St. Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1845-1863, 1862-03-27
From the London Spectator.
THE HESSE SCANDAL.

xSOU EtT L|OHftOh bsp>ttutT-
THE HESSE SCANDAL.
The electorate of Hesse CaSsel Ia one Of
the worst governed countries of Europe !:
certainly the worst of the thirty-two Ger
man States. The evil is more than a
century old The custom of selliug sub
jrcts like cattle was first invented i'm Hes
sc; and the fashins OF building hugo srrxs
glios, stocked with court fools, chamber
lains. and inistresses a Ia L,uis Qaatcr=e,
was first of all introduced into Ies<e, after
the great French prototype. Elector Fed
erick IL. sold 2!2 600 Of his subjects to the
British Government for hard cash, with
which he built himself little Versailles,
still visible near Casscl. and greatly ad-
mired by travelling Cockncy>. Frcler-
les SUCCESSORS took good car. to keep up
the very profitable sale Of fighting Hes
slams, worth, on an averagc. a round mil
lion sterling per anmum. Even Napoleon
was di>gusted with this shameless sale "f
human flesh and bio Il. and to show his
utter contempt of the electoral rule. swept
it from the map Of Europe, in~tituting in
lis place the Kingdom If Wes'phalia,
with merry brother jerome on the throne
For seven long years the Electors ate the
bread Of exile. coming back only with the
Bourbons, and like them. having learnt
nothing and forgotten nothing" At the
! Congress Of Vienna. the ruler Of lI..sse,
untaught by adversely, argued openly in
favor of scrfdom; he alone, of all the Ger
man Princes. clung to the antiqua,c and
unmcauins title of Erctor, and he insist
cd that his troops should wear lmg tailed
wigs, and cockcd-hats, an1 rcnlain as OF
old under the rule of the sick
, The sultan element WAS great il this
Elcc,or William l.; but greater still is his
son, William IL. who asc' ndcd the
throne in 1921. His notions of govern
mcnt were those of cattlr-,!riv, r. anil
his morals those of lax French Able
His court was composed Of the lowest
characters; and he was shamel IS enough
to force vulgar mistress into the conpa-
ny Of hi. C"nsort, daughter Of King
Frederick William ii Of Prussia The
latter, having suffered all .rts of bru.a!i-
ties, at last fed the court, and the nj
efress had it all Lcr own way. ruling alike
~tle ElcCior and the electorate. Madame
Or;lcp: pss,notcd to be Countess Rcichen-
bach, %tcgahsgoveruing Ilessc-Casscl after
the uianner of Turkish rashalik.
! Places. houors, and digni,ics were OPEN
ly sold; justice publicly corrupted; and
religion ostcutatious!y outraged Whvso-
ever displrascd Madame Orslrp was
thrown into prison, a,I had to thank his
stars if he could save his head S, things
went on Till the year 1880. when thc
Paris insurrcc.ion set the continent in
flames, producing small ear,hquak and
volcanic crupti'ns every where. Madame
Orlep and her friends JUi I d Cas.el III
hot haste. and the Elector on sudden
became quite iii eral, ani thoroughly ilp-
bucd with Constitutional feelings. \
Diet was summoned, the plcasantcst pro-
inisrs were made, and 4 new constitution
''on the English pattern" was framed and
adopted. The Elcctor solemnly took his
oath 10 obey the constitution, Oh January
>. 1891. 1t is this ''CMnsti,utinn of
! 1881" which fr.ns SO important a part i'll
the great Question of Iles>u' now lend
ing before the tribunal Of Eropc.
Not six months after tn" s,lcmn oath
taking, Madame Ortlcp returned To Cas-cl
Her arrival was si ignaliz-d by the fresh ac-
tivity of the police. the filling Of all the
| prisnns. and the suspension Of the laws
! which protected the liberty Of the press.
The excitement thereup"n rose to such a
a height that the Elect"r once more be-
gan to fear the loss nf his crown, and. to
secure it. admitted a co-regcnt III tho per-
son of his cld,st sou. Madame Or,lcp
also Was induced to retire little into the
background; but only to make room for
another lady Of more ability. but nearly rs
questionable rcputc. Corcgcnt Frederic
William L., like his sire was under the
influence Of a fair one, Madame Gvrtru,l..
formerly the wife Of n"n-comni>sioned
officer, Il very expensive lady--searcrly
less so than Madame Ortlcp--,h"ueh. ac-
cording te the ''Almannch dc Gotha." a
wife .'uf the left ha,.d" That. soon after
the co-rcgcncy had been declared, she was
Princess of Hanau aud Countess Of
Schaumburg was nothing; nor that she
made the fortune of dozen Jews by pur-
chasing their diamonds. Bus far more
serious was it that she, too, iht.rfcred ii
the government of Hessr. and succeeded
in urholding by means Of her creatures. a
thorough drSpotism. Possessed ofa high
er ability than Madame or'lep. though
also shade more avaricious Ma,is,Dc
Gertrude contrived to establish h"r s"rer-
eighty on e frm basis, FROM which che has
mt vet been ousted.
The death of the old Elcc,"r. in ls4'.
left her mistress of the fell al'l absolute
ruler Of near a million of iIrssians. Her
chief object new h'camc 10 make rror's-
ion for herself. aud the nine chi!!rcn she
had brought hcr li.ge lord, Forms of
Constitution being greatly in the way "f
such provision making. they were I'll
swept away succe>sivcly hy the hands Of
M,danc Gertrude First. tie much prai.
ed Constitution Of 1881 wa abrcgatcd By
= / IL;.