oppressive heat of summer, the fear of a tempest does not suffice to check the longing for the refreshing coolness which succeeds it, so public opinion is nearly reconciled to any thing, however dreadful, which promises to remove the disgrace of the present moment, and holds out the hope of dissipating the clouds which conceal every favorable star. Accordingly, no alarm is created at the sight of those ominous birds, which are the harbingers of coming storms; of those youth who devote themselves to death, to remove every thing base and pernicious. The news announced from Berlin, of the discovery of a great conspiracy for the establishment of a German republic, produced, therefore, no surprise; for the experience of the last age had proved that there exists a universal law of nature, in virtue of which, one extreme inevitably leads to another.

Amidst all the confusion of searching for papers, the movements of gendarmes and spies, the violation of judicial forms, the prosecution of peaceable men, arrests, discharges, and examinations, which followed this intelligence, one thing only has really astonished the public: namely, that the pursuit of secret conspiracies causes to be forgotten that vast conspiracy which spreads its branches over all Germany, and extends to all ages, classes, and sexes; which sits murmuring at every fire side, walks abroad in the public markets and streets,-which needs no secret sign to recognise its members,-which, without chiefs, acts from one centre, and always in concert,-which, with thousands of eyes, penetrates into the most secret things, and which thousands of arms are always ready to obey. That conspiracy by which irritated national feeling, disappointed hopes, offended pride, and oppressed human nature, are all leagued against blind arbitrary power, the awkward mechanism of lifeless forms, the obstinacy of prejudices, and the gnawing venom of the maxims of despotism to which the corruptions of ages have given birth-that conspiracy which is more formidable than any other, which daily increases in activity and power, must inevitably attain its object; for the danger to be apprehended, is not that it shall fall short of that object, but that it may go beyond it.

Meanwhile, in the present state of things, and until the hand which inscribed for the French their Mene, Tekel, Peres in the flames of Moscow, shall write our irrevocable sentence in glowing characters on the face of heaven, the command has gone forth to every man whose mind is not distracted by the tumult of the moment, and who can still calmly contemplate

the agitated flood, to stand on the watch-tower of time, to observe and mark the signs, and to call and give warning without ceasing. Assuredly there is a time for being silent, and a time for speaking. When human arrogance, giving the reins to passion, pursues every appetite, every caprice of the imagination when power, forgetting its origin, and the intrinsic standard of things, dreads a state of affairs which it cannot comprehend, and knows not how to subdue-when not only the moral boundaries of the allowable and the forbidden are broken through, as well as all the delicate relations of the decorous and indecorous disregarded-when all consistency being abandoned, at one time acts of violence and tyranny, at another, of weakness and yielding prevail :-during the attack of such a paroxysm, individuals may well be allowed to step quietly aside, and to confide in that great law which God has prescribed for human society, as well as the rest of nature, by which every kind of presumption is silently resisted, and every immoderate act carries with it the seeds of its own correction. But when, after such a paroxysm, a remission takes place, and, during a lucid moment, reason returns ;-when the nature of things repels the attack, and the general bond is drawn closer, then may consolation again be offered, and to speak is commanded. All great events follow the necessity of their nature, have their rise, progress, and return; so also has the frenzy of the present times its periodical flux and reflux, and its critical moments, and, in this respect, there is no change in the order of things. On the contrary, in so far as clear ideas, and deliberate volition co-operate in events, in the same degree as freedom a place in them.

During the last war, the author of this pamphlet often addressed the nation, and obtained its confidence. Fearing no man, and rejecting that timid prudence which never dares to do more than shew truth by halves, he has always openly disclosed the sentiments of his heart. His search has been solely for truth, and whenever he flattered himself he had found the object of his inquiry, he laid his discovery before the public, because truth, without liberty, is, as the Psalmist says, a barred treasure, a hidden spring, a fountain built up; and liberty, without truth, is a worthless thing in the house of the impious. It is, as Haman has heretofore remarked, a cloak to cover baseness and deceit. What follows is intended as a faithful mirror of the age in which its character may be recognised. The author hopes that the spirit which dictates these words may, like St. Elmo's fire on the mast, prepare the

national ship for approaching dangers, and warn her either to seek a secure harbor, or in due time to stand out into the open sea.

When an evil, produced under the influence of unfavorable stars, and confirmed under the disadvantages of circumstances constantly increasing in force, until it finally threatens violent eruptions, is to be thoroughly investigated; and when it is, at the same time, to be examined whether, by a concurrence of resolutions, a remedy might be found, it becomes necessary to inquire into the origin of the mischief, and to trace it through all the phaces of its development to its maturity; the knowledge thus acquired of its nature, may afterwards be opposed to that confusion of efforts and actions which now forms one of the principal sources of moral and social affliction. It is, therefore, impossible to investigate the causes of the misfortunes of Germany, without going back to the Congress of Vienna. That Congress was indeed only the result of relations which have existed for ages, but in as much as it was the work of the free will of our contemporaries, it is responsible to the present and future times, which must recognise in it the fertile cause of the evils to which it gave birth, and which time has only served to increase and unfold.

The hopes and the expectations of Germany, which were disappointed on the first peace of Paris, accompanied the Princes and Ministers to the Congress of Vienna, and made complaints resound in the assemblies of the Sovereigns. Public opinion had promised itself great results from a Congress convoked, after the fall of the universal monarchy of Napoleon, to raise up from its ruins, and reconstruct the European Republic. It was perceived that neither peace, order, tranquillity, nor equilibrium could be hoped for in future, unless Germany, the centre of that Republic, were durably re-constituted. In looking back to history, it was also recognised that the German Empire had existed in security, and formed as it were the bulwark of Christendom, only when its numerous and active parts were joined together by the unity of an Emperor.

Thus following the course of natural instinct, the opinion of the majority concurred in wishing that the stone which the enemy had rejected, should be made the foundation of the building. The idea then formed, was nearly to this effect; that an Emperor would again be placed at the head of Germany, the dignity being hereditary as long as his race should subsist; besides him, for the protection of liberty against this hereditary system, and for the maintenance of the new in

teresis, a German King; next the Dukes of the Empire, Princes, Counts, and Prelates, in a Chamber of Peers; lastly, the Commons, forming a second chamber of the Imperial Parliament. Under this form, each member of the great body, it was expected, would be seen maintaining his own interests, and supported in them by others, while the states would be united, no one exercising dominion over the rest, but all freely obeying a single chief. Such were the bases of the only Constitution which had long been considered suited to the character and the wishes of the Germans. The empire thus reconstituted, would have entered among the European States with all the weight of its power and dignity, supported by the public spirit of the people. The other affairs of the European Republic would then have been regulated according to the principles of justice, and conformable to the rights of the parties.

But when the obscurity in which the Congress was at first enveloped, began to clear up, it was with astonishment perceived, that no great architectural plan had served for the basis of its deliberations. The Uranus of ancient times, emasculated by the Saturn of the revolution, had ceased to produce, and the all-powerful Jupiter, who precipitated Saturn from his throne, had not yet completely triumphed in the contest. Providence had decided otherwise; it was not from the gloom of Cabinets that a faint twilight was to issue. The light diffusing over the new life was destined to issue, in all its brilliancy, from the opposite side. While the people were cherishing ideas of freedom and independence, the Courts had in no degree partaken of that enthusiasm. In a multitude of treaties which were concluded, they thought only of momentary advantages; and when it was time to commence the work, when the two powers which were the depositories of the fate of Germany were to unite their efforts, and firmly adjust the interests of the empire, in relation with less powerful states; when they could have commanded sacrifices, by making sacrifices themselves, to realise their pretensions, they sought foreign support. Austria availed herself of the interest of England, and Prussia that of the Emperor Alexander.

Henceforth there was no longer any question about Germany. She was lost in the midst of Europe. What Austria did to Italy, Russia to Poland, and England on the coast of Germany, from the Elbe to the downs of Dunkirk, Prussia attempted with Saxony; but her claims were satisfied on the Rhine. Following the example of the most powerful, the weak soon began to renounce the idea of forming an empire

by their union, and the passions began to exercise their influence. As the conqueror had broken the Golden Crown of the German Empire, and had distributed the fragments as decorations to his vassals, the ruling powers now regarded themselves as the successors of him whom they had expelled, and the Congress did not consider itself bound to form a new crown out of the pieces of the old one. The Courts outlawed the great depredator on European Society, but they declared all his plunder lawful prize.

Following this principle, the parties proceeded to divide the booty they had gained, and the Imperial Palace became an Exchange, in which souls were weighed and counted like dariks, and where the sharing of a few, more or less, gave rise to violent debates. When the disputes had reached such a height, that swords were ready to be drawn, then Providence, irritated at these wretched intriguers, sent the man of the Isle of Elba among them. He had already experienced the judgment of eternal justice. The Pope had declared him the anointed of the Lord. Before him all potentates had been prostrated, and the world had been humiliated. He who seemed to believe and to esteem nothing, was the man whom our mysterious age admired as its chief organ. He it was who afterwards made his vile adorers blush at the bottom of their souls, by betraying before them all his weakness, and who having thus done justice on them, and on himself, withdrew to shameful obscurity. He it was whom the irritated powers of Heaven chose to be once more the scourge of his own people, and the confounder of the calculations of courtiers.

The nation profoundly felt, and all classes judged like the towns of Sicily, who invited Pyrrhus to deliver them from the yoke of the Romans, when that perfidious ally afterwards endeavoured to impose upon them a more insupportable yoke; thus described by Livy : "Irritatis ob hæc animis mussare primum homines, mox palam queri: cur igitur prioris status pœnituisset, si nunc etiam toleranda eadem forent? Frustra vocatum receptumque Pyrrhum, si studeat æmulari mores, quos puniturus advenisset. Neque acriorem ullius injuriæ sensum esse quam cujus auctor haberetur idem ille, qui vindex esse debuisset." Nevertheless, when the war commenced, some of the enthusiasm which belonged to the preceding war was displayed. A complete victory, such as history affords few examples of, seemed to promise to Germany all that her enemies had for ages deprived her of. But in the new peace of Paris, Germany gathered the first fruits of her sanctioned partition, and