were the words of the Greek poet so diers to do before its close. The spirit applicable as to him, which had been conjured up was one too powerful to be controlled by those jogos, ny who had evoked it. The course of πολλων υπερπλησθη μασαν, events proceeded. The spectacle which “A μη 'πικαιρα μηδε συμφεροντα, Germany exhibited in the year 1813, Ακροτασαν εισαναβας αποτομον has never been equalled since the days Aνωρέσεν εις αναγκαν. of Marathon and Salamis. It was not The humiliation of Prussia has been suspected by the sovereigns of the the most profound; her prince had country, that the future results of the been degraded into a mere cipher; enthusiasm should bear so near a reher cities unremittingly spoiled by a semblance to that of those first strugsuccession of brutal generals; and gles of Athenian patriotism. They every sentiment, national as well as who presided at the great national manly, which could pave the way to conflicts of Lutzen, Leipsic, and Havengeance, had been rivetted in the nau, will learn ere long, that on those heart of every subject, by Napoleon's terrible days the Germans fought for unworthy treatment of the queen. It themselves as well as for their princes. was fitting that in Prussia also the Among the motley multitude who first manifestation of these feelings crowded in those animating days to should break forth. When, after an the standards of their country, the unequalled series of calamities, defeats, most remarkable and grotesque, and and degradations, it at last became certainly not the least efficient, convisible to the people of Germany, that sisted of the students of the German their governments might yet, by one universities. For the first time in bold and simultaneous struggle, ac- modern ages, professors became the complish that which, in spite of them, military leaders of their pupils, and had been so well begun, an appeal Körner and Wolfe performed the same was made, first tacitly and then open- part among the Landwehr, which Æsly, to the King of Prussia, which, to chylus did at Salamis, and Socrates at his eternal shame be it spoken, he did Platoea. Who can wonder to hear that not hear with that promptness and the survivors did not return to their decision of purpose, which suited alike academic bowers the same beings as his own interest and the inclination they left them ? Their souls had been of his people. It is well known that moved in the strong current of the his person was in danger at Berlin, world. To the spirit of enthusiasm before he yielded to the popular voice wherewith they had of old been imand put himself at the head of the bued, there was now added the sense army of Silesia. By the influence of of power, and the commanding energy the memorable society of virtue (the of will. They have learned what they Tugend-bund), and now by the art- can do themselves. They have acquired ful, though energetic, proclamations the still more important knowledge, of Frederick-William, a sentiment of that they are not an isolated set of beenthusiasm, equal to that which fires ings, cut off from men, and devoted the bosoms of religious martyrs, was to books—that they are in truth the kindled in the breast of noble, mer- same people with those around them; chant, and peasant. The old barriers that their interests, their wishes, their of custom, precedence, and dignity, passions, and their powers are the same. fell away, like gossamer webs, before În the retirement to which they have the strong breath of necessity. Armies returned, they can no longer muster were to be made, and the sovereign by beat of drum, and mingle in the tuhad it no longer in his power to criti- mults of the real battle; but they who cise in his war-office, the quarterings have seen the warlike aspect of their of those who were willing to assume persons and amusements, their beards, his uniform. A time was come in their sabres, and their fencing-schools, which barons, burghers, and Jews, will have no difficulty in perceiving became aware that, as their cause was that these men do not look upon themthe same, their exertions should be selves as for ever done with war. He equal. What Frederick-William did, will observe in them the determination at the opening of the campaign, the to wait till the moment come, and then, sovereigns of Baden, Wurtemberg, and rising as before with one irresistible Bavaria, were compelled by their sol- impulse, to drive every thing befor them that opposes right. From the been more distressing than in any other intercourse of those campaigns, the of the great German States; their freehussar derived illumination, and the dom from all imposts amounting to a scholar firmness. The chief defect of terrible piece of oppression on all the German minds was supplied by the other orders of society. Frederickfortuitous reunion of those too long se- William was obliged to throw his army parated powers-reflection and ardour. open to every one in the year 1813, The late tumults of rejoicing patriot- and he promised at that time, that neiism, with which the day of the reform- ther the military, nor any other of the ation was celebrated at Jena, at Leip- offensive parts of their privileges, should sic, and at Berlin, is proof sufficient of ever be restored. It is distressing to a secret understanding, and a good relate, that a virtual recall of all these omen of what may yet be done, when promises has since taken place; for the day, not for words, but for action, an edict has been uttered, preventing shall arrive. the rise of any man, not nobly born, Of all the oppressions by which the to any rank higher than that of a subspirit of the enlightened and manly lieutenant. But the most disagreeable Germans are irritated, the most galling narrative to British ears is that which and insufferable is that occasioned by details the situation of Hanover. So the preposterous privileges of the no- far from the state of the nobility being bility. “A class such as this-nume- altered in conformity to the spirit of rous without limit, idle, and excluded the age, whatever alterations have ocfrom most of the useful professions to curred in that country have all tended a liberal and generous nation, even the exactly the other way. Till the prelower orders of whose society are dis- sent reign, one place in the supreme tinguished by very excellent education council was always open to all Hanoand by universal habits of reading, is a verian subjects; in the days of George nuisance beyond imagination intoler- III. it, like all the other six, has been able, insulting, and absurd. The finan- declared to belong exclusively to the cial distresses of Austria have produced noblesse. Hanover is a small, and by at least one happy effect, by rendering no means a rich country, but its init absolutely necessary for the imperial habitants are among the best educagovernment to redeem the profession ted and most moral people in the of the merchant from that disgraceful world; and as the soil is in every part situation, in which, throughout the excellent, the greatest possible facility other monarchies of Germany, it is is by nature afforded to every sort of placed. In Bavaria and Saxony also, agricultural and political improvement. some approximations have of late been But so long as the whole gentry of the made to the introduction of a more li- country are prevented from occupying beral state of affairs,-in consequence, themselves, without degradation, in I suppose, in the former of these coun- commerce ; so long as the predilections tries, of the great acuteness and pene- of the reigning family render necessary tration of the reigning monarch; and in the maintenance of the present enorthe latter, of the flourishing condition mously disproportionate military force, of the trade of Saxony, and the secret a complete stop is put to every rational wishes of the nobles themselves to par- prospect of good. I am unwilling to ticipate, without degradation, in the say much upon this subject, for I gladprofits which it affords. Count Bühl, ly acquit our Royal Family of having ihe descendant of the celebrated prime any seriously bad intentions. But minister of the last Polish Augustus, surely their residence in our free and is at this moment understood (al- happy country might have been exthough his name is suppressed in every pected to produce impressions on their firm) to be one of the tirst merchants minds, sufficient to prevent them from in the wool trade ; by which wise mea- pursuing a system of conduct which sure he has, in a great degree, restored renders their native province, at this the dilapidated wealth of his illustri- moment, the worst cultivated, and, ous family; and it is expected, that in without any exception, the most noblea few years the Saxon gentlemen will ridden district of Northern Germany. be legally permitted to engage in trale, Compare Hanover with Weimar, Gówithout forfeiting any of the lustre tha, or even with the kingdom of Saxof their birth. In Prussia, the privi- ony, and it is impossible not to lament leges of the nobility have at all times over the miserable contrast. Before the French despotism was must, in any case, attend the estaba established over the German States lishment of a confederacy of Indepenbordering on the Rhine, only one of dent States ? or does he conceal from these States could be said to possess a himself how greatly these difficulties good constitution. This was Wur- must, in the present instance, be intemberg—the constitution of which, creased by the determined opposition Mr Pitt once said, was the best in the of the first and third power in Gerworld next to that of England. With many ? to say nothing of the insuperthe assistance of Napoleon, the repre- able objections which all Saxons and sentatives of the nobility and people Hanoverians will feel to the erection of were deprived, by the sovereign family, a system which could not fail to add of the share which they had always had new weight to the already odious suin the government of their country, periority of Prussia. The thing is and a pure monarchy was established. quite impossible~ I do not hesitate to In other words, Wurtemberg became say so, although I am quite sensia mere department of France. After ble that I have no better plan to sugLouis XVIII. had re-ascended the gest. throne of his fathers, the people of Something, however, must be this German State saw no reason why done. If Frederick-William, and the tyranny established by Bonaparte Prince Hardenberg, and the petty among them should survive the other Princes of Wurtemberg and Baden, institutions of his despotism; since do not hasten to do what they have that period, a perpetual struggle has promised, the work will very soon be subsisted between them and their taken out of their hands. The naking; and, notwithstanding all the al- tional independence of Germany is an liances by which he has fortified him- object of much concern to every enself, I have very little doubt as to the lightened German,-but civil rights, mode in which it will terminate. and internal repose, are yet dearer to The Prussians, the Bavarians, the him. The privileges of the nobility Wurtembergers, and the people of must, in the first place, be lessened,Baden, have all been promised repre- commerce must be rendered honoursentative constitutions by their prin- able--and every part of the educated The fulfilment of these promises and enlightened people must somehas been deferred from year to year; how find its organ in the deliberative and, in some instances, this has been assembly of the State. All this has accompanied with measures of royal been solemnly promised and patiently violence, and testifications of popular waited for. The silence which at predispleasure, which leave but too much sent prevails, is the best proof that the reason to doubt, whether the result public of Germany are firm, resolved, of the approaching Congress at Dus- and confident. Let the Congress of selsdorf, will be more soothing to the Dusselsdorf do their duty, and all is general mind than those of the similar well. If not, the time shall soon meetings which have already been held have gone by, when restitution might at Frankfort and Vienna. have prevented the necessity of reThe plans which have as yet been venge. suggested by the political writers in If the Germans have a Revolution, Germany, are, I think, all alike vi- it will, I hope and trust, be calm and sionary and impracticable. The best rational, when compared with that of of all these authors, Scheffer, whose the French. Its precursors have not book you should certainly read, pro- been, as in France, ridicule, raillery, poses, very seriously, the establish- derision, impiety ; but sober reflecment of a great national confederacy, tion, Christian confidence, and manly to consist of all the German States, resolutions, gathered and confirmed excepting Austria and Bavaria. The by the experience of many sorrowful princes of these countries, he observes, years. The sentiment is so universalshould not be permitted to join the ly diffused—so seriously established confederacy, for several reasons—Their so irresistible in its unity,—that I subjects are not all Germans; and the confess I should be greatly delighted, greater part of their territories have but not very much astonished, to hear always been accustomed to a mere mi- of the mighty work being accomplishlitary government. But has Mr Schef- ed almost without resistance, and enfer forgotten the difficulties which tirely without outrage, ces. THE FAIRIES, a а What feats the Fairy Creatures played ! Now seeming of the height afraid, A Dream-like remembrance of a Dream. And, folding the moss in fast embraces, They peeped o'er the Bridge with their loveIt chanced three merry Fairies met ly faces. On the bridge of a mountain rivulet, Now hanging like the fearless flowers Whose hanging arch thro' the misty spray, By their tiny arms in the Cataract showers, Like a little Lunar Rainbow lay, Swung back and forward with delight, With turf and powers a pathway meet, Like Pearls in the spray-shower burning For the twinkling of unearthly feet, bright! For bright were the flowers as their golden Then they dropt at once into the Pool tresses, A moment gone! then beautiful And green the turf as their Elfin-dresses. Ascending on slow-hovering wing, Aye the water o'er the Linn As if with darkness dallying, Was mocking, with a gleesome din, They rose again, through the smiling air, The small shrill laughter, as it broke To their couch of moss and flow'rets fair, In peals from these night-wandering Folk ; And rooted lay in silence there. While the stream danced on with a tinkling Down into the gulf profound tune, Slid the stream without a sound ! All happy to meet by a blink o' the moon. A charm had hushed the thundering shocks, Now laughing louder than before, And stillness steeped the blackened rocks. They strove to deaden that ceaseless roar ; 'Twas fit, where these fair things were lying, And, when vanquished was the water fall, No sound, save of some Zephyr sighing, Loudly they shouted, one and all, Should stir the gentle Solitude ! Like the chorus of a Madrigal, The mountain's night-voice was subdued Till the glen awoke from its midnight trance, To far-off music faint and dim, And o'er the hills in flight-like dance, From Nature's heart a holy hymn! Was all the troop of echoes driven, Nor was that Universal Strain Entranced in joy the Creatures lay, And thus in song-like murmurs spoke. With wonder, in the wan moonlight, Mountain Fairy. As hovering white, and still as snow, He caught a glance of the things below, “ Soon as the lingering Sun was gone, All burning on the bridge like fire I sailed away from my sparry throne, In the sea-green glow of their wild attire. Mine own cool, silent, glímmering dwelling. “ Halloo ! Halloo ! tu-whit ! tu-whoo !" Below the roots of the huge Hylvellyn. Cried the gleesome Elves, and away they flew, As onwards like a thought I flew, With mimic shriek, sob, cry, and howl, From my wings fast fell the pearly dew, In headlong chase of the frightened Owl. Sweet tiny orbs of lucid ray With many a buffet they drove him onward, Rising and setting on my way, Now hoised him up, now pressed him down- As if I had been some Planet fair, That ruled its own bright atmosphere. They pulled at his horns, and with many a • O beauteous sight !' the Shepherd cried, tweak, To the Shepherd slumbering at his side, Around and around they skrewed his beak ; • Look where the Mountain-Fairy flies ! On his back they beat with a birch-sprayflail, But e'er he had opened his heavy eyes, And they tore the long feathers from his tail; I had flown o'er Grassmere's moonlight flood, Then, like warriors mounted in their pride, And the rustling swing of old Rydal-Wood, Behind his wings behold them ride! And sunk down 'mid the heather-bells And shouting, charge unto the war, On the shady side of sweet Furness-Fells, Each waving his soft plume-scymitar ; 'Twas but one soft wave o' my wing! A war of laughter, not of tears, A start and an end to my journeying. The wild-wood's harmless Cuirassiers. One moment's rest in a spot so dear, For the Moonlight was sleeping on WinderThro' the depth of Ivy on the wall mere, (The sole remains of old Greystock Hall) And I saw in that long pure streak of light The Screamer is driven, half scared to death; The joy and the sadness of the night, And the gamesome Fairies, all out of breath, And mine eyes, in sooth, began to fill, Their tiny robes in the air arranging, So beautiful that Lake-so still and kisses in their flight exchanging ; So motionless its gentle breastNow slowly with the soft wind stealing Save where, just rocking in their rest, Right onwards, round about now wheeling, A crowd of water-lilies lay Like leaves blown off in gusty weather, Like stars amid the milky way. To the rainbow-bridge all flock together ; And lo! on the green moss all alight, But what had I with the Lake to do? Like a cluster of Goldfinches mingling bright. So off to the misty hills I flew, ward ; a And in dark ravines, and creviced rocks, Till, like a breath breathed clear from With my finger I counted my thousand flocks, Heaven, And each little Lamb by name I blest, To her at once a voice was given, As snow-white they lay in their innocent rest. And thro' the tune the words arose When I saw some weak cold tottering Lamb As thro' the fragrant dew the leaflets of the Recline 'gainst the side of its pitiful Dam, Rose. Cottage Fairy. In the bursting blaze, and the gleam declining. Let Venus bless the Evening-air, Sank faintly-bleating into sleep. Uprise at morn Prince Lucifer, In the soft moonlight glow I knew But those little tiny stars be mine Where the herbs that hold the poison grew; That thro' the softened copse-wood shine, And at the touch of my feathery foot With beauty crown the pastoral hill, They withered at once both stalk and root, And glimmer o'er the sylvan rill, But I shook not the gracious tears of night Where stands the Peasant's ivied nest, From the plants most dear to the Shepherd's And the huge mill-wheel is at rest. sight, From out the honeysuckle's bloom And with mellower lustre bade them spring I peeped into that laughing room, In the yellow round of the Fairy's ring, Then, like a hail-drop, on the pane Till, methought, the hillside smiled afar Pattering, I stilled the din again, With the face of many a verdant Star. While every startled eye looked up; I marked the Fox at the mouth of his den, And, half-raised to her lips the cup, And raised the shadows of Hunter-men, The rosy Maiden's look met mine! And I bade aerial beagles rave, But I veiled mine eyes with the silken twine And the horn twang through the Felon's cave, Of the small wild roses clustering thickly, Then buried him with Famine in his grave. Then to her seat returning quickly, She’gan to talk with bashful glee At these wild words their sports gave o'er, And the Eaglets couched warm beneath her And asked where lived the Cottage-Fairy? breast, The maid replied, “She loves to tarry But the Shepherd shall miss her cry at morn, Oftimes beside our very hearth, For her eyes are dim and her plumage torn, And joins in little Children's mirth And I left in their Eyrie the Imps accurst When they are gladly innocent ; To die in their hunger, and cold, and thirst. And sometimes beneath the leafy Tent, All, all is well with my lovely Flocks ! That murmurs round our Cottage-door, And so I dropt suddenly down the rocks, Our overshadowing Sycamore, From Loughrig-top, like a falling Star, We see her dancing in a ring, Seen doubtless through the mists afar And hear the blessed Creature singBy a hundred Shepherds on the Hill A Creature full of gentleness, Wandering among the Moonlight still, Rejoicing in our happiness.' And with folded wings and feet earth-bound Then plucked I a wreath with many a gem I felt myself standing o'er the sound Burning—a flowery Diadem; Of this Waterfall, and with joy espied And through the wicket with a glide A Sister-Elf at either side, I slipped, and sat me down beside My Tale is told-nor strange nor new The youngest of those Infants fair, Now, sweet Lady Bright-Eyes ! what say And wreathed the blossoms round her hair. • Who placed these flowers on William's head ?' Crowned me, upon the morn of May, Queen of that sunny Holiday.' And its own little glade grows bright The tiny Monarch laughed aloud At the soft revealment of its light, With pride among the loving crowd, And, with my shrillest voice, I lent Makes, from a flower-cup suddenly I skimmed away, and with deligh a you ?" |