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'. (^Iftfltmtt dtlllTC«ittnnitlnri t VtfH^UUU U^U^ UMIUIU, ^—•
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fact is that ; in its origin it was eveninbre apolitical ttian a religious movement ; or at least -was as much directed to state objects as to an amelioration of the affairs of the Church . Reformation , in those early days , meant not only the establishment of a national and purified Church , untrammelled by the despotic decrees of the Roman Pontiff , and . unsullied by the overgrowth of the worst Pagan superstition . No ; reformation , at that time , meant also the emancipation of the soil from the clerical mortmain ; abolition of the feudal system that weighed upon the peasantry ; cirrtailment or destruction of petty princely and aristocratic power ;
£ t stronger bond of political union for all Grermany , by means of a popular Representation : or , to give it in the grapliic German phrase of the time , * ' eine Reformation an Haupt und Gliedern " It is time , the peasants in the fourteenth , fifteenth , Bnd sixteenth centimes never failed to quote the Gospel when they demanded relief from feudal oppression . The citizens of the towns , also , quoted the Gospel when they denounced priestly celibacy as a danger to the peace of families , or when they proved the inconsistency of the clergy revelling in the possession of vast ¦ ¦ territorial domains . The kni g hts-in-harness even quoted the Gospel for their ; own purpose against the priesthood , in order to batter clown the privileges of this 'their ancient
rival in power . But though a religious feeling thus pervaded the whole agitation , the political idea was always present , and frequently . uppermost . With one or two insignificant exceptions , all the reformers of . Germany had at once a national , social , and an ecclesiastical aim . Luther himself declared in the begmning in favor , of that promising popular movement which he afterwards deserted when it assumed the form of a revolutionary rising . The " War of the Peasants " itself is an evidence ¦ of the . strength of the political sentiment which -clothed itself in the religious garb . Thus no one conversant with German history can doubt that the Reformation was intended by its early promoters to regenerate the nation in all respects , both temporal and spiritual . ' .
Adverse circumstances , unfortunately , willed it otherwise . The struggle of the peasants resulted in a defeat , in consequence of the want of concord between the towns and the rural populatio n ^ a division chiefly brought about by the hostile attitude the leading Reformer had , unhappily , taken against the cause of the people . Then came the . Thirty Years' War , that main source of Germany ' s present misfortunes ! It ruined the cause of liberty and nationality for centimes . Well nigh all the foreign dynasties that surrounded Germany
profited by the occasion this war afforded them to ¦ do their worst towards , the disruption of German union . The country became a bear-pit of combat for armed hosts from all quarters . The Spaniard and the Swede , the Italian , the Netherlander , and the Frenchman ¦*— not to count the nondescript Eastern hordes which followed the House of Austria— -trampled Germany under their horses ' hoofs . At the end of the Thirty Years' War she lay bleeding and prostrate , a ghastly shadow of her former self . She had struggled for a Reformation , the fruits of which she desired to offer to the world
at large ; when , however , the combat was over , other nations marched away with the spoils of vie-, tory . She alone remained , weltering in her blood . She had , with all these wounds and sorrows , earned little beyond the religious emancipation of a small portion of her people , paying the fearful price of utter political prostration for this paltry gain . The division of Germany into semi-independent principalities , which hang so uncongeniaUy together , dates chiefly from the Thirty Xears' War Xn the years' that followed , this mutual estrangement was still further augmented by the criminal . struggles of ambition waged between Frederick II ., called the Great , arid the despotic House of Austria .
These facts must be kept in remembrance in order to judge inoro justly of the present political situation oi Germany . Fortunately , it can be asserted that , since the mighty popular , rising against Napoleon I ., the national sentiment has grown anew with increased * vigour . Even the prosent federal constitution of Germany bears witjnesa to this : for though it bo on organisation . founded on bad political principles , it still prevents Germany from being a more . " geographical ex « pression , " as Mottornich eneonngly desoribed Italyr The events of the year 1848 , moreover , have shown that the Germans of Russia and Austria , as well as the minor states , consider each
other as brethren , who ought to live together under the roof of a eoriiinon popular constitution . Even before 1848 , the cry for a National Parliament had not been wanting in earnestness , whenever it vras allowed to make itself heard . When the revolutionary storm of February , therefore , swept over Germany , from the frontiers of Belgium to those of Russia , from Schleswig to the Alps , the people were unanimous in their call for a National Representation . . We will not here explain the reasbns of the failure of the German Revolution . We will not enlarge on the difficulties necessarily attending a popular movement in a country whose provinces
have so long been kept asunder b y craf ty dynastic intrigue and cabinet policy . We will not show how liberty at Vienna was destroyed by foreign Sclavonian hordes , led against the insurgent town by Windischgratz and Jellacic , who subdued the city after a gallant defence of a month ' s duration , and then slaked their thirst of blood in every street of the ill-fated town . We will not show how liberty at Berlin fell by a * treacherous coup d'etat of . King Frederick William IV . We will not relate how at Dresden , in Baden , in the Rhenish Palatinate , and elsewhere , royal authority was re-establislied by the bayonets of neighbouring princes . We will not retrace the treachery with which the King of
Wurtemberg dissolved the National German Parliament by force of arms , after having sworn adhesion to all its decrees .. Let it suffice to say , that German liberals and democrats , in 1848 and 1849 , have bravely fought on the barricade , in the fortress , as well as in the open field , and that they have been discomfited partly through the- ; inaptitude or the faithlessness of their own leaders , and partly by the foul perjury and brutal force . of-their sanguinary princes . The reproach of tamely submitting to despotism is ; therefore , certainly an unfounded one , as applied to the Germans . Thejhave attempted their liberation , but—like France , Italy , and Hungary—have unfortunately failed .
More than nine years have now passed away since the final overthrow of German liberty . Nine years are a long and weary time for the patience of the friends of freedom . ¦ - ¦ But nine years are not so much in the life of a nation . A nation which has seen its cities sacked and stormed , its popular champions slain on the field of battle ) murdered by drum-head law , martyred in dungeons , or driven into exile , cannot reasonably be expected to arise anew every year— -to . bathe itself as it were , every season in its own blood : it ia not in human nature that it should be so . Inconsiderate , therefore , is the opinion of those " who live at home at ease , " when they think that a nation is reconciled to despotism because it
allows some ; few years to elapse before making a fresh effort in arms . The German nation , we are sure , is , in its thinking majority , most unreconciled to the existing state of things . Its popular classes are at this moment dragooned into silence ; but they still cherish , we may be sure , aspirations for a better form of government than any of those we have endeavoured to describe in the " Biographies " of their princes . To rdad the troubled future , and prophecy the exact date when this long desired better form of government will eventually triumph , is not given to man to do . But this much can be safely said , that whenever that day may arrive , the popiilar leaders . of Germany will certainly not again commit the fatal error of " stopping short before the tlu'ones , " as they did , with such misplaced confidence , in-the memorable year 1848 .
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GERMANY . February 23 rd . - As the Schleswig - Holsteln question has been rather prominently brought forward in the columns of the Leadek , a few very brief historical notices , copied from state documents , of the causes and
progress of the question , from the origin of the country to the present day , may perhaps not be unwelcome to some of your readers . To obtain anything like an impartial view of the subject , wo must cast aBldo all the accounts written by Panes and Germans within the luat ten , twenty , or even thirty years . These accounts lead astray , not so much by errors , falsehoods , or exaggeration , as py » careless omission or wilful suppression of faots . A correct and , consequently , impartial
judgment can only be acquired ~ by going back . the old chronicles of the cities of Schleswig , of Holstein , of Denmark , and the surrounding states , more especially those of Oldenburg , Hamburg , iLuneburg , Bardewick , Bremen , and Lubeek . A comparison of these chronicles will , however , showthat all traditions , as we call them , but which in reality we ought to term concoctions , can only be smiled at and passed over . Runic stones , which , have been sometimes found by Danes on the banks of the Eider we must also reject , as likewise most deeidedlv all their sagas , or old saws , the Voluspa , the Edda Ragnor Lodbrog ' s song , and all the host of puerile forgeries , as in my opinion they are . All
that can be relied on , to a certain degree , are the meagre descriptions derived from the Romans , Ei ^ inhard ' s Chronicle , Othere ' s Voyages , and Adam Bremensis , whose account , by the way , of the countries of the Baltic , and their inhabitants , affords amusing evidence that sailors of old were as addicted to the spinning of astonishing yarns and playing upon the ignorant credulity of land-lubbers as they are at this day . Although we must decline to accept Adam ' s human monsters that had no heads , and only one eye , which was in tlie middle of their breasts , and those unamiable ladies , the Amazons , who used to act towards the unfortunate mariner ,
as we re ^ d the female spider sometimes acts towards the male—loves him first and eats him afterwards—yet we may believe his accounts of Denmark and the Elbe country , because he had the opportunity of viewing them himself , and because there is little at variance With our conceptions of the possible or the probable contained therein . From these , and the chronicles of the middle ages , the history of Denmark , Germany , and other countries , I select the following scraps , which I think will serve as so many resting points for the memory , in grubbing put the truth in this question , so intricate from circumstances , and confused by party prejudice and national vanitj ' . and Holstein havefrom the
Schleswig , very earliest times , as your readers will see , been bones of contention between Germans and Danes . The quarrel was barbarous in its origin , and , notwithstanding that centuries of Christianity have intervened , it is likely to be as barbarous in its termination . The chief cause of the disputes in ancient times was the frequent subdivisions of the territory of Holstein among different meinbers of the ruling house , which led to the temporary supremacy of one branch or other with more or less claim to be regarded as the chief , Schleswig , on the other hand , seems always to have been an appanage of the younger sons of the Kings of Denmark , and as such independent , but only as such .
The following facts and dates , arranged in order from the very beginning of the country to the present time , will render the course of the question sufficiently clear to enable those of your readers who cannot make a study of it , to judge of ' the merits of the respective claims put forward by Germans and Danes . We first hear of Holstein as forming n part ot that country north of the Elbe , called , by Latin writers , Albingia—a country considered so savage and useless that Tiberius Czesar forbade Dnisus to penetrate it . In 765 , Aired , or Alchred , a king of in
Northumberland , in a council . of bishops , was - duced to send Christian missionaries to those parts to found a church and convert tho inhabitants . Wilhoad , the bishop selected for the work , established himself upon the banks of the Wescr , in the country known then as Wigmodia . People from Holland were obtained to erect dykes , and prisoners taken in the wars were sent to cultivate the lana . Around the church these founded , a town sprang up . for which Wilhead , the bishop , procured a charter from Charlemagne . This town is the present Bremen . This city was tho head-quarters ot tno Northern Christian , or Romish propaganda . W
the third bishop , Ansgar , the Gospel was preacnea to " tho heathen of North Albingln , in which country Charlemagne hod built a castlo At the place where Hamburg now stands . In 858 , Hamburg was ninaa a bishoprick , and united with that of Bromcn , under Ansgar , who was also named Lognto of Scandinavia by the Pope Gregory IV . In tho same year . Ansgnr concluded a peace between the King of DonmarK and Lewis , tlie King of Germany , and in consequence obtained permission from the imnisu sovereign to build a church with a tower in Schleswig . This is , I bolievc , tlje earliest mention made of tho country of Schleawlg , which we nna was , in An&gar ' s time , an acknowled ( jed country oi Denmark : The king further granted Ansgar to send missionaries into bis dominions , but witli tno uncomfortable stipulation that the King of
WWmany should not oppose the inroads of tho »?»*>* There appears to me a keen mockory in w »» apparent simplicity of the Danish king , for tno stipulation seems to convey tho hint that no w aware religion was only the cloak to a now yoke oj Rome , about to bo laid upon the nookn of froo mon
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276 THE LEADER . [ Ho . 466 , February 26 / 1859 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 26, 1859, page 276, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2283/page/20/
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