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for all . In the Saxon Voigtland the traveller will observe the rich foliage pleasantly interspersed with new red chimneys that rise on all sides above limes and beeches ; red-tiled clanking mills and factories , not without ambitious architecture , skirt the outsides of towns , and account for the shining white villas that look with a coquettish air from the adjoining hills ; and young ladies in railways-carriages complain of the increasing smokiness of their towns . Leipzig has surrounded itself with a belt of palaces . A net of railways , with comfortable second and even third class carriages , and cheap travelling made use of by bands of rural labourers , and caravans of chattering market-women , traverse the country in all directions ; and even in the dreary sandy plain , which stretches
with leaden dulness from Leipzig onwards to this northern city of the desert , the barren sand has not only been made to grow corn , green crops , forest trees ; but also industrious establishments , clothmaking towns , red-brick creations have arisen , hives of human activity . And so we have arrived at Berlin . But , alas ! here our eyes involuntarily meet " the thorn at our feet . '' Not that this great and remarkable city did not show its share of activity , of prosperity ; quite the contrary ; perhaps none more so . But we have corrje here to head quarters , to one of the chief head quarters of the national body ; and here we naturally inquire , What does the head devise ? how does the head guide and concentrate the uses of such vast , wide-scattered limbs ? And the
answer we receive and see is , That the seat of the great Elector , of the great King , is filled by Frederic William IV ., an amiable , accomplished Prince , as everybody says , exemplary in all private relations of life ; a patron of religion , of literature , of the arts and sciences ; a man of wit , of learning , of imagination , of many talents ; only , it is always added , it is a pity that he should have to be King in these times ! Yes , it is a pity ; the more so as here in Prussia the word and will of a King is still all-powerful ; that he commands by his will , or by his whim , an army of soldiers , an army of administrators , bureaucrats , and a whole people with an instinctive respect for royal authority .
There is no denying that the unhappy part the Prussian Government has played in these eventful years is in great part owing to the personal character of the King . And , moreover , by some strange destiny , all his faults , mistakes , and perversities arise out of what might , wisely applied , be fruitful virtues . Thus he is possessed by a strong conviction of the greatness of his kingly office , of his responsibility to God , of his own direct duty to care for and rule his people ; but the mode in which this estimable feeling operates is through a cloudy belief in Grace-of-God
Kingship ; so that it is no rare occurrence when he has heard the deliberate advice of the assembled council on importantmatters , for him to say to them : — " Yes , gentlemen , that is your honest opinion , I have no doubt , come to by the best of your judgment ; but we Kings receive our inspirations differently , and from a higher source , and I have resolved thus— ;" and 6 o Ministers have to act thus against the best of their judgment ; for it must be said , again , though it may not easily be understood in England , that the King here is still all-powerful , and Jie regards his Minister as his superior clerk .
Again , the King is religious , a very good quality in any man or King ; but , strange to say , this most Protestant potentate , the very basis of whose house , crown , history , and peoplercsts onProtestantism , is full of Ho man Catholic tendencies and appetites ; a hater of private judgment , a believer in spiritual authority , in traditions , forms , symbols ; and , if not a Catholic , then a iirst-rate Puaeyite , us indeed his Bpiritmad double and bosom friend Rudowitz , himself a pious and obedient child of the Roman Church , has , in his political and religious conversations , " expressed great hopes of the ultimate outcoming » that lie as yet hidden in English Puseyiam . The King is wishes to make his
religious ; people so ; and the way he sets about it ia , to get his police to enforce a * ' bitter observance of the Sunday . " So , us the papers relate , a poor weaver who , witli the produce of a small field , ekes out hit * weaving existence , is clutched ut and fined by the zealous police for working a little in that Held of his on a Sunday . And here in Berlin your unfortunate correspondent hud last Sunday to forego his daily poat-prumlial cup of coffee and " frungipani" at Kruny . ler ' s—because of a ' 20 dollars fine lor allowing such a thing during Diviuo service- " ( afternoon nervice ) . But—and this uImo is characteristic of things Governmental
heretho polieo having , us usual , been over-ollleiouH , outstepped their duty , have received counter inductions , find have ainco been to various shops and pluces to whisper in . a private , ofh ' ciul manner , that it was a mistake , that if they would only lean their doors to , that would be enough , they need not shut them . Many are the stories told by wicked Bcrlincix of oilioiouH policemen bound upon thin religious service . One constable" piiHsiug a barber ' s tthop with door opon on u Sunday morning , stepped on tho thrctthhold und began blustering on the greatness of the offence , when Jo ! hit * ollicial eyes fell upon the luthered face of u superior ? ' constable" undergoing tho criminal operation of being shaved "during Divine
service" ! Whereupon the inferior " constable * ' withdrew , hiding his diminished head before the latnerea
Frederic William is not without sympathies for great ideas . The unity of Germany , with Prussia at the head , such as friend Radowitz had drawn it up beautifully up on paper , would have been greatly to his liking if it could have been accomp lished by " tremendous cheers , " and without offence to Austria . For this also is a curious and somewhat perverse feature in a Hohenzollern-a feeling of pious reverence towards the Imperial house of Austria , the historical head of Germany . " Sire , " said a learned P ™™?" ' and respected friend of ours once to the King , _ « tms pious reverence ( Pietat ) towards Austria is so intense , why not return Silesia to her ?"
This singular King , now , with his perverse virtues and various sympathies , is beset and alternately influenced by two parties , who , though both " reactionary , " hate each other cordially , the Bureaucrats and the Younkres . For as to the other two parlies in the State ( who , however , had never any influence at Court ) , the Democrats have withdrawn , biding their time , and the Constitutionalists are under a cloud of ill-success . The Bureaucrats , then the officials , or as you would say the Red- tapist party , are headed by the prime minister , Manteuffel ; and the Younkre * , or Squires , have Gerlach , Bismark , Schonhausen , and others of the aristocratic kindred for
leaders ; Professors Stahl and Leo for prophets ( Radowitzis a liberalizing sectarian from that school ); and the Kreutz-zeitung ( edited by Dr . Wagener , an Irvingian " angel" ) for gospel . This latter is in many respects a very remarkable journal . Able , zealous , full of pluck , ever ready with a wherefore for a why ; mostly , too , basing its argument upon premises which few wise men will gainsay ; holding up authority against revolutionism ; natural historical growth , and development against paper constitutions , Government by law and through the superior mensuperior by birth , by substance , by influence and standing in the community , against redtapish absolutism on one side , and mere numerical majority on the other . But the special , practical conclusion arrived at does not always answer to
the abstract , general principle started from . Moreover , the party , the squires , allow the high argument of their able organ—and look mainly to the power , the loaves and fishes , which it is to argue into their hands . Thus Coleridge provided English parsons with a transcendental philosophy which , though not understood or cared for , was accepted , because honours and preferments with a philosophy are things to be thankful for . Squirarchal dominion , founded upon an " historical school of politics , " as taught by Swiss Haller , expounded by feudal Gerlachs , by learned Stahls and Leos , with profitable places and exemption from taxes for one ' s estates , is highly acceptable to reactionary Younkers , " ready to die for their King . "
A ca « e which is now agitating the country will illustrate my meaning . Previous to ' 48 Prussia had ' Provincial Estates , " composed of nobles and large landed proprietors ( Ritterguts besitzer , possessors of knights' estates , who need not , however , be nobles themselves ) , who represented themselves , had what is termed viril-votes , and delegates from town and country . These " Estates" ( that is , Stiinde , social classes , as contradistinguished from the modern system of representation of numbers ) consulted and advised , but had not the power to legislate , on such matters an the Central Government chose to lay before them . With the introduction of the
constitution these " Estates" vanished ; the laws regarding them were by one article of the constitution expressly repealed . The last Assembly voted a property and income tax ; and since' 48 there has also been named a law which makes " Knights' Estates" ( Rittorgiiter ) , subject to the lund-tux , from which a great number of these had been hitherto exempt ( originally because the knights to whom these lands belonged paid their taxes to the stato by personal service , as soldiers , ike ) . These laws are to be executed , to be put in a train of action . The question is , by what machinery ? Out conies a Ministerial ordinance , resuscitating the Provincial Estates , us the fit machinery to get those laws into working condition , followed , as wan natural , by horror und indignutiou on the part of Constitutionalists . It
is illegal , unconstitutional ; you have no power to do it ; Representative Assemblies and Provincial UstuteH cannot exist together . You have solemnly sworn to the constitution ; you cannot revive the Instates in that way , &o . &c . Noble , constitutional Vinke—and other constitutional nobles , with virilvotes at those « nine Estates , reinonntrut . e themselves against it , will not come , though called come only to protest , and then withdraw indignantl y ; nay , two high functionaries , prefects or presidents of provinces , on whom devolved the duty to call these Estates , remonstrate uIho . Tho Government , meanwhile startled by Huch grave opposition , tries to sooth the storm . "Don ' t be alarmed , gentlemen , " says the Ministerial organ ; there is no hurm meant ; it is only provisionally—just for this one little service , to introduce und organize theso laws . " " Provisionally ?"
thunders the Itreuta-seitung , which pretends to higher authority than either Ministers or their organ , " no such thing ! You Ministers , dull bureaurocrats , do n ' t know your own minds . The Provincial Estates are the ancient historical institution ; though in abeyance , they exist ; no power in the State , not the King himself , ever had the right to abolish them . Your sworn constitution is a creature of the revolution , a child of sin : what right to respect or authority has it ? Let the Estates meet , and they shall decide what
next . They are our historically grown tree , with its roots stretched deep and wide in our soil . " Amen say the squires ; let us hare the Estates again . True , when we had them , we cared not for them—clamoured ourselves for a constitution in their stead ; but they are historical , and we have a decided majority in them ; can manage thereby to lay the new taxes as heavily as we like on the towns , and as lightly as possible on our estates ; and altogether take the sting out of that democratic financial
measure . . This is my illustrative case ; which , seeing my letter has already grown to such unreasonable length , I must leave thus abruptly in your hands , merely adding , as a piece of news and historical fact , that the above-mentioned remonstrating two high functionaries have been superseded and replaced by men of the Kreuz'zeitung ; and also , as a piece of court gossip , the on dit that one of the said high functionaries , the Count Auerswald , President of the Rhenish provinces , was set a remonstrating by her Royal Highnes 8 the Princess of Prussia , who also resides on the Rhine , being on terms of cordial hatred with the court here , and said to be a high-spirited lady , of Liberal politics , and patroness of Constitutionalists .
But the above historical fact , independent of the gossip , being interpreted , signifies , that for the present the Younkcr party are in the ascendant , and carry it even over Ministers . For the present , for there is no telling whether to-morrow , or next week , friend Radowitz , or liberal Humboldt , or some other liberal person of genius who has the King ' s ear ( for the King has sympathies with all genius , even with Democratic Bettina ) , may not turn the tide in another direction , and cause " counter-instructions " go forth to the effect " that doors need not be shut ; leaning to would be sufficient . "—J . N .
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MR . CONINGHAM'S LECTURE AT BRIGHTON . Gentlemen , —Although differing widely , perhaps , upon other questions of social or political ceconomy , we meet here this evening on the common ground of cooperative asociation . Before proceeding with my lecture , and to prevent any misconception , I will first endeavour to define some few of the terms which I shall use . Permit me . in the first nlace . to noint out the dif-Permit me , in the first placeto point out the
dif-, ference between Association and Communism , terms which are often strangely confounded with each other , but have , in fact , a meaning perfectly distinct , with little or nothing in common . Tho Communists exclude the principle of individual property , or severalty , as it is called ; and assume that every one has an equal right to an equal share of the common stock . Communism being , in fact , the princip le of equality enforced by a more or less absolute authority .
Cooperative Association , or concert in the division of labour , on the other hand , is in no way incompatible or hostilo to individual liberty and the right of possession . It serves to adjust tho proportionul division of profits between capital , labour , and talent , and between the employers nnd tho employed , in a more equitable manner than under the existing system of industrial organization ; where the many who do the work have no interest in the enterprise , except to fulfil their contract and to earn their wages : the price of their labour being adjusted by hostile competition—one side demanding us much , and the other paying as little as possible .
The difference bet ween Association and Communism may be illustrated thus : —If three persons were each to subscribe one , two , or three hundred pounds —in three unequal proportions—making a total of £ (> 0 () , on the Communistic principle , the profits must still be divided in equal portions between them ; while , on the principle" of association , their respective shares would be—one-sixth for the firwt , two-sixths for t > ' * - second , and three sixths for the third . In » hor » , the difference between association and communion , is tho difference between the practicable und tho impracticable—between voluntary cooperation and involuntary community .
There is another term about which the most extraordinary iniuappreltonHion pruvuils . I allude to tho term Socialibin . The adjective " social , " in Johnson ' s dictionary ( the substantive was probably unknown to tho worthy doctor ) , is defined " uh relating to the general or public interest ; relating to society . ' ThuB Socialism , properly speaking , is tho study of the public interest , or the science of social ( economy ; and in this sense , Turgot , Adum Smith , David lticurdo , Robert Peel , and Stuart Mill , are all SociuU « ts . Wow that Sociulitmi hu » become u party wutchword , of vague and mout uncortain meaning , it may bo desirable to avoid inisupprehenaion on tho subject .
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720 « tc atakev . t SATtm "
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 2, 1851, page 720, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1894/page/4/
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