FRENCII AND GERMAN LIBERALS.
THE vapouring of the warlike Democratic press of France is doing much mischief. The hulk of the writers for it seem to be ignorant even of the first principles of that Democracy which they profess to revere. The National insists, that in order to propagate Demo- cracy,% it is necessary that France conquer the frontier of the Rhine. This is to say that France, in order to assert the rights of citizens to make or choose their own governments, must begin by conquering some millions of people, who speak a different lan- guage, are animated by a different system of household morals, are accustomed to different laws, and who, so far from wishing to came under a French government, earnestly repudiate it. The reason assigned by the National is, that France ought to have the frontier of the Rhine. This may be called the mathematical or land- measuring school of politics; which regards not the people, but the territory, as the indispensable ingredient in a state. 1 he true Demo- crate draws the frontier line of a state according to the wishes of the population. Those who from family connexions, national and ac- quired tastes, &c. &c. wish to belong to the German nation, are en titled to have their wishes respected. The German Liberals have just been telling this truth to the French Liberals of the school of the National, in pretty intelligible language. Dr. 'Mum has pub- lished in the Deutsche Vollisuale, a protest on the part of the Ger- man Democrates, elicited by the arrogant manner in which the fighting Republicans of France speak of reclaiming the frontier of the Rhine. This document says—" The Paris Notional will have it that the French have but to cross the Rhine in order to be welcomed and bowed down to by the Germans. We can tell the Nationcd, that if the Republicans come to power in France, and begin upon their ideas and threats, all Germany would rise against them." The National of the 17th instant fumes and frets at this declaration. It talks bitterly against Dr. WIRTH, as a traitor to the cause of liberty, and the German Democrates as participating in the sentiments which roused Germany against France in 1813. The National seems incapable of conceiving or valuing aright an honourable spirit of nationality. Many Germans at the com- mencement of the French Revolution welcomed the French armies, out of hatred to their old rulers : but experience soon taught them, that the nation which wishes to be free must liberate itself—that to invite a foreign nation to liberate it, is merely to change masters. The French despotized in Germany in the name of freedom. The German Liberals have learned by experience : they will tight out their tight against internal misrule without foreign in- tervention. It' there be a wise Liberal party in France, it will respect such a spirit on the part of the Germans. This hatred of foreign interference is what the citizens of every country ought to cherish in themselves and respect in the citizens of neighbour- states. The only rivalry between the Liberals of Germany, France, and England, ought to be that which prompts the patriots of each nation to struggle to advance the civil organization, industrial de- velopment, and education of their own country, to a higher pitch of perfection than those of their neighbours. With nations as with individuals, the surest way to preserve friendship, is to abstain front meddling with each others domestic af- fairs. The National says that the Liberals of all Europe have but one enemy, and that enemy is among them,—referring to the aristocratic tendencies of all European nations. True, but this is an enemy not to be conquered by physical weapons : it is not the aristocrats, but the aristocratic spirit, that harms us, and that can only be put down by reason—by teaching every man to feel his value as man. War is the true generator and perpetuator of aristocracy. The old aristocracy is the military caste of every community. If the people struggle against it as a mob, they are defeated : if they struggle against it as an army, it is only to lay the foundation of a new aristocracy. In their aristocratic capacity, we have as little sympathy for, as little faith in, the SOULTS as the WELLINUTONS. The only avail-
commerce, able weapons of the people are education, and
the law. Until the French Democrates learn these truths, they are not what they profess to be—they know not what true. Democracy is. The Notiona/ might turn Dr. Wnern's protest to better use than make it an excuse for railing at the German Liberals. It might recognize in the protest the voice of insulted national feel- ing, and do itself honour by apologizing for having inadvertently hurt the feelings of honest and honourable men. It is to be desired that the patriots of Germany, France, and England, should see in this collision between the loudest Democrates of the two former countries, not only the advantage of respecting the entire independence of each other in matters of domestic arrangement, but the advantage of making a respect for national independence in such matters the rule for all nations in their international transac- tions. It is the violation of this principle that has involved France and England in their present groundless and unprofitable disputes. The French and English Governments were equally to blame in the outset. The convention of July 1839, entered into by France, England, Austria, Russia, and Prussia, at the instigation of the two states first-mentioned, for the purpose of dictating in the in- ternal arrangements of Turkey, was the beginning of all the mis- chief.
Previous page
