the diplomatists of different nations resident in Rome, he fled, facilitated by them in his escape. France, England, and Spain, contended for the honour or the advantage of yielding him an asylum; but he preferred Italian ground, and took refuge at Gaeta, where he has since remained, treated with the utmost respect and hospitality by the king of Naples and his subjects. This event was at first looked upon as tantamount to the downfall of the temporal power of the Pope, and it was expected to lead to important results for Europe. But, in the meanwhile, negotiations commenced between his Holiness and the revolutionary government for his return to Rome. The spirit, however, which actuates the Italian Liberals, is quite as dangerous in its democratic violence as that of the German Republicans; and the Pope has wisely shewn an indisposition again to place himself in their power. He desires that they shall be disarmed of the means of mischief. There seems reason to hope that the constitutional régime in which the anarchy of Germany is resulting, may also extend to Italy. In this case the Pope will reap a reward more deserved than that enjoyed by some other sovereigns, for he was certainly the first to hold out to his subjects, and to the Italians generally, the prospect of increased freedom, though his excellent intentions run some risk of being frustrated by the now familiar faults of those who have proved themselves unfitted for the enjoyment of liberty.

GERMANY: ABDICATION OF THE EMPEROR IN FAVOUR OF HIS NEPHEW. -PROGRESS OF CONSTITUTIONAL CONSOLIDATION.

The sudden abdication of the Emperor Ferdinand of Austria in favour of his nephew, although it has infused new life into the Austrian monarchy, has not materially altered the aspect of political affairs, except that the character and the promises of the young Emperor afford an additional guarantee of his sincerity in desiring a constitutional system for his vast empire. An honourable adherence to the policy accepted by Austria in March is the great characteristic of the new Government. The young Emperor, in his opening

manifesto, reiterated the solemn assurances referred to by his uncle in his valedictory address; and the language held by Count Stadion and Prince Schwartzenburg to the Diet assembled at Kremsier has been a faithful echo of the same designated policy. The national representatives were at once called upon to frame a constitution upon bases the most liberal; and although the diet, by reelecting as their President Schomlka, who had rendered himself obnoxious in the recent events at Vienna, shewed at first symptoms of a refractory spirit, matters have since gone on harmoniously.

While keeping faith, in spirit as well as to the letter, with his German and Sclavonic subjects, the young sovereign, acting with able advisers, has evinced a determination to maintain the integrity of his empire. The Hungarians, or rather a faction in that nation, who have pushed the spirit of nationality so far that it has become rebellion, have been more or less in open resistance to the imperial authority since the commencement of the revolutionary period. Aiming at a sovereignty over the Croatians and Illyrians wholly incompatible with the pretended freedom of their institutions, and with their subjection to Austria, their national pride has carried them at last to lengths altogether unjustifiable. For a considerable time, the sympathies of Europe were with this nation, traditionally brave and free; and it was hoped that an honourable compromise between the dominant Hungarian faction and the imperial authority might preclude the neces sity for civil war. But on the accession of the young Emperor, he declared his determination not to submit to any terms of compromise, so long as the Hungarians remained in arms against his authority, and steps were taken to enforce this deterinination by military movements which, under Prince Windischgrätz and Jellachich, have, up to the time at which we write, proved successful as far as the operations extend.

As a counter-move to the Imperial declaration, the Hungarian diet took a very bold and extraordinary step. They denied the right of the young Emperor to the throne of Hungary. In a long and carefully written series

of resolutions, they proclaim that, according to the constitution of Hungary, it is necessary that the judgment of the kingdom shall be taken on the accession of a new king, between whom and his subjects a solemn pact is sworn. Upon this ground they deny the right of the late emperor to will away the throne of Hungary to his nephew without the consent of the Hungarian people. This furnishes a basis of resistance much more satisfactory and more fit to sustain operations than any which the Hungarians have yet had; and if the spirit of independence is still as strong in the nation as it has been in former periods of history, Kossuth, who is evidently a bold man and a national favourite, may yet bring the emperor to some terms of compromise. The old policy of the Austrian Government is persisted in, one race being used to crush another. Thus the Croatians are employed as the most fit instruments to punish the Hungarians.

Another evidence of spirit in the new sovereign is furnished by his conduct towards the Frankfort Central Authority. The theorists who advocate German unity have aimed at nothing less than the subjection of Austria to that authority. It was obvious from the first that such an anomaly could not subsist: the internal dissensions of the two great sovereignties alone gave a temporary colour to such preposterous pretensions. That the young emperor should resist them as soon as the Imperial power had regained its consistency, was no more than was expected by all reflecting men. Austria declines to enter into relations with the Central Authority in reference to her German provinces, except upon the same footing as with foreign powers. This is a severe blow to the tottering men of Frankfort.

One assumed stain there was on the Imperial escutcheon,--the execution of Robert Blum. This act of justifiable, if unwise severity, had been seized upon by the Propagandists of democracy as a pretext for reviving exploded calumnies against the Austrian rulers. Policy suggested that a weapon, which might be made dangerous, should be taken out of their hands. At one of the first sittings of the Austrian Diet at Krem

sier, after the accession of the young emperor, Count Stadion gave explanations on this head. Two commissioners had been despatched from Frankfort to Vienna, to investigate the proceedings of the court by which Blum was sentenced. His alleged inviolability as deputy from Leipsic to the German Assembly was the pretext for his exemption from the operation of the law; but these commissioners, having fully examined all the proceedings, came deliberately to the conclusion that the authorities in Vienna were not legally bound to recognise that inviolability. technical shield removed, the unfortunate culprit was to be judged by his acts, and upon these he was justly, if not wisely, condemned.

His

THE GERMAN CENTRAL AUTHORITY, AND THE FRANKFORT PARLIAMENT.

Finding that the vaporous theory of German unity has burst and melted into air at the touch of the sword, the Frankfort men have, within the last month, for the first time since they began to busy themselves with the affairs of Europe, shewn a glimmer of practical sense. If we glance back at the history of this body, we shall see that it presents a neat little epitome of the usual career of revolutions. Originating in a widely-ramified secret conspiracy, partaking of the objects and character of the Illuminati and the Carbonari, its concoctors had long watched for the opportunity which the outbreaks of February and March suddenly afforded. Their

scheme was the establishment, under the mask of German nationality, of a democracy more widely extended than had ever been conceived in the wildest dreams of former conspirators. The timorous alacrity with which the German sovereigns, fearing another 1798, allowed deputies to be sent from their kingdoms to the Central Diet, gave a prestige of success beyond the most sanguine hopes of the prime movers; and the speeches delivered and resolutions adopted, in the earlier proceedings of the new Assembly, fully bore out the hopes thus inspired. While the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia were in the toils spread by their own democratic subjects, it was impossible but that they must appear to submit

to the insolent and irritating, if still ridiculous, arrogance of the leading orators of Frankfort. But by and bye came a time when the insulted majesty of Austria could no longer brook such impertinent intermeddling; and the Frankfort Assembly were forced to reconsider their position. It should not be forgotten, that Austria was not the first to set the example of resistance. The small principality of Saxe Coburg Gotha chivalrously raised the standard of revolt, and the intermediate German sovereigns shewed very plainly their disposition.

The plan of a democratic diet, with a central viceroy over all the sovereigns of Germany, having failed, the infatuated schemers still clung to their idea of German unity. They wanted, however, three essentialsthe consent of the people (oblivious of international jealousies), money, and troops. The next step was to hold before the Austrian sovereign the dazzling bait of the Imperatorship of Germany; but the young emperor's sensible reply was that which we have recorded elsewhere. That scheme exploded like the rest, and Von Schmerling and a colleague were obliged to resign their places in the Archduke's ministry because of their Austrian connexion. For, in the meanwhile, the fickle affections of the Assembly had been diverted towards the King of Prussia, who, it should be said, has a considerable party of adherents in the Assembly. The uppermost idea amongst the men of Frankfort, at the present time, is to raise the King of Prussia to the Imperial dignity, which the king has been angling for from the first hour when the new spirit began to agitate Germany.

Thus we have the usual phases of a revolutionary movement. From

wild, levelling Democracy, falling little short of Republicanism, we travel steadily up to Royalty; from the reign of abstract principles and ideas, we are brought back to the old discipline of the sword; and finally, in place of establishing that German unity for which it affected to long, the Frankfort Assembly, besides being made a miserable instrument of scheming statesmen, is leading on to the establishment of that Prussian ascendancy in Ger

many which will, by widening the gulf between the north and the south, create, not unity, but disunion, and possibly destroy for ever that semblance of harmony which now exists, however delusively, amongst the German nations.

PRUSSIA: DISSOLUTION OF THE
ASSEMBLY.

We left the King of Prussia and the Constituent Assembly face to face, watching each other, but on unequal terms. The king had just effected a successful coup d'état, which the Assembly were unable to counteract, because unsupported by the people. It was evident that democratic feeling was confined to some classes in the capital and the large towns, while the rest of the kingdom was well satisfied with the constitutional form of government to which the king had pledged his honour. A ridiculous aspect had been given to the proceedings of the Assembly, by their having played, while seeking a place of meeting, a kind of hide-and-seek game with the military. They were finally prevented from assembling any where in the capital; and then, with great pertinacity, they refused for a long time to meet at Brandenberg, the place assigned to them by the king. For many days there was a ridiculous paralysis of all legislative authority. On the 1st ultimo, about eighty members of the refractory sections of the Assembly suddenly made their appearance at Brandenberg, by which accession a house' was constituted. But with a consistent absurdity, they again, upon their first defeat retired, once more paralysing the Assembly for legislative action. Subsequently, there was an adjournment to the 7th; but, in the meantime, on the 5th, the king took the step of which the necessity had been long foreseen. He dissolved the Chamber. For the displaced deputies but little sympathy was felt in Prussia, and none elsewhere. They had frittered away a great opportunity in trivial technicalities; and of the spirit of freedom they had shewn little but its obstinacy. Elected under the influence of a revolutionary enthusiasm, amounting to madness, they did not notice the gradual cooling down of the atmo

sphere around them, and they continued to talk and act as if they were still sustained by the passions of the populace. Called to form a constituent assembly, they wilfully neglected their sole duty-arrogating to themselves powers wholly inconsistent with their position. When the common sense of the nation, no less than the pride of the king, revolted against this usurpation, the Assembly, in a contemptible spirit of servile imitation, parodied, at a small crisis, the conduct which had formerly lent dignity to legislative bodies assailed by kingly power in great national emergencies.

The king, whether guided by high principle or state policy, stood forth in grand relief in this contest. As if finally to disarm his antagonists, and yet to shew the true nobility of a conqueror, he accompanied his decree dissolving the Chamber by another decree, pledging the Crown to the grant of a Constitution embracing election by universal suffrage, the abolition of all exclusive aristocratic privileges, and admitting representatives to the lower Chamber without a property qualification. The democratic party, unable to quarrel with a Constitution so liberal-which, by the way, also included a pledge of freedom of the press -carp at its origin. They contend that royalty has no inherent right to 'grant' constitutions-that they must spring from the will of the people. The Prussians, however, are a sufficiently practical people to accept the gift without scrutinising the authority of the giver. In theory, each scheme of government is about as plausible as the other, but the kingly authority

has, at least, the advantage of precedent in its favour, besides the guarantees it affords of a permanency hitherto unattained by democratic constitution-makers. Elsewhere we

have adverted to the King of Prussia's prospect of being elected Emperor of Germany.

THE UNITED STATES.

The election of General Taylor to be President of the United States, although known at the close of the last month, has since been confirmed. His majority was so large that we may consider him to have been elected by the voice of the people. This choice is interesting to us on many accounts; abstractedly, as a proof how Republicans seek their rulers from among military commanders; directly, because, although General Taylor is the conqueror of Mexico, he is believed to entertain pacific dispositions towards this country. His election is an additional proof that the insane anti-British spirit, formerly prevalent in the United States, is on the decline. Another event of the month has been the message of the outgoing President; a singular document, full of exultation at the conquest of Mexico and the possession of vast gold mines, which is not much in accordance with Republican simplicity, and does not augur well for the maintenance of Republican virtue. Some parts of the message are considered, by the supporters of Free-trade, to evidence the successful application of those principles. But, on the other hand, it cannot be denied that there is throughout the United States a strong call for a protective tariff.