On this page

• Text (3)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    wonderful feats in affairs of gallantry . In this latter respect his labours have truly been of " gigantic " dimensions . For half a century his adventures have furnished the gossips of his country a never-failing material for racy anecdotes ; and though now , at the ripe age of seventy-seven , his youthful fires might well be supposed to be somewhat exhausted , lie still seems determined to add to the choice collection of adventures which he

    has gone through for the edification of his subjects . His very marriages afford ample food to those of prurient tastes . His first union was with the Princess Caroline Augusta of Bavaria , from whom he was however divorced after a few years , on account , it is said , of the scandal created by the many liaisons the royal Benedict continued to indulge in . This Princess of Bavaria afterwards became the wife of the Emperor Francis of Austria . The next marriage of King William was with Catherine Pawlowna , daughter of the Emperor Paul of Russia , and widow of Prince Peter of Holstein-Oldenburg .

    Stuttgard have become since then more and more reactionary . Shortly before 1848 King William was one of the most unpopular sovereigns of Germany His tyranny was equally oppressive in political and religious matters . A Protestant sovereign by profession , he oppressed arbitrarily the neo-Cathohc communities , which had formed themselves in opposition to the Papal authority . No wonder , that in 1 S 4 ? 8 the storm of popular indignation rose- mightily against him . He only managed to calm the waves by giving in to the popular demands without making any attempt at a struggle , and by appointing as Chief Minister of his Cabinet a well-known Democrat , who had hitherto been conspicuous as a member of the most advanced Opi f ¦

    to the feudal interest ; his leaning towards the llus siari dynasty on the one hand and to Louis Napoleon on the other , to both of whom he is related * his semi-Catholic policy ; the continued profligacy of his life , —all have served to increase the measure of unpopularity formerly bestowed upon him . No wonder that democratic opinion should secretly grow more rapidly than before . The most moderate men of the country are exasperated agaiust the King ' s misrule . To give a single instance : — In one of the discussions of the Chamber on ihe budget , the Royal Commissary dared to deny the oi to uomroi certain

    rignc me uegismture expenses and with a sneer continued that " the times of 1848 had gone by ! " Upon this , a deputy of the Moderate-Liberal party rose and indignantly replied" The right of the Wurtemberg Legislature to vote or refuse taxes is anterior , and even superior to the existence of the Wurtemberg monarchy itself and may be found in the end to survive it f * ' This short and energetic reply affbrds a pretty good key to the relations between the King and his subjects .

    _ - .- «* m ^ n * *^ TT ^ » ' TST" IT " During the whole year of 1843 , King William kept himself very prudently quiet . But when Vienna had been stormed , after its prolonged siege by Windischgratz ; when the King of Prussia had accomplished his coup d ' etat ; when the Prince of Prussia marched with a large army against the democrats of Baden , and the National Assembly at Frankfort had been obliged to seek refuge at Stuttgard , then the King of VVurtemberg suddenly saw his opportunity had arrived . He resolved on a double coup . At one blow he proposed to disperse the German Parliament , whose rump was assembled in his capital , and , at the same time , to get rid of his Liberal Ministry . He carried out this plan with unparalleled treachery . Feigning the most humble devotion to the cause of the National Parliament ,

    he ordered his Ministry to recognise formally all the resolutions it might come to , allthe decrees it might enact . Thus , the Deputies of the German nation were lulled into a false confidence 6 f their security at Stuttgard . They leisurely set about those measures they thought best calculated to save the cause of . falling freedom . In presence of the danger to which the fatherland was exposed , they consequently established a Provisional Regency as an Executive Government superior to all princely power in Germany . King William made

    no scruple , but hastened to acknowledge it as a legal authority . Suddenly , however , one morning , the streets of Stuttgard were filled with troops ; the German Parliament was at once pronounced to be dissolved ; and every attempt of its members to deliberate was declared an act of high treason . On this the people as well as some of the Deputies ran to the customary liall of assembly . There , however , the royal troops were drawn up in battle array , the artillery planted and ready to open fire on the crowd , while the cavalry , brandishing their

    sabres , charged down the streets . At last a great number of the members of the National Assembly made their way through the turmoil . They walked arm-in-arm , four abreast , with uncovered heads . Even a portion of the troops themselves opened their ranks to admit this solemn procession , and a feeling of hesitation pervaded the military . But the savage Ulans , at whose head an unscrupulous sabreur was placed , turned the tide . The word was given to the cavalry to clear the street . Upon this , one of the deputies ,

    old grey-headed TJhland , the patriot bard of Germany , he who had sung the war song of the struggle against Napoleon , and ever stood up for the " good old right" ot Wurtemberg , bared his breast , and calmly Ibid the reckless lancers to plant their weapons there . Some of them , made drunk for their disgraceful work , beat the veteran poet with the flat of their sword . A short m € l £ e ensued —and the National Assembly was dispersed . Soon after the Liberal Ministry of Wurtemberg also ceased to exist .

    Since the overthrow of German liberty , the King of Wurtemberg has kept his bellicose propensities employed in a petty quarrel with the , now demented , King of Prussia , on account of the pretensions to imperial dignity which , for a time , had been , asJJ cribed to the latter . So furious was King William at these alleged pretensions , that on a public occasion he declared that " no Teck * would ever bo found base enough to submit to a Hohenzollern . " Mutual compliments of this kind were bandied for some time , until other princes interposed and patched up the unseemly squabble . Of a nature loss capable of conciliation is the quarrel between the king and the Stuttgard Legislature . His continual defalcations from the publio exchequer ; liis interference with personal liberty ; . ^ us lawless enoroaohments on the freedom of the proas ; the favour he has shown since 1851 * The Kinga of Wurtemberg bear tho tltlo of Counts of Took .

    This second essay in matrimony proved , however , of but short duration , the Queen dying soon after ; her death being accelerated , it was generally believed , by the many trials she experienced during her stormy union with this " giant " of a King . A third nuptial ceremony was then gone through with Pauline , daughter of the late Dukfi of Wurtemberg , uncle of the bridegroom . So much for the formally authorised and legitimate marriages . The other " morganatic" * unions , " left-hand marriages , " and so forth , have been long among the unconcealed Customs of the royal residence . At present , a

    certain Madame Stubenrauch is in the ascendancy simong the sultanas , and to her influence is chiefly to be traced the conclusion of the Concordat with Home , the lady in question being an iindisguised partisan of the Jesuits . The King himself is a Protestant , to all outward appearance . So much , however , is he under the beguilements of these Popish Delilahs , that the general opinion of the country is that he will ultimately , if he has not done so already , enter the pale of the Roman Church . He had to give recently a public declaration to the contrary Defore all the evangelical prelates of Wurtemberg , in order to pacify the anger of the people . His hatred to libertv he imbibed at a very early

    epoch . At the age of fifteen he was compelled to fly from his future principality before the onslaught of the first French Revolution . Incensed at this , he entered the Austrian army as a volunteer against the French Republic . Subsequently , he was ap-Eointed b y his father to serve under Bonaparte in is Russian campaign , which , however , he evaded by falling sick , and finall y took part in Napoleon ' s overthrow . He showed himself in this latter campaign no bad tactician , and materially assisted in the defeat of a large French corps d ' armee . His advent to the throne , in 1816 , soon brought his despotic qualities into full relief . Yet , by a curious turn of circumstances , lie was compelled , in spite of his natural leaning to Absolute Government , to throw himself for a time into the arms of

    Constitutionalism , in order to provide himself with a support against the annexing propensities of the two great German Powers , Austria and Prussia . It was the same thing as with Baden , Bavaria , and , in fact , with almost all the minor States , whose minnow dukes found themselves in danger of being swallowed up by the great fish , and , to avert such an unpleasant catastrophe , endeavoured to interest their long-suffering subjects in the preservation of their petty dynastic rule . But the danger of annexation once passed by , King William showed his true character . He forthwith overthrew the liberty of the press , curtailed the ri

    ght of free inquiry and free science at the universities , packed the legislature with his own creatures , drew as he listed upon the exchequer without waiting for the ceremony of parliamentary assent , and entered into suspicious political relations with the Court of St . Petersburg . Several intermarriages between the Wurtemberg and Russian dynasty resulted therefrom . The Grown Prince Charles himself is united since 1846 to Olga , the daughter of the late Czar Nicholas . In Wurtemberg this latter union created at the time much uneasiness ; and , judging from its cqnsequences , there was good , reason for regarding it with such feelings . The Councils of the Court of

    Untitled Article

    The Middle Class . —In England -what in re . ilitv governs is the middle class—but a middle class much more largely established , and constituted after a much more hierarchical fashion , than that which governed in France during the existence of our Parliamentary reyane . That middle class esteemsv intelligence highly , but character still more . It seeks after and values wealth , but as the sign of social strength and activity . It abhors apathy and weakness , and consequently arbitrary rule , whether it be imposed or admitted . It will exist by itself and for itself ; hence its instinctive and traditional repugnance to centralisation and bureaucracy . On the other hand , it does not aspire to possess itself of the whole of the public functions , and to shut out above and below at the same time access to power against all that does not belong to it . It opens its ranks to all who

    raise themselves without contesting any elevation anterior to it or independently of it . It willingly consents that the aristocracy by birth , which for ages is recruited from its ranks , shall represent at home and abroad the public authority and the national grandeur , just as a powerful sovereign , reposing in the tranquil and simple majesty of his power , willingly leaves to . great men- and lords the care of displaying the pomp of distant embassies , and obtaining the honour of onerous missions . But it gives to understand that its will must be oie-yed ; that no other interest shall enter into conflict with its own ; that-no conviction shall prevail over its own . It has for two centuries always existed , and ever extended ; it is the spirit of the middle classes which has ever directed those great currents of opinion of which dynastic and ministerial revolutions are merely the official

    interpretation . The English patrician has never been other than the active and devoted delegate , the interpreter and the instrument of that intelligent and resolute class in whom the national will and power are condensed . It is that class which Cromwell and Milton personified when , by the sword of one , and the pen of the other , the Republic sat for a space on the ruins of the throne of Charles I . It was from that class , and with it , that Monk brought back the Stuarts , and that thirty years later , the 1 arllament substituted for them a new Royalty . It was that class which , with the two Pitts , raised Jrom the beginning of the eighteenth century the edifice of Jintisii preponderance / and which with Burke saved it Trow bumg ruined and infected by the contagion of revolutionary doctrine * . It was the samo class which , a » our any , opened under Peel a now era of policy—the _ i » el »« i-ii . tion of the condition and the enlargement of tho rights yl tue

    working classes . — Count Montalembert . SxngW Earnings . — If wo tell a talc with respect to the gains of grout musical artists , it In upon tnj authority of La Press * TM&lrah . U alibran received in London for every representation nt Drury-Iano lftui ., Grisi , at New York , for appearing nt an oratorio , * uw ., Lablaclio for singing twice was paid WH . *» *« 'V Rossini was offered a million of franca for six mo ths , if he -would play tho part of Figaro , lor ft *> "fc » lesson in singing to CJueon Victoria , Lablaclio ; wm P » 40 / . At a soirie given in London Grisi revived - w-The second benefit of Taglioni at St . Petersburg nmiisea

    51 , 000 roubles ( 8 X 6 / . ) . In the courao of tlio r ° l ) n'f' " * tion the Emperor sent her a bouquet of forfo' « t-ino-nota composed of diamonds and turquoiaes . The « amo art " at Hamburg received 8760 frunca a nighl . ; "b " ' charged 2000 franca a Ioshou . Hummol nt ' >>* tie » l left behind him 875 , 000 francs , nnU a min » li « r "' P" * sentsfrom every Court of Europe , among « lilo » " ¦» v f twenty-six diamond rings of groat value , tluri > - snuff-boxes , nntl 114 valuable watches .. la tlll *« 'V inant UMtlnestrelnMa , that In our days Alb ° nl « mi » i « r nnvnralnir fnr Insa than 2000 fnUlOS ft llitfllt I nl 111 ' .

    Tamborlift , every time ho gives M * «< eW ft" " ; , qBi franca . lA America , rtnd in Klo especially , t e " Sncli artlata realiao groat Bums 5 Ho ™ and 1 »»«« » tQ realbedmoro than 300 , 000 francs by ^^^ B America . As to Jenny Una , aho la said to U « vu » enough to buy the fee simple of Sweden i » A morion dollars . —JTAe Critic .

    Untitled Article

    * The German princes frequently indulge In Mormon customs through these " morganatic " marriages . This Immunity from the generally received laws of morality tliey claim as one of their sovereign privileges I

    Untitled Article

    1260 THE LEADE R , [ No . 452 , November 20 , 1858 .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 20, 1858, page 1260, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2269/page/20/