A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Z

Germany from the Earliest Period Vol. 4

W >> Wolfgang Menzel, Trans. Mrs. George Horrocks >> Germany from the Earliest Period Vol. 4




Belgium, annexed to this secondary state instead of being incorporated
with great and liberal Germany, necessarily remained a stranger to any
influence calculated to excite her sympathy with the general interests
of Germany. Cut off, as heretofore, from German influence, she
retained, in opposition to the Dutch, a preponderance of the old
Spanish and modern French element in her population. Priests and
liberals, belonging to the French school, formed an opposition party
against the king, who, on his side, rested his sole support upon the
Dutch, whom he favored in every respect. Count Broglio, archbishop of
Ghent, first began the contest by refusing to take the oath on the
constitution. Violence was resorted to and he fled the country. The
impolicy of the government in affixing his name to the pillory merely
served to increase the exasperation of the Catholics. Hence their
acquiescence with the designs of the Jesuits, their opposition to the
foundation of a philosophical academy, independent of the clergy, at
Louvain. The fact of the population of Belgium being to that of
Holland as three to two and the number of its representatives in the
states-general being as four to seven, of few, if any, Belgians being
allowed to enter the service of the state, the army, or the navy,
still further added to the popular discontent. The gross manners of
the minister, Van Maanen, also increased the evil. As early as
January, 1830, eight liberal Belgian deputies were deprived of their
offices, and De Potter, with some others, who had ventured to defend
them by means of the press, were banished the kingdom under a charge
of high treason.

The Dutch majority in the states-general, notwithstanding its devotion
to the king, rejected the ten years' budget on the ground of its
affording too long a respite to ministerial responsibility, and
protested against the levy of Swiss troops. Slave-trade in the
colonies was also abolished in 1818.

The position of the Netherlands, which, Luxemburg excepted, did not
appertain to the German confederation, continually exposed her, on
account of Belgium, to be attacked on the land side by France, on that
of the sea by her ancient commercial foe, England, and had induced the
king to form a close alliance with Russia. His son, William of Orange,
married a sister of the emperor Alexander.

The colonies did not regain their former prosperity. The Dutch
settlement at Batavia with difficulty defended itself against the
rebellious natives of Sumatra and Java.

The revolution in Paris had an electric effect upon the irritated
Belgians. On the 25th of August, 1830, Auber's opera, "The Dumb Girl
of Portici," the revolt of Masaniello in Naples, was performed at the
Brussels theatre and inflamed the passions of the audience to such a
degree, that, on quitting the theatre, they proceeded to the house of
Libry, the servile newspaper editor, and entirely destroyed it: the
palace of the minister, Van Maanen, shared the same fate. The citizens
placed themselves under arms, and sent a deputation to The Hague to
lay their grievances before the king. The entire population meanwhile
rose in open insurrection, and the whole of the fortresses, Maestricht
and the citadel of Antwerp alone excepted, fell into their hands.
William of Orange, the crown prince, ventured unattended among the
insurgents at Brussels and proposed, as a medium of peace, the
separation of Belgium from Holland in a legislative and administrative
sense. The king also made an apparent concession to the wishes of the
people by the dismissal of Van Maanen, but shortly afterward declared
his intention not to yield, disavowed the step taken by his son, and
allowed some Belgian deputies to be insulted at The Hague. A fanatical
commotion instantly took place at Brussels; the moderate party in the
civic guard was disarmed, and the populace made preparations for
desperate resistance. On the 25th of September, Prince Frederick,
second son to the king of Holland, entered Brussels with a large body
of troops, but encountered barricades and a heavy fire in the Park,
the Place Royal, and along the Boulevards. An immense crowd, chiefly
composed of the people of Liege and of peasants dressed in the blue
smock of the country, had assembled for the purpose of aiding in the
defence of the city. The contest, accompanied by destruction of the
dwelling-houses and by pillage, lasted five days. The Dutch were
accused of practicing the most horrid cruelties upon the defenceless
inhabitants and of thereby heightening the popular exasperation. At
length, on the 27th of September, the prince was compelled to abandon
the city. On the 5th of October, Belgium declared herself independent.
De Potter returned and placed himself at the head of the provisional
government. The Prince of Orange recognized the absolute separation of
Belgium from Holland in a proclamation published at Antwerp, but was,
nevertheless, constrained to quit the country. Antwerp fell into the
hands of the insurgents; the citadel, however, refused to surrender,
and Chassé, the Dutch commandant, caused the magnificent city to be
bombarded, and the well-stored entrepot, the arsenal, and about sixty
or seventy houses, to be set on fire, during the night of the 27th of
October, 1830.[2] The cruelties perpetrated by the Dutch were bitterly
retaliated upon them by the Belgian populace. On the 10th of November,
however, a national Belgian congress met, in which the moderate party
gained the upper hand, principally owing to the influence of the
clergy. De Potter's plan for the formation of a Belgian commonwealth
fell to the ground. The congress decided in favor of the maintenance
of the kingdom, drew up a new constitution, and offered the crown to
the Prince de Nemours, second son of the king of the French. It was,
however, refused by Louis Philippe in the name of his son, in order to
avoid war with the other great European powers. Surlet de Chokier, the
leader of the liberal party, hereupon undertook the provisional
government of the country, and negotiations were entered into with
Prince Leopold of Coburg.

On the 4th of November, a congress, composed of the ministers of
England, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, met at London for the purpose
of settling the Belgian question without disturbing the peace of
Europe, and it was decided that Prince Leopold of Coburg, the widower
of the princess royal of England, a man entirely under British
influence, and who had refused the throne of Greece, should accept
that of Belgium. Eighteen articles favorable to Belgium were granted
to him by the London congress. Scarcely, however, had he reached
Brussels, on the 31st July, 1831, than the fetes given upon that
occasion were disturbed by the unexpected invasion of Belgium by a
numerous and powerful Dutch force. At Hasselt, the Prince of Orange
defeated the Belgians under General Daine, and, immediately advancing
against Leopold, utterly routed him at Tirlemont, on the 12th August.
The threats of France and England, and the appearance of a French army
in Belgium, saved Brussels and compelled the Dutch to withdraw. The
eighteen articles in favor of Belgium were, on the other hand,
replaced by twenty-four others, more favorable to the Dutch, which
Leopold was compelled to accept. The king of Holland, however,
refusing to accept these twenty-four articles, with which,
notwithstanding the concessions therein contained, he was
dissatisfied, the Belgian government took advantage of the undecided
state of the question not to undertake, for the time being, half of
the public debt of Holland, which, by the twenty-four articles, was
laid upon Belgium.

Negotiations dragged on their weary length, and protocol after
protocol followed in endless succession from London. In 1832, Leopold
espoused Louisa, one of the daughters of the king of the French, and
was not only finally recognized by the northern powers, but, by means
of the intervention of England, being backed by a fleet, and by means
of that of France, being backed by an army, compelled Holland to
accept of terms of peace. The French troops under Gerard, unassisted
by the Belgians and watched by a Prussian army stationed on the Meuse,
regularly besieged and took the citadel of Antwerp, on Christmas eve,
1832, gave it up to the Belgians as pertaining to their territory, and
evacuated the country. King William, however, again rejecting the
twenty-four articles, all the other points, the division of the public
debt, the navigation of the Scheldt, and, more than all, the future
destiny of the province of Luxemburg, which formed part of the
confederated states of Germany, had been declared hereditary in the
house of Nassau-Orange, and which, by its geographical position and
the character of its inhabitants, was more nearly connected with
Belgium, remained for the present unsettled. In 1839, Holland was
induced by a fresh demonstration on the part of the great powers to
accept the twenty-four articles, against which Belgium in her turn
protested on the ground of the procrastination on the part of Holland
having rendered her earlier accession to these terms null and void.
Belgium was, however, also compelled to yield. By this fresh agreement
it was settled that the western part of Luxemburg, which had in the
interim fallen away from the German confederation, should be annexed
to Belgium, and that Holland (and the German confederation) should
receive the eastern part of Limburg in indemnity; and that Belgium,
instead of taking upon herself one-half of the public debt of the
Netherlands, should annually pay the sum of five million Dutch guldens
toward defraying the interest of that debt.

The period of the independence of Belgium, brief as it was, was made
use of, particularly under the Nothomb ministry, for the development
of great industrial activity, and, more especially, for the creation
of a system of railroads, until now without its parallel on the
continent. Unfortunately but little was done in favor of the interests
of Germany. The French language had already become so prevalent
throughout Belgium that, in 1840, the provincial councillors of Ghent
were constrained to pass a resolution to the effect that the offices
dependent upon them should, at all events, solely be intrusted to
persons acquainted with the Flemish dialect, and that their rescripts
should be drawn up in that language.--Holland immensely increased her
public debt in consequence of her extraordinary exertions. In 1841,
the king, William I., voluntarily abdicated the throne and retired
into private life, in the enjoyment of an enormous revenue, with a
Catholic countess whom he had wedded. He was succeeded by his son,
William II.


[Footnote 1: "The Netherlands formed, nevertheless, but a weak bulwark
to Germany. Internal disunion, superfluous fortresses, a weak army. On
the one side, a witless, wealthy, haughty aristocracy, an influential
and ignorant clergy; on the other, civic pride, capelocratic
pettiness, Calvinistic _brusquerie_. The policy pursued by the king
was inimical to Germany."--_Stein's Letters._]

[Footnote 2: So bitter was the enmity existing between the Belgians
and the Dutch that the Dutch lieutenant, Van Speyk, when driven by a
storm before Antwerp, blew up his gunboat in the middle of the Scheldt
rather than allow it to fall into the hands of the Belgians.]



CCLXVIII. The Swiss Revolution


The restoration of 1814 had replaced the ancient aristocracy more or
less on their former footing throughout Switzerland. In this country
the greatest tranquillity prevailed; the oppression of the aristocracy
was felt, but not so heavily as to be insupportable. Many benefits,
as, for instance, the draining of the swampy Linththal by Escher of
Zurich, were, moreover, conferred upon the country. Mercenaries were
also continually furnished to the king of France, to the pope, and,
for some time, to the king of the Netherlands. France, nevertheless,
imposed such heavy commercial duties that several of the cantons
leagued together for the purpose of taking reprisals. This
misunderstanding between Switzerland and France unfortunately did not
teach wisdom to the states belonging to the German confederation, and
the Rhine was also barricaded with custom-houses, those graves of
commerce. The Jesuits settled at Freiburg in the Uechtland, where they
founded a large seminary and whence they finally succeeded in
expelling Peter Girard, a man of high merit, noted for the liberality
of his views on education.[1]

The Paris revolution of July also gave rise to a democratic reaction
throughout Switzerland. Berne, by a circular, published September 22,
1830, called upon the other Swiss governments to suppress the
revolutionary spirit by force, and, by so doing, fired the train. The
government of Zurich wisely opposed the circular and made a voluntary
reform. In all the other cantons popular societies sprang up, and,
either by violence or by threats, subverted the ancient governments.
New constitutions were everywhere granted. The immense majority of the
people was in favor of reform, and the aristocracy offered but faint
resistance. Little towns or villages became the centre of the
movements against the capitals. Fischer, an innkeeper from
Merischwanden, seized the city of Aarau; the village of Burgdorf
revolutionized the canton of Berne, the village of Murten the canton
of Freiburg, the village of Weinfelden the canton of Constance; this
example was followed by the peasantry of Solothurn and Vaud; the
government of St. Gall imitated that of Zurich.

Basel was also attempted to be revolutionized by Liestal, but the
wealthy and haughty citizens, principally at the instigation of the
family of Wieland, made head against the peasantry, who were led by
one Gutzwyler. The contest that had taken place in Belgium was here
reacted on a smaller scale. A dispute concerning privileges commencing
between the citizens and the peasantry, bloody excesses ensued and a
complete separation was the result. The peasantry, superior in number,
asserted their right to send a greater number of deputies to the great
council than the cities, and the latter, dreading the danger to which
their civic interests would be thereby exposed, obstinately refused to
comply. Party rage ran high; the Baselese insulted some of the
deputies sent by the peasantry, and the latter, in retaliation, began
to blockade the town. Colonel Wieland made some sallies; the federal
diet interfered, and the peasantry, being dispersed by the federal
troops, revenged themselves during their retreat by plundering the
vale of Reigoldswyler, which had remained true to Basel. In Schwyz,
the Old-Schwyzers and the inhabitants of the outer circles, who,
although for centuries in possession of the rights of citizenship,
were still regarded by the former as their vassals, also fell at
variance, and the latter demanded equal rights or complete separation.
In Neufchatel, Bourguin attempted a revolution against the Prussian
party and took the city, but succumbed to the vigorous measures
adopted by General Pfuel, 1831.

The conduct of the federal diet, which followed in the footsteps of
European policy, and which, by winking at the opposing party and
checking that in favor of progression, sought to preserve the balance,
but served to increase party spirit. In September, 1831, the Radicals
founded at Langenthal, the _Schutzverein_ or protective union, which
embraced all the liberal clubs throughout Switzerland and was intended
to counteract the impending aristocratic counterrevolution. Men like
Schnell of Berne, Troxler the philosopher, etc., stood at its head.
They demanded the abolition of the constitution of 1815 as too
aristocratic and federal, and the foundation of a new one in a
democratic and independent sense for the increase of the external
power and unity of Switzerland, and for her internal security from
petty aristocratic and local views and intrigues. In March, 1832,
Lucerne, Zurich, Berne, Solothurn, St. Gall, Aargau, and Constance
formed a _Concordat_ for the mutual maintenance of their democratic
constitutions until the completion of the revisal of the
confederation. The aristocratic party, Schwyz, Uri, Unterwalden
(actuated by ancient pride and led by the clergy), Basel, and
Neufchatel meanwhile formed the Sarner confederation. In August, the
deposed Bernese aristocracy, headed by Major Fischer, made a futile
attempt to produce a counter-revolution. In the federal diet, the
envoys of the _Concordat_ and the threatening language of the clubs
compelled the members to bring a new federal constitution under
deliberation, but opinions were too divided, and the constitution
projected in 1833 fell to the ground for want of sufficient support.
At the moment of this defeat of the liberal party, Alt-Schwyz, led by
Abyberg, took up arms, took possession of Küssnacht, and threatened
the _Concordat_, the Baselese at the same time taking the field with
one thousand two hundred men and fourteen pieces of ordnance. The
people were, however, inimical to their cause; Abyberg fled; the
Baselese were encountered by the peasantry in the Hartwald and
repulsed with considerable loss. The federal diet demonstrated the
greatest energy in order to prevent the _Concordat_ and the
_Schutzverein_ from acting in its stead. Schwyz and Basel were
occupied with soldiery; the former was compelled to accept a new
constitution drawn up with a view of pacifying both parties, the
latter to accede to a complete separation between the town and
country. The Sarner confederation was dissolved, and all discontented
cantons were compelled, under pain of the infliction of martial law,
to send envoys to the federal diet. Intrigues, having for object the
alienation of the city of Basel, of Neufchatel, and Valais from the
confederation, were discovered and frustrated by the diet, not without
the approbation of France, the Valais and the road over the Simplon
being thereby prevented from falling beneath the influence of Austria.

In 1833, five hundred Polish refugees, suspected of supporting the
Frankfort attempt in Germany, quitted France for Switzerland, and soon
afterward unsuccessfully invaded Savoy in conjunction with some
Italian refugees. Crowds of refugees from every quarter joined them
and formed a central association, Young Europe, whence branched
others, Young France, Young Poland, Young Germany, and Young Italy.
The principal object of this association was to draw the German
journeymen apprentices (_Handwerks-bursche_) into its interests, and
for this purpose a banquet was given by it to these apprentices in the
Steinbrölzle near Berne. These intrigues produced serious threats on
the side of the great powers, and Switzerland yielded. The greater
part of the refugees were compelled to emigrate through France to
England and America. Napoleon's nephew was, at a later period, also
expelled Switzerland. His mother, Queen Hortense, consort to Louis,
ex-king of Holland, daughter to Josephine Beauharnais, consequently
both stepdaughter and sister-in-law to Napoleon, possessed the
beautiful estate of Arenenberg on the Lake of Constance. On her death
it was inherited by her son, Louis, who, during his residence there,
occupied himself with intrigues directed against the throne of Louis
Philippe. In concert with a couple of military madmen, he introduced
himself into Strasburg, where, with a little hat, in imitation of that
worn by Napoleon, on his head, he proclaimed himself emperor in the
open streets. He was easily arrested. This act was generously viewed
by Louis Philippe as that of a senseless boy, and he was restored to
liberty upon condition of emigrating to America. No sooner, however,
was he once more free, than, returning to Switzerland, he set fresh
intrigues on foot. Louis Philippe, upon this, demanded his expulsion.
Constance would willingly have extended to him the protection due to
one of her citizens, but how were the claims of a Swiss citizen to be
rendered compatible with those of a pretender to the throne of France?
French troops already threatened the frontiers of Switzerland, where,
as in 1793, the people, instead of making preparations for defence,
were at strife among themselves. Louis at length voluntarily abandoned
the country in 1838.

In the beginning of 1839, Dr. Strauss, who, in 1835, had, in his work
entitled "The Life of Jesus," declared the Gospels a cleverly devised
fable, and had, at great pains, sought to refute the historical proofs
of the truth of Christianity, was, on that account, appointed, by the
council of education and of government at Zurich, professor of
divinity to the new Zurich academy. Burgomaster Hirzel (nicknamed "the
tree of liberty" on account of his uncommon height) stood at the head
of the enthusiastic government party by which this extraordinary
appointment had been effected; the people, however, rose _en masse_,
the great council was compelled to meet, and the anti-Christian party
suffered a most disgraceful defeat. Strauss, who had not ventured to
appear in person on the scene of action, was offered and accepted a
pension. The Christian party, concentrated into a committee of faith,
under the presidency of Hurliman, behaved with extreme moderation,
although greatly superior in number to their opponents. The radical
government, ashamed and perplexed, committed blunder after blunder,
and at length threatened violence. Upon this, Hirzel, the youthful
priest of Pfäffikon, rang the alarm from his parish church, and, on
the 6th of September, 1839, led his parishioners into the city of
Zurich. This example was imitated by another crowd of peasantry,
headed by a physician named Rahn. The government troops attacked the
people and killed nine men. On the fall of the tenth, Hegetschwiler,
the councillor of state, a distinguished savant and physician, while
attempting to restore harmony between the contending parties, the
civic guard turned against the troops and dispersed them. The radical
government and the Strauss faction also fled. Immense masses of
peasantry from around the lake entered the city. A provisional
government, headed by Hiesz and Muralt, and a fresh election, insured
tranquillity.

In the canton of Schwyz, a lengthy dispute, similar to that between
the Vettkoper and Schieringer in Friesland, was carried on between the
Horn and Hoof-men (the wealthy in possession of cattle and the poor
who only possessed a cow or two) concerning their privileges. In 1839,
a violent opposition, similar in nature, was made by the people of
Vaud against the oligarchical power assumed by a few families.

The closing of the monasteries in the Aargau in 1840 gave rise to a
dispute of such importance as to disturb the whole of the
confederation. In the Aargau the church and state had long and
strenuously battled, when the monastery of Muri was suddenly invested
as the seat of a conspiracy, and, on symptoms of uneasiness becoming
perceptible among the Catholic population, the whole country was
flooded with twenty thousand militia raised on the spur of the moment,
and the closing of the monastery of Muri and of all the monasteries in
the Aargau was proclaimed and carried into execution. The rest of the
Catholic cantons and Rome vehemently protested against this measure,
and even some of the Reformed cantons, for the sake of peace, voted at
the diet for the maintenance of the monasteries: the Aargau,
nevertheless, steadily refused compliance.


[Footnote 1: In Lucerne, the disorderly trial of a numerous band of
robbers, which had been headed by an extremely beautiful and talented
girl, named Clara Wendel, made the more noise on account of its
bringing the bandit-like murder of Keller, the aged mayor, and
intrigues, in which the name of the nuncio was mixed up, before the
public. 1825.]



CCLXIX. The Revolution in Brunswick, Saxony, Hesse, Etc.


The Belgian revolution spread into Germany. Liege infected her
neighbor, Aix-la-Chapelle, where, on the 30th of August, 1830, the
workmen belonging to the manufactories raised a senseless tumult which
was a few days afterward repeated by their fellow-workmen at
Elberfeld, Wetzlar, and even by the populace of Berlin and Breslau,
but which solely took a serious character in Brunswick, Saxony,
Hanover, and Hesse.

Charles, duke of Brunswick, was at Paris, squandering the revenue
derived from his territories, on the outburst of the July revolution,
which drove him back to his native country, where he behaved with
increased insolence. His obstinate refusal to abolish the heavy taxes,
to refrain from disgraceful sales, to recommence the erection of
public buildings, and to recognize the provincial Estates, added to
his threat to fire upon the people and his boast that he knew how to
defend his throne better than Charles X. of France, so maddened the
excitable blood of his subjects that, after throwing stones at the
duke's carriage and at an actress on whom he publicly bestowed his
favors, they stormed his palace and set fire to it over his head,
September 7, 1830. Charles escaped through the garden. His brother,
William, supported by Hanover and Prussia, replaced him, recognized
the provincial Estates, granted a new constitution, built a new
palace, and re-established tranquillity. The conduct of the expelled
duke, who, from his asylum in the Harzgebirge, made a futile attempt
to regain possession of Brunswick by means of popular agitation and by
the proclamation of democratical opinions, added to the contempt with
which he treated the admonitions of his superiors, induced the federal
diet to recognize his brother's authority. The ex-duke has, since this
period, wandered over England, France, and Spain, sometimes engaged in
intrigues with Carlists, at others with republicans. In 1836, he
accompanied a celebrated female aeronaut in one of her excursions from
London. The balloon accidentally upset and the duke and his companion
fell to the ground. He was, however, as in his other adventures, more
frightened than hurt.

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