for a while. It may be observed, at the same time, that the extent of the curve being once given, the wider it separates from its base, the nearer the goal will be brought to the starting point, whilst, on the contrary, the less it seeks to leave the straight line, the more distant will be the end from the point of departure:* this, however, has to do with questions to be discussed later;-for the moment, all I wish to show is, that events at the very instant of their birth may be generally found to shadow forth that which they are destined to be in their full period of maturity. And, as an example, I will take the relative position of the Perhaps the very first spontaneous remark of the real men of the people of Paris (not to be confounded with the repris de justice and professional barricaders) who helped to overthrow the Orleans Dynasty was: "Why have driven away Charles X? He was honest, at any rate," and one of their first impulses was to draw closer not to the higher but to the highest class; since then the revolutionary deviations have been so great, that it would be hard to discern a leading line any where; but it is more than probable that the ultimate end will only develop the idea manifested in the beginning, and that a recal of the elder and legitimate branch to the throne, will be accompanied by a firm reconciliation between the highest and lowest classes. King of Prussia, and the Archduke John, on the 12th of September, 1842. Union and not unity! Prussia and Austria, and Germany united! "so shall we be strong,' says the scion of the Imperial House, and the sovereign at whose table he sits, accepts the pledge; here was the starting point. Soon! too soon, came the unavoidable deviation, the curve, and the idea of unity and not union overturned everything. It is true, it may be alleged that the goal is not yet reached; but if it is destined to be so in our age, who is there who does not discern it in the words of the 12th of September? "Austria and Prussia and Germany unitedunion but not unity." But to attain to this, these lands will have passed through what seemed most adverse from any such conclusion; nay, some of them still show traces of the opposing part they have played. And yet the goal can hardly fail of being seen, and it is upon the same level with the starting-point. Once again Frederick William of Prussia and John of Austria met upon the banks of the Rhine, by the walls of Cologne; and then no toast could have been proposed to "Prussia and Austria united." The curve was at its highest point. But if now the same thing were to occur, who would think it strange, that after these two years, spent in the essay of impossible projects, the Hapsburger should in loyal amity grasp the Hohenzoller's hand, and that both should strive together for the real welfare and strength of Germany, which can grow permanently out of their union alone. Union and not unity! Austria and Prussia united! that is the point towards which, through all the labyrinth of Central Administrations, Bundes-Commissions, and Interims, Constitutions of three Kings, Coalitions of four, and Parliaments of Erfurth, has constantly been tending, the one force which nothing ever vanquishes, the force of circumstances, what the French call la force des choses. I am sorry to say that, in common with the greater number of her Rhenish neighbours, the once called "Holy City" of Cologne, was decidedly opposed to the sense of the Archduke's toast. The towns upon the banks of the Rhine, and the greater portion of the smaller states in this part of Germany, constitute, I should say, the only parts of the great Teutonic body that have been so infected by the revolutionary pestilence, which the French demagogues hoped to see spreading over all Europe, as to be able to forego the help of Ledru Rollin's and Caussidière's condottieri, and to rebel on their own private account. Cologne perhaps, from its immediate vicinity to Belgium and Holland, and from its commercial spirit, may be a little better than the rest, but still it has old habits of independence, and loves opposition, which it contrives to manifest pretty well, by sending forth daily one of the most radical, and illiberal papers on the continent.* Besides this, the fair town to which Agrippina stood godmother, and upon whose twenty-four gates, she has left inscribed the four initials of Colonia Claudia Agrippina Augusta, has too often changed hands to have any very strong individual attachment to her rulers. In the fifth century, the Franks took * I use this word purposely, because I conceive it to mean that which is partial, one-sided, and wilfully exclusive of whatever merit may appertain to those who profess different opinions from the opinions held by the illiberal person. I never will admit that liberality is necessarily synonymous with the mere support of popular theories. VOL. I. C this favoured residence of Nero's mother from Rome; in the tenth, the second Otto wrested it from France, and annexed it to the Empire; towards the last half of the thirteenth century, Cologne was with Lübeck, Dantzick, and Bruges, one of the principal Hanse Towns, and this recollection of a period, when it supplied the calls of growing luxury in a vast portion of the civilized world, may be among the causes of its somewhat ungovernable spirit. There is a great mixture of Frank and Teuton in these democratical Cöllners, and perhaps Scaliger in his eulogiums upon the city of the sainted Engelbert, has, without intending it, hit upon one of the chief causes of its political instability in the diversity of race of its inhabitants : 66 Romani statuunt, habitat Germania, terra est, That this may be a triple source of happiness to the Cöllners themselves, is just possible; but it is a triple source of annoyance to those who are called upon to govern the "Maxima Regina Rheni," to whom the learned "father of chronology," not content with all he has said before, cries in a paroxysm of enthusiasm: "Nihil tibi |