The Express.
London, England, 1848-10-24 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Bireary of tA. Pra;;;lllo;ariai,fro• is rim to Iltepre.
oat hoc By Laorobn Rama. Trasslatal by Pis-
tree DINNIZIL Tel. I.
la this, the latest of his prodnotioas, Herr Ranks
has hardly maintained his frame espatation for la-
partiality. His esentryinen boldly scenied him et
having descended Mina the brook 63 the bar—become
pleader whet las should have been a judge. And
we meet confess there is some truth in this. We
lad the partisan toe 1f mangy peeping out from be-
neath the robe of the Mibrma. Though, we hope,
bee from the petty passions, and repudiating the
miserable jealousies of the house of Brandenburg
which prevail, not only amongst the high conserva-
tives of Austria, bat also among the demo-
crats of the entire Vaderland, we wen but
pm/guilt& bunartan mama
Lee German in the Premien. His method
of looking at the origin, rise, andgrowth of
and dynasty of the B ant' is
entirely from a fru:7_4n Point of view. Frem his
peculiar position, this way t'ir dealing with his subject
was perhaps onavoidable. Undertaken in conse-
quence of his appointment as historiographer to the
court, the work may be ocesidered as one " got up to
order;" from which, therefore, rigorous truth wee
no more to be expected than from coronation and
birth-day odes by court laureates.
The book is, therefore, not wbat Germany. what
Europe, will accept as a competent hinny of the
Prussian monarchy. yet it Me a great and peculiar
„hie of its owe, distinct from all other histories
ou the amt subject It is semi.official. All the
..ei sroliive. of the state were laid open to
the historian. It has the tone and character of an
exculpatory state-paper, drawn op with great care.
It is, an fact, Bing Frederick Williams defence of the
historic policy of his house, home and foreign. The
work was written, and indeed published, before the
revolution. It was calculated to meet and to operate
upon a very different condition of public sentiment
and opinion in Germany to what now prevails theme.
Had the movement of 1848 bins feressen, the two,
we think, would have teem Amyl r sumo Wage,
rapidly passed over, would have seen more peen&
nently developed, and matters on whichinfinite stress
is laid, and which are made to appose at every turn,
would have been thrown more into the shade.

Before the revolution, in its struggle for ascen-
dancy in Germany the cabinet of Berlin had only
Austria to fear. Neither at Potsdam nor at &hop-
brann did any one dream of the rehabilitation et the
empire, and of a central power again ruling fres the
imperial city of Frankfort. That a maater-meteseent
would arise to control both the courts was what Gould
neither hive been expected nor imagined, sad the
statesmen of the two countries played their genes of
profound diplomacy only with • view to mime&
and circumvent each other. Notwithstanding the re-
puted craft of the imperial court, Prussia was evi-
dently playing a winning game until the revolution
came to confound both the great gamblers for in-
fluence and raise up a third power in public opinion,
speedily organised and put into act, greater than
both. But this could not be helped. Po-
licy cannot be founded upon the expectation
of revolutions, and if we look at the state of affairs on
the Continent in 1846, and the oommenoement of

1817, we must acknowledge that the Prussian'
government was working with much sagacity and
111100OSI toward political ascendancy in Germany. A.
the largest of the German territorial powers, it
portaged in that fact • counterpoise to the weight
still attaching to Austria from the traditions of the
empire, and its groan important* as a European
power. And it made the most of the circumstance.
The tacky idea of the Zollvereia—originating at
Berlin, and soon embracing nearly all the non-
maritime statue—woe the cause of an immense
accession of strength. The promised manta-
tion—though causing by its frequent postponement
many suspicions of the King's earnestness and
honesty—was at length given, and, notwithstand-
ing that some limitations and impolitic conditions were
attached to it, all liberals hoot Germany bailed
its promulgation with joy, and to look towards
Berlin for their own liberty and constitutionalination.
The Prussian future then looked eminently stupi-
dest. That peculiar movement of European races
towards political unity, so singalarly and aimultans-
any developed in all the literatures of &rope darn
the lest few yearkhad profoundly stirred the wine
Teutonic mind. no east of t 6 Zellverein came
oat just is the enrol moment to show the advantage
Onion in an manossie man ; and it none evident
that, in one form or other, Germany mast mks the
szporinten of a central government. This truth was
more tharreehly understood and aperealated at /ler-
la then in Visas& Hare more sysismatio prepara-
lice was undo tithe wart of the hews to meet and
had h thee* when it filth's&
Shall the new may, already is latent proms
of maths, be Maks Of Pranks ? Shall the
catholic or protersat religion tionnete in its coon-
oils Shall the inhatrage °fin imponal crown fall
to the line of Hapsburg or to that of Beindos=
Them tinseling were asked is the cabinet of
and the IPrnmisa ironer* primed to leap per
miens into the tint plus, as seen so the
moment timid arrive. The any rivalry=
considered en serious was that of the Manes met;

and his mauls were well used to render that ineffi-
cient's.
Prone was well aware that in any pal struggle
eaaiast Antra for influence in the minor states of
y—especially in the south—it bad serious &i-
-nn:asses to esetead against. The prisms gen.
rally Imd it as a yams* Rower, Width bad al-
mont reseed risen to tedepeadence by various moans
KM a vas similar to their own—the people,
because it we. the enemies of protests:gime the
reformers sespested its ney, and nearly all
lined its embitious, and oggra..4„
is _ its own bands the principal
Zetion et die vesen, and giving thereby certain
fiscal advantages to the Vane, to its own pecuniary
loss, ft sought to Isms the former. The °patentee of
the coestituticei Baked over the good-will of the
knee. Neverth, there canted in Germany
_a
Cyimpression that Prussia was not to bet
st her floe promisee went for nothing; that she
was tnroaghly NUM in her projsd reforms, con.
coding them, not honestly and mommaf sense of duty,
bet as the prise of paramount influence ; that, in
:=yher policy was, under all its shapes and guise&
dynode, sad had for its object not the eman-
eels lion et Geneney, but the aggrandisement of
Prmeia. Then Uses wen widely—almost union-
sellpas—e&m -
should —entertains; sad it became of the first ha-
that they be met, =abated, and dis-
prov
This defence of Prussia's Oennanity— if we may
coin the term—is so clearly the object of Herr
Rankes publication, that, considering his intimate
sounexion with the royal court, we cannot refits to
accede to the opinion which prevails amongst liberals,
and central German in general, that by either open
or onderetood directions the historian received his
cos from the court, and has only performed its
lbel&
'Pb. two chief objects of Herr Ranks—the fleet of
which is more particularly developed in the volume at
the head of this article—are ant, to prove that
Patna has always been true to the interests of 1
Germany ; and, mood, that the pre-revolu-
tionary policy of the King, with regard to
the worldng out of liberal ideas and the
radial introdastise of the constitutinalrismisea
idnerelisisrmarlowkin wee only the natural and j w
ef the Mink policy of his ancentare—
the an addrand to the Übnisaio race in panel, and
=:e renew saw dont of the purity of the
palled geneeneni the other intended to
titZrat:7s it and alma= of the King's
dmenimm. by newieg them that it was
wind and blot be them le missive their debts of
senstitutional judos fan the "town in small instal-
ments, and at its own diocesan es to the time and
amount of their payment&
As we have said, the first of these purposes—the
historic fidelity of Prussia to the cause of Germany—
is the one mast prominently exhibited in this
volume. Ranks never mines an opportunity of
raising an inference in favor of the government at
Berlin. In the quarrels between the ruing military
power of the north and the empire, he always ma-
tinees to place the Emperor in the wrong. Prussia
is always maenad as clhigia`steadfastly to the
cause of the common Valerian& though often soar-
ing great insults and contumely from the imperial
court for its fidelity. When found in alliance with
Sweden, France, Ragland, or any other enemy of the
empire, a suffisient exams for the fact is alwas sag-
gwa, without raring to the notion of family am-
bition or the wish of Independence of the empire.
This is not, however, outspoken boldly and in
explicit terms : though more °mentions, that nurse
might ban failed of its object. An opinion
in favour of the Prussian view of the case is
quietly insinuated. Like a wily advocate of a cause
which is bat doubtfully sound, anything like a lead-
ing charge, or express terms of praise, is carefully
avoided by the historian ; even the tone of justifica-
tion is generally abstained from ; but the cam is
always pat so es to suggest a verdict for Prune in
the rea&r's mind, and in a way that a fair statement
of the fasts would sanely warrant. The Kings of
Prussia are made to appear moo entirely German—
more faithful to German ideas and intereets—than the
Austrian Emperors of Germany; and this, no doubt,
with the view to influencing the national mind to
look for the German future rath.. to ie

These miasma were skilfully and politicly taken ;
bet we Esve wen bow events have Gamed the well
laid plans it cllplomecy. The preparatteas were
made too late. The crisis came unawares. The Kiog
watched in haste at the prize which he had long con-
templated the ponession of in secret; with what re-
sults we an in the installation of the Archduke John
at Frankfort.

—The work of Herr Ranks, though it may have
taloned its political object, is yet a kterary curiosity.
The writer had access to many private documents
never before used for historic p ; and, although
them an used to Breve a political end, they neverthe-
less throw some valuable light upon points of Prus-
sian history.