The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1850-03-28
BERLIN LETTER.
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PRUSSIAN REvo.
LUTON.
SECOND PART.
CHAPTER V.

me CamPhdhSeH N1WlaTy ana me UeHrfuf Dtct
On the oath of March, Ludolph Camphausen,
President ofthe Chamber of Commerce at Cologne,
came to Berlin. His refusal to enter the unpop-
ular Ministry of Count Arnim occasioned the
formation, on the Goth, of q new Ministry, Of
which he became the President His colleagues
had most of them been meVbers of the opposition
in ls47, and enjoyed the confidence and sympathy
of the people. David Hausemann, the severe
critic Of the administration Of the Prussian
treasury, became Minister nj Finance; Count
Shwerin, Pomeranian nobeman, whose opinions
had seemed liberal when contrasted with the folly
of those held by the Eichhorn Ministry, became
Minister of Public Worship and Instruction.
The Ministry of the Interior was given to Alfred
Won Anerswald, an East Prussian noblcman
whose position in respect to parties scarcely enti
tied him to be called liberal General Won
Regular became Minister of War, and M. Won
Arnm, then ambassador at Paris Minister Of
Foreign Affairs.
The accession of Camphausen, Hausemann, and
Anerswald, to office, was universally approved
Objections were made to Shwerin. The councils
of eighteen OF the towns on the Rhine had de-
manded the dismissal from the former Ministry
of Count Shwerin, as we'll as Of his more unpopu-
lar colleagues He had voted in the General
Diet of ls47 for the notorious paragraph in the
penal code, infiicting the punishment of peniten
tiary Imprisonment for any insult 10 the memory
of deceased members of the royal family.
The object which the new Ministry proposed
to itself was, to use the language of Camphausen
himself, "to draw the Government gently over
the chasm which separated the old system from
the new" We shall see that instead of attaining
this object it permitted the revolution itself to
fall into this chasm.
Rarely has any Ministry, in great crisis, been
SO favored by circumstances ms this was at the
moment when it took the helm Of the storm
tossed ship of State. Their past action in politics
did not prevent them from taking the head of the
party of progress, and of reaping a rich harvest
from the revolution. The parties were generally
in its favor radical deputaton admitted that
the formation Of the Ministry was good guaranty
for the performance of the royal promises; the
conservatives looked on the Ministry as a neces-
sary evil the bourgeoisie rejoiced over this bour
gcoisie Ministry, whose two principal members,
Camphausen and Hausemann, had reached the
Ministry without passing through all the grades
Of the Bureaucracy, On exception without pre-
cedcnt in Prussian history. No opposition to the
energetic carrying out Of the principles Of the
revolution was to be feared. The military showed
no signs of mutnous spirit, but were contented
with the course OF things. The old system Of the
Bureaucracy had lost all courage, surprising its
days were numbered. The King had not yet left
Berlin. He was in the hands Of the Ministry. He
took no direct part in the administration, but left
the initiative in everything to the responsible
Ministers The state OF public opinion was clearly
indicated by the fact that selfconstituted COM
mittee Of fifty, sitting at Frankfort, and acting
entirely in the democratic sense, was obeyed
throughout all Germany. This was fnger-post
to show the Camphsusen Ministry the road it
should 90.
The theory of Camphausen spoiled everything.
He wished to satisfy all parties, and pleased
none. The transition which he supposed he ought
to effect had already taken place. The combat Of
the 18th and 10Th Of March had in reality en-
| tirely overthrow the old Government and its
system. Instead of organizing the new system,
which had already ,een adopted, Camphsusen
supposed the old one to be still In existence, and
that it should be set aside gradually. lie should
have Immediately organized the national guard in
the capital and provinces; he should have placed
the communcs, circles and districts, on demo-
cratic basis removed from Office the reactionary
provincial officers, and at once destroyed, 10 the
very roots, the systems Of the Bureaucracy and
the police of espionage. Another urgent measure
WAS the institution Of trial by jury for political
offences, and the amendment or repeal Of the old
laws on high treason, whose severity had made
them so justly unpopular
Instead Of taking these and similar measures Of
pressing urgency, the Ministry contsntsd Itself
with receiving deputations from different places
begging them to give an example of confidence (,
and with lsgaliring the rights Of the free press