspect, that this stock is exceedingly small, the spies of Despotism—for now they can scarcely be looked upon as pos- sessing any other character—will receive their dismission im- mediately. If we had no other circumstances than those just mentioned, to guide our conjectures respecting the turn which the deliberations at the Vienna Congress are-about to take, we should be at little loss as to their real object. It is easy to discern that fresh schemes are hatching for the repression of Liberal opinions and the consolida- tlon of Despotic power. It is a question, however, how far these schemes extend. The Times says- " Not satisfied with what has been done already .against the rights of the ConstitutiOrial states, the Qinferences, under the direction of Prince Metternich, at Vienna, will endeavour further to extend the tyrrany of the Diet, and to or- ganize the military means of its intervention. The stipulations adopted at the late Congress of Despots in Bohemia, against what they call Propagandism, will thus first be tried in Germany, as in corpore rill ; and if the attempt suc- ceeds, the Despotic experiment will be extended with new confidence to a wider range of Europe. Happily, however, Europe will be prepared for resistance. Its free states will know where to look for protection, so long as the alliance of Continental-Despots is balanced by the Liberal alliance of France and England ; and the first act of invasion on the sovereign rights of any German principality, to whose rights we are guarantees, must be met by a prompt energy of inter- ference."
The substance of the resolutions promulgated by the German Diet in June 1832, must be in the recollection of our readers. The freedom of the press was utterly abolished in those states where it partially existed; the publication of the debates in the Represen- tative Assemblies was prohibited ; public meetings for the discus- sion of grievances were forbidden ; and, to crown all, the right of the various legislative bodies to refuse or curtail the supplies de- manded by their respective Sovereigns, was declared to be uncon- stitutional and rebellious. But the Legislatures of all the States, where the forms of a Constitutional Government exist,—those of Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, Baden, Hesse Dafrristadt, Electoral Hesse, and Nassau,—have met and protested against the doctrines con- tained in the resolutions of the Diet. The Sovereigns, on the other hand, have acted like the subservient tools of Austria and Prussia; and have dismissed the Assemblies without any promise of satisfaction or redress. The question therefore now to be decided is, whether the Kings or their subjects shall yield; and it is pre- sumed that the discussions at Vienna will have reference to the most effectual means of giving the victory to the former,—in other words, to the most eligible plan for. establishing military despo- tism in all the German States, at present nominally free. The Times says that Europe is prepared for resistance, and that an in- vasion of those rights to whose integrity we are guarantees must be met by a prompt energy of interference. This is fine language: but we were guarantees to the treaty of Vienna, by which a cer- tain degree of independence was secured to Poland; and what was our guarantee worth ? Just as much as the indorsement of a bankrupt on a protested bill of exchange. No—the Germans must depend upon their own swords for the conquest of freedom. The inhabitants of the Constitutional States amount in number to some millions: let them combine together and work out their own salvation.
