NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE revolution in Vienna, the flight of Metternich, and the striking manifesto by King Frederick William of Prussia, have capped the series of surprises by which Europe has been held in a state of wonderment.
Vienna, which was accounted the very metropolis of political indifferentism, has developed an unexpected amount of latent energy in its people and its students. The notion of the Austrian apathy has probably been taken by travellers from "society" in Vienna, and not from the general body of inhabitants. The Diet of Lower Austria had for some time been making movements towards a political demonstration ; it now acted, not unwillingly, at the instance of the students and people : a great concourse took possession of the streets ; the Burgher Guard, called out to restore order, evidently did so more by sympathy than force ; even the troops, who at first fought with spirit, subsided into mild spectators : the veteran Metternith, a special object of popular odium, fled; the poor tilr, ,.eee. ng, passive, and tractable, easily adopted a new Ministry with a new policy ; and Austria is " constitutional," with a free cress. • Berlin has been moved by two series l,A insurrections. The fist was of the usual kind now prevalent in Germany; and it was quelled less by force than by King William's manifesto, in which he takes the lead as the chief agitator to promote the reconsolida- tion of the old Germanic empire. The second outbreak unhap- pily followed this liberal advance, rod seems to have been brought about by an accident—an ebullitior of temper in a mili- tary commander. The fighting was severe ; but the tumult was again allayed by an eloquent and affecting appeal from the King to his people, and by the appointment of a new Ministry holding very Liberal opinions.
By this time all Germany is Liberalized : Hanover is the only place in which the Sovereign attempts to hold out.. King Er- nest tried to put off his people with fair words; but they extorted an instalment of good deeds.
Frederick William's manifesto is a state paper of first-rate im- portance. The Prussian Monarch avows that he acts in conse- quence of the events which have taken place in Vienna, and which have at once precipitated and facilitated his plans. He "demands " a reorganization of the whole of Germany, its trans- formation "from a confederation of states into a federal state "; a common banner, a common army, a common customs system; a federal representation based on new state constitutions. In short, he demands, in his own name, the very things demanded by the people of Germany. He speaks not in the tone of promise but of requirement ; he is not spokesman for the princes to the people, but for the people to the princes. He does not snatch at the curb, but seizes the whip. His manifesto is either the greatest delusion of the time, or King Frederick William is about to be the chief actor in reorganizing the German empire—probably a can- didate for the Imperial throne. The chances of success for this policy appear to be consider- able. The whole system of Europe, as it subsisted by force of the treaties of 1815, is broken up ; and, like the figures in a ka- leidoscope, the Continent is falling at a turn into new combina- tions. Austria, which held the nominal chieftainship of Ger- many, is breaking to pieces, and her elements, decomposed, seek new affinities. Hungary's independence is daily expected—per- haps to be the nucleus of that central state imagined by some Panslavonians. Lombardy will revert to Italy—perhaps the price to Charles Albert for the loss of Savoy, already coquetting with France. The residue of Austria would naturally fall into its place as the second among German states. There is a disposition to simplify the political geography of Europe, by consolidating those states that possess a common tongue—Italian, French, and
German. The German people have been suffered to ascertain their own independent power, and will no doubt assume a unity
if it be not accorded to them. But the movement, which osten- sibly limits the powers of the Sovereigns, opens the way for King Frederick William to an Imperial station, and instead of being the victim he becomes the leader of the movement.
AU this appears to us to be ultimately conducive to the interests of order in Europe. As a state with the paraphernalia of an empire, but the helplessness of a dependent province, Austria has kept open a way for Russian encroachment—a channel for the hated ice-blasts of Northern tyranny into Germany and even into Italy. Austria was to Russia the master-key for the whole of civilized Europe. The progress of moderate and practicable Liberalism in Italy, embodied in constitutional sovereignties, is in itself an event of the utmost interest and importance : but new as the recent constitutions are, their stability was considerably threatened, on the one hand by the survival of absolute mo- narchies in Germany, tantalizing the Italian princes, and on the other by the Republican movement in France, tantalizing the Italian people. The concurrence of Germany in the course sanctioned by the practice of Italy will materially strengthen the new institutions. The invigorated condition of free monarchies also will tend to allay the suspense and excitement, to check the aggressive spirit in France. It will close the frontiers of Europe against Russian encroachment, repair the breach created by the absorption of Poland, and compensate the majority of that un- fortunate nation by offering to it the denizenship of renovated Germany.. It will also help to settle the uneasy kingdoms of the Baltic. There is scarcely one among the numerous class of diffi- culties arising out of the obsolete treaties of 1815 and their dis- ruption, which would not be put in a fair way to solution by the
consolidation of Germany. 1
