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Leader (1850-1860), 23rd October 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 20, London Mrcwanics 1 Institution—I<°«1 Mur...

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      Anti-Confessional Agitation. The Meeting...

      lievc that the apprehension of such a catastrophe may kindle new zeal in those estates whose legitimate task should be to maintain and extend the reformation , but who , far from making good any advance , have of late been sleeping on their guard , if they have not absolutely deserted it . It is high time , at all events , that the days of quibble and compromise were over , for they have vexed the people long enough .

      1132 * _ T H E Leader. [No. 448, Octobeb...

      1132 * _ T H E LEADER . [ No . 448 , Octobeb 23 , 1858 .

      Portraitures Of The Royal Family Of Prus...

      PORTRAITURES OF THE ROYAL FAMILY OF PRUSSIA . THE XING AND THE PRINCE . —THE QUEEN AND THE PRINCESS . One of the most important questions , not only for Prussia but for Germany in general , is at this moment the inquiry as to what policy the Regent intends to pursue towards Austria . If the antecedents of the Prince are to be received as data for coming to any conclusion in this respect , matters would certainly be supposed , under his administration , to assume necessarily a different aspect to that which they bore during the reign of the King . The King , it is known , was no enemy to the House of Hapsburg . He cared little for carrying out the traditional policy of his more ambitious ancestors . Although , in 18 48 , he rode

      up and down the streets of Berlin with the German banner in hand , proclaiming himself the champion of national unity , it was no willing act that lie then performed . He had ceased , for the nonce , to be a fre & agent . He played , and that but badly , a part forced upon him by the course of the revolutionary movement . His object was to allay the irritation of the people , to make them forgetful of the thunder of his guns , the echo of which had hardly died upon their ears , to charm their eyes from the ghastly spectacle of the mangled corpses which his troops had cut up ; and when he was persuaded to believe that the unfurling of the national tricolor

      would produce that magical effect , he was eager enough to become the standard-bearer . But apart from this mountebank performance for his own benefit , nothing was farther from his intentions than any real desire to despoil the H ouse of Hapsburg -of its dominions or its influence in Germany . The .-programmes of the Gotha party were by no means the expression of his wishes . He now and then affixed his signature to these programmes , yielding unwillingly to the force of circumstances ; but be . never meant to keep to their provisions . When in

      1849 the majority of the Frankfort Parliament , influenced by the Gotha party , offered him the Imperial Crown , he declined the glittering bait . He had an objection , it is true , to accept a diadem from a party whom , in the madness of his dynastic pride , he regarded as encroachers upon the right divine of monarchy . But he had , at the same time , a wholesome fear of incurring the risk of coming into conflict with his felW-monarchs of the Confederation . From many reasons , therefore , ho put aside the tempting offer , and by so doing rendered to Austria an incalculable service .

      It is probable the Queen had no little share m this resolution . Catholic herself , and in constant correspondence with tJie Courts of Munich and Vienna , she was continually working , in those years of trouble , for the interest or Austria . So well did she succeed in this , that , year after year , Prussian policy was gradually made subservient to the interests of the Hansburg dynasty . Thus , when the Schleswig-Holstein war was on the point of being concluded , Austrian troops were permitted to cross the dominions of King Frederick William , and to march triumphantly into the duohics . Nay , to mark even better the secondary position Prussia then assumed , Prussian pioneers were employed to clear the way and construct bridges over the Elbe for the invading

      Groat . This was the first time since the days of Wallenatein that an army of Imperialists had penetrated so far north in Germany . The pride of the " speoifip Prussian" party smarted under this humiliation , Other humiliations were , however , in store for it , of au even more poignant character . Wo need only alludo to the result of the Hesso-Cassel oomplication , and to the famous journey to Olmutz . This latter event marked a most important phase in the lifo of Frederick William IV . The journey to Olmutz , in faot , was nothing short of a persona ^ apology of the King to the Kaiser fpr any airtU Prussian aota of policy that might havo occurred during the revolutionary opooh . Tho conclusion of the treaty for an Austro-Pmssian Customs Union is Another instance of this same subservient polioy .

      Only on one occasion the King ventured to place himself in opposition to Austria—viz . when the Court of Vienna demanded entry into the Bund for all its non-German dominions , for Hungary , Gallicia , and Lombardy , so that the Hapsburg might have weighed in the councils of ' Frankfort as the representative of 40 , 000 , 000 of people . This , Frederick William IV . refused , for the very powerful reason that it would have been tantamount to his complete extinction . But then , the simple fact of Austria having the audaeity to make such a demand showed nrettv clearlv how she calculated upon her influence

      over the mind of the King . We have referred back to these events the better to afford a contrast to the attitude of the Prince . He looked on with sullen anger at all these philo Austrian vagaries of his brother . It is true the Prince also refused to enter into the plans of the Gotha party who , after Frederick William had declined to accept the imperial circlet , intended to make him the Emperor of Germany . But it was not from any fear of wounding Austrian pride , or encroaching on the rights of a fellow-monarch , that the "Prince held aloof in this matter . With him .

      the all in all was his intense hatred of the revolutionary cause , a cause he could not bring himself to endure even when it assumed loyal and dyuastic airs . He too , therefore , declined the imperial purple—much to the regret of his ambitious wife . It is rumoured that , on the occasion , some animated scenes took place between the Queen and the Princess . These two royal ladies had at no time had any very remarkable affection for each other . Their mutual dislike found now an opportunity of showing

      return , pur et simple , to the state of things before 1848 . This not being granted , he held for some time aloof from governmental affairs . His aversion to the Constitution became at last a fact universally known and regretted throughout the country . Now that he is Regent , no "doubt policy will compel him to veil his real sentiments , and acknowled ge for a time the existing state of things . But no one can be uncertain as to the quarter in . which his true sympathies lie . Even though his wife , the Princess keep up her correspondence with all the notabilities of the Constitutionalist party—as she is known to do—the sentiments of the Prince will hardly undergo a change . He is no favourer of the popular cause , and , even so recently as a few days ago , lie is reported to have spoken ironically of the

      Constitutionalists as " the friends of my wife /" The military principles of the Prince manifested themselves most unmistakably during the complications of the Neufcfoatel question . He , at that time , was at the head of the party that called out for war against Switzerland . So little under control was his passion for warlike bluster , that he frequently tried , on -parade , to inflame the ardour of the troops by speeches which sounded furious enough beside the diplomatic language of the Berlin Government . This is the more remarkable as ,-during the war against the Czar Nicholas , no such words of flame fell from the lips of the tire-eating Prince . Hostilities against Switzerland were a safer field for his superabundant courage . A crusade against Russia was another and more serious affair , which he lacked both inclination and valour to

      itself stronger than ever when such objects of high policy were at stake . It was an intolerable thought for the Queen , the scion of the House of Bavaria , the relation 61 the Hapsburgs , that the little Princess of Saxe-Weimar should be placed over her head as Empress of Germany . Thus the two Princesses confronted each other with angry looks , and , it is said , allowed their feelings to find vent in no very refined language—a modern Kriemhild and Brunhilde . . ¦;¦ :

      undertake .. Altogether the attitude of the Prince , during the late European struggle , had been much misrepresented . Unscrupulous journalists have held him up as an eager champion of Western ; civilisation , who was only kept down by sheer force from accomplishing great and magnanimous doeds . A more ridiculous statement than this could hardly be invented . It is true , the feudalist Krcuz-party , with whom the Prince was never on good terms , set spies upon him during the Russian war , and managed even to get a portion of his private

      corre-However , though the Prince , in this emergency acted on the same principle as his brother , the difference between them , in matters relating to the Court of Vienna , soon made itself apparent . The Prince was foremost amongst those who wanted to profit by the ^ difficulties in which Austria was * ia volved , in order I © curtail her influence in German AftOn . In l $ 4 fc # fc # nsist « d . in the councils of the Court , on refusiflgj ^ ja * larger acknowledge the authority of the so-eWfed : $% ¦* of the Empire , the Austrian Archduke J <*» . Re also opposed the proposition of placing the army that was to march against insurgent Baden and the Palatinate under the orders of the central authority at Frankfort . He carried his point—namely , that he should himself be nominated to the command of that army ,

      spoiidence stolen ; but the world has not heard that this theft brought to light any p lans or plots for the furtherance of " ' Western civilisation" in which the Prince was concerned . The whole affair was a bottle of smoke . For the preservation of his military renown , and to offer a paroli to the King , the Prince may have found it expedient to propagate rumours of his inclinations towards the Western Powers . But not a single fact is there to show that he was in- earnest—not even such a . fact as the one afforded us for judging of his sentiments in the Neufchatcl affair .

      A more recent occurrence , with respect to the Prince ' s sentiments towards Russia , is the journey to Warsaw , undertaken shortly before the establishment : of the Regency . When the camarilla ot the King and Queen showed themselves lotli to abandon the reins of power , Prince William , ra order to break their resistance , hastened to Jny the case before the Czar . That potentate he recognised as an all-sufficient umpire . The Chambers , wlio wore fully competent to settle the mutter according to the . Constitution , the Prince would not accept in that capacity . This , we think , is a signi ( iciu \ . incident . The future ltcgcnt of Prussia , uniting upon the Czar , as it were , to receive the nivesiitujro into his new office , is a singular illustration ol ne vaunted anti-Muscovite . inclinations . Nor Iwis uw confidence thus placed in the Autocrat ol nil two

      and that the central authority should have no power of interference whatever . We have before us a curious official correspondence referring to these events . II ; was indiscreetly published , and throws ample light on the then state of affairs . We sec from it that the Prince , though Liberty had unsheathed the sword in South-Western Germany , was so much imbued with his specific Prussian notions , and so deeply antagonistic to the Court of Vienna , that he would not hear of any Austrian qo ^ operation . More to his taste would it havo been to have bearded tho Hapsburg after the same faahion as he had tho democratic insurgent . Some

      years afterwards , in the Hesse-Cassel question , he also tried to push matters to the extreme . Ho would willingly have lighted up afresh a fratricidal war in Germany , in order to maintain Prussian hegemony against Austrian influence . As it was , the King was averse to an armed struggle , and the affair ended , ridiculously enough , with the soi-disunt " battlo of Bronnaell . ' * Thus on every emergency the . Prinoe is seen to havo pursued a policy ditferont from the pro-Austrian leanings of the King .

      Hero we have tho secret link which binds a portion of the Gotha , party to him , though in other respects lie has done but littlo to merit , their suffrages . Indeed , nothing could bo more dissimilar than Uig Constitutionalist inclinations of tho Gotha party , and the military tendencies of tho Prince , lho Prinoo , wo havo shown in a preceding article , was an enemy ovon J . o that sham Constitution , whioh the King had granted iu 18 * 7 . In 1848 , it was certainly not the Prinoe who exertod himself tor the establishment of representative government . After the revolution had been vanquished , chiefly through / its sanguinary measures , he is known to have desired the

      Russias been left unrewarded , for imincdiatei . vn »" the homage rendered at Warsaw , tho King win induced to sign tho necessary decree for tlio I' """" of power . To give tho finishing touch to tho P ' ture , we must not omit to add another nolcwouny occurrence—viz . that tho Court of St . I * erslnng was the first officially to acknowledge Ilui nt-w Prussian ruler , —this comforting ackncnvle ^''" »* arriving from tho Russian capital , us Ilio ' l journals observed , with " ft rapidity alniu .-a incredible I "

      London Mrcwanics 1 Institution—I<°«1 Mur...

      London Mrcwanics Institution—I < ° « 1 Mur . > I'J written to tho corresponding Secretary oaiirewl- ^ ^ concern that tho parent Mechanic * ' Institution o •» * lnnd ahoulcl bo In nood of o ^ tranooua iiHsiaUi ice , < mi « . closing a draft ' for 100 / . iu aid of a fund for mir «^ - ' « tho door tho building , and ' tl j u * - ost n «« l « ' fa » J heavy annual clinic for rent . The total «"'• ' £ effect this desirable object I * 35001 . I . J-b o . ub « . . i t »* from private sources amount to about 400 / ., a ) 1 <> dorstand that a public appeal is shortly to bo inn « lu .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 23, 1858, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23101858/page/20/