spent four years in doing nothing, swallowed the whole prescribed dose at a sitting, with a docility worthy of the parliaments of Louis XIV.

By these acts the Diet established an inspection of the universities, a censorship of the press, and a central tribunal at Mentz for the trial of political offenders, all in the aim to crush the spirit of liberty in the German mind. An enginery was thus provided for effecting the suppression of liberal newspapers, - preventing the publication of matter obnoxious to the censure of the good sovereigns of Prussia and Austria, - rooting out from the universities all persons, whether students or professors, of suspected or liberal principles, and in a word for warring against opinion from the Rhine to the Vistula. Whatever power could do was done, to subdue all Germany into the state of stagnant quiescence, which absolute sovereigns deem the height of prosperity.

By such means, it will be conceived, the Germans were in a great measure debarred of all the advantages, which they had flattered themselves they should derive from the reestablishment of their ancient princes in the station and influence, which they possessed before the victories of Bonaparte had crippled Austria and overthrown Prussia. At the period of their final struggle with the French, every thing had assumed an exclusive nationality of complexion. French words, French proper names, French usages, whatever gave currency to French associations, it was popular to banish from regenerated Germany. But all these feelings passed away with The lapse of fifteen years produced a marvellous change in the sentiments of the people, as well in regard of the French as of their own national rulers. In 1830, the Germans entertained little of that holy horror of the French,

time.

which distinguished them in 1814; and they were quite prepared to admire the brilliant triumph achieved by the heroes of the Parisian Barricades. If the influence of the Three Days did not exhibit itself in any great national act, as in Belgium and Poland, it was yet sufficiently apparent in various lesser movements, several of which happened almost contemporaneously in the month of September following the Three Days.

The young Duke of Brunswick had already acquired a most unenviable notoriety by various acts of capricious folly, bordering upon insanity,having challenged and otherwise grossly insulted his kinsman and guardian George IV of England, having annulled a constitution given to the States during his minority, — and having absconded from Germany to evade the jurisdiction of the Diet, which had been compelled to interfere in restraint of the mad-cap. He was in Paris at the time of the Revolution, which drove him back in terror to Brunswick. Here he recommenced a series of acts of petty tyranny, in violation of all justice, prudence, and common sense, and in defiance of his counsellors, until at length his preposterous absurdity became utterly insupportable, and kindled an insurrection among his subjects. Returning from the theatre on the evening of the 6th of September, he was attack ed by the populace, and reached his palace amid a shower of stones. The next day he proposed to make war upon the people with his little army; but becoming satisfied that his soldiers would not fire upon their fellow-citizens, he again took to flight, and embarked at Hamburg for England. Thereupon the mob gratified themselves with the spectacle of a conflagration of his palace, which they burned to the ground. The more discreet of the Brunswickers, however, caused the States to be

traditional; and where a people, like that of the United States, is of recent existence, and derives its blood from many different stocks, there is, of necessity, less of narrow exclusiveness in their knowledge, and a juster appreciation of foreign objects of interest.

And while this position is true as to the whole of Europe, it is eminently so in the case of England. Our population, although mixed of other countries, is chiefly drawn from British Isles; their language is our language; their forms of religion, their judicial system, their laws in regard of private rights, closely resemble ours; and it wants little to make us the common possessors of the same literature. Our prominent men of letters, equally with so many of our statesmen and merchants, are personally conversant with the mother-country. Not only the choice productions of the English press, but even much of its ephemeral matter, and many works that are totally unworthy of the honor of a reimpression or of perusal, are now republished in the United States; and the better periodical publications of Britain are read here almost as extensively as at home. The recent devise of 'Libraries' so called, and similar cheap and compact forms of publication, have greatly increased the number and variety of English works reprinted in this country. And if their newspapers are not republished here, yet they are the fountain-head, from which most of the current political information of the day flows into our own newspaper-press. All these considerations, added to our large and constant commercial intercourse with Great Britain, render us familiar with the general course of political history and opinions in the United Kingdom:

Therefore, in a cursory review, like the present, of the Revolution of the Three Days and its

of Great Britain has been under the immediate government of the Duke of Cambridge as Governor-General. What were the condition, views, and feelings of the people appears very distinctly from the full and discriminating observations of Mr. Dwight.* The Hanoverians gain no advantage by their connexion with England, and suffer great inconvenience. Much of their revenue is drawn away to be spent by the Sovereign in England. Their domestic as well as their foreign policy is made subservient to the political interests of the United Kingdom. Whenever umbrage is taken by the continental nations at the conduct of England in any respect, although conduct wholly disconnected with Hanover, yet they make Hanover the scape-goat of their resentment. The consequence is, that Great Britain sedulously shapes her administration of Hanover in such way as to render it a make-weight in her foreign negociations, the means of conciliating and accommodating Austria, Prussia, and Russia, and thus purchasing their forbearance in Germany, and their good will in England. Desirous as Britain might be to enable the Hanoverians to participate in the political blessings, which are the birthright and boast of Britons, such as freedom of the press, of opinion, and of public debate, yet to gratify the Holy Alliance all these are withheld from the people of Hanover. The lion and the unicorn, which attract your attention on every public edifice, remind you of liberty; but they crouch before the Prussian eagle and the doubleheaded vulture of Austria.'

Excited by the success of the French and the Belgians, and stimulated also by the events in Poland, the Hanoverians at length resolved to make an effort to obtain political reforms. The first * Travels in the North of Germany, p. 101,

movement was in the town of Osterode. A band of citizens, assembled there on the 7th of January 1831, proposed to organize a communal guard, that is, to arm themselves, and then petition for the redress of grievances; but being instantly attacked by a body of troops, they were dispersed without effecting any thing. On the 8th of January a much more serious rising occurred at Göttingen, the seat of the renowned university. There, a party of citizens and students marched to the town-house, deposed the municipal authorities, formed a national guard and a provisional government, and then proceeded to claim of the Governor General a free assembly of representatives to be elected by the people, and the concession of a free constitution. But the government was too strong for them; and in the course of a week so large a military force was despatched against them, that, resistance becoming hopeless, they laid down their arms, and the authority of the Governor General was completely reestablished. Nevertheless, either impelled by the revolutionary spirit of the people, or because eager to anticipate and thus prevent a repetition of disturbance, the Hanoverian government, in June 1832, gave its sanction to a constitution, in accordance with its own political views, that is, containing such restrictive provisions as to render it merely illusory for any valuable purpose.

Previously to this time, however, German politics had assumed a new face. On the 27th and 28th days of May 1832, a meeting of twenty thousand persons was held in the open air, at Halbach in Rhenish Bavaria, consisting of the friends of reform from Hesse, Nassau, Rhenish Prussia, Baden, and Wurtemberg, as well as inhabitants of Bavaria. The Germans there spoke out their wishes and feelings, and with so much