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their guests , and are themselves punished for it . Should this system of espionage and terrorism continue much longer , travellers must abandon the Rhine route . Some of the Heidelberg innkeepers remonstrated and represented that they could only be justly responsible for the conversations of travellers " with whom they sat at table . But they were peremptorily told that they would be held responsible for all . Innkeeping will , like monarchy , become impossible . All letters are liable to be opened at the Postoffice . The Government sent a circular to each postmaster , commanding that every suspicious letter should be sent to the Minister . Special notification has been made to the post-masters of the names of 160 persons , and all letters directed to them are required to be opened .
At ten o'clock at night all public-houses , coffeehouses , and hotels , must be shut up . He who does not salute a constable , gendarme , or private soldier , is immediately imprisoned . Persons of property , on the pretext of being su » - pected , are dragged at night from their beds , hurried before a court , never confronted with accusers , condemned , and their property confiscated . No one considers himself safe . Fear and the silence of the tomb reign in every bosom . In order to compromise certain persons , and to have a pretext for imprisoning them , the Government have themselves forwarded fictiti us letters by the post , containing shares of the Mazzini loan ; domiciliary visits take place , and the unfortunates are condemned .
A Neapolitan cruelty prevails in the prisons . The prisoner is alone in a narrow and damp cell , dimly lighted , but he sees not the light of the sky . If permitted for a few moments to leave this dreary chamber to breathe the fresh air , he must wear a mask . When any one enters the cell , he is compelled to put on the mask . No other books are permitted than the most bigoted writings of Catholic priests . Once a month they are permitted to write letters , but these must be left open for the inspection of the gaolers . In the prison of Bruchsal young men have become grey-haired in two 3 'ears . Many have died from phthisis in these unhealthy dungeons . Some have hanged themselves from despair . Others , from the same sad cause have only escaped these piison horrors for a madhouse in Illenau .
Persons in the most delicate etate of health , always accustomed to the comforts and refinements of life , are after committal and previous to trial compelled to sleep in damp rooms in the fortress of Hastadt . wear a common prison dress , live on the coarsest fare , wheel barrows , and perform the hardest labour on the woiks of the fortifications . Natives or foreigners wearing full beards are seized by the police , and have the beard cut off by a common bread-knife . The most respectable and opulent persons in the Duchy have been publicly beaten with sticks . Every soldier , constable , or gendarme can , on the most flimsy pretext , without fear of punishment , ill-treat the most respectable man , and even wound him mortally .
People are thrown into prison for wearing red waistcoats , even in those districts of the country where this garment forms a part of the national costume of the peasantry . The same with the wearers of red cravats , Calabrese hats , and so on . These terrible offenders may be detained in prison for many months . Whoever approaches a Sentry nearer than three etepp , even accidentally , may be shot by the sentry . There is now no press in Buden . There is no freedom of thought . It has become the Siberia of Germany . The torments inflicted on this people are
heavier far than those of a Russian or Neapolitan despotism ; for Baden has been for a period of fifty years accustomed to a free constitutional life , and her whole people possess a certain degree of enlightenment in consequence of the formerly good system of educat ion which prevailed . But worst of all arc the oppressions of the Cntholic priesthood . The Jesuits , banished from almost all European towns , have within the last two years returned hero , and they proclaim in every town and village the so-called days of penitence , pieac . U that this system of oppression is tho just punishment of Heaven , and extract the last farthing from the pockets of the poor .
To sum up this catalogue of the tender mercies of the Gruud Ducul Government of Baden , when a citizen visits the Exhibition in London , and should it be reported by any t-py that he haw spoken with any ot tho lenders amongst the refugees , he will be instantl y committed to prison on his return . Such aro a few of tho popular blessings under order and red-monarch y in Germany .
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C ONTINENTAL NO T K S . M . le Ductcur Veron ' i last eolution is a repeal or a considerable modification of the law of tho a 1 st May , 1860 , and a restoration of universal Buflrage — at least for tho reelection of the President and the tornmuon of a new Constituent Astembly . Thin medical udviaor" of the Prince , with characteristic oon / tommte , redolent as UhUul of an utter negation of wet and an utter contempt for truth ( Tuljrar w « opon »
forsooth !) , speaks of the " honesty of his client . This is indeed playing high trumps ! The " honesty " of the man who—but we will set forth the claims of M . Louis Napoleon to a reputation for political " honesty" in detail next week . La Republique , in a lively and trenchant notice of this last " feeler" of the Elysee , says that the " honesty" which consents to a restoration of universal suffrage would have done better by never allowing its mutilation . How grandly naif is M . Veron , recommending the President to inscribe at the head of " our new political code , " " every citizen aged twenty-one is an elector" —the very words of the first electoral decree of the Republic ! La
Republique detects and exposes the mental reservation of the doctor , recommending absolute universal suffrage " for the election of the President of the Republic and the vote of a Constitution . " Not a word about universal suffrage for the election of the Legislative Assemblj ' . " Perhaps , " continues M . Veron , " there may be a few reclamations to entertain for the election of representatives . " Very probable , indeed . " Each department confers a double charge" upon its deputies — to defend the general interests of the country and the special interests of the department . " Which being interpreted means that the President ( M . Bonaparte of course ) would be the Elect of
Fiance ; and the representatives of the People mere deputies of departments , as they were wont to be called in the days of Louis XVIII . This is very clever , but just now of doubtful acceptation . The honesty of M . Veron ' s client chiefly consists in his " devotion to France . " His extremest act of honesty would be ( in a highly improbable conti'igency ) , to " retire into private Jife , carrying with him into his retirement the esteem and admiration of Europe . " Only , if France absolutely demand him , he is " prepared to sacrifice his private happiness to public duty . " No doubt of it . Princes and kings only ask to be allowed to sacrifice themselves to the good of their subjects ! All this move of the Elysee is in
consequence of the decided candidateship of M . de Joinville . A leguiar steeple chase , as the Republique calls it , has begun between the two Pretenders ;_ a breakneck raceof liberal promises . Our leading journal has made a great fuss in large type , and with a sort of pinchbeck diplomatic circumlocutoiy mystification of style , of the interview of the leaders of the Orleanist party and of the Fusionists with the exiled family party at Claremont . As hierarchs of the Party of Order , they are scandalized at ihe quasirevolutionary attitude of the admiral , who is neither altogether backward in puttinawliiniself forward , nor forward enough in backing ouYof tho candidateship for the Presidency . He leaves all to France . Even M de Nemours confesses that his own name is not
popular , and decluus to consider the Regency but as an inevitable bygone . And Mudaiuc d'Orleans , the good Queen Amelie , and the " rest of the RoyjJ Family , " make way for M . de Joinville . Poor M . Guizot cannot get at the ear of the Prince lor a moment ' s private conversation . At Paris the Oileiinist journals are fighting shy of Louis Napoleon , and sounding the trumpets for the " quasi-restoration of a quasi-legitimate Pretender . " M . Einile de Gir . irdin ,
with his usual practical and absolute good sense and farseeing contempt for these superficial juggleries , briefly writes tiiat there are but two denouements of 18 , 52 : tho unconditional rcpc . il of the law of the JHst or Aluy , or-civil war . For how are you to prevent three millions and more of excluded voters lushing to the poll and insisting im their lights guaranteed by the Constitution ? You cannot imprison three million citizens . You cannot concentrate a va * , l
army in Paris and at , the same time repiess a universal and siwultaneoua movement throughout France . The Revisionist campaign proceeds in the Councils-General with doubtful success . In Home" tutul" is added , meaning something more than Bonapartism : in others total and legal , excluding all ideas of Prorogation , in other * , all political discussion is suppressed . Wheie-ver " Prorogation" is voted , it is officially recorded iu the Government journals . But the fact is , that these Council * do not represent the
People . And it is remarkable that in the very departments where ; revision in a Bonapartist sense is most loudly demanded : not one seventh of the total number ol Constitutional electors , signed the prelecloral petitions in its favour ; and thi .- , calculation includes ull the fictitious , double , compulsory , and official signatures . After the 2-Kh of February , ' 48 , the Councils General would have voted ( had they dared ) tho Regency . The People pioclaiuied the Republic . They now vote " prorogation . " The IN oplo intend otlutr unxt ' ,.
The Mayor of PoletieiH has been revoked , ostensibly for discourtesy to the Prefet , really for his frank republican speech during the stay ol tho President iu that town , Tho Mayor of heaiine has been suspended for closing an address to a school with Vive la lUpublique . ' « o much for the " honesty " < f M . L . N . Bonaparte . We have elsewhere alluded to the result of the trials at l . yons . The prisoners have since appealed against the sentence , on the ground of iho incompctency ol the Court . In Hwit / . erland the National Asnembly has dis-Holycd itself . The general elections tuko place in
five weeks , and the struggle of parties is likely to be violent . The Radicals are in great force , especially at Berne , where M . Staempfli is spoken of as likely to be restored to the head of affairs . The King of Prussia continues his very unnteresting progress . : He has met with " Bavaria" at some out-of-the-way place , and is now on his way to join his young and promising brother of Austria at Ischl . We are sorry to find reports gaining ground of a tendency on the part of Piedmont to make concessions to Rome- concerning religious liberty , and to Austria about the refugees at Turin . A hearty article appears in the Progresso , on the Society of the " Friends of Italy , " lately established in London ; in which we notice the following striking and significant allusions : —
" Navarino paid for Parga ; and we might even await from the justice of the English People something which would pay for Caracciolo ; for the Sicilian Constitution of 1812 ; for the faithless promises of Lord William Bentinck , in 1815 ; and for the beguilements of Lord Minto , in 1 S 47 . The People will pay the debt which the diplomacy of its statesmen has contracted . " The name of Caracciolo recals a black page in English as -well as in Neapolitan History . Our readers will not fail to reeal the capitulation of Naples in 1799 ; the butchery of tho Liberals by the lazzaroni under Cardinal Ruffo ; the refusal of the Queen , Mar . y Caroline of Austria , to ratify the
capitulation ; the appointment of a Junta to try ihe unhappy prisoners who had trusted to the treaty ; the judicial murders ; above all the ineffaceable bloodstain on the noble name of our own Nelson who , betrayed by a guilty infatuation , became the servile instrument of royal treachery and vengeance , and hung at the yard-arm of the Minerva frigate the aged admiral of the Neapolitan Republic , the venerable Caraceiolo ! May our hearty execration of the atrocities of the worthy scion of Ferdinand IV , atone in some measure for the innocent blood we once permitted to be shed . ' diplomacy may be the same now as then ; but the English People-of 1851 are not the Tory-ridden herd of 1799 !
The recent earthquakes at Bari and Basilicata have , perhaps , disturbed the slumbers-or the superstition of King Bomba . The like calamities preceded the great revolutionary earthquake of 1789 . At all events , we read the following , and wonder what it means : — "A dissolution of the Ministry has taken place , we learn , at Naples , and . another Cabinet , been fonned ; the names of the members of the liew Administration had not been made public at the date of the last advices . "
At Rome we aie told that the Papal Government , in search of fresh victims , contemplates the a : rest and imprisonment of tne legionaries of ' 48 , who , at the call of the Pope himself , joined the patriotic army against Ausiria , and followed the standards blessed by the Pope . They placed a double trust in l \\ t amnestv and in the capitulation ; but what arc treaties and pledges and capitulations to the Court ot CaidinaLs ? At Florence we read of the Austrian ambassador , on the fete , day of the Empcrior , absolutely ignoring the ( irand Duke at an official dinner . We also read of a priest being discovered in the act of burying cin infunt child alive ; and of another caught , jUujt ante dclicto , after saying mass .
Turning back from this pleasant state of tilings to sensible and practical Belgium , we notice the following : — " The Senate of lUl ^ ium rejected , by 33 votes to 18 , the bill on successions in the direct line . This news is important . It will be remembered that the Chamber of Representatives of liclgium rejected for the lust time the bill on direct successions , or at least the luiulaineut . il point of it , which consisted in the obligation for the
direct heir to decluic , 011 oath , the importance of the succession . After this rejection , the Cabinet gave in its resignation , und a Ministerial cii . iis lant < d for some weeks . At last , « , n account of the impossibility of foinnng a new Ministry , the members of the old Cabinet resumed their portfolios , and the Chamber , abundouii . g its first resolution , adopted the principle of the oath . The bill was t ; iken before the ( Senate , in which the Catholic und Conservative element dominate a /'
Military and Naval operations are brisk enough . Nicholas is calling out all available levies . The German licet is to be divided equally between Austria and PrUhhia ; the Confederation having prudently resigned all pretensions to . such a " belonging . " Sardinia is preparing sham sieges , and exercising her tight little fleet , in company with the ISrittsh Admiral . Tho Finances of Absolutism are not flourishing . The Governments of Rome , Naples , and Vienna , aro ( thankfully be it spoken ) unmistakeahly bankrupt . Our last " not *; " is we believe more pregnant of consequences than any fact since the last Revolution . A railway in Russia is in iu . oll a whole Revolution . That huge ice-bound despotism must thaw at tho approach of such an engine of liberalism .
On . Friday , the l /> th ol August , at ten o clock in tho morning , the lirat uain came . 111 on the Moscowl ' eteiaburg line . liie train Jmd Marled from ihu village of blagowo , lying <» i the frontier iu a northerly direction , about forty vortjttj from Wy « -
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Sept . 6 , 1851 . ] 1 &t ) e ULtaktt . 839
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 6, 1851, page 839, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1899/page/3/
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