The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JUNE 18, 1860.

li. ABOUT'S PAMPHLET.

The following is M. About's pamphlet, which is
considered as inspired from the same source as " La
Question Romaine," and is creating a tremendous
sensation, as there is not a shadow of doubt but
that it faithfully sketches the plan which the
French ruler is about to pursue to induce Prussia
to yield to his blandishments :

I.
France and the Emperor have no other feelings than
those of friendship towards the German nation. After the
great wars of the first empire, Europe, as second in a he-
roic dud, having declared that the honour of the comba-
tants was satisfied, they gave each other the hand without
rancour. Although the armies of Germany had covered
themselves with glory the flag of France had suffered no
hnmiliation. Jena was not surpassed by Leipsic, and the
battles of 1813, 1814, and 1815 did not efface from history
our triumphs of 1805.
Alone the progress of enlightenment, our tempered
manners, and the work of time would have sufficed to
extinguish in all hearts the last spark of national hatred.
We must even acknowledge having felt a deeper sympathy
for the Germans in proportion as we have better known
them. German philosophy reigns in our schools. Kante,
Fichte, and Hegel, those great thinkers from beyond the
Rhine, have dethroned the great talkers of eclecticism. In
literature and poetry we both admire and love Goethe,
Schiller, Lessing, Hoffmann, Henri Heine, Hacklaender,
Uhland; and not long since a work by Gustave Freytag
appeared in the Mbniteur of the French empire. Dr.
Strauss, translated by M. Lithe ; Kreutzer, elucidated by
M. Guignant, have taken their places among French mas-
ter spirits. Our learned men are honoured in correspond-
ing with Liebig, Vogt, Graefe, Diffenbach ; our sculptors
and painters have rendered full justice to the talent of
Ranch, of Kaulbach, and of Cornelius ; whilst Kraus and
Winterhalter are our own by adoption. We not only con-
fess to an adoration of Mozart, Beethoven, Gluck, Haydn,
and Weber, the masters of German music, but Meyerbeer
reigns without a rival in our greatest lyric theatres; and
the day in which Richard Wagner; unknown and not under-
stood, presented himself to us, the French composers politely
withdrew to give place to him.
It is not only to the illustrious names of Germany that
France and its Sovereign can render justice. We have all
for the mass of the people an affection founded upon esteem.
This honest and laborious race, simple in its manners
and honest in its relations, would have every claim to our
friendship, even did we not know that German blood flows
in the veins of the French people.
11. •
Whether the Germans know it or not, the friendship of
iasnpaatsitoinnlwikheicohurthoewninai
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Frenchmen,of a certainva
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their
political rights for the benefit of a priVileged few, vainly pro-
tested against the ruin of our influence and the oppression
of our enemies. It is not by the speeches of an useless op-
position in her Parliament, not by the cries of children in her
streets, that Fruce manifests her good intentions to those
she loves; it is by acts. We have seen her soldiers penetrate
to the remotest parts of the Black Sea to delay the fall of the
Ottoman empire, whilst ber diplomatists claimed from Tur-
key herself the civil and religious freedom of her Christian
poulations. The deliverance of the Moldavians and Walla-
chians, and their union into a na' ion possessing all political
rights, solely by the influence of our friendship and without
shedding of blood, has not been forgotten. Italy, our august
mother in civilisation and the fine arts, has, under the aus-
pices of Fiance, entered on the path of independence and
unity. It is our armies who have opened out the way in
which she now marches alone under the guidance of Pied-
anont. If God allows this great work to be accomplished,
and a nation of 26,000,000 of inhabitants is organised at our
gates, France will take no offence. Faithful to her generous
traditions, she wi•Usacrifice her private susceptibilities to
the gear ral welfare and for a peaceful future ; for European
order will not be firmly established until the day in which
there shall be neither nationalities oppressed nor kings
insupportable to their subjects.
Germany, like Italy, is impelled forwards by a legitimate
aspiratirn in the path of progress and unity. Ancient feu-
dalism and modern diplomacy, and the selfishness and blind -
ness of a swarm of petty princes, wha buy and sell their
subjects as they would their flocks, has divided this great
nation into a deplorable multitude of governments. Its
laws, money, weights, and measures, its language, even—
everything in this nation which should be homogeneous, is
u-nlike and discordant. The nation suffers from this ab-
normal state. Its intelligence and its pride suffer with im-
patience an order of things so little in conformity with the
spirit of the times, and more worthy of the 13th than the
19th century. tis in vain that the German princes,
leagued together against the people, have formed a compact
for the maintenance of their privileges. The Diet—that
permanent conspiracy of feudalism—will not be always
stronger than the nation. The German people have learned
that it is useless, and almost ridiculous, to support 37 dif-
ferent governments when one alone would be sufficient.
They foresee the enormous increase of strength and prospe-
rity, of dignity and greatness, that centralisation will one
they produce, and they march towards that object with a
farm step, and ever every obstacle.
Never was this noble nation greater than from 1813
to 1815, for she was never more united. When a French-
man speaks with admiration of campaigns so terrible to
France his testimony is worthy of credit. The feeling of
Germanic honour and independence, revolting at the idea
off subjection, effected miracles. Germany had but one
passion, but one heart ; she rose as one man, and the
defeat of our incomparable armies, showed of what united
Germany was capable. Since that glorious epoch all
Germans worthy of the name have pursued their dream
of unity. The have created the Zollverein, or a com-
mercial union of Germany. In 1849 the national assembly
of Frankfort made. a still bolder effort. Only a little assist-
ance from the King of Prussia, and the patriotic hope of
all good citizens had begome a living reality • the union
was created ; Germany was complete. Unfortunately
Frederick William, already of a feeble mind and under the
influence:of the Queen, feared to alienate the petty dynasties
of the Confederation. He failed in energy at the decisive
moment, and feudalism remained master of the field of battle.
But notwithstanding this deception a vigorous hope survives
in the hearts of German patriots. You have seen with what
fanatical unanimity they celebrated only the other day the
Schiller jublilee. Do you think that those solemn fetes, that
popular emotion, and overflowing of poetry and eloquence,
was a simple homage rendered to the memory of the poet ?
No, it was above and before all the outbreak of a nation
which, divided for centuries, seized the first pretext, a re-
membrance, a glory, a name, to become again united.
IV.

Then let Germany be re-united; France has no more
ardent or dearer wish, for she loves the German nation with
disinterested love. If we were possessed with that vulgar
ambition of which its Princes accuses us, we should not in-
duce the Germans to enter on the path of unity. States
divided among themselves are more easy to invade than
when united, and diviser pour refiner will always remain
the maxim of conquerors. May Germany be united ; may
she form a body so compact that the idea of encroaching
upon it will never present itself. Franca, which sees with-
out apprehension an Italy of 26,000,000 constituted in the
south, would not fear to see 32,000,000 of Germans form a
great nation on her eastern frontier.
V.
What German Sovereign shall have the honour of found-
ing this union ? Two great states enter the lists—Prussia
and Austria.
Austria represents the doctrine of Divine right, in its
most absolute rigour. Political and religious despotism,
abnegation of all the rights of the people, the most enor-
mous concessions to clerical authority, a blind worship of
the past and an obstinate hatred of all progress ; these are
the worm-eaten bases of the Austrian monarchy. Upon
these foundations, on which a disjointed empire is tottering,
shall we try to build up the great Germanic edifice ? All the
architects in the universe would accuse our imprudence.
This artificial empire, a patchwork of the most different
nations, formed by marriages and family compacts, without
the consent of the peoples it annexed, preserved in its inte-
grity by the severity of the police or the sanguinary brutality
of the soldiery, inspires but little sympathy to the German
nation. As long as the hegemony of the German Statehe
s
remained in the hands of the Hapsburgs they govrned t
affairs of a nation in a dynastic interest, endeavouring to
procure the aggrandisement of Austria at the expense of
Germany. On the day when the Germanic spirit, liberal
in its essence, entered on the path of religious reform, Aus-
tria placed herself at the head of the ultramontane reaction.
Sigismund and Ferdinand 11. rivalled the zeal of Philip 11.
of Spain; Tilly and Wallenstein served the Court of Rome
as harshly as the Duke of Parma and Alva. How could
Germany possibly forget these rigours when the Emperor
Francis Joseph, by a disastrous concordat, breaks finally
with the Germanic spirit, and places the policy of Austria
under the domination of Rome ?
Nevertheless, Austria has friends in the German nation.
On what suffrages could she reckon if the annexation were
ever to be put to the vote ? I look everywhere, but can only
And a few Princes and the sacred battalion of the squire-
archy: The aristocratic party has its reasons for loving
Austria. Family cadets find a more rapid advancement in
her service than in that of the other German states where
the competition of talent is greater. It is on this account
that the German nobility, and particularly that of the Ca-
tholic Southern States, turns to Austria as the magnet to
the Pole. One single figure will give you the ratio of that
affinity—Wurtemberg numbered, in 1858, more than 500
officers in the Austrian army.
But the German people properly so called, the indus-
trious, enlightened, liberal people, set no store by Austria.
They see in her a latent power, in a religious point of view ;
a Sclavonic Magyar, Italian power, mixed and doubtful as
far as nationality is concerned. They Know that in accept-
ing the domination of Austria they must renounce even a
hope of progress ; they see Austria closed to German manu-
factures (for she obstinately remains out of the customs
union) ; they hear it said that German ideas are severely
denied entrance at all the gates of Austria; they know that a
German, arriving at the German frontier, is as much a
stranger as a Frenchman, equally suspected of being a dan •
gerous philosoper, and finds almost as much difficulty in
making him understood. They think that the natural
allies of the Emperor Francis Joseph are at Rome and at
Naples, rather than at Dresden or Berlin, and that the
tlasoo7, Imperial
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required no p-essing if our soldiers had invaded the Ger-
manrent to repel the F ran co
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shouldered arms around Prussia, their natural leader.
VI.

Austria represents by her population a confused heap of
nationalities; by her Government the despotism of Divine
right ; by her Concordat the oppression over consciences ;
by her customs laws the spirit of prohibition. Prussia per-
sonifies German nationality, religious reform, commercial
progress, constitutional liberalism ; she is the greatest of
really Germanic monarchies; consciences are there more
free, and enlightenment more widely spread, political rights
more exclusive than in most other German states. It is she
who, by founding the Zollverein, paved:the way for free

trade; therefore the people of Germany love Prussia. They
behold her progress with sympathising admiration and filial
interest ; it is to Prussia they would appeal for succour if
any peril were impending. It is to her they would entrust,
in preference, the glorious task of national unity. Wereshe
to make up her mind to p'ay the part of Piedmont the whole
of Germany, with the exception of the princes and squire-
archy, would hasten to remove the obstacle in her way.
At the present time especially the Regent of the king-
dom, his Royal Highness the Prince of Prussia, seems to be
the object of a worship which borders on fanaticism. The
granting of a few liberties, the manifestation of a few good
intentions, a certain resistance opposed _to the squirearchy;
nothing more was wanting, the national impulse contribut-
ing its aid to place this Prince on a pedestal .
We are happy to discover that German unity has found
its centre, its rallying point, and nothing could be more
agreeable to us than to behold the nation grouping itself
around a firm and upright mind. If nothing occurs to put
a stop to the progress of this picific revolution it may be
hoped that the Princes themselves, carried along by the
movement of their people, will bow to the protecting spirit
of Prussia, and that the unity br Germany will be fected
without the shedding of a single drop of blood. Diplomacy
can raise no objection against this Internal reform. An
Austrian Germany, by uniting within the same band over
70,000,000 of men, would have threatened the equilibrium
of Europe and alarmed the powers ; a Prussian Germany,
_with 32,000,000 of citizens, can cause alarm to none.

. . VII.
But his Royal Hi4luiess the Prince of Prussia would
make a dangerous mistake were he to suppose that tne
national movement is poiieiful enough to dispense with any
assistance. However strong may be the impulsion which
leads the mass of Germans towards a Prussian monarchy, all
well-regulated minds (tousles bons esprits) will resist the
current, and throw themselves back if the Court of Berlin
does not meet them half-way. Democratic Germany is wise
and patriotic enough to r..11y round a King, but she will
requu e guarantees which the Prussian cons,ituti on does not
as yet pr, sent.
First of all it would be neeensary that Prussia should
make a choic3 between the two principles which divide
Eurol. eat the present day. Divine right and popular right
are in presence. V hilst a number of princess obstinately
clasp a false legitimacy, really legiemate empires a, e being
founded upon the democratic basis of universal suffrage.
The King of Naples stoutly asserts that his subjects are his
property, and the nation meets this pretended right with an
armed denial. The Emperor of the French and the King
of Sardinia declare, in e,,nformity with the tenets of' modern
philosophy, that a people c,nly belongs to itself, and two
great nations, by a nearly unanimous vote, elect them their
chiefs. Does the Prince of P. ussia side with Divine right,
with ,the King of Naples, or with popular right, with the
King of ardinia and the Emperor of the French? A
choice must be made.
It is the more nccessary as the King of Prussia had
chosen, and very badly chosen, in 1849. A national As-
sembly, the issue of universal suffrage, offered him in his
own palace a legitimate crown. What did he do? He
pronounced for Divine right against r °pular right. He
declared that he would oily accept the crown if it were ten-
dered him by princes. The Prussian squirearchy applauded
this anti-democratic resolution, and history has recorded
the formula by which they expressed their assent. "We
do not (they said) want a crown which democracy has spit
upon."
Not content with refusing the empire the King of Prussia
cruelly persecuted the upright and honourable men who had
offered it to him. The people of Baden and Saxony, inter-
preting in favour of unity the vote by universal suffrage,
had dethroned their Sovereigns. Two Prussian armies in-
vaded, in the name of the " Divine right," the kingdom of
Saxony and the Grand Duchy of Baden. The King of
Saxony was replaced on his throne by the Prussian forces.
The Grand Duke of Baden was restored in his turn, in virtue
of the same right, and by the same power. But more than
this was done. When the battle was won, and the campaign
closed—when the democratic army of Baden, 10,000 strong,
had retired to the territory of Switzerland—when all resist-
ance to the legitimacy of Divine right was overpowered—
the Prussian army shot, in the period of three months, in
the midst of the silence of peace, 26 German patriots. Their
bones rest in the churchyards of Friburgh, liadstadt, and
Mannheim ; their names are almost all forgotten, yet Ger-
many still remembers with admiraticya, mingled with sor-
row, young Max. Dortu, an authusiastic boy; Valentine
Streuber, a harmless and honest burgher of Mannheim ;
the old patriot Boning; and above all Adolphus Trtitxchler,
deputy to the Frankfort Parliament, member of the Court
of Appeal of Dresden, a. man of upright convictions and
large fortune. lie will long survive in the memory of Ger-
manic democracy, together with his glorious friend and ac-
complice, Robert Blum.

jected by a large majority the principle of civil marriages.
It almost broke out in open insurrection against a minis-
terial bill which proposed to make nobles pay taxes like
other classes of citizens.

That constitution is not perfect ; it will be wise to modify
it if it is desired that the Germans should throw themselves
into the arms of Prussia.

XI.
It will also be well, in the interest of this great opposition,
to treat witlr a little more fairness Governments that are
founded on universal suffrage. We do not make the Court
of Berlin responsible for the violence of the German press.
It is not we who will ever request the Prince of Prussia
to gag his subjects even when they insult us. But it is
open to us to remark that if the Siecle or the Opinion
Nationale expressed itself in offensive terms with regard to
a Sovereign not at war with us, the Moniteur of the empire,
or at least the semi-official papers, would hasten to repair
the mischief by severely blaming the delinquents.
It will also be desirable that political men in Prussia
should abstain in a constituent assembly to utter threats
directly addressed to France. When M. de Vineke talks
in the Chamber of Deruties of reeonquering from us
Alsatia and Lorraine, the French nation is not roused by
this indiscretion to the extent of going to war ; but it notes
with satisfaction that such imprudent manifestations never
take place at home.