We hear for ever of popul...
The Times, 1824-09-02T00:00:00

We hear for ever of popular and even individual vio- lences, attempted against Sovereigne aud their Ministers: but there are violences to which these great personages sel- dom make any allusion. Of such a chnaracter is the propo- sition, of which we gave a short descriptioni yesterday, placed by Aus:ria upon the Minutes of the Germanic Con- federatioi. on tlhe 16t- ult. The fears of Prince METTER- ,sIcH, or of his literary and alightened Sovereign, lhave broke out on this occasion in a paro"'Ism of what is really nothing better than outrageous folly. It see;>C to be the intont of the Hioly Alliance, that nothiog shall be (hJrc, notling published, notblitig taught, nothing thought, in aPtv one state of Europe, over which every other state shall net i the prerogative of exercising an incessant con- trol. One qualification only, it may be said, attends this new system of Govermnent-namely, that the con- trol is never to be applicable but on behalf of the dozen or two of persons whom fortune has raised to chairs of state, with footstools, canopies, and bayonets, for their de- corations, and against the hundreds of millions of men, who, according to a certain creed, are actually bound to live oir dlie as a service or a sarraice is required by those vho rule them. l'-ince .ll -r ISCn lays it flown as the fixcdl pleasure of Austria, that all thc ''public power" of a state mnust remnain in the hands of the Sovercign-t.ot, be it undev- 3tood, in Austria alon,c but in every one of those countries whiChil she at the same time, with beautiful consistency, declares to be inadepedenit in their internal adminiistration : h,e if anyv le- islative or other act should take place in one of tllclll, wvhich another (and that other means Austria her- seif) concrcivcs to be alarming to the " Monarchical princi. ple," vhy thXn the Diet-that is, Austria which reigns over tle l)iet-is privileged and bound by duty to intcrfere and bring back the erring Prin?- or Legislative Body to reason. ilow, then, is such a rule to operate ? The m;ost perfect i!iustrationi of the monarchlical principle is to be foundl, nio doubt, within the dominions of FRANcIs. What- ever differs from the Imperial model must be wrong-wltat- ever falls short of Austrian " monarclhy" in other German States must be defective-whatever diverges from it, most dangerous to thrones and altars. But Bavaria has a Diet; andl Wurtemberg; and Prussia some shadowvy forms of a re- presentative just proclaimedt, or in preparation. Hanover, too, has bad for somne slhort period states, or what are called by that name. Are not all these so many adulterations of pure monarchy ? Is it not very dangerous that these as- semblies should deliberate? Ay, and it is an nottnce(d bv the protocol itself, that the printinig of such debates shouldl bc curtailed antd guarded, so as to prevent any wicked notions from getting abroad, that liberty can be advanced by popular repiesentatives, or knowledge by the publicity of their sentimenti and proceedings, But then it is admitted-nay, it is boasted of-that " the senti- " ments and wishes of the Gernans, if left to their own impulses, are full of attachiment to their Princes; and that every contrary appearance is the work of guilty denmagogues." WVhat ihen, can the few demagogues argue the botly of the people ont of their senses ? If the press be free to the democrat, is it niot to the loyalist like- wise ? Or is it wished to be inferred, that-democracy can be defenrded by reason, but monarchy only by the sword ? In1 sooth, Prince MXTTERvICrCu, this is unlucky logic. *Ve are disposed to draw from thesc desperate plunges of the legitimates the conclusion, that they are more and more dissatisfiefl with their work--that the summit of that cloud- capped eininence towards which they are aspiring, seems to recede as they struggle to approach it ; and that they will ne-ver cease from encroachinig further upon the free agency and common sense of mankind, untlt with one cossent the nations turn, an(d annihilate them.