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ART. IX.-1. Vier Fragen von einem Ost Preussen. (Four Questions by an East Prussian.)

2. Erörtungen über die vier Fragen. (Remarks on the Four Questions.)

Ir is long since any book has excited so great a sensation in Germany as the little pamphlet entitled "Four Questions." It was ushered mysteriously into the world, and has been rigidly suppressed. The author, Dr. Jacobi, of Königsberg, we believe, has been brought to trial for the somewhat indefinite crime of "offending majesty" (beleidigter Majestät). He has met with great sympathy from the inhabitants of the province, a subscription of eighteen thousand dollars having been raised in his favour. We have read the pamphlet with attention and in an impartial spirit. It does not contain one-twentieth part of the violence of the leading articles in the most temperate of our political journals. We are aware that it would not be fair to institute a comparison, since, owing to the freedom of discussion in our country, perfectly harmless matter here might suffice to excite a flame in Germany. A weekly English periodical described the work as containing revolutionary principles. Nothing can be more unjust. The work is written in a manly and forcible tone; it contains observations on the ministers and bureaucracy of Prussia, written in no friendly spirit, on the truth of which we do not profess to decide. Nay, it would seem, from the pamphlet which we have placed second on the list at the head of this article, that the extracts from the documents on which Dr. Jacobi founds many of his reasons for discontent, are not correct. But the statements of this commentator must be received with great caution; the evident joy with which he anticipates the condemnation of his opponent, proves him a prejudiced witness. The "Four Questions" demand only what the Prussians have a right to ask. The late King of Prussia, after the happy deliverance of his country from French tyranny, promised to grant his people a constitution. Stein, a name never to be mentioned without respect, and Hardenberg, were favourers of the measure. Later events, and probably the suggestions of a neighbouring power, may have contributed to alter the intentions of the king, and the people, strong in love to their sovereign and respecting his many excellent qualities, did not press the subject. But the promise had been made, and was never recalled either by the late sovereign or by his present majesty. It is the performance of this mise, made with all the solemnity of a law, and the execution of which was only deferred by the difficulties and delays of the necessary previous arrangements, that the author of the "Four Questions" reclaims and in doing so, he is strictly within the letter of the law. For the sake of Prussia herself, we hope he may be acquitted; for if he be condemned, few indeed will be the strictures which will be admitted to pass free. With respect to the manner in which the book was published, we feel reluctant to make any observations, as we believe the matter is still under examination; we must therefore leave it to the proper authorities.

The present King of Prussia deservedly bears a very high character. He is universally spoken of as a man of a highly cultivated mind, great

knowledge of business, and of a most amiable disposition. His liberal patronage of learning and the arts deserves honourable mention. Within the short period of a year he has collected in his capital many of the men most eminent for genius and talent. Yet with all this, strange to say, his popularity has confessedly declined. We regret that the timid policy of his advisers should have led to the prosecution of Dr. Jacobi. We are of opinion that the accusation of treason cannot be maintained ; the manner in which Dr. Jacobi speaks of the king is uniformly respectful, and the majority in the provincial diet proves that he speaks the sentiments of thousands of his neighbours. The tone in which he speaks of the ministers and public officers is not friendly-it may be party coloured-but the event has sufficiently proved that confiscation and prohibition but increase sympathy for the accused.

Since writing the above remarks, we learn from the German papers that the king, who intends to make a journey in the autumn to Breslau in Silesia, has declared his intention of not accepting any extra public mark of respect from the magistracy or corporation of that city. In the communication of the minister, in which he announces the royal displeasure, he alleges as a reason that his majesty views the directions which the electors of that city had given to their member at the provincial diet, to vote in favour of the constitution, as open opposition. The most recent accounts from the Rhine, where the provincial diet has just commenced its session, announce that this province shows the sentiments of Königsberg and Breslau.

We are bound in justice to add, that in the recent sessions of the diets which have just been closed, the king has shown a sincere desire to render these meetings more extensively useful. Whether he wishes to prepare the people gradually for the introduction of greater political freedom, or whether he thinks that political development is not necessarily connected with any definite constitution, in the English sense of the term, time must show. The public attention in Germany is at this moment directed with some interest to the opening diet of the Rhine provinces, which has only commenced sitting after the conclusion of most of the other provincial assemblies. The inhabitants are said to be strongly attached to a liberal form of government, and the king will then be in possession of the wishes of the people, communicated by such organs as the present constitution of Prussia allows.

ART. X.-Moritz, Herzog und Churfürst zu Sachsen. Eine Darstellung aus dem Zeitalter der Reformation, von Dr. F. A. von Langenn, &c. (Maurice, Duke and Elector of Saxony. By Dr. von Langenn.) Erster Theil, mit Moritz's Bildniss. Leipsic. 1841.

THE principal features in the life and character of Prince Maurice are familiar to the English public from the impartial account of Robertson. The part which this prince, undoubtedly the most able of those who figured at this period of the Reformation, played in the affairs of Germany, is prominent, and his actions stand before the world so strongly

marked, that we can hardly expect any new light to be thrown upon the actions themselves. All that we can possibly hope for is, that, by a diligent investigation of the archives, the motives by which this extraordinary and able prince was influenced may be somewhat more clearly developed. Maurice appears as one of the most singular enigmas in history. Scarcely of age when he came to the government of his own dominions, he renounced the league of Smalcalden, although most sincerely attached to the Protestant religion; involved in differences with bis kinsman John Frederic, he usurped his throne when he had been deprived of his possessions by an arbitrary and unjust decree of Charles the Fifth. Such conduct might seem to justify the extreme abuse and distrust of the Protestants, when lo, he rises as the champion of the Protestant cause, and the emperor narrowly escapes being the prisoner of his former confidant. He died in battle at the age of thirty-three, having reigned twelve short years; nor, when we consider his character and abilities, does the remark of a Saxon historian seem improbable, that had he lived, Germany might have been spared many of the horrors of the thirty years' war. Providence, however, had decreed otherwise.

In order to attain a just opinion of the character of Maurice, we must judge him not according to abstract notions of right or wrong, but according to the temper and colouring of the times in which he lived. In the short notice to which we must confine ourselves, we shall select his difference with his kinsman John Frederic, as the most intricate and interesting feature. For historians are pretty unanimous respecting his defence of the Protestants against the emperor and his league with the French. The patriotism of recent writers has occasionally taken fire at his union with that people, but we must not forget that Maurice, who had lived on terms of intimacy with the emperor, was better acquainted with the resources of that monarch than many of the other German princes. And the event proved that the alliance was entered upon more with a view to frighten the emperor than to allow the French a prominent part in the affairs of Germany.

But in his differences with the elector, his conduct at first sight appears open to great suspicion, nor does Dr. von Langenn, who writes with impartiality, acquit Maurice of ambition. There are two points of view, which must not be lost sight of in considering this period of the Reformation, the former of which has naturally escaped the attention of foreign historians; we mean the question of territorial supremacy, and the different view of the Reformation entertained by the Protestants. In both these respects the characters of the two princes presented a distinct contrast with each other. The dominions of the Saxon princes had been divided into two parts about half a century before the period of which we are speaking; the elder, according to Saxon law, making the division, and the younger choosing which of the proposed parts he might prefer. To prevent the possibility, or rather to augment the difficulties of intestine feuds, many important subjects had been left common to the two lines (of Albert and Ernest). Yet this very measure, as might easily have been foreseen, but hastened the civil war. It seems an established fact, that John Frederic had allowed himself rights

of supremacy in the petty domains of Maurice, to which a far less ambitious and able prince would not have submitted. How far these inroads were agreeable to Maurice, as furnishing him with a pretext for extending his dominions, we are unable at this length of time to decide. His letters and documents, several of which are now for the first time published, breathe a spirit of peace and a desire for reconciliation; but we must not forget that Maurice's powers of dissimulation even imposed upon that great master of the art, Charles the Fifth himself. When the emperor had resolved upon dethroning the elector, Maurice's repeated refusal to assume the title, although decorous, was certainly not very sincere. The commencement of the difference must certainly be attributed to John Frederic, and not to Maurice.

Nor was the manner in which these two princes, both worthy of admiration, viewed the Reformation, less diametrically opposite. John Frederic was devoted heart and soul to the new doctrines, and considered any temporizing measures, although dictated by necessity, almost as a sin against providence; Maurice, whose distinguished genius displayed itself at an early age, was brought up at no less than five different courts, and it is by no means improbable that the marks of esteem and affection which he received in his youth from both the religious parties, may have inspired him with toleration. Less of a zealot than his kinsman, and conscious of his superiority to the emperor in the arts of policy and dissimulation, it is not to be wondered at that he preferred and proposed to consider the questions in dispute more by means of diplomacy than of theology. Nor must we forget that at a later period of his life, when the Protestants were most virulent against him, the opinions of Melancthon coincided with those of Maurice. His refusal to continue in the league of Smalcalden, may likewise be rationally explained. He united in his own person rapidity of execution with prudence of resolve, and had the league elected him for their commander, a happier result might have been anticipated. But what likelihood was there that his kinsman, who had proved so jealous of his own prerogatives that he had exceeded his just rights, would wave his pretensions in favour of a mere youth, and that youth his rival?

These and the other features in the life of Maurice are treated with ability and impartiality by Dr. von Langenn, who had previously established his claim to the character of a patriotic investigator of Saxon history in his life of Duke Albert. Dr. von Langenn is tutor to Prince Albert of Saxony (who is probably destined one day to ascend the throne of that country), and the liberal and enlightened views which he displays in the work before us afford the best guarantee of success in his honourable office. If he has not succeeded in clearing the memory of Maurice from all the clouds which overshadowed it, he has placed before us in a clear and striking manner, the difficulties by which that prince was surrounded-difficulties internal and external, which it was perhaps impossible to surmount, without adopting a line of conduct, which, in less complicated and less troubled times, might justly demand a much severer judgment.

ART. XI.-Neapel und die Neapolitaner, oder Briefe aus Neapel in die Heimath von Dr. Karl August Mayer. (Naples and the Neapolitans, in a Series of Letters by Dr. C. A. Mayer.) Erster Band. Oldenburg. 1840.

THIS agreeable volume, from the pen of one who is thoroughly master of his subject, has refreshed our recollections of Italy. On foot, on horseback, or in carriage, we have traversed no inconsiderable portion of the southern part of the peninsula, and we can recommend the author as a trust-worthy guide on subjects on which Mrs. Starke," the Queen of Sorrento," as she was called in our day, is naturally silent. On the high road and in the beaten track frequented by the swarm of annuals, the national character does not appear to advantage. The love of gain bas called forth the weaknesses, or if you will, the vices of the inhabitants, whilst their good qualities only show themselves on a longer acquaintance. Added to this, the difficulty of understanding the dialects of the country, even to those who have made themselves masters of pure Tuscan, is very great. After some study of the language and a diligent attendance at the little Teatro San Carlino, where we promise our unfastidious readers much amusement, unless our old favourites, Pulcinello, Colombina, Trivella, and Arlecchino, have changed their nature, we buckled on our knapsack and trudged through the Abruzzi, although our good friends, the artists in Rome, represented the tour as dangerous. We cannot say we found it so; we were unmolested, and found the people friendly and hospitable.

We were amply indemnified, by the beauty of the scenery, for the many inconveniences which a pedestrian must expect to encounter in districts where a horse is still called a vettura, carriages being still unknown there. Our pompous title of eccellenza, more frequently cut down to lenza, which had so often been bawled in our ears by coachmen, shoeblacks, lazzaroni, and id genus omne, on the Toledo and elsewhere, dwindled down into the simple appellation of galantuomo, the lowest term of actress which that polite people adopt. The hospitality of the people was sometimes painful. We frequently found, on having taken our meals with respectable inhabitants who were travelling in the same direction, that, on rising, our bill had been paid, nor could we ever on such occasions prevail upon the host or hostess to accept even of a buona mano. On conversing with an agreeable family, with whom we travelled for some time, on their road to a fête in honour of St. Justus, we were informed that according to the customs of the country, a stranger had the right of entering any house he liked, and was welcome as long as he chose to stay, but that the suspicions of the government, by rendering every one responsible for the political opinions of his guests, were gradually operating a change in national manners. We once bad a warm dispute with a Neapolitan officer, who insisted on doing the honours, to which we submitted on a promise that he and his party would be our guests at a parting supper. They readily consented, when lo and behold, after a merry meal, they pulled out their purses. This was going too far, but we were reduced to a reluctant submission by the observa

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