Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

brought the armoury of spies, informers, yet educated up to the idea of national and venal judges to bear upon those unity nor accustomed to the process of selfwhom it hated, it brought the allurements government, is ruled by a class which canof music, gaiety, theatres, and spectacle notead, and whose policy seldom rises to bear upon those whom it courted. The above the level of clever scheming. Should old despotism of Imperial Rome could any untoward complication arise within not lavish panem et Circences upon its ser- the next ten years, the situation of the vile Quirites with greater prodigality country would be most critical. Even than the despotism of Imperial Austria supposing that the army were sufficiently and its petty satellites lavished frivolous organized to repel foreign intervention, it diversions upon the gaping and reckless is terrible to think into what perils Italy mob, patrician and plebeian, of modern might be plunged through the people's Italy. Thus, while the young English want of capable leaders, through their noble was fighting, or bracing his muscles mutual jealousies, and all the other conby football, or pulling in an eight-oar sequences of a too general inertness in one at Eton, or debating in the Oxford Union, class and a corresponding corruption in his Italian compeer was weakening his another. bodily fibre by unwholesome food, or If, however, the same good fortune constimulating his nerves by equally un- tinues to favour Italy which has followed wholesome gossip and reading. The filthy her for the last ten years, she will have talk of parasitical servants, the scrofulous the means of consolidating and perpetuatliterature of French novelists, the frivo- ing her independence. What she requires lous conversation of his mother's drawing- in her citizens is more energy, more truthroom - such were too often the materials fulness, and a larger degree of mutual f the young Italian noble's education. Is it strange that men thus trained should exercise either no influence or a bad influence over their countrymen; should have no political authority, and no military command? Is it strange that they should feel themselves unfit for the struggles of the forum, the Chamber, and the Senate; for the leadership of armies and the leadership of the people? How great a political mischief is caused by their exclusion from public affairs may be calculated if we will only reflect what would be the effect on English politics and society if the youth of the English aristocracy were to renounce public life, the struggles of the Bar and of Parliament, and to shut themselves up within their own circle of kinsmen, dependants, and retainers. Yet in England, where the middle class has been trained by centuries of municipal self-government, the evil would be less than it is in Italy, where municipal selfgovernment has been in abeyance for generations.

confidence. The same policy which crushed their energy made them false and suspicious of each other's falsehood, corrupt and conscious of each other's corruption, frivolous and abettors of each other's frivolity. The tines and the policy are changed. The old state of things has gone with the petty princes, the police spies, and the passports. Italy is now a nation with a veritable man on the throne. She has opportunities such as no other modern nation has had of attaining eminence and glory. And she has the good wishes of the best men of all nations on her side. It were hard indeed, if, with these advantages, she failed to secure the place which Providence seems to have designed for her. But in order to attain it, she must give a more manly education to her sons and a better training to her daughters. She must teach her sons truthfulness and probity, her daughters purity and self-respect. She must purge and purify Rome and Naples. When she has done this she need not fear the sneers As it is owing to this long obscura- of English critics on the political venality, tion of municipal liberty-the conse- nor the sneers of French critics on the quences are especially deplorable in Italy, personal immorality, of her children. because the struggles and prizes of the Bar, of political life, and of public administration are reserved for a section of the bourgeoisie which is more respected for its talent and sagacity than for its honourable traditions, its sense of probity, or its disinterested patriotism. The richer classes of the bourgeoisie unfortunately ape the nobility in manners, tastes, education, and love of amusement. Thus the people, not

From The Spectator. THE OPENING OF THE GERMAN PARLIAMENT.

THE Emperor's speech at the opening of the German Parliament has given great satisfaction to the City, and as the City

seldom looks forward more than a single | approve." It is much, all that, for the twelvemonth, the satisfaction is probably City, for it means present quiet, but we well founded. No one in Europe can rather wonder at the approval expressed move for the present without the consent by less interested politicians. Do they not of the German Emperor, and it is evident see the drawback to all this content, the that he entertains no desire for immediate terrible impetus towards war which sucmotion. There is a sigh of content, al- cess so perfect must give to the German most of repletion, audible through the mind? Just now there is mourning for speech. The Kaiser, standing on the the slain to temper exultation, but losses of throne of Charlemagne, with the cannon- that kind are soon forgotten, and five balls for its feet, looks round him, and sees | years hence what will be the natural all his objects accomplished; his Germany thought of every German who studies the made, and organized for military purposes history of the war? That it is possible like Prussia, his greatest enemy over- for his race to secure any object, even the thrown and prostrate, the Hohenzollerns most apparently remote, by war; that war set up with the consent of all Germans on is the swiftest of all instruments, that war the pinnacle of the world. He has real- may be so waged that it need not involve ized the dreams of the poets, he is the any penalties whatever beyond a faintly Barbarossa awakened, and to double his increased mortality for one year. It may satisfaction, for he is the heir of Fred- be so waged as to involve no invasion, no eric the Great, his mighty achievement defeat, no increase of taxation, no burden has not cost the State one thaler. Lives on the future, so that the result, apart have been lost by thousands and profits from the loss of life, shall all be visible arrested by millions, but the State Treas-gain. That is the dangerous lesson of ury is fuller than ever, the State revenue this war with which the Kaiser is so well has been increased for ever by the income content, and it is a lesson taught not to of Alsace and Lorraine; no additional the Germans alone, but to all the peoples debt has been incurred, for the War Debt is to be paid off out of the Indemnity, and no additional taxation will be demanded. The Army can be reorganized, the war matériel renewed, the fortifications perfected, and still no revenue expended, no power over the purse conceded to the people. The grand work has been done gratis or even at a profit, and in the soul of the thrifty hero there is measureless content, a content which makes him gracious even in his reflections upon France. All has gone so well for him that clearly it is wise to have "confident hopes of the development of the internal affairs of France, in the sense of her pacification and the consolidation of her repose; " it is even safe to evacuate more departments, and to trust M. Thiers' signature without a banker's indorsement. M. Thiers indeed The Germans say the sufficient answer is so good and M. Pouyer-Quertier so to all that is that they are essentially a punctual with his cash that the French peaceful people, that they are now conGovernment, though Republican, deserves tent, and that unless attacked their Empire a hearty pat on the back, which may not, will remain a bulwark of peace in Europe. however, have quite the intended effect in There is, we frankly admit, much truth in Paris. There remain, no doubt, to be sure, the allegation. Give a German his own "those powerful Empires which bound way, and he is the most placable of manGermany from the Baltic to the Lake of kind, while even when resisted he is in Constance" (Majesty does not like that some directions and under certain cirlengthy frontier); but they are friendly, cumstances long-enduring. But he is not and their rulers are the Emperor's rela- long-enduring when his kinsmen are suftions, and for the present nothing can be fering under foreign domination, as in his more "neighbourly" than their attitude. judgment his brethren are suffering both "There is peace in fact all around, peace in Austria and Russia; he is not long-enwhich, having all that I want, I heartily during under criticism such as France,

of earth, to the grasping Sclavs, and the embarrassed Austrians, and the depressed but revengeful French. They all also, if they can only win, may wage war without retribution. The old lesson of war was that the victors suffered as much as the vanquished; the new lesson read out by the stern old man from his symbolical throne is that when courage and genius are united war may produce, if not to each homestead, at least to the aggregate of homesteads, only a new prosperity. I have waged a great war, says the Monarch, and therefore there is safety, and therefore debt is paid off, and therefore taxation is lightened, and therefore the coinage can be reformed, and therefore the kindly earth is lapped in universal quiescence. Is that a lesson of peace?

once evacuated, will begin to pour out; and if he were patient under all provocations, he is not yet the master of his country's policy. To trust in the disposition of a neighbour it is necessary that he be free, and Germany has still her liberties to obtain. She gains no hope of them from the Imperial speech. There is no promise even of municipal rights in the Kaiser's mouth. There is no hint of an initiative to be conceded to Parliament. There is no sign of the smallest increase to the privileges of the representatives, who, it must not be forgotten, can only resolve subject to the veto of the Council of Kings which forms the Upper Chamber. The old man, so strangely strong, and his group of advisers think of nothing less than of relaxing the system which has achieved so much. It is with an admiration half reluctant - for after all, what does mankind owe to Sparta, and what does it not owe to Athens? that we note how, in the very triumph of success, the Hohenzollern neither relaxes nor exults, neither sings nor enjoys, but turns at once to the endless task, the strengthening of the military machine. There is the same budget to be voted for the Army (£13,500,000); there are the fortifications to be extended; there is the new bureaucracy of the Empire to be established and "adequately" rewarded; there is that long frontier, defended by no mountains, to be watched; there is the new Southern artery, the St. Gothard Railway, to be opened; there is part of the Army to be reorganized; there is, in short, the old task, the perfecting of the machinery The Kaiser almost says, with his General, "The relaxation of war is over, and you must to work again." With what skill, and patience, and untiring toil that task will be performed no German has to learn; but admirable as is the process, it is one which involves as its first condition the military autocracy of the Kaiser. He must be Commander-in-Chief, and the soldiers are the people. If danger arose, or if ambition were once more aroused, say by a fair chance of gaining ships, colonies, and commerce at a blow, by the absorption of Holland; or if alarm were stirred, as we greatly fear it may be stirred, by the excess of the democratic impulse in some of the Swiss Cantons, what guarantee as yet exists that two stern words may not be spoken, and this nation thrown, solid as a machine, upon Amsterdam or Zurich; or what hope of such a guarantee is to be found in all the serene stateliness of this speech, which,

of war.

after such exertions, and such successes, and amid such spoils, still does not contain so much as a promise for the people, who. if we may trust themselves, are thirsting for their liberties? "The work prospers well, work on "; that is the command of the speech, and it might be a splendid one, were not the sole work ordered preparation for possible war.

The total absence of any reference to the Navy in this speech is a very marked and a very curious point in it. Has the favourite German day-dream faded away, in the realization of more immediate projects, or is the Empire sure of allies who will relieve it of this portion of its task? The events of the war have certainly diminished the apparent value of fleets as instruments of attack on an Empire like Germany; and there is no State save England or America which could threaten German commerce without liability to immediate invasion, but there is still the task of protection to be performed in the less civilized borders of the sea. Are Denmark and Holland to perform it for Germany in future, whether as dependent allies or members of the Confederation? They could do it easily enough as against all powers like China or the Spanish Republics, and terms may yet be found under that elastic constitution which gives Baden one form of autonomy, and Saxony another, and Bavaria a third, which those nations might on pressure be induced to accept. It is but an idea as yet, but still the entire omission of a subject which has so long and so deeply moved Germany, the failure to apply any part of the indemnity to the marine, the absence of any word of cordiality for a service necessarily somewhat depressed by the great elevation of its rival, is as noteworthy as the recent declaration of a Danish politician, "that henceforward Copenhagen can only look for friendship to Berlin." So also is the silence of the Emperor on "anarchic forces," which it is stated demi-officially he has agreed with the Hapsburgs to put down, and which have been in full explosion in Paris under the eyes of German soldiers since the last meeting of the German Parliament. The rising of the Commune directly concerned Germany, but the German Emperor has no word to bestow upon the phenomenon. The Army is strong, the Treasury full, the world “at peace," let us keep up the organization which has secured all this through war, and then Europe will enjoy under me and my relatives a peaceful future.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

5. THE ICEBERG LAKE OF THE ALETSCH GLACIER, Spectator,

6. THE FAMINE IN PERSIA, .

7. THE AMERICAN FIRES,

Westminster Review,

451

[ocr errors]

Blackwood's Magazine,.

467

British Quarterly Review,

477

Chambers' Journal,

490

505

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

NUMBERS OF THE LIVING AGE WANTED. The publishers are in want of Nos. 1179 and 1180 (dated respectively Jan. 5th and Jan. 12th, 1867) of THE LIVING AGE. To subscribers, or others, who will do us the favor to send us either or both of those numbers, we will return an equivalent, either in our publications or in cash, until our wants are supplied.

[blocks in formation]

FOR EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers. the LIVING AGE will be punctually for warded for a year, free of postage. But we do not prepay postage on less than a year, nor where we have to pay commission for forwarding the money.

Price of the First Series, in Cloth, 36 volumes, 90 dollars.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

Any Volume Bound, 3 dollars; Unbound, 2 dollars. The sets, or volumes, will be sent at the expense of the publishers.

PREMIUMS FOR CLUBS.

For 5 new subscribers ($40.), a sixth copy: or a set of HORNE'S INTRODUCTION TO THE BIBLE, unabridged, in 4 large volumes, cloth, price $10; or any 5 of the back volumes of the LIVING AGE, in numbers, price $10.

ANGEL FACES.

"I have not seen her now for a great many years; but with that same face, whatever change she may pretend to find in it, she will go to heaven; for it is the face of her spirit. A good heart never grows old."-- Autobiography of Leigh Hunt.

WE see them with us here,

She sings to us of Heaven, the great Home
land,

And our eternal House not made with hand,
Preparing for us there by Christ's command;

That not as strangers shall we reach its shore,
Friendless, an unknown country we explore -

Bright happy faces, fraught with smiles and Our Elder Brother hath gone on before;

mirth,

Yet too perceptibly the traits of earth
Alloy those features dear.

Infancy passes by;

The mother's wondering eyes behold no more
Her baby's backward glances to the shore
Of pre-existence high.

Childhood, alas, declines:

Vanished too soon the genuine glow of youth, There lives upon the brow life's sad, stern truth,

Stamped in deep furrowed lines.

We see them pass away

Pass with pale faces; not, indeed, the same,
But innocent as when to earth they came
On life's first opening day.

The signs of pain and care

Are lost in that we feel's an angel smile;

The marks of worldliness, of sin, of guile —
Not one of them is there!

We close them from our sight,

Yet never can forget. We seem to know
How fairly those transfigured ones will shew
Up to their home of light.

Passed quite beyond our ken,

Still there was something, so that we could

trace

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

Through narrow straits doth wend,

Wherein my stubborn will must stoop and bend.

Jesus, I offer unto Thee my will —

Thy love can make it humble, sweet and still.

Thou art my King

My King henceforth alone;

And I thy servant, Lord, am all Thine own.
Give me Thy strength: oh! let Thy dwelling

be

In this poor heart that pants, my Lord, for

Thee!

Gerhard Tersteegen.

« AnteriorContinuar »