The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1848-04-19
c.rmanv-PrusSia.

n
the thinking portion OF the worid Nad'cai social
reform will be obtained in Germany sooner than In
anu other continental country-and liberal or re-
nublican government will be firmly established on
the soil of Vaterland while other nations continue
convulsed with the throes of revolutionary expert
ments. We have a faith in the German race, and
in the German destiny, for which we can find no
adequate grounds in the nature and condition of
the other races of the world. But we have not
time now, nor are the columns of newspaper,
perhaps the proper place, to discuss the geneoogy,
the characteristics, the probable ultimate fate of
races 1t is enough, that great political change
is being developed in the German States, to make
them matter of interest to readers, and to rem
der any correct information upon their condition ac-
ceptable. Such information we can convey IN
the brief space of few short articles, will be FUR
nished in columns, and if we can, by this MEANS
make more Ineligible the condition OF things
and the progress of events, our object Will De
accomplished.
We begin with the kingdom of Prussia, the
second in rank in the German Confederation anu
the first in the more important organization Oh 'iie
Zoll Verein or German Customs Union, Oh po'h
of which we shall speak more fully hereafter.
Prussia is a new kingdom, dating only from the
wear 100 it owes its rise and greatness Principally
to the crimes the ambition, and the genius OF the
nrinces of the House of Brandenburg, the reignng
family The seizure of SILICA from Austria, by
Frederick the Great and its retention at the end of
the seven years. war"-the dismemberment of
Poland by Russia, Prussia and Austria, and the
general division of Europe at the Congress of Vi
emma in 1915, have given to the formerly insignif
of pyta of tprrI
tory, exceeding lO7 900 square miles, with popu-
Iation of about 100000. Though the greater
portion of this territory has been unustly acquired
it has not been unwisely governed and the present
condition of the people-in advance of all their
neighbors-prov that, however the change of
masters may have been effected, its consequences
have been beneficial to the masses.
The government Of Prussia, we have been accus-
toned to call a despotism it is indeed monarchy,
sometimes guilty of arbitrary acts, but in reality,
monarchy of very limited powers, which circum-
stances have made to depend almost entirely upon
the will of the people. These circumstances con-
sst in the universally of popular education, in the
nature and organization of the military force and
in the general distribution of the landed property of
the kingdom. Each of these will deserve sepa-
rate notice.
The philosophic mind of Frederick the Great,
projected, among other means of improving his peo-
pie, grand scheme of general education, which
his have religiously carried out. Every
child in Prussia, is obliged by law, to attend the
public schools, after it has attained the age of five
years, until such time it can pass examination
satisfactory to the priest of the parish or, until it
has acquired those branches of knowledge which
the statute prescribes Those who are able, pay
trif1ing for tuition; those who not, receive
it at the public expense. In these schools, and in
the gymnasiums, superior schools, and the univer
sites, any degree of education may be acquired
above the standard made absolutely necessary by
law, which the talents, tastes, condition of the
citizen may require. 1t may be assumed as fact,
that every child born in Prussia, not absolutely
idiot, has received or is receiving an education
Here is an element of popular power, which must
be always kept in view, when specializing upon the
present institutions of this country, or upon the
events which may mark her future history.
The military organization of the kingdom is pc
culiar. The great extent of the Prussian frontier,
the scattered position of its Provinces with the
absence of any thing like safe, natural military
of which the reader will at once ap-
preciate by casting his eye over the map-has made
it necessary in the present warlike age and in that
dangerous neighborhood, that powerful standing
army should be maintained. But to hired soldiers
the poverty of the treasury placed limit far within
the wants of the public service. The govern
ment, therefore, has raised the army from the citi-
zens themselves. Every is obliged to enter the
army private, between the ages of twenty and
thlrty-two, and to serve therein for three gears,
after which, he may enter the army as volunteer,
return to civil life, in which latter case, he forms
part of the army of reserve liable to be called out
as occasion may require, until he is thirty-nne
years of age; he is then discharged from military
service, unless the public safety calls for levy en-
asse, when every man is a soldier, and tried and
trained one. Amy one must perceive from this or
yanization of the Prussian army that the soldiery
actually in service form part and parcel of the COM
munity and that their sentiments interests and as
piratons must be Identical with those of the body of
the peope-and further that the soldiers the army
Of reserve better trained and better organized sort
Of national guard, embracing the greater number of
active citizens, have in their power the means of
securing their own rights, even should any portion
of the actual army be led for a moment to become
the instruments by which those rights are invaded;
and finally, that all the people being brought up to
'he use OF arms, they are perfectly aware of their
strength, and of the most efectual manner in which
that strength may be employed
Again: there is third element of popular power
in the distribution of the soil The different pro-
vinces of Prussia, like tie other states of Feudal
Europe, were once cursed by the institution of no.
bic and serf-or, as it is modernized, Landlord
and tenant-the latter form being more profitable
to the lord while it is about equally onerous to the
subject This condition continued, in one or the
other form, until 1867, when-as if as pun
ishment for past iniquities, in despoiling Austria
and Poland-the armies of Napoleon at Jena, Au-
erstadt and Fredland, had broken the power of the
RUSSIAN monarch, occupied his capital, divided
his States, and made him a fugitive in his own
domnions. In that hour of desperation, when the
conqueror threatened to blot Prussia from the map
OF Europe-the wise counsel of an enlightened
minister and the distresses of the king, produced
a radical change in the whole conformation of
Frlsslan society-elevated the condition of the
non trait J