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Leader (1850-1860), 26th February 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 20

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      Epilogue To The Biographies Of German Pr...

      fact is that in its origin" it w : as even more a political than a religious moveinent ; or at least was _ as much directed to state objects as to « . n amelioration of the affairs of the Church . Keformation , in those « arly days , meant not only the establishment of a national and purified Church , untrammelled by the despotic decrees of the Roman Pontiff and tmsiillied by the overgrowth of the worst Pagan superstition . 3 STo ; reformation , at that time , meant also the emancipation of the soil from the clerical mortmain ; abolition of the feudal' system that weighed upon the peasantry ; curtailment or de-. struction of petty princely and aristocratic power ;

      a , stronger bond of political union for all Germany , by means of a popular Representation : or , to give it in the graphic German phrase of the time , " eine Reformation an Haiipt und Gliedem . " It is true , the peasants in the fourteenth * fifteenth , ¦ and sixteenth centimes never failed to quote the Gospel when they demanded relief from fetidal oppression . The citizens of the towns , also , quoted the Gospel when they denounced priestly celibacy as a danger to the peace of families , or when they proved the inconsistency of the clergy revelling in the possession of vast territorial domains . The tnights-in-hai * ness even quoted the Gospel for their own purpose against the priesthood , in order to . batter down the privileges of this " their- ancient

      rival in power . But though a religious feeling thus pervaded the whole agitation , the political idea was always present , and frequently uppermost . With one or two insignificant exceptions , all the reformers of Germany had at once a national , social , and an ecclesiastical aim . Luther himself declared in the beginning in favor of that promising popular movement which he afterwards deserted when it assumed the form of a revolutionary rising . The t' War of the Peasants "itself is an evidence of tlie strength of the political sentiment which clothed itself in the relig ious garb . Thus no one conversant with German history can doubt that the Reformation was intended by its early promoters to regenerate the nation iri all respects , both temporal and spiritual . , .

      Adverse circumstances , Unfortunately , willed it otherwise . The struggle of the peasants resulted in a defeat , in consequence of the want pr concord between the towns and the rural population- —a division chiefly brought about by the hostile attitude the leading Reformer had , unhappily , taken against the cause of the people . Then came the Tliirty Years' Wai " , that main source of Germany ' s present misfortunes ! It - ruined the cause of liberty and nationality for centimes . Well nigh all the foreign dynasties that surrounded Germany profited by the occasion this war afforded them . ¦ do their worst towards the disruption of German

      xinion . The country became a bear-pit of combat for armed hosts from all quarters . The Spaniard . and the Swede , the Italian , the Netherlander , and the Frenchman — - not to count the nondescript Eastern horde " s which followed tho House of Austria—^ -trampled Germany under , their horses ' hoofs . At the end of the Thirty Years' War she lay bleeding and prostrate , a ghastly shadow of her former self . She had struggled for a Kefbrmation , the , 'fruits of wliich she desired to offer to the world at large ; when , however , the combat was over , other nations marched away with the spoils of victory . She alone remained , weltering in her blood .

      other as brethren , who Ought to live together tinder the roof of a common popular constitution . Even before 1848 , the cry for a ] STational Parliament had not been wanting in earnestness , whenever it was allowed to make itself heard . When the revolutionary storm of lfebruary , therefore , swept over Germany , from the frontiers of Belgium to those of Russia , from Schleswig to the Alps , the people were unanimous in their call for a National Representation . . , We will not here explain the reasons of the failure of the German Revolution . We will not enlarge on the difficulties necessarily attending a popular movement in a country whose provinces

      have so long been kept asunder b y crafty dynastic intrigue and cabinet policy . We will not show how liberty at Vienna was destroyed by foreign Sclavonian hordes , led against the insurgent town by Windischgratz and Jellacic , who subdued the city after a gallant defence of a month ' s duration , and then slaked their thirst of blood in eyery street of the ill-fated town . We will not show how liberty at Berlin fell by a treacherous coup d'etat of King Frederick William IV . We will not relate how at Dresden , in Baden , in the Rhenish Palatinate , and elsewhere , royal authority was re-established by the bayonets of neighbouring princes . We will not retrace the treachery . witli which the King of Wurtemberg dissolved the Rational German Parliament by force of arms , after haviiig sworn

      adhesion to all its decrees . Let it suffice to say ,, that German liberals and democrats , in 1848 and 1849 , have bravely foug ht on the barricade , hi the fortress , as well as in the open field , and that they have been discomfited partly through the inaptitude or the faithlessness of their own leaders , aiicl ¦ partly-by the foul perjury and brutal force of their , sanguinary princes . The reproach of tamely submitting : tb despotism is , therefore , certainly an unfounded one , as applied to the Germans . They have attempted their liberation , but—like France , Italy ,. and Hungary— -have unfortunatel y failed . More than nine years have now passed-away since the final overtlirow of German liberty . Nine years are a long and weary time for the patience of the friends of freedom . But nine years ' are not so much in the life of a nation . A nation which

      has seen its cities sacked and stormed , its popular champions slain on the field of battle , murdered by drum-head law , . martyred in dungeons , or driven into exile , cannot reasonably be expected to arise anew every year—to bathe itself ^ as it were , every season in its own blood : it is not in human nature that it should be so . Inconsiderate , therefore , is the opinion of those " who live at home at ease , " when they think that a . nation is reconciled to despotism because it allows some ! few years to elapse before making a fresh effort in arms . The G-erman nation , we are sure , is , in its thinking majority , most unreconciled

      to the existing state of things . Its popiilav classes are at this moment dragooned into silence ; but they still cherish , we may be sure , aspirations for a better form of government than any of those we have endeavoured to describe in the *? Biographies " of their princes . To read the troubled future , and prophecy the exact date ? when this long desired better form of government will eventually triumph , is not given to man to do . But this much can be safely said , that whenever that day may arrive , tho popular leaders , of Germany will certainly not rtgain commit the fatal error of " stopping short before the thrones , " as they "did ,, with , such misplaced confidence , in the memorable year 1 . 848 .

      £ > he had , w ) th all these wounds and sorrows , earned little beyond the religious emancipation of a small portion of her people , paying the fearful price of utter political prostration for this paltry gam . The division of Germany into semi-independent principalities , which hang so . uncongenially together , dates chiefly from the Tliirty Years' War In the years that followed , this mutual estrangement was still further augmented by tine criminal struggles of ambition waged between IiV <} derick II ., -called the Great , and tho despotio House of Austria . These facts must be kept in remembrance in order £ of the situa

      o judge more justly present political - tion of Germany . Fortunately , it can bo asserted that , since the mighty popular rising against Napoleon I ., ' the national sentiment has grown aiiow with increased vigour . Even tho present federal constitution of Germany bears witness to this : for though it be an organisation founded on bad political principles , it still prevents Germany from being a mere " geographical exr pression , " as Motternioh eneeringly described Italy . Tho events of tho year 1848 , moreover , fcavo shown that the Germans of Kussia and Austria , as well us tho minor states , consider each

      276 The Ee Apeb, ["No, 466, February 26,...

      276 THE EE APEB , [ "No , 466 , February 26 , 185 &

      #Ltixllliat Ot;Dntl!«Uflnitimrit ^'W*" ^«I H-Jj^W Juuhil, —-*

      Judgment Can Only Be Acquired By Going B...

      judgment can only be acquired by going back to the ' old chronicles of the cities of Schleswig-, of Holsteirir of Denmark , and the surrounding states , more especially . those of Oldenburg , Hamburg Xuneburgj Bardewick , Bremen , and Lubeck . A comparison of these chronicles , will , however ,, show that all traditions , as we call them , but which in reality we ought to term concoctions , can only be smiled at and passed over . Runic stones , which have been sometimes found by Danes on the banks of the Eider we must also reject , as likewise most decidedlv all their sagas , or old saws , the Voluspa , the Edda , Ragnor iLodbrog'k song , and all the host

      of puerile forgeries , as in my opinion they are . All that can be relied on , to a certain degree , are the meagre descriptions derived from the Romans , Eginhard ' s Chronicle , Othere ' s Voyages , and Adam Bremensis , whose account , by the way , of the countries of the Baltic , and their inhabitants , affo rds amusing evidence that sailors of old were as addicted to the spinning of astonishing yarns and playing upon the ignorant credulity of land-lubbers as they are at this day . Although we must decline to accept . Adam ' s human monsters that had no heads , and only one eye , which was in the middle of their breasts , and those unamiable Ladies , the Amazons , who used to act towards the unfortunate mariner ,

      as we read the female spider sometimes acts towards the male—rloves him first and eats him afterwards—yet we niay believe his accounts of Denmark and the Elbe country , because he had the opportunity of viewing therii himself , and because there is little at variance : with ; our conceptions of the possible or the probable contained therein . Troni these , and the chronicles of the middle ages , the history of Denmark , Germany , and other countries , I select the following scraps , which I think will serve as so many resting points for the memory , in grubbing put the truth in this question , so intricate from circumstances , and confused by parity prejudice and national vanitj ' i from the

      Schleswig and Holstein have , very earliest timesVas your readers will see , been bones of contention between Germans and Danes . The quarrel was barbarous in its origin , and , notwithstanding that centuries of Christianity have intervened , it is likely to be as barbarous in its termination . The chief cause of- the disputes in ancient times was the frequent subdivisions of the territory of Holstcin among different members of the ruling house , which led to the temporary supremacy of one branch or other with more or less claim to be regarded as the chief , Schleswig , on the other hand , seems always to have been an appanage of the younger sons of the Kings of Dm / nark , and , as such independentbut only as such .

      , The following facts and dates , arranged in order from the very beginning of the country to the present time , will render the course of the question sufficiently clear to enaWe those of your readers who cannot make a study of it , to judge of the merits of the respective claims put forward by Germans and Danes . We first hear of Ilolstein as forming a part ot that country north of the Elbe , called , by Latin writers , Albingia—a country considered so savage and useless that Tiberius Cassar forbade Drusus to penetrate it . In 765 , Aired , or Alchred , a king ot Northumberland , in a council of bishops , was

      induced to send Christian missionaries to those parts to found a church and convert tho inhabitants . Wilheafl , the bishop selected for the work , established himself upon the banks of the Wescr , in tho country known then as Wigmodia . People from Holland were obtained to erect dykes , nnd prisoners taken in the wars were sent to cultivate tho lana . Around the church these founded , a town sprang up , for which Wilhead , the bishop , procured a charter from Charlemagne . This town is the present l * vt ? men . This city was the head-quarters of tno Northern Christian , or Romish propaganda . W the third bishop , Ansgar , the Gospel was preaciica to tho heathen of ttor . th Albingia , in which country Charlemagne had built a castlo at the place wliero Hamburg now stands . In 858 , Hamburg was lmae

      a bishoprick , and united with that of Bremen , unaor Ansgar , who was also named legato of Sonndinavift by the l ' ope Gregory IV . In the same year , Anegar concliided a peace between tho King ot DonnijirK and Lewis , the King of Germany , and in con f , " qtuencq obtained permission from the xmnvm sovereign to build a church with a tower w Schleswig . This is , I believe , the earliest mpotm made of tho country of Schleswig , which we mju , was , in Ansgar ' s time , an acknowledged countrj oi Denmark . Tho king further granted Ansgar to send , missionaries into his donurtlone , but wit" tno uncomfortable stipulation that the King ot w «» many should not oppose the inroads of tho . »«» £ {• There appears to mo a keen mockery in * " " apparent simplicity of tlio Danish king , for ww stipulation seems to convey tho hlnjb that M »' aware religion was only tho cloak to a new yoko w Rome , about to be In id upon tho nooks of free

      GERMANY . February 23 rd . As the Schleswig - Holstoin question has been rather prominently brought forward in the columns of the H . 13 ADEK , a fow very brief historical notices , copied from state documents , of the causes and progress of tho question , from tho origin of tho country to tho present day , may perhaps not be unwelcome to some of your roaders . To obtain anything like an Impartial view of tho subject , wo must cast aside nil tho accounts , written by Danes ana Germans within tho last ton , twenty * or even thirty years . These accounts lead astray , not so much by errors , falsehoods , or exaggeration , as by a careless omission ot wilful suppression of facts . A correct ana , consequently , impartial

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 26, 1859, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26021859/page/20/