Evansville weekly journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 184?-18??, 1848-05-04
NO I I

for nearly forty years; Ferdinand of Austria
granting his subjects whatever they sdemand;
Frederick William, of Prussia, anxloes TO do
every thing his people had the heart to require;
and the mediatized Princes, the Kings, the
Dukes, Potentates, and other rulers throughout
the Germanic confederation suddenly relaxing
their severity and becoming oblIglng TO the last
degree, are scenes which must employ the
pens of historians, philosophers, satlrlsts, ana
bards. and give birth to chapters OF prose ana
cantos of song such as have not hitherto de-
lighted the minds of men. In this grand and
varied scene the King of Prussia plays con-
spicuous and ludicrous part. There is no pro-
clamation or record so marvellous as that ne
signed in ''the night between the lSthand 18th
of March. 1913" In this remarkable paper he
exhausts all the affectionate and smooth words
in the language. After many such honeyed
phrases as my beloved citizens, "faithtul and
beloved citizens" he says: ''Your aflectlonate
Queen. your true mother and friend, who IS
bent down with severe sickness, unltes her
earnest and fearful prayers with mine. What
a scene! The king of Prussia on his knees
begging his beloved citizens, not subjects, to
pardon him, imploring them in the name OF a
sick queen to forgive him, for employing his
soldiers. who had been kept about the palace
to guard that musty and dingy old precinct of
despotism, to put down their insurrecton.-
Beseeching them to forget what has happened
"for the sake of the great future, which by the
blessingof God, is about TO dawn on Prussia
and Germany!" The pathos of this proclama-
ton is-such as is wholly unequalled in the an
mails ofimperial rhetoric. Thus implored, OF
course the fiery Berlinese make truce with their
terror stricken King the soldiers are banished
from their presence, and they are granted agreat
triumph.
Thanks to Frederick William for that lessoni
The Prussians will never forgetit. They will
never again become the slaves of despotism,
to its knees. Hereafter when they want reforms
they know how to obtain them.
Is there no Aristopanes, no Moliere to
paint the scene presented on that memorable
night, and to give it permanence in comedy,
such as it is destined TO enjoy ON the tablets of
the graver muse of History
The king of Belgium acted noble part
His conduct became him as man and a true
sovereign. Leopold instantly acknowledged
the supremacy of the people of Belgium, and
ordered his ministers TO grant whatever they
asked, not even excepting his crown. He
freely acknowledged that the Government was
the rightful property of the people, and added
that, if they desired a republic, they should
| have it.
The philosophic historian will be called on
to trace these grand and gloriousevents to their
causes He will find that, during the long
protracted peace of Europe. the people had en-
! loved time to think. War is the greatest of
all the disastrous calamities that afflict man
kind. Its destructive infences on the mind
are more wasteful than its sacrifices of life. 1t
is and always has been the leading agentin
producing despotsms of church and state. I'M
der the shadow of peace all those sentiments,
affections, and doctrines grow up which bless
our species. Let Europe maintain peace, and
henceforth reform will follow reform until
the political millennium dawns on a happy
1 world.
Above the cracking of thrones The shiser-
J, ing of sceptres, the tumbling down of old and
rotten dynasties, and the mighty huzzas of the
people, one glorious truth rises in grandeur and
celestial beauty: 1t is demonstrated that the
radiant form ofliberty need not be baptised in
blood before temples and shrines can be erected
in her sacred name and her devotion becomes
the lawful worship of the heart Long may
/ her affairs exist and her temples be undesecrat-
ed by scenes ofanarchy, if the people are wise
enough to abolish war, that great device of the
devil for the enslavement of the human race.