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Leader (1850-1860), 18th December 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1390

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      AMERICA . ( From ovr Special Correspondent . ") New Yokk , Dec . 4 , 1858 . On Monday next ( Dec . 6 ) the Members of Congress meet for the despatch of " divers urgent and important business , " and those members of the journalistic worltt whose function it is to manufacture camrds and maw guesses at truth , " liave already ventured upon a discovery of the topics and tone of the President a Mc «« 8 J Although this document liaa already passed t > rougj the States nresfl , it will not bo given to tuo public oi

      New York till Monday evening . Aa to its contents , wo arc " assured" that tlio Mc » a » o takes bold and earnest ground with reference to no Mexican afTair , and that the chief -magistrate wi 8 ™ warm expression of sympathy with the liberal * , j oum leas with the purpose of allbrding them the m ° » lj » P port they have askod at the hands of V' ^/ 'V . ^ K and which they certainly deserve . " It i ? ' ^ r / , no recommendation of intervention w 11 bo . \ , " . made , and it is «• supposed" thut nothing will b « « o gested that can interfere in the future with tho . bliSl ,. nent of tho protectorate , if that Bhall be W upon as the most practical means of saving Momw tho future effects of her chronic revolution « ¦ tno luture onects oi curuuiu

      . , nor •«•""""" ,,. ii . tinot y » understood" that tho Monroe doctrine will boid «« / reaffirmed in tho Message , by » very ( l «« iO * d « l « u J , tionathat tho United States cannot tolerate buropo « terveiition in tho affairs of Central America , » ojji i ^ Cuba . " There aro speculations as to tuo eou President will take upon tho Tariff quo * . "" . < " JV forences of opiuiou between Mr . JJuohinan , aw ^ Secretary Cobb upon this point aro wU * »™ wide ana irreconcilable . Tho l ^ tor i « obstinnW ^ posod to any modification whatever of ( lie tan ; , ^ has tho support of the South upon tin * | 'o *» }*• *' be dent's views upon U . is subject are wej taioj i I rovwi

      maintains that the tariff should bo a " - , ftf that It should bo such as wlU secure . rovooue ^ ^ the oxpenuoa of tho Government—and tuaj « - ¦ hon ) O so arranged as to give incidental protection w manufaoturas .

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      then , by the same authority , it is utterly impossible ' tw the present natives of that country are S that pur sang , for Bede distinctly informs us ttaf afcie Angles and Seaxes had departed , the country W * e and remained , an uninhabited waste ; and that it ' tinued to be " an uninhabited wilderness of vast « n 7 V y andlrriny marshes » up to the eleventh ceV ur y ^ fat the testimony of . Adam Bremensis , the earliest and cS ancient historical authority of Germany and Del T It would be tedious , perhaps , and out of place Lc « t enter into the : origin of tho people of Denmark and £ provinces , bat I will just observe that some parts Ifthl country were brought under cultivation by settlers from Holland solate as the sixth century , and these conhtrk ? as well as Germany , were indebted for their civilisation ' and conversion to Christianity to missionaries froni England . The assertion of your contemporary ' s corre spondent , that the German dialects spoken in SchleswiV and Holstein are as near to Anglo-Saxon as can be i «

      it , and opposed the establishment of Americans for nearly a year after the right had been claimed , and it was not tfll Mr . Barnard , the then American Charge d'Affaires at Berlin ^ authorised the Consul at Bremen to discontinue his functions , and refer the matter to 'Washington , that the authorities conceded the point . The consequence is , that Americans ia the Hanse towns are favoured beyond all other nations , and as to become a freeman of the city , with the same privileges that United States citizens possess , costs from three to

      four hTHHlred dollars , it follows that it is , by so much money , more advantageous to be an American —no trifling consideration for the generality of men who go abroad to seek their fortunes . By this treaty American captains are enabled to transact the business of their ships without the mediation of a broker , and are permitted to enter the ports without paying the dues to which other foreign vessels are liable . Now the people of the Hanse towns enjoy the same freedom to trade in England as they do in the United States , excepting in a few towns where the , old effete

      ments of a revolution . The safety of royalty in Germany is the ignorance and indifference of the peasants . The townspeople have long laughed at the Grace of God principle . When we see a small number of a nation like the Kreuz Zeitung party coming forward as loyalists and supporters of' the monarchy par excellence , We may guess how the monarchy stands with the people , and we are reminded that just those very people who are loudest about their nationality—as the Greeks , Italians , Poles , and Hungarians—have no real nationality at all . From bigotry to disbelief there is but one step , as France clearly proves . No people were more loyal , or rather worshipped royalty more than the French , and no wonder , for the belief in the holiness of the king was instilled

      into them from their earliest childhood by the priesthood , yet no sooner did a doxibt enter their minds than the Revolution immediately followed , attended by a rage as blind as had been their former bigotry . I think it , therefore , a bad sign when we hear the prince of the greatest military and officially fettered State of Europe threatening to put down hypocrisy in the Church , and almost in the same breath begging his Ministers to assist him in upholding the most ridiculous sham of the day—the Grace of God Monarchy—against the encroaching power of the people . The Kreuz Zeitung party are the worst enemies of the cause they profess to support , for they would subject to the torture of logic that which has for its foundation only fear , ignorance , and superstitious feeling . The mass of people know little and care little about their own rights , or the rights of

      king or parliament ; if they did know their own rights and the origin of royalty , it would be rather rt difficult task to tyrannise over them as we see is done at this moment . All that they know about royalty is , that they have inherited it , just as they have their religious confession . All that they know about their parliament is , that the members comprising it are permitted to meet in a large room at Berlin , and talk politics without being instantly packed off to prison . This . ignorance and indifference is the bliss of the powers that rule , and they and their friends would act wisely to enjoy it in silence . This is an advice which , fortunately for those who seek the downfal of royalty , will not be followed by the noisy , thoughtless loyalists , and some debates may be expected in the coming parliament upon the subject of monarchy by the Grace of God versus monarchy by the will of the people .

      Ernst Moritz Arndt , the great lyric poet of Germany , who is now eighty-nine years of age , has just been condemned ( in coniumaeium ' ) by the Assizes at Zweibrilcken ( Deux Ponts ) to a month ' s imprisonment aud a fine of fifty guilders for having , in his latest work , entitled " Wanderings and Karablinga with Freiherr vom Stein , " slandered and insulted the Bavarian General Furst Wrede . Ia the passage for which he has been condemned , Arndt gives a relation of the . conduct of the Bavarian General , when , aa French Marshal , he occupied the castle of the Duke of Brunswick-Oels , how that he carried off all the silver service , and how for that reason Freiherr vom Stein , once exclaimed , when he met the General at the country seat of Metzler , the

      banker : " I'll never sit in the same room with such a cursed thief . " As soon as the fact of Arndt ' s condemnation became known at Bono , where he dwells , the townspeople and students got up a torchlight procession in his honour . Tho old poet will not bo otherwise than agreeably affected by tUe sentence , unless he chooses to pay a visit to the Bavarian park of Vaterland—a visit that would be extremely unwelcome to the Bavarian Government . I think for Der Alti Vater Arndt stands first in the hearts of all patriotic Germans , and his imprisonment , if it should not give rise to disturbances , would , at least , cause a very painful sensation indeed . It is , therefore , better , perhaps , for all parties that Arndt is enjoying his torchlight

      procession at Bonn instead of lying in a Bavarian prison . A few nights ago the royal paluco at Berlin was burglariously entered and a valuable silver service , presented to Prince Frederick William on tho occasion of his marriage by the City of Cologno , stolon from the grand saloon . It is said * the thieves arc caught . In your last Leader there was an extract from the Berlin correspondence of a contemporary headed u Preservation of Medieval Customs . " I refer your readers to the extract In question , and venture to offer them a few remarks upon it . It is very possible that modirovnl courts of equity are hold in Ilolatehi } modiojval is a wide term , aud the custom may have come down to the peoulo by tradition , from century to contury , although

      I , for one , do not believe it for a moment ; but X should very much like to know upon what uutaority the correspondent of your contemporary ia enabled to assert that tho Sohloswig-Uolstoinors , as tho Germans designate the inhabitants of the two provinces of Schloswig and Halatein , aro Anglo-Saxons pur aimg t I am aware that it is an accepted historical truth that a people called in tho Latin language Angli and fiaxonea , and in old English Englu and Lecucna , or Ingles and Setxea according to tho dialect , came from a part of the Continent which , upon tho sole authority of Bede Yenerabllis , lay between Geatum and . Saxouuro , which countries are supposed to be Jutland and Saxony j but if wo , upon tho authority of Bode , allow that these people did aoino from such a quarter-, and that quarter waa tho present Angoln In tho province of Schloswig ,

      tyranny of the guilds is not yet quite trampled under foot , but in all the great centres of trade they have exactly the same freedom as in the United States ; and is it too much to ask that Englishmen should enjoy the same freedom in the Hanse towns , which are , it must be remembered , the London , Liverpool , and Glasgow of Germany ? The fact of the Americans enjoying privileges in certain parts of Germany which no other nations , not even Germans , enjoy , has naturally given rise to comments , and produced a state of feeling nearly allied to envious irritation . Some members of the Gotha Congress

      have taken advantage of this rare opportunity to stir up the people to make an effort to release themselves from the insolent tyranny of these uneducated and selfish monopolists , who absolutely begrudge and deny the poor man the right of gaining his bread by the sweat of his brow . I have no doubt , myself , that the freelabour men will be ultimately and shortly successful in their exertions to liberate their country from the yoke of the guilds , for when it becomes known to German citizens of the United States that they are free of the guilds , that they have all the privileges of the highest

      Biirgerrecht , there will be , very probably , an extensive immigration into the Hanse towns , and the monopolists will thus be completely overwhelmeid , much to the profit of the Hanse towns themselves , which will become thenceforth the refuge of all oppressed Germans . This free-labour question , or , as the Germans term it , Gewerbe-Frage , is the real movement of the time in Germanythe Prussian question was a mere excrescence ; the advanced Liberals clearly perceive that the Zunftwesen , or guild system , is the root of the Beamtenthttm , or official system : get rid of the first and the other will die of itself for want of nourishment . This was made evident in

      Prussia . To decoy Germans of the surrounding states into Prussia , the guilds were abolished ; but the guilds being abolished , there was no need of official supervision , there was no need of passports , nor Wanderhuchs , nor cards of residence , nor alien tickets , &c . &c , there was an end to tne whole host of official Scheins , or testimonials , that wear out the spirits and shoe-leather of the poor German workman' —there was , in consequence of this abolition , no need of officials in Prussia , for their occupation was gone . This , of course , would never do , for the jBeamtenthum , or " beadledom , " is to despotism what the pulp of fruit is to the core , more especially in countries where no historical aristocracy exists ; so M . Von der Heydt and partners set to work as quickly as possible to reorganise the guilds , in which , however , they have not been successful , nor are they likely to be , since the Gotha Congress have so patriotically stood forth to enlighten both princes and people .

      The Ministerial , or as / we must call it , after the Prince of Prussia ' s peroration , the Grace of God party , is now impressing it upon the Ministers that it ia their duty to defend the prerogative of tho Crown—the monarchical basis of the State , and , above all , the principle of the Grace of God Monarchy against any encroachments that nay be attempted on the part of the Liberal Landtag . There are , however , certain questions which had better be left undefended , and among these is the Grace of God Monarchy principle . That the Prince or his Ministers should moot such a doctrine in philosophically atheistical Germany is inexplicable to me . They surely must know what the people have been learning and discussing since the first French Revolution—they surel y must know to what extent Protestant churches are frequented by

      men ! I wonder whether tho advisers of tho Prince have ever given themselves the trouble to go amongst the people to inquire what they thought about the Grace of God itself before asking them to believe iu the Monarchy by tho Grace of God . I think I speak truth when I assert that the great mass of educated Germans are either Atheists or simple Deists , and therefore any attempt on the part of tho Ministerialists to defend the principle would only- make a vexed question of that which admits of no argument , which is meroly a ma ( ter of sentiment and faith , and must make iteolf felt . If there is a doubt about tho sanctity of kings abroad , It Is certainly the most prudent course to accept the fact without any comment whatever , for comment on the Landtag will lead to discussion , and discussion will set those a thinking who will become tho easiest

      lnstrunot ia accordance with fact . They bear no more , indeed less , resemblance to any dialect of Anglo-Saxon than do Danish or Flemish . It is exactly because the Ian-maze of Holstein is German that the quarrel has arisen between Germany and Denmark . That the peasants who appear at such , courts of equity should speak no pure hoch Deutsch , I can easily conceive , as can any one who knows that there are very few peasants in all North Germany that are able to speak the literary or high German language , which is , in fact , the language of the educated classes only . The word " Thiny" is given as the name of this court , but I suppose it is a misprint for " Thing . " The word was most probably introduced by the English missionaries , or their disciples , from the archbishfrprick of Bremen , which was founded in 785 by Wilhead of * Northumberland . My chief object in noticing the extract from rour

      contemporary a correspondence is to put your readers on their guard against receiving as authentic any accounts of customs , manners , or ethnological similarities tending to prove identity of race in Holsteiners and the English , or in the Danes and the English . The aim ' of such accounts is doubtless to excite the sympathy of the English people for one Or the other people in the struggle which is going on at present between them . " All discoveries of coins , stones with inscriptions , &c . &c , must be received with very'great suspicion . That the reader may appreciate the value of the above warning , 1 would recommend a perusal of Mr . Worsaae ' s The Northmen in

      J-ljH / laiid , and Ernst Moritz Arndt s Lectvrcs upon the Peoples of Europe . As the struggle between Denmark and Germany -will probably very shortly recommence , we may look forward to more interesting accounts of ancient customs , with a view to prove their relationship to the English . At the same time , I have no intention , by these remarks , to cast any doubt upon the good faith of your contemporary ' s correspondent . He has , 1 believe , given a true description of what he has seen , but Ceremonies may be concocted as easily ns coins may bo made and inscriptions upon stones cut . More has been done in this line than most people imagine .

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      1390 THE LEADER , [ No . 456 , PecemberTj . 1858 .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 18, 1858, page 1390, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2273/page/22/