The Express.
London, England, 1851-01-15 00:00:00

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TO CORRESPOND= TS.
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LONDON. WILDNESDAY, 1.411774 RY lb.

Tither never ban been a progressive, a generate,'
or humane cause that has not been bonoorAl by the
bestility of the Quarter/y Ree,eir. Indeed, a great
liberal principle or aim cannot be Lid to b t fully re.
commented to the eclightened portion of the public
until it cwta forth stamped with the stigma of that
retrospective period:eel.
All who have been accustomed to remember the views
which writers in the Quarterly have taken of French
and of for, ign polities in general, must remember them
to have beg n of that peculiarly superannuated ceste far
behind I yen the rahtel torte% of the pre,ent generation.
The Qi•irterly, in this respect, bas been ever half a
century behind the iseaservatives themselves. It per°.
rated for POLIONAC when °MOT and Louts
rtittAers were the respected idols of I'EIL acd
Of I)IeRAELT. And it has only row become reconciled
to Louts Pointers and Omar, when events have
proved their boasted wisdom to be imbecility, and
their conservatism ignorance.
We have to congratulate Gen. R tnowerz and the
smatitutional statesmen of Prow= on not baying yet
become 'he favourites of the quirkily. M. MAN-
Tzuntl. is alone worthy of that honour ; bat not
lentil that m*nister had betrayed the cause of Ger-
many, humbled the pride of his nation, condescended
to mock at the sufferings of the Hessian constitutional-
ists for the diversion of SCH WA RZ ENBFACiI, and gone
over bog and baggage to the ultra•monsrehiste who
write in the Kreue.leitarry, an organ of more youth
sad spirit, but no less ,dtra than the Quarterly.
The writer of the German article in the recent
number of this periodical adopts the same view and
the same language, with respect to German affairs,
that the Times has employed. It personifies Pron,ia
as au individual, and represents every project
of its statesmen, and every movement of its peo-
ple, as the object of selfish craft. There is no
fl,ht that one may view history in this way.
Lad it so happens that the French and other coon-
tries are apt to regard English history in this light.
They teb us that England warred with the French
revolution from jealousy of French greatness; that
England emancipated her slaves to transfer power
and wealth teem the west to the out, and that she
esationes to put down slavery merely for selfish in-
tweets. The doctrines of free trade are in a similar
manner attributed to a deep laid scheme on the part
of English economists to ruin and impoverish foreign
countries.
We know how narrow are such views, and how
['bond such charges. We know that a nation is not
the selfish machine that these sages suppose. We can
see that countries, even in the hands of kings and courts,
obey curt sin impulses, and start in certain directions
from au inborn and a natural tendency far be-
thyond the calculations of statesmen. Ever since
e the great era of the Reformation which sprang
up in North and West Germany, that region has
sought protection and offered resistance against the
power of that south-eastern portion of Germany, which
remained firm in the tenets of catholicism and in the
determination to impose absolutism of creed and of
administration over the north and west. Sweden was
the first power that led peon ;tent Germany in this
struggle. With the great 0 usr.tvus e at lead expired.
And the vacant plus was =Aurally and inevitably filled
by Prussia. In this, for our part, we see neither
guilt nor ambition. The empire was a confederation
of princes, each with independent rights. And the
rights of protestant freedom were more precious than
any guaranteed by the old confederation. To bow to
Austria and its supremely was virtually to sacrifice
religions liberty. And Austrian pretensions were
resisted by princes, or by leagues of princes, for the
most virtuous and most noble of eSur2ll.
But one would think, from the superannuated

writ; in the Quarterly, that Geimany v
sae vast absolute monarchy, the head of which
was entitled to hereditary allegiance, and that the
efforts of Prussia or of Saxony to secure its
rights, its independence, and the balance of
power upon which they depended, were nothing lets
than high treason. The wars of FILIDEILICK the
GREAT appear in the microscope of this philosopher
of histyry a machination like that of ToierrLawooh.
All this is monstrous absurdity. Germany is parti-
tioned into different dynasties, conflicting interests,
mutual rights. Its dynasties and people first united
for common defence against pagan and barbarous in-
vaders. There was an emperor elected for general
federal purposes. Bat such a dignity was found in
process of time so cumbersome and inoperative, so in-
capable of even the defence of the country, that it
was set aside by common consent. The Em. eror of
011MANT abdicated at the very moment when he was
fully proved to be utterly powerless to defend Ger-
many. And Prussia, in adopting a separate policy
with Bard to Russia or to Frage., is no more to be
with treason than the United States are to
be unfree& for following the policy and making
tbe alliances they please.
What renders this imperative on Prussia, and what
will render it again so, was the fact that Austria had
ceased to be a German state, with dominions extend-
ing nearly to the mouth of the Danube and with
a Sclavonic population beyond and around its
capital. With a great portion of Italy supplying its
revenues and demanding its can, Austria had
interests to defend and a policy to follow, that was
in nowise German. What had Prussia or North
Germany to do with Italian politics, with the line of
the Adige or the Add& ? Was it to become the foe
of France for regions as remote from it in political
interest ea is physical distance? If the Italian pos-
sessions of Austria form a foreign interest, so Its
prelim's' on the Lower Danube are equally stranger
to German sympathies or anxieties. Austria may have
quarrels in connection will France for the one, with
Russia for the other. Bat what is all this to norther' and
Protestant Germany ? Must it war to prop up the
tottering despotism of the Pore? With site serail
millions of German subjects, and scores of millioosei
non-German subjects, Austria is in fact not a Gera
power. Her connexion with Germany has never
brought Germany one advantage. When Austria
held the nominal empire, its utmost efforts were sea-'
ploped to crush the reformers, to b.rter away the Lew
Countries, to betray and surrender the cities and pre.
viaoss on the Rhine to France. From first to bet.
Austria has lain upon Germany like an incubus,