From the Edinburgh Review. THE GERMANIC EMPIRE. necessary to allude to them in order to distinguish their incidents from those of the general movement which we are about to consider, and because the conduct which characterizes the one must needs operate with very great influence upon the success of the other. If the provincial states are severally disorganized, it is difficult to conceive how the supreme and central power, which is to be constituted by their joint wisdom, can make any near approach to the stipulated efficiency. WHATEVER may be the violence of a political eruption in Paris, such a catastrophe can no longer wear the aspect of any prodigious or astounding convulsion. The world has now had repeated opportunities of observing the phenomenon; and instead of being scared at the portentous apparition, it more sensibly estimates its influence, and calculates the periodic time of its recurrence. But when the sober and philosophical minds of Germany resolve upon organic changes, it is time to look seriously forward into the character of events, which may do more to transform the face and affect the destinies of Europe, than a succes-man "nation" from what has been represion of half a dozen dynasties or governments within as many months upon the Confederation of 1815 did not make a banks of the Seine. The project unhesitatingly, and now definitely proclaimed, is that of constructing, or, as it is more fondly expressed, of re-constructing a Germanic Empire, by fusing the thirty-eight sovereign states between the Baltic and the Adriatic, the Niemen and the Moselle, into one powerful hereditary monarchy, which, by its liberal institutions and its compact indissoluble strength, shall give to forty millions of free German people their due place in the republic of Europe. There are two movements in the Germanic system which should be separately observed. Besides the perturbations produced by the sudden and extraordinary gravi Dissatisfaction has been long felt and expressed, at the loss experienced by the Ger sented as its virtual dismemberment. The "Germany." Diversities dictated by a congress and perpetuated for the sake of dynastic interests, supplanted the nationality conferred by identity of blood, institutions, and language. Prussians, Wirtemburgers, and Hanoverians, divided and dissipated that national strength and dignity which should have been infused into a German whole; and thus a people entitled to no second-rate influence in the transactions of Europe, were frittered away into a group of insignificant states, combined indeed by a pact recognizing a traditional unity, but left utterly mutilated and incapable as regarded any effective exertion of their common power. Such, we believe, to be a fair repre tation of all the states towards some new sentation of those sentiments which, concentre of unity, each state has a particular veyed in language more or less vehement and unusual motion upon its own axis. or vague, have been recently impelling the With more or less wisdom or sobriety, the German States to some ideal centre; and several states of Germany have demanded it is to the exposition of this passion of constitutional reforms; and the agitation "nationality," as well as to the discussion attending these popular manifestations has of some of its practical developments on proceeded simultaneously with that general the Scandinavian and Sclavonic frontiers ferment to which we more especially refer. of the Confederation, that several treaSuch agitation has no doubt been promoted tises are at present specially devoted. by the impulse which the Parisian revolu- Some, too, are occupied with the probable tion has given to all projects of popular destinies of the individual states under the will; but the reforms alluded to have supplied subjects of petition and argument ever since the great settlement of 1815; and a conspicuous example was last year given by Prussia of the course which events might probably have taken if unaffected by any extrinsic influence. These particular movements, however, are not those on which we shall offer remarks, though it was revolutions which were foreseen; and one in particular, "Austria's Future," the work of one of the vice-presidents of the German parliament, which was written some time back, does really suggest the prodigious catastrophes of which Vienna has been the scene in a singular spirit of prophecy indeed.. In the observations which follow, none but brief or incidental reference will be made to the local revolutions of the particular Germanic states to which public notice has been recently attracted. Our attention will be confined to the character and prospects of that gigantesque movement which is to reduce Austria and Prussia to the provincial level of Michigan and Massachusetts, and to create a new and col of Germany, as distinguishable from that attached to his hereditary patrimony. Another inquiry, too, with a direct bearing upon mighty points now at issue, may be applied to the operation of the elective principle in the imperial constitution, in so far as it secured to the nation a wider choice of efficient leaders, or as it offered to various candidates an object of fair and le lossal nation in the centre of Europe. gitimate ambition. It is only by the exMost readers will be aware that the Ger-amination of such propositions as these that manic Empire of history was dissolved in the character of the great German movethe year 1806; that this dissolution was ment can be rightly comprehended, or any precipitated by a Confederation of the materials collected for conjecturing its reRhine, which had been formed in its bo-sults. That the aspect of our disquisition som; and that finally at the territorial ar- will be somewhat uninviting we can but too rangement of Europe, which closed the war, that Germanic Confederation, which a few weeks ago, might be said to be still existing, was substituted for the ancient configuration of this power in the European commonwealth. It is by considering the position of the German nation as organized under these successive constitutions, that we must seek for a just comprehension of the designs now proposed. This is the readily anticipate, but such matter may be made perspicuous, if not entertaining; and we must once more remind the reader that in these dry and antiquated details is contained the clue to that knowledge which renders the revolutions of a continent intelligible. A few words will convey the original import of the imperial title, as it finally descended to the Germanic kingdom. At the very path traced out by the projectors dismemberment of the dominions of Charlethemselves. The embryo revolution has magne, the titular supremacy was reserved been conceived almost wholly in the re- for that division of the three which includsearches and deductions of historical pro-ed the ancient seat of Roman empire. fessors, and nourished by the serious dis- To the west lay France, with limits not quisitions of learned journalists; and it is differing widely from those of the present trusted that in the features of the new crea- Republic; to the east, Germany; and, betion the genuine characteristics of past tween the two, a strip of provinces, descendgrandeur may be faithfully reproduced. ing from the North Sea, and terminating The work is termed a restoration, not a in the Italian Peninsula, at the extremity design. If, therefore, we conduct our read- of which the Upper and Lower Empires came in contact. The eastern and western divisions preserved their integrity under the denominations of Germany and France; but the central, or imperial, portion was speedily dismembered, and the disputes for the possession of its provinces supply most ers through some unfrequented paths of history, we do but take the route to which circumstances confine us Our object will be to ascertain the character in which, under its various internal arrangements, the German nation has actually heretofore entered into the system of Europe. What of those complications by which the terri torial history of this period is characterized. After the brief reunion of the old inheritance under Charles le Gros, the same dignity was still attached, on the second partition, to the soil of Italy, though not without occasional pretensions on the part of the Germanic kings. After the death of Berenger, king of Italy and "Emperor," in 229, the imperial title may be said to have fallen into abeyance, as there was no we wish to represent is the old Germanic Empire, considered in its external relations. This is not the easiest, nor, perhaps, the most attractive kind of history, but it is that which alone can furnish any serviceable materials for the present occasion. Our task will be to discover the capacities implied in the time-honored title of Empire; and the powers, for external action, of the political society so designated; to ascertain the part taken in the political combinations coronation of an emperor in the west for of Europe by the "Empire" of the middle some forty years, and the three realms of ages, of Charles V., of the treaty of West- France, Germany, and Italy, were severally phalia, of Joseph II., or Francis II., and to contented with the denomination of kingdefine the power possessed by an Emperor doms. At length Otho the Great conquer ed his neighbor, the king of Italy, and, the Italian soil of being purged from the after assuming his crown, and thus uniting the two kingdoms, revived the imperial title in 962. The sovereign of Germany was now an Emperor, and his territories constituted an "Empire," a title which, thus conveyed, they preserved up to the commencement of the present century. Of course, this empire could be nothing more or less than the original empire of the west, with proportions somewhat curtailed. Either in power or pretensions, Germany now claimed the inheritance of Charlemagne. France had been finally severed; but the triple kingdom now presumed to be united under the imperial sceptre was still completed by pollution of every German footstep, implies such a position of the country with relation to its neighbors, as it can scarcely be said to have enjoyed during these last thousand years. But as regards the original connexion of Italy with " the Empire," there are few questions in German history which have given rise to such desperate contests, nor was the actual authority of the Henries and the Fredericks more fiercely disputed in the plains of Lombardy by the intrepid Italians, than its theoretical character and significance by the historians and jurists of the Empire. The whole truth of the matter was this. If the imperial title, as could hardly be denied, Arles. and the tradition was long perpetu- was derived from the sovereignty of Italy, ated in the titles of the three ecclesiastical it was almost a necessary inference that the electors who held respectively the archchan- old imperial prerogatives had descended cellorships of Arles, Italy, and Germany. with it. On this hypothesis, therefore, of an It would be very difficult to trace the fron- unbroken succession of Cæsars, it followed, tiers of a dominion in so great a degree as a matter of course, that Germany was but imaginary. The pretensions of the inherit- a province recovered for the ancient crown, ance, of course, extended to universal rule; and that the rights of the Fredericks and and every province of the continent might the Ferdinands were those of a Valentinian be considered either as a detached fief, or or Honorius-a conclusion anything but as territory not yet reclaimed. Indeed, agreeable to the free States of Germany. in those days all empires were formed upon It was argued, accordingly, that Italy the Roman model. The one idea of real was no true part of the Germanic Empire, sovereignty was that of universal dominion, -that it was a regnum proprium of the a conception which was not only exempli- emperors, either peculiarly appertaining, fied in the two empires of the east and at first, to the issue of Charlemagne, or, west, but was reproduced even by those oriental hordes who started from the black tents of a wandering tribe upon the conquest of the world. In this way the German people acquired for their country and their chief the denominations which survived with such celebrity till recent times. In reality, Germany was but a great kingdom, constituted very similarly to other kingdoms, but enriched with a traditional title which might just as possibly have fallen to the lot of France. The connexion of Italy with the Germanic territories is a point of history to which unusual interest would naturally be attached, from the war which at this moment is raging in Lombardy, and which originated in what may, perhaps, be conceived as this very question. It was not, however, as we shall presently have occasion to explain, in any inheritance of the ancient imperial pretensions that the claims of the Austrian House to its Italian dominions took their rise; though, as simple matter of history, it may undoubtedly be asserted, that the privilege now claimed for though subsequently reconquered by Otho, yet never incorporated with his Germanic dominions. Yet, even if it were established that the imperial title was not conferred by the conquest of Italy, but had remained the inherent property of Germany from the days of Charlemagne, the case would not be greatly altered, for the title, whencesoever derived, could be no other than that of the Roman chiefs of the Western world, and therefore might be taken to carry with it the attributes in question. These presumptions were not unnaturally cherished by those interested in preserving them. As far as actual power or privileges were concerned, the emperors were left to struggle in Italy for them as best they could, but everything went to perpetuate the tradi tions of continuous sovereignty. Greeks and Franks resembled each other in affecting to be the representatives of that people which had once held the dominion of the world. As the Asiatic subjects of the Comneni styled themselves "Romans," so the inheritance of the Germanic kings became the "Holy Roman Empire," the emperor designate became "king of the perfect individuality and independence. Romans," the laws of Justinian were sup- Again, whereas in almost every other state posed to be obligatory on the Franks of the the original elective principle of the monRhine, the relations between the German archy was gradually forgotten, in Germany people and their elected sovereign were con- it came more and more explicitly to be ceived to be defined by those of Constantine recognized, and survived in something beand his subjects, and at last the descend-yond nominal force to the last days of the ants of a Styrian chieftain were accepted empire. It does not enter into our purpose throughout Europe as the hereditary pos- to trace the successive stages through which sessors of the undoubted throne of the the states of Germany rose to what were disCæsars. These doctrines, it is true, were tinct sovereignties, possessing a virtual and not left unopposed, especially after the re- almost an acknowledged independence. It is ligious divisions of the empire had imparted sufficient to remark, that by the operation unusual significance to the controversy of these unusual changes the territorial Towards the conclusion of the Thirty Years' War, the attempts of Ferdinand III. to combine the forces of the empire against the intrusive armies of the French and aspect of the empire was entirely altered, and instead of a single kingdom, it became what was in fact a confederacy of independent states presided over by a supreme visi Swedes, were entirely frustrated by a book ble head of their own choice, and yielding written on this subject by Chemnitz the an uncertain submission to certain general historian, who, with more violence than rules of government, but enjoying at the accuracy, not only refuted the connexion of same time such freedom of independent the Germans with the Roman Empire, but action as is quite incompatible with any declared that the supreme authority in the modern theory of such political associations. former realm, was vested, not in the emper- The duchies had originally been nothing or, but wholly in the states. And, even at more than large estates or lordships of the the end of the last century, a very learned, kingdom, conferred by the Emperor on though not quite impartial writer upon the certain nobles for life. As early as the public law and constitutional history of the eleventh century they had become hereditaempire, is at the trouble to explain parti-ry; at least, they ever afterwards remained cularly that the denomination of Empire in the families which at that period poswas, in fact, originally applicable only by sessed them. Gradually their emancipacourtesy to the Germanic territories, - that tion from the control of the imperial crown Otho was "Emperor" only in respect of became almost complete, and their heredihis separate and peculiar sovereignty of tary lords, under the subordinate titles of Italy, and that the transfer of the imperial dukes or princes, exercised all those privititle to the Germanic court could only be leges presumed to be the distinctions of justified by some such compliment as that sovereignty. Each considerable state, in which conceded royal styles to the electolittle "empire" of itself, rates of Bradenburg or Hanover, after the respective electors had become actual kings in some other portion of their dominions. a fact, formed In this way and in such sense did Germany become "the Empire" of the Middle Ages. Excepting in the influence of certain pretensions conveyed by the title, confederacy without a pact. It was not, neither its institutions nor position differed in its origin, any league or combination of at first very materially from those of its states for a common purpose of defence or neighbors; but in course of time two re-aggrandizement, and therefore it possessed markable developments of its constitution no definite articles of union to regulate the gave it a character altogether significant and common action of the combined parties. singular. Many kingdoms were originally In theory it was still an indivisible empire, little more than a group of fiefs or counties; but whereas in every other case the tendency of events was to the absorption of all these dependencies in the central power, and to the consolidation of a compact and indivisible inheritance; in Germany these constituent duchies severally succeeded to * It is hardly necessary, perhaps, to remark that we are compelled to use the term "confederacy," as well as some others, in a sense too vague for its exact political import. Strictly speaking, Germany was never a confederacy before 1815, though the aggregate of its states is described by this title even in the writings of careful and accurate historians. the forces of which were at the command In Germany, on the other hand, the monand disposal of the emperor, subject to the archy, at first not very clearly elective, constitutional rights of his subjects. But, became at an early period almost confesspractically, it was a huge kingdom resolved edly hereditary, was next declared to be into distinct states by the isolation and be elective beyond dispute, and finally deaggrandizement of its members, retaining volved to certain great houses in succession indeed certain traditional ideas of unity, for various periods. An additional singu and regulating by common consent some conditions of internal intercourse, but no longer subsisting in full strength as an effective whole. The privileges of the states larity was attached to the practice, from the monopoly of the national suffrages by seven or more great dignitaries of the empire, though this is an incident which is beyond had superseded the powers of the sovereign. the scope of our remarks. The actual The singularity of the circumstances con- transmission of the crown, however, is a sisted in this, that the ordinary process of point which it is very important to observe. constitutional development had been in this It remained through five descents in the case reversed. What was generally an House of Saxony; through four more, conearlier form of government had supervened tinuously, in the House of Franconia'; nor upon what was generally a later form; just did it quit either of these families, except as if in the case of Russia the princes of upon the extinction of the reigning male Twer Vladimir and Moscow, or the free line. After reverting to a duke of Saxony cities of Novogorod and Pskof had risen for a few years, it passed to the House of into independence upon the weakness of Hohenstauffen, in which it continued, less the czars. The change, too, had taken peaceably, through four descents, with the place insensibly, and without any destruc- interruptions of Philip and Otho IV. dution of the original form, so that the action ring the long minority of Frederick II. A of several confederated states had to be period termed an interregnum now ensued, regulated and determined by laws devised though as the Imperial throne was only for a single kingdom; insomuch as the actually vacant during a few months of the confederacy or union, such as it was, was twenty years so designated, the expression the result not of any deliberate stipulations would almost seem to imply that such of the parties concerned, but of certain license as determined the elections of Wiltraditions inherited from a past consti- liam and Richard, was hardly thought consistent with the true constitution of the tution. The development of the elective princi- empire. Stability was again restored by ple in this imperial monarchy was equally the promotion to the imperial dignity singular. Originally, as is well known, of Rodolf of Hapsburg, the founder of most European monarchies were elective the present Austrian House, in 1273, an within certain accepted limits, which limits election peculiarly remarkable, as illustrawere gradually narrowed, until the descent ting the advantages inherent in the spirit of the crown became strictly hereditary. of the constitution, when honestly carried elected, was a Piast by his mother's side. After out. Rodolf's claims were almost wholly personal, and thus the free choice of the electors, judiciously exercised, enabled them to place on the throne that candidate * These limits virtually existed even in the case of Poland, the government of which is quoted as so complete an illustration of an elective monarchy. From the earliest days of the kingdom, down to the year 1370, the crown continued in the family of whose position and abilities were best calPiast, and even Louis of Hungary, who was then culated for the work in hand. The period him came the Jagellos, who reigned with tolerable of a hundred and fifty years intervening berenown, and in steady succession, for 186 years. tween the death of Rodolf and the final When this line failed, in 1572, the Poles certainly hereditary succession of his descendants, gave one very striking example of free suffrage in shows the elective principle in full and leelecting Henry Valois; after his summary dismissal, they married the new object of their gitimate operation. Notwithstanding the choice to a sister of the last Jagello, and finally in benefits rendered to the empire by Rodolf, 1587, reverted to the same stock in the dynasty of his son could only obtain the succession the Vasas, who were descended from another sis after the short reign of Adolphus of Nas ter, and in whose hands the crown remained till 1668. Then came the extempore election of Michael and of John Sobieski, which was but natural; after which, but for the interference of other pow ers, the crown would probably have become hereditary in the House of Saxony, which supplied the two Fredericks, and to which House, at much later times, the Poles have often reverted when there has been any question of restoring them under a monarchy. Their famous pacta couventa were little more than the "capitulations" of the German emperors. |